With the rapid development of Industrial 4.0, the modern manufacturing system has been experiencing profoundly digital transformation. The development of new technologies helps to improve the efficiency of production and the quality of products. However, for the increasingly complex production systems, operational decision making encounters more challenges in terms of having sustainable manufacturing to satisfy customers and markets’ rapidly changing demands. Nowadays, rule-based heuristic approaches are widely used for scheduling management in production systems, which, however, significantly depends on the expert domain knowledge. In this way, the efficiency of decision making could not be guaranteed nor meet the dynamic scheduling requirement in the job-shop manufacturing environment. In this study, we propose using deep reinforcement learning (DRL) methods to tackle the dynamic scheduling problem in the job-shop manufacturing system with unexpected machine failure. The proximal policy optimization (PPO) algorithm was used in the DRL framework to accelerate the learning process and improve performance. The proposed method was testified within a real-world dynamic production environment, and it performs better compared with the state-of-the-art methods.

In this paper, an intelligent decision support system has been proposed for skin disease diagnosis using a hybrid model of Case-Based Reasoning and Artificial Neural Network techniques. The proposed model uses nine input variables (attributes) that have a major effect on the skin diagnosing process. The output of the model is the diagnosis and the treatment. An interactive and user friendly computer application has been developed in order to realize the approach. We have applied the system on a real-world data collected from a dermatology department. The model has been validated and the system tested using a separate set of data (test cases). The results demonstrate that the proposed intelligent system is feasible, and its performance is good and acceptable.

Remanufacturing is an activity of the circular economy model whose purpose is to keep the high value of products and materials. As opposed to the currently employed linear economic model, remanufacturing targets the extension of products and reduces the unnecessary and wasteful use of resources. Remanufacturing, along with health status monitoring, constitutes a key element for lifetime extension and reuse of large industrial equipment. The major challenge is to determine if a machine is worth remanufacturing and when is the optimal time to perform remanufacturing. The present work proposes a new predictive maintenance framework for the remanufacturing process based on a combination of remaining useful life prediction and condition monitoring methods. A hybrid-driven approach was used to combine the advantages of the knowledge model and historical data. The proposed method has been verified on the realistic run-to-failure rolling bearing degradation dataset. The experimental results combined with visualization analysis have proven the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Industrial equipment/machinery is an important element of manufacturing. They are used for producing objects that people need for everyday use. Therefore, there is a challenge to adopt effective maintenance strategies to keep them well-functioning and well-maintained in production lines. This will save energy and materials and contribute genuinely to the circular economy and creating value. Remanufacturing or refurbishment is one of the strategies to extend life of such industrial equipment. The paper presents an initial framework of cost estimation model based on combination of activity-based costing (ABC) and human expertise to assist the decision-making on best life extension strategy (e.g. remanufacturing, refurbishment, repair) for industrial equipment. Firstly, ABC cost model is developed to calculate cost of life extension strategy to be used as a benchmark strategy. Next, expert opinions are employed to modify data of benchmark strategy, which is then used to estimate costs of other life extension strategies. The developed cost model has been implemented in VBA-based Excel® platform. A case study with application examples has been used to demonstrate the results of the initial cost model developed and its applicability in estimating and analysing cost of applying life extension strategy for industrial equipment. Finally, conclusions on the developed cost model have been reported.

Many owners of Pre-stressed Concrete Cylinder Pipe (PCCP) water mains around the world experienced failures in their pipelines. The condition and performance of any water pipelines can be assessed by conducting direct inspection (electromagnetic, acoustic monitoring, GPR radar, etc), which when applied to an entire pipeline can be prohibitively expensive or impossible due to operating conditions. As an alternative, it is possible to use intelligent models to predict the condition and performance assessment of the pipelines based on historical condition observations and inspections results. In this research work, a PCCP wire breaks prediction model is developed using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) technique and applied to real-world acoustic monitoring data collected from Great Man-made River Project (GMRP). The developed model involves nine input variables that affect the deterioration process of PCCP. These variables are: monitoring period, pipe age, soil resistivity, design pressure, design soil density, design soil cover, type of pre-stressing wire wrap, wire diameter and wire pitch. The output of the model is the number of wire breaks, which is considered the most important factor in evaluating the condition and performance of PCCP. The ANN model demonstrates well representation to the training patterns and shows good prediction performance ("R²"∼0.99 for groups of Special Pipes and "R²"∼0.60 for groups of Standard Pipes). The results of ANN model are compared with that of Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) model ("R²"<0.28 for both Special & Standard groups of pipes).

Sustainable manufacturing is of great importance in today’s world. In manufacturing, keep industrial equipment well-functioning is important because failure of equipment leads to significant financial and production losses. In addition, disposal of such failed equipment is both costly and environmentally unfriendly and does not recover any residual value. This raises the need to adopt methods and means that help extending the life of equipment and reduce waste of material. This paper presents a digital toolkit of cost model to estimate and understand the costs to be incurred when applying life extension strategy for industrial equipment. It is meant to be integrated with other tools and methodologies to enable end-users to perform optimal decision-making regarding which life extension strategy (e.g., remanufacturing, refurbishment, repair) to implement for large industrial equipment that is towards its end-of-life or needs maintenance, taking into account criteria such as cost, machine performance, and energy consumption. The cost model developed integrates a combination of parametric costing and activity-based costing methods to per form cost estimation. It has been implemented in an Excel-based Macro platform. A case study with application scenarios has been conducted to demonstrate the application of the cost model to optimize life extension strategies for industrial equipment. Finally, conclusions on the developed cost model have been reported.