Issue link: https://industrialengineer.epubxp.com/i/920036
the frontline Belgian passenger shuttle can operate on emissionless hydrogen or fuel oil 14 ISE Magazine | www.iise.org/ISEmagazine the front line An Iowa State industrial engineering professor is working on a software sys- tem that will display all the informa- tion on a factory floor on visual dash- boards, making it accessible and useful to decision-makers. Often, information about missing parts or machinery problems gets jot- ted down on notepads or stuck in other knowledge systems before getting to managers who can make corrections. Guiping Hu's FactBoard software is a two-year, $2.6 million project sup- ported by the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute. Re- search partners include Deere & Co., Boeing Co., Proplanner and Factory Right, along with Iowa State professor Sarah Ryan, associate professor Lizhi Wang and Caroline Krejci, an assistant professor of industrial engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington. Hu said the primary goal is software that makes measurable differences on factory floors. Companies collect a rich amount of data from the shop floor, Hu said, but it's not often used in a timely, effective and efficient manner. FactBoard aims to import all of these data feeds from the shop floor into a central depository and broadcast the information to the right people. A worker, for example, might notice a shortage of parts that could eventually halt production. "The worker can put a logistics request/report into FactBoard," Hu said. "FactBoard will send a message to the materials coordinator and the shop floor manager. The idea is to keep communicating – to get the right information to the right people at the right time." Better logistics for moving factory facts Iowa State professor's data-driven 'FactBoard' could improve operations Guiping Hu is leading development of FactBoard, a software tool designed to improve factory operations. Photo courtesy Christopher Gannon/Iowa State University A Belgian company has produced a commercial ship that can run on compressed hydrogen or regular fuel oil, allow- ing it to carry cargo without emissions. The Hydroville passenger shuttle is a small step toward decarbonizing the shipping industry, a pollution source that is largely unregulated, Bloomberg news reported. The ship has been certified to operate in the sea by Lloyd's Regis- ter, and CMB will expand the technology to engines on cargo ships after initial testing. The International Maritime Agency plans to impose new rules on sulfur emissions from ships in 2020. The trillion-dollar shipping industry largely uses heavy fuel oil, a cheap, but dirty, form of energy. Unlike other industries, ships really cannot go the battery route, as the world's most colossal battery likely wouldn't make for a full day of sailing, CMB officials told the news organization. And converting a ship to burn hydrogen is a relatively simple retrofit that could cost as little as $20 mil- lion for a small cargo vessel. CMB's long-term goal is to make a ship that is both emis- sions-free and cheaper to operate than ordinary vessels. As renewables multiply, the cost of hydrogen could fall, perhaps cutting the cost of ship fuel in half in about a decade. Cleaner air on the high seas Belgian passenger shuttle can operate on emissionless hydrogen or fuel oil A way ahead, without college "Most parents, I think, will coach their kids to go to college, and in doing so, are not thinking about some of the vocational areas." — Ingersoll Rand CEO Michael Lamach, quoted in The Charlotte Observer about the company's inability to fill 1,000 jobs in its Davidson, North Carolina, headquarters operations. Many of the manufacturing jobs (the company makes air conditioners and golf carts, for example) pay well and don't require a college degree. Quote, unquote