Rami Hikmat Fouad Al-Hadeethi

The Occupational Safety and Health Performance Indicators is a crucial issue in most organizations around the world. The accurate reporting and analysis for workplace injuries, illness and fatalities is a subject that attracts most firms and researchers in recent years. The aim of this paper is to assess occupational safety performance in Jordan and identify changes in performance over past years. Moreover, is to compare performance indices to those of countries in the same region and the world. Injuries data for Jordan were taken from the social security corporation (SSC) for the years 2010-2014, and for years 2002-2009 from SSC and International Labor Organization (ILO) published reports. For comparison, twenty-one countries were defined and their safety performance indicators were identified from ILO's website; including neighboring, regional, and high performers. Results indicated that Jordan had a fatalities rate similar to those of its neighboring and regional countries, but at the global average of 15.6 fatalities per 100000 insured workers for the year 2006. The main conclusion drawn out of this paper is that Occupational Safety and Health Performance in Jordan suffer from stagnant performance, this paper proposed a framework for continuous improvement in Jordan that focuses on establishing an efficient data collection and analysis system.

The purpose of this paper is to improve the quality of production by investigating the problems, which will lead to stronger competition in the markets. Canning Industries Company has been chosen in this study, to analyse its process line then applying several quality tools to improve the production quality. Statistical quality tools had been used to monitor the production process, including the Check Sheet, Histogram, Pareto Charts, Control Charts and Cause and Defect Diagram. Analyzing the results of all those quality tools identified that Slitters and Raw Material (RM) departments contains the majority of the defects. So causes were diagnosed with Cause and Effect diagram to find out that the man power has to be trained well, and more rigorous terms with the supplier should be agreed on.

Construction projects play a vital role in the development of Jordan. Quality control performance is one of the important features in all projects successes. Problems occur frequently during construction projects lifetime leading to disputes, delays and litigations. Therefor it is essential to study and analyze all quality control related factors and it is association with engineering defects. This research identifies nine of these factors that have the greatest impact to arise. Subsequently, a questionnaire survey was presented into 79 question. The questionnaire survey was distributed to 196 specialist engineers represent a selected sample from the Jordanian Engineers Association. Statistical analysis was carried out by employing the (SPSS) program. Data related the quality control factors and that's effects the engineering defects were analyzed and discussed in details.

Many researchers during the 21st century believe that both Total Quality Management (TQM) and Supply Chain Management (SCM) as a vital strategy for manufacturing, and services and its implications covered all small, medium and large scale enterprises. The purpose of this an analytical study was Measure the impact of Total Quality Management and Supply Chain Management practices on the Firm's Performance in Oil Pipelines Company (OPC) in Baghdad, Iraq. The study utilized primary Data was collected through questioners survey conducted during August 2015, questioners was distributed among the managers of Oil Pipelines Company in Iraq which is expected to has a best knowledge about the TQM & SCM and its impact on the firm's performance. This study supports the main hypothesis, that (TQMP) & (SCMP) positively impact the firm performance, and tested using Path Analysis performed by AMOS software package. The main finding proves that there is a strong relationship between TQM and SCM practices and dimensions on firm's performance. The main conclusion shows that (TQMP) & (SCMP) have positive and significant effect on Firm Performance, and this is clarified through the extrusive Firm Performance change whenever the TQM and the SCM Practices change .

The paper presents a model for costing production and transportation of ready-mix-concrete (RMC) based on type of the mix and customer site information. The on-floor cost of the mix is based on the type of concrete and is estimated using activity based costing (ABC). The cost of transporting RMC to customer's site is obtained as a function of traveling distance, traffic factor, and demand. Volume-based discounts, penalty for late delivery, and cost of mix spoilage are considered. Moreover, the paper provides a cost ground for improving the RMC production system using activity based management (ABM) to improve the financial performance of the company. The proposed model is applied at a local RMC company where obtained results show differences between the costing system of the company and that using the proposed model.

To improve the performance of any metal forming process, a minimization in the process load parameters is needed. The used die geometry significantly affects the process performance. Several die designs were developed to increase efficiency and reduce defects. This paper investigates the effect of the widened plug profile on the tube widening process, and considers the use of the Constancy of the Ratios of successive generalized Homogeneous Strain (CRHS) increments concept for different die profiles. Five widening process parameters are considered: the axial plug load, the widening torque, the variation in temperature, the widened tube thickness, and the widened tube quality. The investigation shows that an improvement in the widening process parameters was achieved using (CRHS) plug design leading to a 25% increase in the maximum widening ratio compared to other plug designs. This was achieved at relatively low tube ends temperature and an improved quality of widened tube ends.

Complex systems like aircrafts, space shuttles, nuclear power stations, and some complicated process industries operate under high reliability and safety requirements due to the complicated technology involved and hazardous consequences to the
larger community in case of failures. The maintenance regime of complex systems most often consists of a variety of maintenance strategies, like preventive maintenance, corrective maintenance, condition-based maintenance and so on. Opportunistic or opportunity-based maintenance (OM) gives the maintenance staff an opportunity to replace or repair those items, which are found to be defective or need replacement in the immediate future, during the maintenance of a machine or component. This work presents an intelligent method of how to decide whether a particular item requires opportunistic
maintenance or not, and if so how cost effective this opportunity-based maintenance will be when compared to a probable
future grounding. This maintenance strategy is considered important when dealing with complex systems that contain
expensive items with hard lives with condition-based maintenance (CBM) strategies. Genetic algorithms (GA) are employed to decide whether opportunistic maintenance is cost effective or not. An example of applying opportunistic maintenance
strategy in process industry is used to describe the methodology for genetic algorithms.

The general aim of this paper is to identify the key ingredients for successful quality management in any industrial organization. Moreover, to illustrate how is it important to realize the intergradations between Statistical Process Control (SPC) is seven tools (Pareto Diagram, Cause and Effect Diagram, Check Sheets, Process Flow Diagram, Scatter Diagram, Histogram and Control Charts), and how to effectively implement and to earn the full strength of these tools. A case study has been carried out to monitor real life data in a Jordanian manufacturing company that specialized in producing steel. Flow process chart was constructed, Check Sheets were designed, Pareto Diagram, scatter diagrams, Histograms was used. The vital few problems were identified; it was found that the steel tensile strength is the vital few problem and account for 72% of the total results of the problems. The principal aim of the project is to train quality team on how to held an effective Brainstorming session and exploit these data in cause and effect diagram construction. The major causes of nonconformities and root causes of the quality problems were specified, and possible remedies were proposed.

This article presents a process improvement study applied at a local paper manufacturing company based on customized Lean Six Sigma methodologies. More specifically, the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control) project management methodology and various lean tools are utilized to streamline processes and enhance productivity. Two performance measures namely production rate and Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) are employed to evaluate the performance of the cutting and the printing machines before and after the DMAIC cycle. Obtained results indicate that the production rate increment for printing machines by 5% and for the cutting machines by 10%. Moreover, the OEE for the printing and cutting machines has increased by 21.6% and 48.45% respectively

Over the past years, progress in the field of medical devices and their applications in hospitals became evident. Implementation of Maintenance Management Systems (MMS) should be used with appropriate maintenance activities for medical devices in order to improve medical devices systems targets. In this paper Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is being used as an improving method in MMS and as a guideline in highlighting the weak points in the performance and finding the suitable procedures to overcome them to achieve the customers' satisfaction.Through this research, the performance of Medical Devices Maintenance Systems (MDMS) in Prince Hamzeh Hospital (PHH) was investigated and studied to find appropriate solutions aiming to make the medical device more available, more reliable and more reproducible. A sample size of 903 operators' questionnaires has been used to perform this study in PHH. QFD requirements were employed to build the new required system. A comparison was made between PHH and the Specialty Hospital (SH) to benchmark its performance and measure how much PHH is away from achieving its targets.It was found that the failure response time was the most important performance aspect in the responsiveness category, the safe medical device was the most important performance aspect in the reliability category; the calibration of maintained device was the most important performance aspect in the reproducibility category and the spare parts availability was the most important performance aspect in the availability category. A new model has been suggested to be implemented for improving the performance of MDMS. This will lead eventually to better customers' satisfaction. The model consists of correlation between the requirements of the customers and technical capabilities of the provider with their correlation.

The three recently developed algorithms by Obeidat and Raman in 2009 for sampling free form surfaces are applied on small scale parts created using milling machine. The three proposed algorithms and the two existing algorithms (equiparametric approach, and the patch-size-based sampling method) are applied in sampling the measuring points. A Browne & Sharpe MicroVal PFX™ 454 CMM was used in the measuring process. The comparison between the five algorithms shows that a reduction in the number of points of 73% with reduction in the accuracy of 7.5 % can be achieved in very complicated surfaces. A low inspection time is achieved using the proposed algorithms.

A lean analysis for the production method of producing 5-burners gas oven at one of the biggest Jordanian companies hereinafter referred to as SABA is carried out. A new approach for process flow and activity relationship analysis is followed. Flow process chart, and Gantt chart are used as a lean tools for documenting the production process. The current method is questioned and brainstormed with the senior management of SABA, consequentlty lean performance measures like Tact time, utilization rate, queuing time etc. were developed, discussed, then used. Based on that, a new design for the production process that can meet the gradual increase of customer demand on 5-burners gas oven is introduced. The main advantages of the new designed production process is that it reduces the average production time by 46%, increases the average utilization of production resources by 36%, and increase production capacity of the production line by 100%. Another important advantage of the new design is that Work in Process (WIP) is decreases, bottleneck is diminished and waiting time of WIP between production stages is totally eliminated.

Statistical Quality Control (SQC) is a branch of Total Quality
Management (TQM) that defines a quality philosophy and set the guiding
principles that represent the foundation for a continuously improving
organisation. Statistical Process Control (SPC) and Acceptance Sampling are
the two major parts of SQC. SPC is an effective tool that aims to get and keep
processes under control and ensure that the product is manufactured as
designed and intended. SPC is comprised of seven tools: Pareto diagram, cause
and effect diagram, check sheets, process flow diagram, scatter diagram,
histogram and control charts. A case study has been carried out to monitor real
life data in a Jordanian manufacturing company that specialises in producing
fertilisers. Pareto diagram, histograms and control charts for variables were
implemented to investigate the major causes of non-conformities and possible
remedies were proposed. The full strength of the seven statistical control tools
was implemented and other companies are encouraged to follow suite and
implement them simultaneously.

The effective maintenance management of medical technology influences the quality of care delivered and the profitability of healthcare facilities. Medical device maintenance in Jordan lacks an objective prioritization system; consequently, the system is not sensitive to the impact of device's downtime on patient morbidity and mortality. Through this paper, the existing computerized maintenance management system in royal medical services was investigated, a list of its requirements was created, such a system was conceptually designed, and finally an object oriented model was built based on the conceptual design. A conceptual design was created showing how the system will function when implemented. This design employed logical view and deployment view depicting the specific entities of the system and how these entities interact with one another. The operator can always add these views and they will be fully instructed on the proper methods for achieving this. With the completed model the developer will be able to generate skeletal code, in a variety of programming languages, which will further assist in the implementation process.

Many firms have proceeded to the adoption of Enterprise resource planning ERP solutions to
maintain competitiveness. ERP is a packaged software system that enables enterprises to integrate the
operation, business processes and functions through common database. However, the majority of ERP
systems do not support preventive maintenance (PM) scheduling process. The objective of PM is to
minimize equipment downtime using the limited resources of an organization. Therefore, prioritizing
PM activities for equipment is essential. In this paper, a fuzzy logic-based system for PM-scheduling is
proposed to interpret the linguistic variables extracted from expert’s knowledge for determining
equipment priorities, which could be incorporated as a custom module in ERP systems. The system was
tested and proved to be reliable in solving PM scheduling problem.

Thermodynamic modelling of Mn–Sn and Mn–Sr binary systems is carried out using the reliable data from the
literature. Thermodynamic properties of the binary liquid solutions are described using the modified quasi-chemical
model. The calculated phase diagrams and the thermodynamic properties are found to be in good agreement with the
experimental data from the literature. A self-consistent thermodynamic database for the Mg–Mn–{Sn, Sr} systems is
constructed by combining the thermodynamic descriptions of their constituent binaries. The constructed database is
used to calculate and predict liquidus projection and invariant reactions of these ternary systems. The Mg–Mn–Sr
system has nine ternary eutectic reactions, two saddle points and eleven crystallisation fields. Mg–Mn–Sn has four
saddle points, two quasi-peritectic and six ternary eutectic reactions.

In this study, an adaptive controller of a solar tracking system is designed and its performance is evaluated through
computer simulation. To achieve this goal, two tracker systems based on open- and closed-loop control strategies are studied.
The instantaneous and total errors that represent the differences between the tilt and rotation angles of both the open- and
closed-loop systems are analysed. An adaptive controller that regulates the electric signals to the motors is designed. Owing
to uncertainty in the sun position data, the performance of solar tracker suffers degradation. Towards this end, sun position
data are analysed to extract the error sources. The designed control system objective is to keep the tracker perpendicular to
sunlight at all times during the day and eliminate modelling errors such as sun position data deviations, friction and
environmental changes. System performance is verified through computer simulation where the controller corrected for
modelling errors and date changes from the date used for algorithm design. More specifically, in the first case the square error
reduces from 15.43 to 12.18 degrees2 for azimuth angle and from 39.05 to 19.09 degrees2 for altitude, whereas in the latter
case the square error reduces from 236.92 to 105.90 degrees2 for azimuth angle and from 402.82 to 40.40 degrees2 for altitude.

In this study, the authors consider a solar system which consists of a solar trainer that contains a photovoltaic panel, a
DC centrifugal pump, flat plate collectors, storage tank, a flowmeter for measuring the water mass flow rate, pipes, pyranometer
for measuring the solar intensity, thermocouples for measuring various system temperatures and wind speed meter. The various
efficiencies of the solar system have been predicted by an artificial neural network (ANN) which was trained with historical data.
The ANN fails to predict the efficiencies accurately over the long-time horizon because of system parts degradation,
environmental variations, date changes within the year from the modelling date and presence of modelling errors. Therefore
the ANN is adapted using the error between the ANN-predicted efficiency and the efficiency measurement from the
appropriately selected sensors and efficiency laws to update the network’s parameters recursively. The adaptation scheme can
be performed online or occasionally and is based on the Kaczmarz’s algorithm. The adaptive ANN capability is demonstrated
through computer simulation.

The purpose of this study is to identify and evaluate the scale of implementation of
Just-In-Time (JIT) in the different industrial sectors in the Middle East. This study analyzes the
empirical data collected by a questionnaire survey distributed to companies in five main
industrial sectors in the Middle East, which are: food, construction, chemicals, fabrics and
engineering. The following two main hypotheses are formulated and tested: 1- The requirements
of JIT application differ according to the type of industrial sector. 2- The elements of JIT
application differ according to the type of industrial sector. Descriptive statistics and ANOVA test
were used to examine the two hypotheses. This study indicates a reasonable evidence for
accepting these main hypotheses. It reveals that there is no standard way to adopt JIT as a
production system, where each industrial sector should concentrate in the investment on critical
requirements and elements that differ according to the nature and strategy of production
followed in that sector.

In this work, four Mg-Zn-Ce sheets were processed on an industrial scale by “Helholtz-
ZentrumGreesthacht” company. To study the effect of alloying elements and annealing conditions
on the rolled sheets, these sheets were annealed at different conditions. Mechanical properties of
these rolled and annealed sheets were determined in rolling and transverse directions. Optical
microscopy was used to investigate microstructure evolution and stability as well as grain size after
annealing. Annealing at 450°C, 1 hr for A and D sheets provides microstructure stability of these
sheets. Whereas, annealing B and C sheets for one hour at 400 and 350°C, respectively, provide the
optimum annealing conditions. In the studied alloys, the highest zinc (Zn) presence alloyed with
magnesium significantly increases the grain size and the amount of precipitates. Whereas, the
highest cerium (Ce) presence alloyed with magnesium, refines the grain size during the
recrystallization process.

The goal of our research is to reduce the nember of inspection points for cylinders and bell shapes
while maintaning almost the same tolerance zone, so the time and cost is reduced. According to
Cantilever Beam Theory that states the maximum deflection on the cylinder being machined using
lathe machine, occurs at the free end of the cylinder. Hence the maximum dimensional eror can be
expected to be at the free end of the cylinder being machined. A big reduction in the number of the
inspection points has been achieved. It reached, in cylinders, to about 74.9 % with a difference in a
tolerance zone of 3.7%. A big reduction, also, has been achieved in sampling bill shapes. It reached to
about 66.75 % with a difference in a tolerance zone of 1.6%. So number of inspection points can be
expected to be maximum at that region. The same thing can be said for the maximum deflection of the
cutter used in cutting the bell shape. The cutter deflection will be maximum at the free end of the cutter,
so maximum dimensional error can be expected to be at the bottom of the bell shape. Hence the
sampling points are expected to be dense close to that region.

The unexpected failures, the down time associated with such failures, the loss of production and, the
higher maintenance costs are major problems in any process plant. This paper is devoted to studying
and analyzing the historical data of the failures, corrective maintenance and associated costs in AL -
Hussein Thermal Power Station. The failure rates for each unit and the cost of each repair have been
investigated. The behavior of each working unit is analyzed. Based on the analysis, appropriate
maintenance strategies for different situations have been developed and profitability been identified.
Critical equipment can be identified based on the level of risk and the failure cost. The case study of a
power-generating unit in the AL-Hussein Thermal Power Station is used to illustrate the methodology.
Results indicate that the methodology is successful in identifying the critical equipment and in reducing
the risk resulting from equipment failure. Risk reduction is achieved through the adoption of a
maintenance plan which does not only increase the reliability of the equipment but also reduces failure
and maintenance cost.

Many researchers during the 21st century believe that both Total Quality Management (TQM) and Supply
Chain Management (SCM) as a vital strategy for manufacturing, and services and its implications covered
all small, medium and large scale enterprises. The purpose of this an analytical study was Measure the
impact of Total Quality Management and Supply Chain Management practices on the Firm's Performance
in Oil Pipelines Company (OPC) in Baghdad, Iraq. The study utilized primary Data was collected through
questioners survey conducted during August 2015, questioners was distributed among the managers of Oil
Pipelines Company in Iraq which is expected to has a best knowledge about the TQM & SCM and its
impact on the firm's performance. This study supports the main hypothesis, that (TQMP) & (SCMP)
positively impact the firm performance, and tested using Path Analysis performed by AMOS software
package. The main finding proves that there is a strong relationship between TQM and SCM practices and
dimensions on firm's performance. The main conclusion shows that (TQMP) & (SCMP) have positive and
significant effect on Firm Performance, and this is clarified through the extrusive Firm Performance
change whenever the TQM and the SCM Practices change .

The Emergency Department (ED) is considered the most critical department in Jordanian
hospitals. Crowdedness and long waiting times of patients in the ED are the most common
harmonies problems that hospitals are suffering from. Thus, this study aims at reducing the
average waiting time of the patient in the ED, improving the nurses’ utilization, and
increasing the number of served patients. A cellular service system is proposed and utilized
for developing ten nurse assignment configurations. Simulation is run for a one month period
(672 h) each with 10 replicates to evaluate the performance measures for each configuration.
The best scenario is then determined using aggressive formulation in Data
Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The results showed that the best scenario depends on work
load sharing assignments, which results in reducing patient’s average waiting time from
195 to 183 min, increasing the number of patients served from 8853to 8934 patients,
and improving the nurses’ utilization from 52% to 62%. In conclusion, nurses’ flexibility
in cellular service systems shall provide a great assistance to decision makers in hospitals
when improving the performance of ED.