The paper presents a learning environment where on-site and remote components merge into a cooperative learning process. The envisaged system allows working together with complex real and virtual systems, consisting of parts which may be remotely distributed. The learning environment includes a supportive web-database with multimedia learning sequences providing theoretical background informati...

According to WHO, at any one time, around 50 per cent of medical equipment in lowand middle-income countries cannot be used because of lack of maintenance or spare parts.1 We have found that unwillingness or inability to repair equipment and put it back in use is also a major cause. New equipment is made available by different international non-government organisations (INGOs) competing with on...

The global economic crisis has reached the world today, forcing many customers to become more cost aware in their search for better quality and service, corporate organizations discover effective efficient ways compete among them. main objective of this research is choose best forecasting method predict demandfor spare parts at PT. XYZ highly fluctuating, avoid or minimize stockouts. demand hig...

This thesis focuses on the operational improvements in a semiconductor equipment manufacturing company (Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates). The company faces challenges of highly fluctuating demand as well as complex and highly customized assembly, which lead to problems such as lead time control and components tracking at multiple manufacturing stages. The goal of the project is to pro...

Our recent issue on “Equipment for eye care” (number 73, September 2010) addressed the importance of equipment in the delivery of eye care and covered maintenance, repair, training, purchasing, and donations. This issue (number 76) addresses similar concerns around surgical instruments and consumables. For an eye unit to function, instruments must be carefully managed so that they remain in goo...

BACKGROUND Evidence suggests that medical equipment often fails to accommodate the needs of individuals with disabling conditions. Few studies have focused on the accessibility of home medical devices such as positive airway pressure (PAP), which is a type of home medical equipment prescribed for long-term therapy. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to explore in detail the types of diff...

A major problem for applying self-test techniques to MEMS is the multi-domain nature of the sensing parts that require special test equipment for stimuli generation. In this work we describe, for three different types of MEMS that work in different energy domains, how the required non-electrical test stimuli can be induced onchip by means of electrical signals. This provides the basis for addin...

The Agde Manufacturing Prototyping System (AMPS) is being integrated at Sandia National Laboratories. AMPS consists of state-of-the-industry flexible manufacturing hardware and software enhanced with Sandia advancements in sensor and model based control; automated programming, assembly and task planning; flexible fixturing; and automated reconfguration technology. AMPS is focused on the agile p...