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International Coatings Company (ICC) was in need of a new system to support its growing business, protect margins in a competitive market, control costs, improve inventory control, and reduce shortages. The company, which specializes in textile screen-printing inks and industrial intermediate plastic compounds, was vulnerable to price fluctuations due to its reliance on petroleum-based raw materials. The company was also looking to improve its inventory control and reduce shortages. ICC had been a longtime user of BatchMaster software, starting with the DOS version in 1995. However, the company decided to upgrade to the Windows version in 2002 to support its projected growth and take advantage of the many new features that the Windows version offered.

CoValence Laboratories, a custom topical application developer and manufacturer, was facing challenges with their existing 'Out-of-the-Box' accounting package that supported a discrete manufacturing model. The system was not able to meet the growing sales and production needs of the company. Customizing the existing system to enable even the most basic functionality was proving to be a significant investment. Moreover, the company was also facing increasing compliance demands in their International Market requirements. The company realized that customizing their original accounting system would cost too much in meeting their business growth or the increasing compliance demands in their International Market requirements.

Polytex Environmental Inks, a company established in 1943 to manufacture and supply industrial coatings, was facing a challenge. With the growing concern over air quality and the passage of the Clean Air Act in 1970, industries were forced to turn their attention to new technologies. This accelerated the need to develop inks and coatings that comply with changing environmental standards. To effectively support the printing industry, Polytex established a 80,000 square foot plant in 1986 in the Bronx, N. Y. to include Research and Development and Manufacturing. To strengthen its position worldwide, Polytex established an R&D and Manufacturing site in the Netherlands in 1993. However, in 2008, the European arm of the organization began a search for a solution that would support not only manufacturing and distribution of their products, but that included full support for their R&D needs. After some initial research, Polytex identified solutions from Microsoft, Infor Global Solutions and SAP that offered support for some or most of their business needs. Unfortunately, none of them fully met their needs for product development, production management and distribution.

Diversified Foods and Seasonings had been using Sage PFW for many years to manage formulas, costs, and inventory within their ERP solution. However, when Sage announced their plans to retire PFW, Diversified began to review replacement ERP solutions. They evaluated nearly 15 ERP systems during their review period and selected BatchMaster Mfg. because it could fill every need they had. They were looking for a solution that was designed for formula-based food manufacturing companies and had specific functions such as Quality Control and Assurance, a Formula Approval process, and MRP/MPS integrated functionality.

Langlinais Bakery, a family-owned business that has grown significantly over the years, was facing challenges due to its outdated Sage accounting and other independent software products. The company needed to upgrade its software to meet the growing demand for its products and to comply with increasingly stringent regulatory requirements. The company initially moved to the SAP Business One solution, but soon realized that it did not address key manufacturing functions such as batch ticket management, raw material inventory control, and lot traceability. The company needed a solution that would provide more control and greater visibility into its operations.

Bar Bakers, a private label manufacturer of baked and cold process cookies, wafers, and nutritional bars, was experiencing exponential growth. The company needed a system that could manage the entire flow of inventory, from work order and demand to purchasing, receiving, A/P, and material consumption. They also needed a system that could provide rapid lot number traceability, crucial for their commitments to food safety and their pursuit of a BRC food safety certification. The system also needed to provide document management throughout the company for transparency and ease of access to information. As a rapidly growing company, Bar Bakers needed a system that could scale with them and support their operations.

Andy’s Seasoning, a family-owned and operated dry blend seasoning manufacturer located in St. Louis, MO, needed a solution to run its manufacturing operation. The company, which began operations in 1983 with a single product, had grown to become a nationally known firm. However, it lacked a comprehensive system to support its continued growth. The company needed a solution that could automate its processes, manage growth, and help it operate efficiently.

Custom Ingredients, Inc. is a privately held company that supplies the Southern California food and nutraceuticals market with high quality flavors. The company's primary goals are dependable service, trustworthy relationships and up-to-date regulatory standards. However, when the company first started blending flavors, they relied on tools such as Excel to record formulations and inventory, with inventory tracking done manually. This was not efficient and did not allow for optimal inventory control and lot traceability. The company needed a formula-based manufacturing solution that could handle these tasks and more.

Cain Food Industries, Inc., a Dallas-based company that produces and supplies micro-dose ingredients for the wholesale and retail baking industries, was facing several challenges with their previous business operation software, Process-Pro. They often encountered problems in lot traceability, an essential requirement of their customers who need this information for regulatory compliance. Due to the lack of availability of real-time information of inventory and finance, it was very difficult for them to assess their current status and make the best use of the available inventory. In addition, they had to spend considerable time in calculations for their formulas. Their formulas are based on the bioactivity of enzymes, which is one of their main raw materials, and its bioactivity, which varies from lot-to-lot. To remain competitive in the current challenging economic environment, and to retain and expand their customer base which demands food ingredients in compliance with regulatory requirements, Cain Foods decided to search for an affordable software solution, which could satisfy these needs.

Radio Frequency Company, a leading manufacturer of advanced industrial radio frequency (RF) processing systems, was facing a business problem. With manufacturing jobs that could last up to six months or more, the company needed an automated solution to accurately monitor the costs and evaluate the status of these complicated and lengthy projects. They needed to quickly distinguish one-time labor costs, increase their overall planning efficiency, and provide visibility into these processes for the Project Managers and upper management. The company was also looking for a solution that could help them better evaluate bids and estimates and track the ongoing changes to engineering, resources, and services for their Engineered-to-Order (ETO) equipment that have complex product lifecycles and long lead times.

Daktronics, a leading manufacturer of electronic scoreboards and displays, was struggling to manage both its standard and technical contract manufacturing using an MRP solution. The MRP solution was designed for technical contracting and did not support standard product manufacturing tasks such as standard inventory management, standard costing, build-to-stock, and product shipping. The company needed a robust solution that could handle both technical contract projects and standard manufacturing, and provide visibility into critical business operations to streamline operations and improve customer service.

TRB, a fully owned subsidiary of Tokai Rika Japan, is a major supplier of components to leading automobile manufacturers. The company was looking for a solution to streamline its production and delivery processes. The automobile industry is characterized by precision and mass production, and customization of the end product creates innumerable permutations of the finished article. To keep the production lines rolling, and supplied with the right components at the right time, TRB needed a system that could handle the complexity of its supply chain. The company was specifically looking for a solution that incorporated Kanban, a system used for controlling the production line.

Designing an electrohydraulic power steering (EHPS) system involves managing numerous interrelated components, where minor adjustments can significantly impact the system's function, efficiency, and reliability. The complexity of the system, which includes an electronic control unit (ECU), torque sensor, valve, and pipe system, requires a detailed understanding of how each part interacts. Traditional validation and physical testing methods are expensive and time-consuming, often taking up to six months. This slow process is not conducive to the fast-paced design cycles required in the automotive industry. Therefore, there is a need for a more efficient method to refine and optimize EHPS designs before moving to physical testing.

The High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is undergoing a conversion from highly enriched uranium (HEU) to low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel to meet the Global Threat Reduction Initiative's requirements. This conversion presents a complex challenge due to the unique fuel and core design of the HFIR, as well as its high power density. The primary challenge is to ensure that the new LEU fuel can maintain the reactor's performance, safety, and reliability. Researchers need to evaluate the impact of the fuel change on various aspects such as neutron scattering, isotope production, irradiation experiments, and neutron activation analyses. Additionally, the HFIR will need to operate at a higher power level (100 MW) to maintain the same neutron flux, which increases the demands on the reactor's thermal margin and safety.

Engineers face daily technical challenges in hearing aid design, with feedback being a major issue that leads to high-pitched squealing or whistling, limiting the amount of gain the aid can provide. Feedback usually occurs when a hearing aid’s microphone picks up sound or vibration inadvertently diverted from what’s being channeled into the ear canal and sends it back through the amplifier, creating undesirable oscillations. The challenge is to design hearing aids that are compact and unobtrusive, yet still capable of providing a powerful sound output to overcome the user’s hearing loss. This makes solving the feedback issue more challenging, as engineers must cram all the hardware components into the smallest space possible without causing feedback instability.

Metamaterials, which are artificially structured materials, have the potential to revolutionize various fields by manipulating electromagnetic waves. However, the challenge lies in the high level of control required over their structure and the high ohmic loss due to the metal components. These materials derive their unique properties from their structure rather than their chemical composition, making the design and fabrication of complex structures a significant challenge. Additionally, precise knowledge of the response at each frequency of interest is needed, making accurate frequency-domain simulations a requirement. The high ohmic loss causes electromagnetic waves to be strongly attenuated, posing another challenge in the practical application of metamaterials.

Deep space and the human body present unique challenges for designing devices that can operate safely, reliably, and efficiently. Equipment used in extreme environments such as aqueous conditions, severe temperatures, and high pressure levels often struggle with stable and efficient power generation. The search for better power efficiency in devices like deep-space satellites and medical equipment has identified electron emission as a potential method for power generation. Electron emission occurs when a metal surface or electrode is subjected to an electrostatic field, heat, or incoming light, causing electrons to escape the metal and be collected for usable electricity. The Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) and the European Space Agency (ESA) are collaborating to develop systems based on electron emission for solar power collection on deep-space satellites. Researchers at IIT are also applying similar concepts to power nanoantennas for studying electrical signals in the brain.

The built environment, encompassing everything from large metropolitan areas to individual buildings, is continually impacted by physics-based processes such as heat transfer, air flow, and moisture transport. These processes can affect energy efficiency, health and safety, operating costs, durability, and historic preservation. Jos van Schijndel, founder of CompuToolAble and assistant professor at Eindhoven University of Technology, faces the challenge of making complex modeling and simulation concepts accessible to clients and students. His goal is to improve the built environment and preserve historic structures and artifacts through accurate modeling and simulation.

HARMAN, a market leader in connected car setups, faces the challenge of designing unique audio configurations for each vehicle model. The process involves accounting for various components and car acoustics, such as speaker placement, orientation, and packaging. Traditional methods of physical testing and in situ listening are time-consuming and costly. The need for a quicker, more efficient development process that can keep up with the rapid pace of vehicle design is paramount. Engineers at HARMAN sought a solution that would allow them to virtually 'tune' their audio systems before creating live prototypes, thereby saving time and resources.

The primary challenge faced by the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) researchers was to design a compact nuclear fusion machine, the Advanced Divertor eXperiment (ADX), capable of sustaining reactor-level heat fluxes and magnetic fields. The ADX needed to simulate the conditions of a full-scale fusion reactor while being a research and development testbed. The design had to withstand high temperatures, magnetic fields, and plasma disruptions, which are significant sources of stress. Plasma disruptions, particularly vertical displacement events (VDE), pose a severe threat as they generate large eddy currents and Lorentz forces that can cause substantial stress and displacement in the vacuum vessel. The researchers needed to ensure that the ADX could survive these conditions without structural failure.

Anyone who has slept near an airport will know the sensation — an early morning flight wakes you from sleep, not only because the engine is noisy but also because everything around you seems to be shaking. Likewise, people living near wind turbines, military sites, or hospitals with helicopter landing pads often complain that windows rattle and everyday objects buzz when there is external noise. More puzzling for them is the fact that even when they can discern no sound, they may still notice irritating vibrations. If the response of the sound is 20 vibrations per second (20 Hz) or less, it is described as infrasound, meaning that the original sound is not usually audible to the human ear. The effects, however, are very easy to detect. As waves hit windows, spread to the floor, and affect internal walls, they induce a noticeable indoor vibration. Low-frequency sound waves are notorious for their potential to create annoying disturbances. Noise is part of modern life and there are formal standards that use sound pressure level measurements to recognize high-frequency sound waves at levels of sensitivity, intrusion, and danger for humans. According to Finn Løvholt of the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI), the generation of building vibration due to infrasound is an area of research that has not been explored extensively. For this reason, NGI, an international center for research and consulting within the geosciences, has been running investigative programs for several years on behalf of the Norwegian Defence Estate Agency.

Routine natural gas maintenance often requires digging into main roads, causing significant disruptions. GTI aimed to investigate the industry standards for squeeze-off length in gas pipelines to make the process more efficient and less invasive. The current ASTM standard requires a squeeze-off distance of either three pipe diameters or twelve inches from the next pipe fitting, whichever is greater. This large length requirement leads to more digging, rerouted roads, and increased time and costs. GTI researchers sought to determine if the twelve-inch distance is necessary for smaller pipes, aiming to reduce the minimum required distance without exceeding industry-accepted levels of strain and stress concentration.

Graphene, a single-atom-thick film of graphite, has shown immense potential in various applications since its discovery in 2004. While its electrical and thermal conductivity made it attractive for electronics, its optoelectronic capabilities were initially overlooked. However, it soon became clear that graphene could serve as a transparent conducting electrode, offering comparable or better performance than indium tin oxide (ITO). Despite its potential, fabricating high-quality, large-area graphene films remains a challenge. This has hindered the practical application of graphene in optoelectronics and photonics, particularly in the field of plasmonics, which deals with the efficient excitation, control, and use of plasmons. The diffraction limit of light poses a fundamental challenge in photonics, but plasmonics helps address this by enabling light confinement at the nanoscale. Researchers at Purdue University, led by Alexander V. Kildishev, are leveraging simulation tools to overcome these challenges and bring graphene closer to practical applications.

The primary challenge faced by FUJIFILM Dimatix was to design unimorph diaphragm actuators for their newest ink deposition products. These actuators needed to be miniaturized to reduce costs while maximizing deflection and matching the actuator's impedance to the flow channels and nozzle. The goal was to generate a droplet meeting a target mass at a given velocity with a target maximum firing frequency for the available voltage. The complexity of the design required a deep understanding of the interactions between the piezoelectric materials and the surrounding components, necessitating a robust simulation approach to optimize the design parameters.

Physicians rate predictability as their number one concern with ablation performance. The higher the level of predictability, the easier it is for a physician to plan a treatment procedure that will be safer, more effective, and less time-consuming. RF ablation procedures face challenges due to varying electrical conductivities of tissues and the rapid decrease in electrical conductivity as tissue temperature approaches 100°C. This makes it difficult to generate temperatures high enough to cause cell breakdown. MW ablation technology attempts to overcome these limitations by using an EM field radiated into the tissue. However, tissue type and vaporization of water during ablation cause the size and shape of the EM field to vary, affecting predictability.

Companies developing new and improved power transformer equipment incur costs for prototyping and testing as they work to reduce transformer hum. At ABB, a team of engineers develops multiphysics simulations and custom-built applications to offer insight into their designs. Transformer noise often comes from several sources, such as vibrations in the transformer core or auxiliary fans and pumps used in the cooling system. Each of these sources needs to be addressed differently to reduce noise. ABB’s transformers comprise a metal core with coils of wire wound around different sections, an enclosure or tank to protect these components, and an insulating oil inside the tank. Passing alternating current through the windings of one coil creates a magnetic flux that induces current in an adjacent coil. The voltage adjustment is achieved through different numbers of coil turns. Because the core is made of steel, a magnetostrictive material, these magnetic fluxes — which alternate direction — cause mechanical strains. This generates vibrations from the quick growing and shrinking of the metal. These vibrations travel to the tank walls through the oil and the clamping points that hold the inner core in place, creating an audible hum known as core noise. In addition to the core noise, the alternating current in the coil produces Lorentz forces in the individual windings, causing vibrations known as load noise that add to the mechanical energy transferred to the tank.

The multiphysics nature of plasmas presents enormous challenges for numerical simulations; analysis of the CCP process presents added difficulty due to the existence of a plasma sheath, the dynamic behavior of the plasma, and the large number of RF cycles required to reach a periodic steady state. Power deposition into the plasma is highly non-linear and the strong gradient of the electric field in the plasma sheath may lead to numerical instabilities unless a sufficiently fine mesh is applied. Typical CCP reactors may also contain sharp geometric corners that can cause a substantial local electric field that provide unphysical ion fluxes.

The furniture industry requires rigorous testing to ensure products meet safety and quality standards. This process is costly and time-consuming, often resulting in significant expenses for manufacturers when designs fail. An independent test house aimed to reduce this burden by providing a virtual testing tool to predict whether chair designs would pass or fail before physical testing.

Other options for wireless energy transfer require precise device positioning on a pad or holder, very close proximity to the charging source, and the source can only charge a single device with a single coil. WiTricity engineers aimed to overcome these limitations by leveraging magnetic resonance to enable more flexible and efficient wireless power transfer. They needed to design a system that could charge multiple devices simultaneously, over distances, and through various materials, while maintaining high efficiency and low power losses. Additionally, they faced the challenge of making the technology scalable for a wide range of devices, from smartphones to electric vehicles, and ensuring that the system met safety regulations for electromagnetic fields.

Ensuring the consistency and quality of chocolate bars, wafers, and cereals is a significant challenge for Nestlé. For chocolate bars, the flow rate and pressure of the chocolate exiting each nozzle must be consistent to ensure uniform weight and nutritional content. For wafers, uneven heating during baking can cause different moisture concentrations, affecting texture and potentially causing spontaneous snapping. For cereals, the high-temperature extruder must maintain consistent pressure and friction to cook the dough evenly, and the viscometer housing must withstand high pressure to ensure consistent dough quality.