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1. Introduction
In many personal care product liquids applications, batch manufacturing has been replaced by continuous or semi-continuous processes. When moving from batch to continuous processing, coordination between formulation development, process development, supply chain and manufacturing quality control is mandatory. R&D’s commitment to support the semi-continuous platform is a prerequisite for wide spread adoption and long-term progression. Semi-continuous distillation has been proposed as an alternative for performing multiple separations using a single distillation column, using a design strategy that combines elements of both traditional batch and continuous schemes. This dissertation expands upon the semi-continuous concept, exploring new and unique processes using semi-continuous principles. In particular, the integration of reaction into the system is examined, such as reaction in an auxiliary unit, inside of a middle vessel or within the column itself (Adams, 2008).
An autonomous/automated/automatic-guided vehicle (AGV) is an unmanned, computer-controlled mobile transport unit used for material handling and transportation in a wide range of industries. Also known as a self-guided vehicle or self-propelled vehicle, an AGV is a vehicle that is powered by a battery or an electric motor and is able to perform tasks without human supervision or operation. AGV manufacturers program AGVs to drive to specific points and perform designated functions, such as load transferring, small components assembling, pallet loading and transportation, towing or lifting products and tooling change out, without the aid of a human driver. AGVs are becoming increasingly popular worldwide in applications that call for repetitive actions over a distance or for transporting extremely heavy loads and are commonly used as alternative for fork lifts, conventional conveyor systems and manually powered push–pull carts. AGV systems provide great benefits in terms of increasing efficiency and reducing human error and varieties of AGVs, such as material handling robots, automatic-guided carts and transfer cars, are used in place of manual labor for a number of applications. AGVs are also commonly used as automatic-guided military vehicles and armored vehicles in defense industries or for clean room applications in which human presence may be undesirable. Industries such as aerospace, automotive assembly, general manufacturing, mail and newspaper, food and beverage processing and components assembly all use types of guided vehicles to help improve work flow.
In this paper, an integrated approach to make coupled decisions...