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Industrial pressure relief valves must function reliably and effectively to protect pressurized systems from excessive pressure conditions. These valves are essential safety devices that act as cushions to protect piping systems, equipment, and vessels from the risks of high pressure, which can cause damage or even explosions. The objectives of this study were to minimize valve failures, decrease the number of rejected valves in the production line, and enhance the overall quality of pressure relief valves. This work introduces an integrated quality improvement methodology known as the hybrid multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM)—failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) approach. This approach is based on prioritizing crucial factors for any failure modes in the industrial setting. The presented case study demonstrates the application of a hybrid approach for identifying the fundamental causes of industrial pressure relief valve failure modes and malfunctions. This investigation highlights the applicability of FMEA as a methodology for determining causes and executing remedial actions to keep failures from happening again. FMEA helps uncover the underlying causes of industrial pressure relief valve failures, while the integration of the hybrid MCDM methodology enables the application of four integrated MCDM methods to identify crucial factors. The adopted model addresses the shortcomings of the conventional FMEA by accurately analyzing the relationships between the risk factors and by utilizing several MCDM methods to rank failure modes. Following the application of the adopted methodology, it was discovered that the high-risk failure modes for the pressure relief valve included misalignment of wire, normal wear/aging, rejection of machined parts, mismatch of mating parts, and corrosion. Therefore, risk managers should prioritize developing improvement strategies for these five failure modes. Similarly, failures comprising debris, delayed valve opening, internal leakage, premature valve opening, and burr foreign particles were determined as second essential groups for improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: Selecting the ideal strategy for thermal gasification of municipal solid waste from among different available gasification options using their important performance attributes is accomplished using multi-criteria decision analysis. This method will guide decision-makers like urban planners and energy engineers. Awareness of the consequences of waste mismanagement has resulted in urban planners looking for effective disposal techniques with the added benefit of energy generation. The decision regarding an energy conversion technique to adopt on a community level is based on different technology assessment factors with maximum weightage on environmental effects. Gasification techniques in general and thermal gasification strategies in particular are appropriate methods when environmental impacts are to be minimized. Thermal gasification techniques have evolved with different configurations, syngas generation rates, and other advantages and disadvantages; hence, the selection of the right technique is essential, and establishing guidelines for decision-makers is necessary. The six different gasifiers considered in the present study were updraft gasifiers, downdraft gasifiers, cross-draft gasifiers, bubbling fluidized bed gasifiers, circulating fluidized bed gasifiers, and dual-bed fluidized bed gasifiers. The assessments performed in the present study are based on the attributes of the different techniques using the multi-criteria decision method. Multi-criteria decision analysis is an appropriate method proven to be an ideal procedure in these situations. Attribute values for gasifier performance, environmental effects, economic performance indices, and fuel requirements were determined from collected waste assessment data and published information. Analysis was performed for both recycling and non-recycling scenarios of waste utilization by applying different weight scenarios for the attributes. Results of the study indicate that downdraft gasifiers showed the best performance in terms of environmental effects under the recycling scenario, with 0.1% and 0.0125% by volume of carbon dioxide and methane emissions, and under the non-recycling scenario, with 0.125% and 0.02% by volume of carbon dioxide and methane emissions. Downdraft gasifiers had high overall rankings in performance when evaluated against different entropy weights for both scenarios. The results of the study can be applied to urban communities in different climatic regions as well as for different scales of operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, hospital care and other services have become increasingly important for patient satisfaction. Better hospital care and assistance improve patients' medical conditions, management trust, and financial success. In this regard, monitoring and measuring hospital service quality is necessary to improve patient satisfaction and wellness. However, the evaluation of healthcare service quality is a complex and critical task due to its intangible nature. Existing methodologies often struggle to effectively incorporate multiple criteria and address uncertainties inherent in healthcare evaluations. To address these challenges, this research work seeks to develop a comprehensive and robust approach for evaluating hospital service quality to improve decision making and resource allocation for service enhancement. This study aims to evaluate multi-faceted healthcare service quality by combining many criteria and uncertainties into a single index. The model is constructed methodically utilizing fuzzy logic and decision modeling. A dataset collected from diverse healthcare facilities covering various medical specialties and regions is employed to validate and refine the model. Numerous criteria, factors, and dimensions are examined and embedded into the development of the model. Fuzzy logic is used to capture and manage healthcare evaluations' inherent vagueness and imprecision, yielding more accurate and comprehensive outcomes. The model's outcome is the hospital service quality fuzzy index (HSQFI), an easy-to-understand single performance measure. A graphical user interface (GUI) is developed for collecting data, and then it shows the results in the form of barriers and recommendations. Based on the findings, recommendations in terms of barriers (service criteria) to enhance the hospital's service quality have been made. This approach can be a tool for managers or other stakeholders to quickly realize the success of their service plans and pinpoint areas that may need improvement in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: A guide for photovoltaic panel installation projects to implement cooling technologies to increase efficiency. Photovoltaic panel performance in terms of its efficiency and durability is severely affected by operating temperature when the temperature is much higher than the nominal operating cell temperature in hot climates. Different cooling methods have been reported over several decades, but photovoltaic panel manufacturers or users are yet to adopt a popular method of panel cooling. This is the main concern of the present work. Potential cooling solutions differ in terms of their criteria for performance evaluation, which are efficiency enhancement, costs, reliability, environmental aspects and ergonomics. Hence, there is a need to identify the optimum cooling method. Eight different cooling methods were identified, and the analysis was made with the multi-criteria analysis tool on the different possible attributes. Two different climate zones with different weight schemes are considered for the evaluation process, and the best to the worst cooling solutions have been identified. Five different scenarios depending on the importance given to each evaluation criterion are analyzed. The best cooling method to the worst cooling method has been arranged under each scenario. When the efficiency of operation was given maximum weight, aluminum fin cooling proved to be the best panel cooling method. When the emission reduction criterion was given maximum weight, thermosiphon cooling was the best cooling option. A comparison of the results indicates that thermosiphon works out to be the best option. The second-best method was found to be forced convection cooling when equal weights were applied and thermosiphon cooling when a 40% weight on efficiency enhancement criteria was applied, which is a more practical weight distribution. Phase change cooling and forced convection cooling had the poorest performance among the different cooling methods for all the weighing scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An ever increasing trend in today's dynamic and competitive world markets, manufacturing organizations should provide the right amount of flexibility at the right time in the right direction. Among many manufacturing strategies available, reconfigurable manufacturing system is emerging as an attractive alternative to meet this goal. Organizations in pursuit of reconfigurations are often presented with a number of options and hence face a problem of evaluating the feasible alternative configurations before choosing the best one. The study reported in this paper is related to an organization interested in reconfiguring the present manufacturing setup. A number of alternative configurations were identified. Simulation models were developed for these configurations, and the results of the simulation experiments were analyzed to assess the suitability of each configuration in the point of view of five performance measures. The simulation experiments, method used to analyze the simulated results, and the outcome of the study are reported in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming has led to rising electricity demands due to soaring cooling load, resulting in different technologies being implemented with renewable energy options. Renewable energy has been used to partially or fully operate these cooing systems through different technology routes in both conventional and hybrid modes. The feasibility of a particular cooling process is influenced by several technological, economic, environmental and other related factors. Selection of the appropriate route also requires consideration of external factors such as local weather, cooling load requirements and the potential of possible renewable energy. Multi-criteria decision analysis is a useful tool to systematically arrive at the right option from several possible options. This tool is used to assess the feasibility of eight technology routes for three different climatic conditions. Other than the direct cooling processes, two routes of renewable energy utilization, namely, the solar photovoltaic system and solar thermal system, are considered. The normalized decision matrix is established and weighted decision matrix is estimated, and the best solution and the worst solution values are obtained by using equations. This study is performed for three climatic zones under the Koppen classification, namely, the tropical maritime arid condition with average midday temperature from 40 to 45 °C, with two different relative humidity ranges, namely, dry area and maritime area. Additionally, the temperate continental climatic zone is analyzed for comparison. The results of this study will help decision makers to judiciously implement air conditioning systems in the above climatic zones. The distance of each waste treatment strategy from the overall best alternative treatment strategy and the overall worst alternative treatment strategy is obtained. Finally, the cooling strategies are ranked for the best option for the cooling mechanism to be adopted for the three climatic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]