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This article aims to optimise energy use and consumption by integrating Lean Six Sigma methodology with the ISO 50001 energy management system standard in an Irish dairy plant operation.

This work utilised Lean Six Sigma methodology to identify methods to measure and optimise energy consumption. The authors use a single descriptive case study in an Irish dairy as the methodology to explain how DMAIC was applied to reduce energy consumption.

The replacement of heavy oil with liquid natural gas in combination with the new design of steam boilers led to a CO₂ footprint reduction of almost 50%.

A further longitudinal study would be useful to measure and monitor the energy management system progress and carry out more case studies on LSS integration with energy management systems across the dairy industry.

The novelty of this study is the application of LSS in the dairy sector as an enabler of a greater energy-efficient facility, as well as the testing of the DMAIC approach to meet a key objective for ISO 50001 accreditation.

Disassembly takes place in remanufacturing, recycling, and disposal, with a line being the best choice for automation. The disassembly line balancing problem seeks a sequence that is feasible, minimizes the number of workstations, and ensures similar idle times, as well as other end-of-life specific concerns. Finding the optimal balance is computationally intensive due to exponential growth. Combinatorial optimization methods hold promise for providing solutions to the problem, which is proven here to be NP-hard. Stochastic (genetic algorithm) and deterministic (greedy/hill-climbing hybrid heuristic) methods are presented and compared. Numerical results are obtained using a recent electronic product case study.

There is a rich body of literature on sequencing assembly and on sequencing disassembly, but little that either fuses or contrasts the two, which may be valuable for long-range planning in the closed-loop supply chain and simply convenient in terms of consistency in nomenclature and mathematical formulations. The purpose of this paper is to concisely unify and summarize assembly and disassembly formulae – as well as to add new formulations for completeness – and then demonstrate the similarities and differences between assembly and disassembly.

Along with several familiar assembly-line formulae which are adapted here for disassembly, five (two specific and three general) metrics and a comparative performance formula from disassembly-line balancing are proposed for use in assembly- and disassembly-line sequencing and balancing either directly, through generalization, or with some extension. The size of assembly and disassembly search spaces are also quantified and formulated. Three new metrics are then developed from each of the general metrics to demonstrate the process of using these general formulae as prototypes.

The three new metrics along with several of the original metrics are selectively applied to a simple, notional case study product to be sequenced on an assembly line and then on a disassembly line. Using these analytical results, the inherent differences between assembly and disassembly, even for a seemingly trivial product, are illustrated.

The research adds several new assembly/disassembly metrics, a case study, unifies the evaluation formulae that assembly and disassembly hold in common as well as structuring prototype formulae for flexibility in generating new evaluation criteria for both, and quantifies (using the case study) how assembly and disassembly – while certainly possessing similarities – also demonstrate measurable differences that can be expected to affect product design, planning, production, and end-of-life processing.

The aim of this article is to explore how, and to what extent, American advertising and its consumerist messages infiltrated Irish society in the period 1922-1960.

The article is based on an analysis of primary and secondary sources.

The article argues that American advertising practices and messages influenced the advertising industry in Ireland. It also contributed to the technical, style and content of Irish advertising and informed the Irish woman's view of American consumerism. Finally, it suggests that Irish society was more open to external influences, which challenges the narrative of Ireland as a closed society before 1960.

The article is based on extensive original research and opens up a number of new areas of research relating to the history of consumerism and advertising in Ireland.