Albert Kahn

Though he has been marginalized in most mainstream accounts of modern architecture, Albert Kahn (b. 1869–d. 1942) is increasingly considered one of the most important and consequential US architects of the 20th century. Kahn is known primarily for the technically innovative and rigorously functional factory buildings that his still-extant firm Albert Kahn Associates, Inc. (founded 1903) designed for automotive manufacturers, including the Ford Motor Company, but his firm was also responsible for hundreds of eclectically styled buildings for other purposes in Detroit, Michigan. Research and writing regarding Albert Kahn often requires considerable effort to disambiguation. Most importantly, Albert Kahn the man is far from a synecdoche for the firm he founded, Albert Kahn Associates, Inc., which employed upward of several hundred people at its height and is still in operation under the simplified Kahn moniker today. Some mid-20th century historians and critics substituted the inaccurate and often derogatory moniker “Albert Kahn Inc.” as name for the firm to suggest its alienated and impersonal nature. Albert Kahn’s siblings are also worthy of attention in their own right. Frequently mentioned in the extant literature are brothers Julius (b. 1874–d. 1942) who was a trained engineer, inventor and co-founder of the highly successful Trussed Concrete Steel Company; Moritz (b. 1880–d. 1939), who was also an executive of the Kahn firm pivotal in its operations in the USSR between 1929 and 1932, and occasionally Louis (b. 1885–d. 1945), who was a manager and executive in the Kahn firm. Views of Albert Kahn have served as a barometer for the intellectual climate in architecture culture since the early 20th century, indexing the relative importance of aesthetics, ethics, and technics. Studies of Kahn and his firm have, until recently, primarily focused on their contributions to industrial architecture and the influence of their early factory buildings on architecture culture at large. These studies often describe the give-and-take between assembly lines and the streamlined, pragmatic design of the buildings that encompassed them. An upsurge of recent attention to Kahn’s work has been oriented away from issues of design toward larger histories. Some scholars have addressed the shift toward large, integrated offices within the profession, for which Albert Kahn Associates was a groundbreaking exemplar. Others have addressed the ways Kahn served the growth of global enterprise, revealing that his marginalization from architectural history has effaced the willful complicity of US architects in compounding capitalist power and solidifying its ideology. These topics remain rich veins for future researchers.

Chatbot Implementation in a Steel Company in Russia

Chatbots (sometimes just called “bots”) are the subject of much corporate and public interest today. Many enterprises are looking to get started with chatbot development initiatives to improve communication efficiency as well as reduce operating costs. Current research indicates constantly growing interest in this area and forecasts that 70% of office employees will interact with chatbots daily in 2022. This chapter reports on the challenges inherent in chatbot integration projects and identifies key operational factors for successful chatbot projects, as well as highlighting issues of strategic significance. Different technology adoption and project management models are explored, analysed, and applied in the context of chatbot implementation, and based on an in-depth case study, a model is put forward to aid the manageability of chatbot implementation in other similar environments.

Potential structural deficiencies within the Gokteik Viaduct Railway Bridge in Upper Burma

This article identifies potential structural deficiencies and safety concerns pertaining to the Gokteik Viaduct railway bridge in Shan State, Burma. The colossal Gokteik Viaduct, which spans 2260 ft and boasts of a superstructure height of 320 ft, was constructed by an American steel company under British contract with the intent of expanding the Burma Railway into Yunnan, China at the beginning of the twentieth century. The author investigates the historical aspects of the Gokteik Viaduct and summarises structural concerns related to the technical design, quality of construction, weathering and wartime damages sustained during the Burma Campaign. The author concludes that an in-depth structural inspection is necessary to ensure the future safety of train passengers.

Sustainability performance measurement for Libyan Iron and Steel Company using Rough AHP

The iron and steel industry plays a major role in Libyan urbanization. Iron and steel products are the main driving forces in the construction manufacturing sector in Libya. This research suggested a set of indicators to evaluate the sustainability of the iron and steel industry in Libya using a rough AHP model. Rough AHP analyses the relative importance of the criteria based on their preferences given by experts. The research results show that the most important criterion is costs followed by emission and waste. We have found that the rough AHP model can play an important role in improving indicators that quantify the advance towards sustainable development, especially when it is in a situation where complex environments (i.e., Libya) exist.

The Radiological Background Inside and Outside the Libyan Iron and Steel Company in Misurata City, Northwest of Libya

Radioactive background is very important with regard to the exposure of the population to radiation, many countries of the world measure the rate of exposure caused by natural radiation for different purposes, where radioactive pollution represents an important problem as a result of the spread and the frequent use of radioactive materials in different applications, such as medicine, agriculture, industry, and others, and some industrial facilities in the city of Misurata like Libyan Iron Company use some techniques that depend on radioactive sources. In this study, over a whole year with its four seasons, the levels of radiation background were evaluated in the area surrounding the Libyan Iron and Steel Company in the Qasr Ahmed region in Misurata city and within the company’s. It is measured for primary and secondary directions for a distance of 8 km. The radiation levels outside and inside the company’s perimeter were within the natural limits of the radiation background in the area, radiation levels do not different between the monitoring points that were measured within the company’s borders from those that were measured in the area surrounding the company. The radiation levels are not affected by the measurement season, and therefore that the obsession of radioactive contamination that some people have is unfounded and that the situation from this aspect is reassuring.

Analyzing the health risk assessment of particles in Isfahan Steel Company by AERMOD model

Introduction: One of the effects of air pollution in the community was increasing mortality rate. Determination of contamination was the first step in improving the existing conditions. Therefore, the way of pollutants distribution and the timing and spatial changes were important. This study aimed to evaluate the risk of Parental Emissions (PE) of Isfahan Steel company using AERMOD. Materials and methods: In this research, the distribution of suspended particles of the Isfahan Steel company were modeled in the AERMOD for 1 h, 24 h and yearly average (30×30 km2), then the comparison of the average concentrations modeled with air standards clean country and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regional risk maps were provided in Arc GIS. Results: The prediction of the distribution of 24-h mean concentrations indicated that the maximum value for the 24-h average was equal to 8.52 EPA and 25.25 times, the standard Iran's clean air. Also, the prediction of the distribution of average annual concentrations indicated that the maximum value for the average annual time was 91.1 times, the EPA standard and 4.78% higher than Iran's clean air standard. Conclusion: Health risk maps show that the risk spot was not regional in the direction of the region's wind and topography of the region was the main factor in the distribution of risky spots in the region. Legitimate use of the AERMOD could be useful in managing, controlling, and evaluating air pollutants especially in industrial units of the country.

New Business and Operating Models. Optimization of a Blast Furnace in the Steel Industry. Machine Learning as a Process Optimization

The article takes the case of the adoption of machine learning in a steel manufacturing process through a platform provided by a novel Canadian startup, Canvass Analytics. This way the steel company could optimize the process in a blast furnace. The content of the paper includes a conceptual framework on key factors around steel manufacturing and machine learning. Method: The article takes the case of the adoption of machine learning in a steel manufacturing process through a platform provided by a novel Canadian startup, Canvass Analytics. This way the steel company could optimize the process in a blast furnace. The content of the paper includes a conceptual framework on key factors around steel manufacturing and machine learning. Results: This case is relevant for the authors by the way the business model proposed by the startup attempts to democratize Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in industrial environments. This way the startup delivers value to facilitate traditional industries to obtain better operational results, and contribute to a better use of resources. Conclusion: This work is focused on opportunities that arise around Artificial Intelligence as a driver for new business and operating models. Besides the paper looks into the framework of the adoption of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in a traditional industrial environment towards a smart manufacturing approach.

Strategies for Increasing the Competitiveness of Krakatau Steel Company in The Free Trade Area of Batam to Support the Defense Equipment

The steel plate market in the Batam Free Trade Zone is very large, namely 75% of the Indonesian market share. PT Krakatau Steel's steel plate products are not competitive in the Batam Free Trade Area, especially in terms of price and long delivery times. So, a strategy is needed to increase competitiveness. This type of research is a quasi-qualitative research method with interviews, questionnaires, observation, and literature study. In this study, there are two problem formulations, namely how to determine the criteria for competitiveness and how to improve the strategy for increasing the competitiveness of PT Krakatau Steel's steel plate in the Batam Free Trade Area. In determining the criteria for competitiveness, AHP analysis is used. For strategies to increase competitiveness using the SWOT-AHP analysis. The results showed that the criteria affecting the competitiveness of steel were Manufacture Strategy with a weighting value of 0.526 with sub-criteria for cost, quality, delivery, and flexibility. The SWOT analysis shows that the strategy currently used by PT Krakatau Steel is SO. Based on the results of the SWOT-AHP analysis research, it was found that the competitiveness of PT Krakatau Steel could still be improved with the ST strategy which was more relevant to the situation in the Batam Free Trade Area.