If your furnace is a bottleneck in your operation, it may be time to consider adding a new one. This article reviews the basics of furnace structure and style, refractory selection and combustion design. It concludes with a recent case study.

In previous articles in this series, the key concepts and structures of developing a cost model were discussed. Important ideas to review are granularity, processes, level and special process cases.

Supply chains and logistics are an integral and important part of a successful manufacturing operation. They have always been so, but with the advent of the COVID-19 virus and its having shut down the world’s economy for a time during a period of global quarantine, supply-chain issues have since taken center stage for consumers and manufacturers alike.

The year-over-year U.S. inflation rate through February 2022 hit a 40-year high of 7.9%, eroding purchasing power especially for gas, food and rent.