The investment on facilities for manufacturing high-tech products requires a large amount of capital. Even though the demands of such products change dramatically, a company is forced to implement some make-to-stock policies apart from a regular make-to-order production, so that the capacity of...

Brownian particles moving in a spatially asymmetric but periodic potential (ratchet), with an external load force and connected to an alternating hot and cold reservoir, are modeled as a microscopic heat engine, referred to as the Brownian heat engine. The heat flow via both the potential energy...