Despite the numerous competitive advantages of one-of-a-kind production (OKP), the low efficiency and high costs associated with OKP companies threaten to push their business opportunities into the hands of cheaper overseas suppliers. One-of-a-Kind Production introduces a novel strategy and technology to help OKP companies to efficiently mass-produce customized products. In One-of-a-Kind Production, case studies from OKP companies are used to validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the OKP strategy and technology. These case studies include: a structural steel construction company, a manufacturer of specifically ordered compressors and refrigeration systems, a customized high pressure vessel manufacturing company, and a custom window and door manufacturer. To help readers understand OKP strategy and technology, the authors offer a year’s free access to the OKP Management and Control Software System. This system is based on a new integrated production control and management concept, namely product production structure. It is a useful tool – and One-of-a-Kind Production is a valuable guide – for production engineers and managerial staff in manufacturing companies, as well as for university researchers and graduate students.

Generally speaking, scheduling is the procedure of mapping a set of tasks or jobs (studied objects) to a set of target resources efficiently. More specifically, as a part of a larger planning and scheduling process, production scheduling is essential for the proper functioning of a manufacturing enterprise. This book presents ten chapters divided into five sections. Section 1 discusses rescheduling strategies, policies, and methods for production scheduling. Section 2 presents two chapters about flow shop scheduling. Section 3 describes heuristic and metaheuristic methods for treating the scheduling problem in an efficient manner. In addition, two test cases are presented in Section 4. The first uses simulation, while the second shows a real implementation of a production scheduling system. Finally, Section 5 presents some modeling strategies for building production scheduling systems. This book will be of interest to those working in the decision-making branches of production, in various operational research areas, as well as computational methods design. People from a diverse background ranging from academia and research to those working in industry, can take advantage of this volume.

This book contains the proceeding of the 26th International Conference on Production Research (ICPR). ICPR is a biennial conference that has been hosted for more than a half century. It is regarded worldwide as one of the leading conferences of production research, industrial engineering, and related subjects. The acute impact of the pandemic on human lives is spurring further research and advances: because modern life relies on production and supply networks. The future of production calls for transformative research exploiting the possibilities of artificial intelligence in particular to respond to the challenge of sustainability. This book is of interest to researchers, students, and professionals in industry.

The globalization of manufacturing is a key development in most industries over the last decade. New technologies like e-commerce, genetic algorithms, and neural networks have to be adapted to the manufacturing environment. This book deals with methods and tools suitable for designing, managing and controlling processes within the supply chain. Virtual Enterprise and Extended Enterprise are the terms which describe the challenges for global production management. The implementation of global production management requires integration of business processes, technical and organizational aspects. The main topics of the papers selected for this book are therefore: Strategic manufacturing issues and design of virtual enterprises; Supply chain management; Performance measurement and management information; Business process engineering; Modeling and simulation; Advanced scheduling approaches and decision support; IT systems to support global production . The book contains case studies as well as reports on research findings. The papers represent a summary of current issues which have been presented at the International Conference on Advances in Production Management Systems (APMS) in September 1999. This event was sponsored by the International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP), and was organized by the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology (IPK), Berlin. The authors are leading experts within the international community in the field of production management. Global Production Management is suitable as a reference for researchers and practitioners in global manufacturing, supply chain management, logistics and IT services, and consultants. It can also be used as further reading for advanced courses on management and manufacturing.

The two-volume set IFIP AICT 566 and 567 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the International IFIP WG 5.7 Conference on Advances in Production Management Systems, APMS 2019, held in Austin, TX, USA. The 161 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 184 submissions. They discuss globally pressing issues in smart manufacturing, operations management, supply chain management, and Industry 4.0. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: lean production; production management in food supply chains; sustainability and reconfigurability of manufacturing systems; product and asset life cycle management in smart factories of industry 4.0; variety and complexity management in the era of industry 4.0; participatory methods for supporting the career choices in industrial engineering and management education; blockchain in supply chain management; designing and delivering smart services in the digital age; operations management in engineer-to-order manufacturing; the operator 4.0 and the Internet of Things, services and people; intelligent diagnostics and maintenance solutions for smart manufacturing; smart supply networks; production management theory and methodology; data-driven production management; industry 4.0 implementations; smart factory and IIOT; cyber-physical systems; knowledge management in design and manufacturing; collaborative product development; ICT for collaborative manufacturing; collaborative technoloy; applications of machine learning in production management; and collaborative technology.

This book approaches manufacturing as a basic problem of making a desired end-product from bulk raw materials. It encompasses the entire gamut of activities from product concept to maintenance of past products in the field, and everything in between.

This book develops the core system science needed to enable the development of a complex industrial internet of things/manufacturing cyber-physical systems (IIoT/M-CPS). Gathering contributions from leading experts in the field with years of experience in advancing manufacturing, it fosters a research community committed to advancing research and education in IIoT/M-CPS and to translating applicable science and technology into engineering practice. Presenting the current state of IIoT and the concept of cybermanufacturing, this book is at the nexus of research advances from the engineering and computer and information science domains. Readers will acquire the core system science needed to transform to cybermanufacturing that spans the full spectrum from ideation to physical realization.

The concept of concurrent engineering (CE) was first developed in the 1980s. Now often referred to as transdiciplinary engineering, it is based on the idea that different phases of a product life cycle should be conducted concurrently and initiated as early as possible within the Product Creation Process (PCP). The main goal of CE is to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the PCP and reduce errors in later phases, as well as incorporating considerations – including environmental implications – for the full lifecycle of the product. It has become a substantive methodology in many industries, and has also been adopted in the development of new services and service support. This book presents the proceedings of the 25th ISPE Inc. International Conference on Transdisciplinary Engineering, held in Modena, Italy, in July 2018. This international conference attracts researchers, industry experts, students, and government representatives interested in recent transdisciplinary engineering research, advancements and applications. The book contains 120 peer-reviewed papers, selected from 259 submissions from all continents of the world, ranging from the theoretical and conceptual to papers addressing industrial best practice, and is divided into 11 sections reflecting the themes addressed in the conference program and addressing topics as diverse as industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing; human-centered design; modeling, simulation and virtual design; and knowledge and data management among others. With an overview of the latest research results, product creation processes and related methodologies, this book will be of interest to researchers, design practitioners and educators alike.

This book approaches its subject matter by promoting concepts, methods and solutions for the digital transformation of manufacturing through service orientation in holonic and agent-based control with distributed intelligence. The scientific theme of the book concerns “Manufacturing as a Service”, developed by virtualizing and encapsulating manufacturing resources, activities and controls into cloud networked services in an open perspective that spans models from shop floor resource allocation to enterprise infrastructure sharing. The papers included in the application space have a profound human dedication and aim at solving societal needs serving the partnership of the future—people and industry in the era of Society 5.0. The book’s readership includes researchers and engineers working in manufacturing, supply chains and logistics areas who innovate, develop and use digital control solutions and students enrolled in Engineering and Service Science programs.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the International IFIP WG 5.7 Conference on Advances in Production Management Systems, APMS 2011, held in Stavanger, Norway, in September 2011. The 66 revised and extended full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 124 papers presented at the conference. The papers are organized in 3 parts: production process, supply chain management, and strategy. They represent the breadth and complexity of topics in operations management, ranging from optimization and use of technology, management of organizations and networks, to sustainable production and globalization. The authors use a broad range of methodological approaches spanning from grounded theory and qualitative methods, via a broad set of statistical methods to modeling and simulation techniques.