This handbook surveys important stochastic problems and models in manufacturing system operations and their stochastic analysis. Using analytical models to design and control manufacturing systems and their operations entail critical stochastic performance analysis as well as integrated optimization models of these systems. Topics deal with the areas of facilities planning, transportation, and material handling systems, logistics and supply chain management, and integrated productivity and quality models covering: • Stochastic modeling and analysis of manufacturing systems • Design, analysis, and optimization of manufacturing systems • Facilities planning, transportation, and material handling systems analysis • Production planning, scheduling systems, management, and control • Analytical approaches to logistics and supply chain management • Integrated productivity and quality models, and their analysis • Literature surveys of issues relevant in manufacturing systems • Case studies of manufacturing system operations and analysis Today’s manufacturing system operations are becoming increasingly complex. Advanced knowledge of best practices for treating these problems is not always well known. The purpose of the book is to create a foundation for the development of stochastic models and their analysis in manufacturing system operations. Given the handbook nature of the volume, introducing basic principles, concepts, and algorithms for treating these problems and their solutions is the main intent of this handbook. Readers unfamiliar with these research areas will be able to find a research foundation for studying these problems and systems.

Order fulfilment systems are forced to manage a volatile customer demand while meeting customer-required short order deadlines. To handle these challenges, we introduce the Strategy of Levelled Order Release (LOR) for workload balancing over time. The contributions of this work are (1) the workload balancing concept LOR, (2) a discrete-time Markov chain for performance analysis, and (3) an algorithm for capacity planning under performance constraints in order fulfilment systems with LOR.

The aim of this special issue is to publish original research papers that cover recent advances in the theory and application of stochastic processes. There is especial focus on applications of stochastic processes as models of dynamic phenomena in various research areas, such as queuing theory, physics, biology, economics, medicine, reliability theory, and financial mathematics. Potential topics include, but are not limited to: Markov chains and processes; large deviations and limit theorems; random motions; stochastic biological model; reliability, availability, maintenance, inspection; queueing models; queueing network models; computational methods for stochastic models; applications to risk theory, insurance and mathematical finance.

The two-volume set LNAI 8397 and LNAI 8398 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th Asian Conference on Intelligent Information and Database Systems, ACIIDS 2014, held in Bangkok, Thailand in April 2014. The 125 revised papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 300 submissions. Suggestion: The aim of the conference is to provide an internationally respected forum for scientific research in the technologies and applications of intelligent information and database systems. The papers are organized in topical sections on Natural Language and Text Processing, Intelligent Information Retrieval, Semantic Web, Social Networks and Recommendation Systems, Intelligent Database Systems, Decision Support Systems, Computer Vision Techniques, Machine Learning and Data Mining, Multiple Model Approach to Machine Learning, MMAML 2014, Computational Intelligence, CI 2014, Engineering Knowledge and Semantic Systems , IWEKSS 2014, Innovations in Intelligent Computation and Applications, IICA 2014, Modelling and Optimization Techniques in Information Systems, Database Systems and Industrial Systems, MOT 2014, Innovation via Collective Intelligences and Globalization in Business Management, ICIGBM 2014, Intelligent Supply Chains, ISC 2014, and Human Motion: Acquisition, Processing, Analysis, Synthesis and Visualization for Massive Datasets, HMMD 2014.

An Introduction to Stochastic Modeling provides information pertinent to the standard concepts and methods of stochastic modeling. This book presents the rich diversity of applications of stochastic processes in the sciences. Organized into nine chapters, this book begins with an overview of diverse types of stochastic models, which predicts a set of possible outcomes weighed by their likelihoods or probabilities. This text then provides exercises in the applications of simple stochastic analysis to appropriate problems. Other chapters consider the study of general functions of independent, identically distributed, nonnegative random variables representing the successive intervals between renewals. This book discusses as well the numerous examples of Markov branching processes that arise naturally in various scientific disciplines. The final chapter deals with queueing models, which aid the design process by predicting system performance. This book is a valuable resource for students of engineering and management science. Engineers will also find this book useful.

Information management is a common paradigm in modern decision-making. A wide range of decision-making techniques have been proposed in the literature to model complex business and engineering processes. In this Special Issue, 16 selected and peer-reviewed original research articles contribute to business information management in various current real-world problems by proposing crisp or uncertain multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) models and techniques, mostly including multi-attribute decision-making (MADM) approaches, in addition to a single paper proposing an interactive multi-objective decision-making (MODM) approach. Particular attention is devoted to information aggregation operators—65% of papers dealt with this item. The topics of this Special Issue gained attention in Europe and Asia. A total of 48 authors from seven countries contributed to this Issue. The papers are mainly concentrated in three application areas: supplier selection and rational order allocation, the evaluation and selection of goods or facilities, and personnel selection/partner selection. A number of new approaches are proposed that are expected to attract great interest from the research community.

The scientific theme of the book is “Virtualisation – a multifaceted key enabler of Industry 4.0 from holonic to cloud manufacturing” which is addressed in the framework of cyber-physical system development. The book approaches cyber-physical systems for manufacturing with emergent digital technologies: Internet of Things, digital twins (based on the virtualization of production models embedded in the design, virtual commissioning, optimization and resilience of processes and fault tolerance of resources), big data, cloud control and computing, machine learning and cobots, that are applied in the book’s chapters to industry and service sectors such as manufacturing, energy, logistics, construction and health care. The novelty of this approach consists in interpreting and applying the characteristics of RAMI4.0—the reference architecture model of the Industry 4.0 framework—as combinations of virtualized cyber-physical system elements and IT components in life cycle value stream models. The general scope of the book is to foster innovation in smart and sustainable manufacturing and logistics systems and in this context to promote concepts, methods and solutions for the digital transformation of manufacturing through service orientation in holonic and agent-based control with distributed intelligence. The book’s readership is comprised by researchers and engineers working in the manufacturing value chain area who develop and use digital control solutions in the “Industry of the Future” vision. The book also addresses to master’s and Ph.D. students enrolled in Engineering Sciences programs.

Analysis and Modeling of Manufacturing Systems is a set of papers on some of the newest research and applications of mathematical and computational techniques to manufacturing systems and supply chains. These papers deal with fundamental questions (how to predict factory performance: how to operate production systems) and explicitly treat the stochastic nature of failures, operation times, demand, and other important events. Analysis and Modeling of Manufacturing Systems will be of interest to readers with a strong background in operations research, including researchers and mathematically sophisticated practitioners.

Since 2007, the biennial International Conferences on Dynamics in Logistics (LDIC) offers researchers and practitioners from logistics, operations research, production, industrial and electrical engineering as well as from computer science an opportunity to meet and to discuss the latest developments in this particular research domain. From February 12th to 14th 2020 for the seventh time, LDIC 2020 is held in Bremen, Germany. Similar to its six predecessors, the Bremen Research Cluster for Dynamics in Logistics (LogDynamics) organizes this conference. The spectrum of topics reaches from the dynamic modeling, planning and control of processes over supply chain management and maritime logistics to innovative technologies and robotic applications for cyber-physical production and logistics systems. LDIC 2020 provides a forum for the discussion of advances in that matter. The conference program consists of three invited keynote speeches and 51 papers selected by a severe double-blind reviewing process. Within these proceedings all the papers are published. By this, the proceedings give an interdisciplinary outline on the state of the art of dynamics in logistics as well as identify challenges and solutions for logistics today and tomorrow.

Cellular manufacturing (CM) is the grouping of similar products for manufacture in discrete multi-machine cells. It has been proven to yield faster production cycles, lower in-process inventory levels, and enhanced product quality. Pioneered on a large scale by Russian, British, and German manufacturers, interest in CM methods has grown steadily over the past decade. However, there continues to be a dearth of practical guides for industrial engineers and production managers interested in implementing CM techniques in their plants. Bringing together contributions by an international team of CM experts, the Handbook of Cellular Manufacturing Systems bridges this gap in the engineering literature.