Advances in Production Management Systems. Competitive Manufacturing for Innovative Products and Services

The main objective of this study is to assess current situation and applications in the industry with respect to energy efficiency. From literature, a four pillar framework (strategy, tool, process, technology) has been developed, outlining the essential elements to successfully integrate energy efficiency in manufacturing. Based on the framework, a questionnaire is developed to assess manufacturing companies in Europe. How and what companies are doing currently to integrate energy efficiency in their manufacturing is under investigation through surveys and complementary case studies. This paper presents a fact finding study, aimed to understand the main motivations, limitations, and effectiveness of integrating energy efficiency in manufacturing. Hence, this study intends to establish a basis for the companies and academia to have a holistic understanding on energy efficient practices as a first step on the way to integrate energy efficiency in manufacturing. Consequently, the gaps between theory and practice are revealed.

This paper presents a definition of an energy product model through a holistic approach of energy management that recognizes both the side of the energy provider and energy consumer. Therefore, it is needed to design a model for a “Green PPC“ that uses energy consumption as an additional planning and control criterion to enable a producing company to optimise and forecast its energy consumption. Furthermore, an inter-organisational information system will be described that allows an information exchange with the energy supplier to include the energy use in production planning.

Energy-efficient machining strategies are required to be implemented in daily practice to advance the competitiveness of the enterprises on global scale. Energy information, which currently not considered as an integral part of production data, is studied. A need is identified to integrate energy information into production program and solidify the knowledge for extensive reference. To effectively represent and share the data, standardized format is regarded as one promising approach, thus STEP-NC is adopted. The proposed data models are grouped into four, i.e. automated energy monitoring and recording, energy estimation and labeling, energy optimization, and machine tool energy performance. The developed schema is compliant and harmonized with other parts in STEP-NC standards. A case study is presented to add energy information to STEP-NC file. It can be concluded that standardized data format enables the integration of energy information into the production process and enhances its sustainable performance.

The global climate change and the rising of energy prices force manufacturing companies to regulate their energy usage. A suitable step to achieve that is the introduction of energy management. This paper presents an ICT based holistic approach to help manufacturing companies in the implementation of energy management system. It consists of methods to support quantitative and qualitative energy efficiency evaluation of their operations. The approach uses an ontological knowledge base containing the structures and rules representing best practices as reference of energy efficiency to support the qualitative evaluation. In the approach, we also develop measurement figures called Energy Performance Indices (EPI) to determine the energy efficiency degrees in different organizational parts of the company. The paper also describes the application of the approach in a small medium sized manufacturer.

In automated storage and retrieval systems energy in descending and deceleration phases of cranes can be recovered into the power supply system instead of being dissipated as waste heat. Such technological opportunity should be exploited by properly modifying control policies in order to improve energy efficiency of warehousing operations. In this paper the impact of energy recovery on the storage assignment process is analysed. A model of energy consumption with recovery is proposed so that each location within a rack can be associated with energy required to be served in a storage or a retrieval cycle. Shape and distribution of zone for energy-based dedicated strategies are analysed. Energy and picking time performances of different storage policies when AS/RSs machines are equipped for energy recovery are analysed and compared.

More than 30% of the total energy consumed in the U.S. is attributed to industrial sector which motivated improvements in energy efficiency of manufacturing processes and entire factories. Semiconductor fabrication (fab) represents an interesting challenge for energy efficiency because of their relatively high energy consumption to process a unit mass of material. The focus of this paper is to develop an energy-aware analytical model based on queuing theory that has re-entrant network structure commonly found in fabs to analyze the impact of reducing idle power consumption in individual equipment. The proposed analytical model based on BCMP network for re-entrant lines has the same mathematical form as serial lines and is tested for using detailed simulation of a generic CMOS fab with three processing steps. Results show that the energy consumption predicted by the analytical model differs from simulation typically within 10% and worst case of 14%, in the tested cases.

Energy efficiency increasingly becomes a relevant objective in industry. Factory planning plays an important role for energy-efficient factory, production and logistics systems. The design of systems and processes in intralogistics, as an essential part of factory planning, is in the focus of this paper. Existing approaches for energy efficiency-oriented planning of logistics systems are either empirical or theoretical. The paper describes an approach combining both aspects. With the presented approach, the energy consumption of a system in a factory can be determined and evaluated systematically. As a result, energy efficiency measures are deduced and generalized. The approach provides energy data and knowledge to support analyzing and optimization activities in planning processes.

Increasing energy efficiency is one of the main objectives of the Directive 2009/28/EC of the European Commission (called 20-20-20), which aims at decreasing greenhouse gas emissions by jointly increasing the use of renewable energy and improving energy efficiency, all by 20% until 2020. To reduce energy consumption in producing and distributing products, it is of major importance to consider energy consumption in the whole supply chain and for all activities associated with production and distribution. For this reason, this paper studies a single-vendor single-buyer integrated production-inventory system and explicitly takes account of energy consumption. The use of energy is weighted with a cost factor and evaluated together with classical production-inventory costs. We find that if energy costs are considered together with traditional cost components, then the inventory costs of the system increase slightly in the optimum, but the total costs of the system decrease and we observe great energy savings.

In today’s manufacturing companies lean production systems are widely established in order to address the traditional production objectives such as quality, cost, time and flexibility. Beyond those objectives, objectives such as energy consumption and related CO2 emissions gained relevance due to rising energy costs and environmental concerns. Existing energy value stream methods allow the consideration of traditional and energy related variables. However, current approaches only take the energy consumptions of the actual manufacturing process and set-up times into account neglecting non-productive operational states and technical building services related consumption. Therefore, an extended energy value stream approach will be presented that provides the necessary degree of transparency to enable improvements of the energy value stream of a product considering also the influence of product design parameters.

The importance of energy efficiency has increased significantly in recent years. By rising commodity prices and energy costs for electric and thermal energy the compound feed plants are forced to improve their processes. Significant savings are expected in the material changing refining stages. This paper, at first, gives an overview about the characteristics in the compound feed production, followed by the analysis of high energy consumption. There after followed a description of the uncertainties in the compound feed production. The next chapter demonstrates the efficient control of the compound feed production process.

Global environmental challenges lead to a rising importance of resource efficiency in industry. The strong environmental impact of manufacturing processes necessitates a significant reduction of the amount of employed resources. Therefore, the potential of production planning and control (PPC) systems is analyzed from a top-down and bottom-up perspective in terms of in-creasing the energy efficiency of manufacturing processes. A conceptual approach is developed to embed energy efficiency in a PPC-logic in order to link managerial targets with machine tools located on the shop-floor.

The introduction of energy efficiency as a new goal into already complex production plans is a difficult challenge. Decision support systems can help with this problem but these systems are often resisted by end users who ultimately bear the responsibility for production outputs. This paper describes the design of a decision support tool that aims to increase the interpretability of decision support outputs. The concept of ‘grey box’ optimisation is introduced, where aspects of the optimisation engine are communicated to, and configurable by, the end user. A multi-objective optimisation algorithm is combined with an interactive visualisation to improve system observability and increase trust.

Green manufacturing and eco-efficiency are among the highest priorities of decision makers in today’s manufacturing scenario. Reducing the energy consumption of production processes can significantly improve the environmental performance of the human activity. This paper aims at investigating, according to currently available technologies and to their short-term feasible evolution paths, how the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm could actually be implemented to increase efficiency in energy consumption, and reducing energy consumption cost.

Manufacturing enterprises nowadays face the challenge of increasing energy price and emission reduction requirements. An approach to reduce energy cost and become environmental friendly is to incorporate energy consumption into consideration while making the scheduling plans. The research presented by this paper is set in a classical job shop circumstance, the model for the triple objectives problem that minimise total electricity cost, total electricity consumption and total tardiness when the Rolling Blackout policy is applied. A case study based on a 3*3 job shop is presented to show how scheduling plans affect electricity consumption and its related cost, and to prove the feasibility of the model.

Climate change mitigation and the EU2020 strategy foster energy efficiency in Europe’s future manufacturing landscape. These challenges make high demands to SMEs as well to MNCs. The paper gives insight to an approach on Eco-factories based on the EU-funded FP7 project EMC2. Eco-factories will enable the quantum leap in integrating environmental issues in brownfield and greenfield factory planning and factory operation. The paper focuses on the identification, structuring and definition of requirements for Eco-factory simulation approaches. Requirements for developing a simulation environment for integrating energy and material flows for detailed analysis but also wide user spectrum is presented. The paper shows that demands are twofold requesting integrated, modular and detailed simulation solutions as well as emphasize on user-friendliness and low complexity.

The key factor to success, towards a competitive energy consumption reduction, is the effective involvement of SMEs both in the use of more efficient machines and in the Design of an Environment for new products. A specific product can be manufactured in different ways, based on cost optimization rather than on production flexibility and energy efficiency with the involvement of different suppliers. The ENEPLAN project aims at the development of a digital and real, energy-efficient, multi-process, networked, manufacturing system, adapted to the functional specifications of metal formed or machined parts for automotive, aeronautic and domestic appliances. Seventeen partners, coming from seven European countries and the participation of OEMs, SMEs, RTD and technology providers, who work jointly to deliver through ENEPLAN a manufacturing planning decision support tool (meta-CAM tool), for the optimization of the plant operation. This tool will be used from the conceptual phase of the product (final blueprints) to its final dispatch to the customer. This paper will provide a short overview of the ENEPLAN project and its ongoing developments, while the existing results will be presented and discussed and the next steps will be described.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools to support design in terms of energy efficiency optimisation are beginning to come into the market, in particular for energy savings and management in buildings, however little has yet been developed for manufacturing. The work here described is related to the enhancement of existing manufacturing process design methodology and tools with a set of ICT components developed allowing process knowledge based design, simulation and optimisation in terms of energy efficiency. In particular the work described is focused on the heat treatment process of steel casting parts. This process design traditionally consists of a suitable predefined temperature-time curve selection based on personal experience and given customer requirements (material and mechanical properties), yet this curve can actually be optimised in terms of energy consumption and maintenance cost, while keeping required mechanical properties.

In ten years customers will select products not only based on price and quality but also with strong regard to the product value environmental footprint, including for example the energy consumed. Customers expect transparency in the product realization process, where most products are labeled with their environmental footprint. Vigorous companies see this new product value as an opportunity to be more competitive. In order to effectively label the environmental impact of a product, it is pertinent for companies to request the environmental footprint of each component from their suppliers. Hence, companies along the product lifecycle require a tool, not only to facilitate the computing of the environmental footprint, but also help reduce/balance the environmental impact during the lifecycle of the product. This paper proposes to develop a procedure that companies will use to evaluate, improve and externally advertise their product’s environmental footprint to customers.

Energy efficiency has become a key concern in industry due to increased energy cost and associated environmental impacts. It is as well factor on marketing and reputation. Customers require information on the ecological performance of products and the process to build that product. Therefore eco-efficient manufacturing is in our days a matter of competitiveness and economic success. This paper presents industrial driven research and the key findings from production eco and energy efficiency analysis and development projects. Both static and dynamic multi-level modelling and simulation is covered with examples. The use of Value Stream Mapping and Discrete Event Simulation with life cycle inventory data for production eco efficiency analysis is explained. Generic developement steps for process, machine and production system model with environmantal aspects is shown. Development continues in EPES “Eco Process Engineering System for Composition of Services to Optimise Product Life-Cycle”- project.

A trend in up-to date developments in multi-site operations planning models is to consider in details the different ways to produce, buy or transport products and the distributed decision-making process for operations planning. One of the most generic approaches to support global optimization in those supply chain networks by considering all the different operations alternatives and product structures is the Generic Materials & Operations Planning Problem. This problem can be modelled by a Mixed Integer Linear Programming model capable of considering production, transportation, procurement tasks and their alternatives and other relevant issues such as packaging. The aim of this paper is to introduce the implementation of a parallelizable heuristic method for materials and operations planning and its application to a case of a Supply Chain Network of the automotive industry. The approach uses variants of the GMOP model to overcome traditional MRP systems’ limitations.

Traditionally, manufacturing facilities and building services are analysed separately to manufacturing operations. This is despite manufacturing operations using and discarding energy with the support of facilities. Therefore improvements in energy and other resource use to work towards sustainable manufacturing have been sub-optimal. This paper presents research in which buildings, facilities and manufacturing operations are viewed as inter-related systems. The objectives are to improve overall resource efficiency and to exploit opportunities to use energy and / or waste from one process as potential inputs to other processes. The novelty here is the combined simulation of production and building energy use and waste in order to reduce overall resource consumption. The paper presents a literature review, develops the conceptual modelling approach and introduces the prototype IES Ltd <VE> THERM software. The work has been applied to industrial cases to demonstrate the ability of the prototype to support activities towards sustainable manufacturing.

The paper proposes a business modelling process for manufacturing firms to assist them in integrating sustainability into their business model. The process consists of four steps. Expected outputs and questions, driving the analysis and decisions carried along the process, are also included in each step. The proposal is grounded on the state of the art review and a state of practice review done through six exploratory case studies.

This paper investigates how businesses might create balanced social, environmental and economic value through integrating sustainability more fully into the core of their business. For this purpose a more systematic approach to business model innovation for sustainability is required. A novel value mapping tool is proposed to help firms create value propositions better suited for sustainability. The tool adopts a multiple stakeholder view of value, a network rather than firm centric perspective, and introduces a novel way of conceptualizing value that specifically introduces

value destroyed

and

value missed

, in addition to traditional terms of the core value proposition, and new opportunities for value creation and capture. This will support business modelling for sustainability.

This paper presents a model for addressing sustainability governance in manufacturing networks. The model developed addresses sustainability governance within a manufacturing network as a process to guide the activities of all actors involved toward sustainable development and performance throughout the product life cycle. According to the model, there are three main tasks of sustainability governance: analysing, organising, and developing. These three main tasks are in accordance with company-level approaches but highlight the need for multilevel network governance.

The need to take the sustainability agenda beyond its technological outset and include supply chain practices is well-established, but still little has happened and the supply chain has remained largely unaffected. This paper asks why this may be the case and investigates what happens in the translation from ambitious strategic goals to operational practices.

To do this an exploratory case study is presented detailing the efforts of a large Danish manufacturing company to introduce an ambitious sustainability agenda in its ongoing supply chain operations. The study aims to develop a deeper understanding of the inter-functional coordination and operational practices when the sustainability agenda is introduced into supply chain. The study points to a lack of tangible environmental performance measurements and to incoherent functional logics as the main factors preventing effective implementation. We find support for a lack of formalized sustainability integration into operations and clear systemic approach to cross-functional coordination.

With increased environmental awareness, a large amount of studies on green supplier selection has been promoted in the past decade. However the application of traditional impact assessments methodologies to fragmented and globalized supply chains is slowed down by provision of reliable data. Therefore, a comprehensive basis for Green Supplier Selection Model (GSSM) is proposed in this paper. In particular this paper proposes an index based on Life-Cycle-Assessment (LCA) to assess environmental burden of the whole company manufacturing activities. The resulting Company Environmental Performance Index (CEPI) can be used for sectoral benchmark to assess Company environmental Eco-Efficiency. The general methodology is presented with two strategic aims: the easy implementation of available data in standardized models and the reliable assessment of best performers within different manufacturing chains. Finally an application of such methodology to industrial cluster is discussed.

Reduction of waste in food supply chains is an important sustainability issue. More efficient utilisation and management of the resources and values created in food supply chains can contribute to improving competitiveness, and environmental and social responsibility. This study uses the seven wastes approach from lean theory to classify categories of waste in fresh food supply chains and to identify at which stage of the supply chain waste occur. A case is used to illustrate the applicability of the classification. The analysis identifies four categories of waste in the fresh food supply chain; time, distance, energy and mass. The study indicates that the majority of waste is hidden in time, energy and mass categories, related to overproduction, defects and transportation.

Industrial symbiosis (IS) has gained more attention in the production economics as the pressure on companies increases for the reduction of waste emissions as well as of primary resources consumption. At present, as the number of IS initiatives increases, many issues about its boundaries, such as the entities involved and the resources shared/exchanged, still continue to remain open. A common classification of IS networks does still not exist.

Input-output matching is the most significant tool to analyze IS. To this aim, we adopt an input-output approach for defining an IS network, and for proposing a classification model at the technical level (i.e. physical flow type, number of production chains involved, and network structure).

The proposed approach is applied to several existing IS networks to describe as it works. This classification framework can be useful for companies to set strategies and for local government to plan policies.

In a manufacturing environment, managing limited resources has always been a main issue for engineers. Recently, the idea of managing limited resources without harming ecological environment adopted by manufacturing sector and sustainable manufacturing has become a key issue. While the concept of sustainability has been recognized, companies need to measure how sustainable they perform. Therefore, sustainability indicators are developed and used in order to assess companies’ production activities expediently to sustainable manufacturing. This paper presents a research indicating the application of TOPSIS method on sustainability indicators related to production for two different multi-criteria decision making problems in a sustainability conscious manufacturing company.

In the last decade the interest for electric production using PhotoVoltaic System (PVS) has strongly increased; namely for the citizen who is able to use roofs or personal surfaces to put in place such systems. For instance, the installed residential PVS capacity has grown to 550 MW (Megawatt) in metropolitan France during the last years. The same trend can be noticed in many developed countries at the same time. However, in light of this investment, people would like to be informed of the different aspects, especially the economic and environmental ones, in order to make their choice. In this sense, this paper deals with the decision-making problem for the residential PVS investment. Different alternatives of module surfaces and PV technology installation are considered and a procedure founded on the ELECTRE approach to aid the citizen in his choice is proposed.

In the paper the controlling as a management concept supporting sustainability of enterprises was characterised. Controlling is treated as a very important element of managerial accounting system in manufacturing companies. In the first part of the paper the company sustainability was presented. Next the stages of controlling design were characterised. In the third part of the paper the controlling model was shown. Finally, various controlling supporting instruments enabling the balanced growth of manufacturing enterprises were listed. The relationships between them were presented.

The introduction of modules and product platforms implies a strategy where the scope should encompass not a single product, but a family or an assortment of products. Instead of searching for "an optimal design for an optimal product", the objective should be to create a flexible product design, allowing product variations without requiring changes in the overall product design every time a new variant is introduced. This flexibility in product design and customization has been regarded as a feasible way for leisure boat manufacturers in high-cost countries like Norway to be competitive in the increasingly tougher conditions of the leisure boat market. The incremental development process that we often find in e.g. craft manufacturing, which leisure boat manufacturing can be seen as, is well suited for modularization. A way to introduce a module-based product architecture could be to identify key parts of the products – parts, systems or components that enable the development of modules. This paper describes how modularization makes it easier to address improvement and development in the company. This paper also reports how the focus modularization enabled profound involvements from employees that reduced barriers to change. This, over time, also challenged the traditional “craftsmen culture” into a more change-oriented and proactive culture at shop floor level.

The paper presents a quantitative method for determining the criticality of components to costs and sales price in mass customization environments. The method is based information of historically sold configurations and uses backward elimination to arrive at a reduced linear model. The variables included in this model are then the most significant describing variation of (material/salary/total) costs, sales price or profit margin. The method is tested on data from a large manufacturer of mass customized products.

Mass Customization is one of the buzz words of the last decade. However, the purpose of efficiently unfolding multiple variants of a product or service has deep grounded consequences for the business processes and the underlying system. Subsequently, the supply chain structures supporting these processes face many challenges. In this paper we expose an integrated view on mass customization from a design perspective, rooted in a user-oriented design paradigm. First, we want to find an answer to whether mass customization is a feasible business model to guarantee sustainability in the Flemish textile industry. Second, how can the long tail business model be designed in an integrated way, relating product, process and supply chain design. The mass customized product/service design framework is based on field data gathered from a technological innovation supporting programme operational in Flanders’ textile industry. Based on these data, some preliminary benchmarking observations can be made which relate to product, process and supply chain design.

A methodological application of mass customization principles in engineer-to-order (ETO) processes is expected to lead to shorter lead times, increased quality as well as cost reductions. Product and process configurators, commonly used in mass customization processes, have to be adjusted according to ETO product and process requirements for their successful application in an ETO environment. In this paper the organizational requirements for a successful adaption of configurators to ETO processes are identified and structured. A Business Process Matrix capable of categorizing the implications of using product and process configurators in an ETO environment is developed.

Highly customized products have led to an irreproducible complexity in product development and order processing process. Today’s product design and IT-tools reduce this complexity insufficiently and potentials in administration and manufacturing are not fully lapped. The approach presented in this paper starts the development of a product structure at the manufacturing environment. The aim is to develop a product structure for rotational products that is adapted for manufacturing processes and therefore enabling a cost-effective production. As a result, companies are able to provide their customers with individual product solutions using standardized processes. This enables a technological and production-related flexibility to fulfill growing needs of global markets.

The paper discusses the advancement in the mass-customization of building components referring to Robot-Assisted Manufacturing. It is presented how the contemporary employment of Robotics offers a perspective of flexible alternative to traditional serial production system. Different Robot-Assisted fabrication methods are discussed through built experimental case studies at different scales. It is finally argued how Robotic production in architecture is significantly shifting the approach in design towards a model including material and fabrication constraints.

This paper presents a method for the design of manufacturing networks focused on the production of personalised goods. The method, which is implemented to a software tool, comprises of a mechanism for the generation and evaluation of manufacturing network alternative configurations. An exhaustive search and an intelligent search algorithm are used, for the identification of efficient configurations. Multiple conflicting user-defined criteria are used in the evaluation, including cost, time, CO

2

emissions, energy consumption and quality. Discrete Event Simulation models of manufacturing networks are simulated for the calculation of performance indicators of flexibility, throughput and work-in-process, and are used for assessing the performance of centralised and decentralised networks. The results obtained through the exhaustive and intelligent search methods are compared. The applicability of the method is tested on a real-life industrial pilot case utilising data from an automotive manufacturer.

This research aims at developing a business model for companies in the footwear industry interested in implementing Mass Customization with the goal of offering to the market products which perfectly match customers’ needs. The studies on mass customization are actually mostly focused on product development and production system aspects. This study extends the business modeling including also Supply Chain aspects. The research is based on analyzing Mass Customization application in reality, within some companies operating in footwear industry. Through the real cases of Mass Customization implementation, a business model proposal is developed as an attempt to generalize the empirical findings.

This paper presents the structure for modeling a large scale production system with learning curve considerations. The model will be used to develop a scheduling method that facilitates the production performance for mass customized products. Mass customization is an important manufacturing management strategy but it might lead to unnecessary production losses. Most manufacturing systems’ throughput is constrained by one or more bottlenecks and the critical bottleneck may shift from one work station to another. The proposed scheduling method will consider learning curve effects and employ the concept of Shifting Bottleneck Procedure to guide production scheduling decisions. Ultimately, the goal is to improve the throughput of large scale assembly manufacturing systems. A simulation model of a wind turbine assembly line case study is also presented to validate the capability of the proposed method.

Today’s buyer markets and lean supply chains require build-to-order assembly systems with just-in-sequence (JIS) deliveries. Simultaneously production systems have become prone to supply disturbances (i.e. events) that endanger the synchronized delivery of all JIS components to the assembly line. To uphold production sequence stability, rescheduling is frequently required. Current methods, however, make assumptions that are often insufficiently aligned with real-world problems and focus on production issues while neglecting the implications of today’s tight integration of supply chain with production processes. To this end, this contribution derives a general model of a mixed model assembly line. It then proposes and evaluates an event-driven rescheduling model for JIS deliveries. The results indicate that rework due to missing JIS components can be avoided without compromising performance.

This paper describes a solution for the creation and management of orders and other business documents, necessary for the production and delivery of customised garments. These documents are managed along a supply network that can be quickly set up with the support of a tool for the identification of best partners for the production of the ordered items. The management of the documents leverages on three elements: the adoption of a standard for the interoperability of the business information among different services used in the network; the usage of a tool for quickly and automatically check the documents’ contents applying business rules on top of them; a middleware layer that provides a fast way of exchanging the checked documents. The set-up of the supply chain is supported by the Partner Search module which is in charge of managing and improving the manufacturer’s knowledge about its potential partners. The solution is validated within an industrial pilot focused on the production of customised knitted items for obese people.

Supply chain design, management and assessment are key success drivers in nowadays globalised economy. With the advent of new paradigms such as sustainability and mass customization, a new generation of tools is required. This work presents a supply chain simulation tool that allows to take into account the specificity of mass customized markets, efficiently dealing with the adjustable product physical structure and the complexity of handling customized Lot Size One orders. Moreover, this tool is integrated with a sustainable Assessment Engine that allows to configure, since the product design phase, the entire supply chain in a lifecycle perspective. In order to ensure a wide applicability of the tool, this is developed using a client-server architecture and exploiting a Shared Data Model that facilitates the integration of many applications coming from different providers thus giving a powerful decision support tool to companies’ decision makers.

Job shop production can be characterized by some unplanned event like re-entrant jobs at a certain stage of the production process. In this case a dynamic allocation management of the resources involved (machines, transporters, etc) can be key factor of success in optimizing some production parameter. The present work studies a multiple objective job shop in which the constraint that a workpiece visits a machine only once is relaxed. The production shop floor has been structured with a Multi Agent System (MAS) able to front dynamically these type of events. A benchmarking analysis is provided to compare the solutions found with other two main dynamic MAS-based systems present in literature.

Electric vehicles offer a potential low-carbon alternative to today’s gasoline-powered vehicles. In line with global trends, Singapore has expressed interest in promoting electric vehicles on its shores. This paper investigates the effects of taxation, namely tax rebates and carbon taxes, on the penetration of electric vehicles in Singapore. A consumer vehicular preference model was constructed using the logit model, and the effects on the economy determined through an input–output analysis. Multi-objective optimization is then used to find the optimal tax rate. Results indicate that a tax rebate minimizes the negative impact on the economy at a low penetration rate of electric vehicles, whereas a carbon tax minimizes the negative impact on GDP at a high penetration rate of above 60%.

The objective of the research is to examine and develop new methods and tools for management of knowledge in Lean Product development. Lean Product development attempts to apply lean philosophy and principles within product development process. Special emphasis is given to the so-called Set Based Lean Design principles. Such product development process requires innovative methodologies and tools for capturing, reuse and provision of knowledge needed for decision making, as well as advanced ICT environment for Knowledge Management (KM).

A Set Based Lean Design toolkit is developed, aiming to support the product developer in making decisions during the development process. This toolkit includes the Lean Knowledge Life Cycle methodology and a set of software tools for KM. The application of the methods and tools is investigated within large automotive industry and its supplier.

In today’s world of fast manufacturing, high quality demands and highly competitive markets, it has become vital for companies to be able to extract knowledge from their operating data, to manage and to reuse this knowledge in efficient and automated manner. Ontology has proven to be one of the most successful methods in fulfilling this demand and to this day, it has been applied in number of scenarios within companies of all scales. The most appealing features of the ontology are well-defined structure of the knowledge organization; being machine understandable enables automatic reasoning and inference and finally, well defined semantics enables easy interoperability and design of the plug-in modules. Still, one key downfall of ontology is that it usually has to be manually designed from the beginning for each new use-case. This requires highly specialized knowledge experts working closely with the domain experts for, sometimes, significant period of time. In this paper we propose LinkedDesign solution for described issues, as an example of design of fundamental ontology which can be easily adjusted and adopted for different production systems, thus eliminating the need for repetition of entire design process for every individual company. We also discuss and point to a new and challenging fields of research emerging from application of ontology into manufacturing companies, mainly concerning rapidly growing amounts of knowledge which are beginning to exceed human ability to process it.

In last decades, New Product Development (NPD) process has become crucial for the company success. Many efforts have been paid in order to identify methods and tools able to improve NPD, but successful models are still missing or not easily followed. Companies find difficult to implement comprehensive models for improving their NPD process, and often they aren’t even aware on how they actually are performing it. Which are the main critical areas affecting NPD performances inside the organization? Which are the main opportunities of improvement? Which are the gaps to be fulfilled by a company for acting as a best practice? Both at industrial and academic level, there is the need of a global assessment model able to answer to these – and similar – questions. This paper proposes a tentative model.

The present paper discusses the development of a model to multi-objective optimization of product life-cycle costs and environmental impacts. In modern world European companies need new competitive factors. Costs along the life-cycle and sustainability could provide two of these. A model to optimize costs and environmental impacts could play a relevant role for engineering the life-cycle of a product. Within this context, the paper conducts a state of the art review of existing solutions. In the end a model is proposed.

The disassembly line balancing problem is studied under uncertainty. Disassembly task times are assumed random variables with known probability distributions. An AND/OR graph is used to model the precedence relations among tasks. The goal is to assign the disassembly tasks to workstations while respecting precedence and cycle time constraints. The objective is to minimize the total line cost including the incompletion cost arising from task incompletion within the cycle time. A stochastic linear mixed integer programming formulation is developed.

We propose a mathematical model to solve an extension to the mixed-model sequencing problem with work overload minimization

(MMSP-W

) for production lines with serial workstations and parallel homogeneous processors and regularizing the required workload. We performed a computational experience with a case study of the Nissan engine plant in Barcelona.

Mixed-product assembly lines have ergonomic risks that can affect the worker productivity and lines. This work proposes to incorporate ergonomic factors to the

TSALBP

(

Time and Space constrained Assembly Line Balancing Problem

). Therefore, we present several elements for new models to assign the tasks to a workstation considering technological, management and ergonomic factors.

Integration of equipment suppliers in the design of the production system has often been associated with major benefits. However, from a managerial perspective, integration between the user and the suppliers of the production equipment is still challenging. Therefore, the purpose of the research is to explore how manufacturing companies can facilitate and manage equipment supplier integration when designing the production system. Based on an real time case study in the automotive industry 10 critical factors for successful supplier/user integration are identified, which can be classified into three categories: human factors, project management factors and design factors.

Remanufacturing, as one of the most promising product recovery options, is influenced by the uncertainty involved with incoming cores. This poses different organizational and technical challenges to those found in conventional manufacturing. Finding the right strategy is very important to make business more effective and profitable. The combination of remanufacturing and lean manufacturing offers a good opportunity to increase process efficiencies in remanufacturing industry. This paper reviews the current state of practice of lean manufacturing philosophy in the automotive sector, together with an identification of needed further research.

Today’s manufacturing industry is forced to constantly improve its processes in order to stay competitive in a global market. Already highly optimized in many cases, academics and practitioners must identify furthur optimization potential by taking a closer look at the manufacturing process line. Within this paper, the

product state based view

is briefly introduced as a theoretical basis for the following analysis of relations between product state characteristics along the manufacturing process chain. First, the difference of dependencies and interdependencies are established through a time and process perspective. Possible dependencies are then classified, including theoretical examples. Concluding the paper, the requirements for a mapping of state characteristics are shown and possible opportunities of the presented approach are discussed.

The aim of this work is to verify the working load of forklifts (generally rolling-stock) based on actual transports and following optimization using a universal simulation model in the software Witness. This aim can be characterized in three following phases. In the initial phase, the actual transport data are obtained for a monitored interval and for the distance matrix between the network points of the actual transports. In the second phase, obtained data are implemented into the simulation model and then the simulation is performed to find utilization of all forklifts. In the last phase, the workload is validated and the optimization is performed using Witness Optimizer.

This paper proposes an adaptive kanban and production capacity control system as a new production planning and control mechanism for

Just-in-Time

environments to minimize the long term average inventories, Work-In-Process, backorders and operating costs. It is based on the adaptive kanban system proposed by Tardif and Maaseidvaag (2001), but dynamically adjusts both the number of kanbans and the level of production capacity with respect to inventories and backorders. It is expected to be more resistant to changes in the demand than previous

pull

ordering mechanisms. We present how to evaluate its performance for the case of a single-stage, single-product manufacturing process with exponential processing times and demand following a Poisson process. Simulation results under variable demand means are presented.

A rotary compression bending system with automated closed-loop feedback control has been developed. The overall goal is to improve the dimensional accuracy of formed shapes by transferring in-process data into a steering model for instant springback compensation. An analytical method based on the deformation theory of plasticity was employed to develop a physically-based steering model. Unlike alternative control strategies, the present control strategy is attractive for volume production since the approach does not impact cycle time. More than 150 tests of AA6060 extrusions were conducted to determine the capability of the technology. Prior to forming, the material was exposed to different heat treatments to provoke different stress-strain characteristics. The results show that the springback-angle standard deviations were improved from ±0.41° to ±0.13° by activating the closed-loop feedback system. Since the dimensional process capability is improved by a factor of three, it is concluded that the technology has high industrial potential.

Original equipment suppliers (OES) supplying the automotive industry are in a business characterized by fierce competition and long contracts. Fulfilling these contracts often implies producing serial parts while an automotive is in serial production and an obligation to provide spare parts after the serial phase. The first period is characterized by large volumes and production based on stable forecasts. The second period implies production for the spare parts marked and this period is characterized by sporadic orders and small volumes. Focused factories theory suggests that production of products with different market and product characteristics should be carried out in separate focus factories. This paper discusses the feasibility of focused factory theory using an OES as an illustrative case, and presents relevant questions to address in order to achieve focus at the process level.

The modern assembly systems are fully integrated production systems. They consist of interconnected components of hardware and software. Large flexible assembly systems are being composed of high number of components and managing requires an enormous volume of data. For that reason the controlling and optimization of such systems is too complex. Nowadays that can achieved, using just computers and software tools. In this paper the optimization of product mix for assembly system for electric motors will be described. Also special attention will be given to data security of the information system using cryptography.

This paper studies the Facility Layout Problem (FLP) of a first tier supplier in the automotive industry. This complex manufacturing system involves multiple facilities, complex products, and layout reconfiguration constraints. One of the key requirements of this particular system is the need for high levels of flexibility in the reconfiguration of the layouts. This problem is formulated as a mixed-integer programming (MIP), based on a FLP model with multiple objectives and unequal areas. The model allows for two re-configuration types: small and large changes. We explore the application of optimization methodologies to produce efficient and flexible layouts.

This study aims at highlighting the current knowledge, practices and effects of collaborative and concurrent new product development processes in the framework of the Portuguese plastic processing industry. By means of a case study approach, the conditioning factors affecting the strategic collaborations among firms are systemized. Mutual dependence, trust, and extensive information sharing were identified as prerequisites factors for a better buyer-supplier interdependence and involvement, as well as for the overall benefit of the supply chain. Moreover, collaborative and concurrent new product development processes ask for the use of cost management practices and advanced technical specifications (standards) which emerge as technical and management tools to achieve higher levels of efficiency and quality at the lower cost. Practices such as target and kaizen costing, value engineering, and design-to-cost, were perceived to play a remarkable positive effect on the internal/external organizational boundaries.

The performance of an Al alloy component when tested under dynamic conditions is defined on the basis of the amount of the absorbed energy during impact and the dampening rate of the striker. These tests can be complex and costly, and sometimes difficult to be realized for some specific components. An useful and “ideal” approach could be the use of numerical simulation tools for virtually testing, but this objective actually remains an ambitious approach, since it requires a deep research of the factors that determine the elasto-plastic material behavior up to fracture. Even more difficult is the characterization of the material in the case of Al alloy diecastings, where the mechanical properties strongly depend on casting defects.

By linking mechanical results with numerical simulation data of filling and solidification, a through-process model is developed to predict the defects’ location and amount, thus the structural behavior of die cast components. Furthermore, with particular reference to one demonstrator component, an high pressure die cast steering housing, the innovative correlation between defects (e.g. air inclusion, shrinkage porosity etc.) and mechanical properties has been implemented in MAGMASOFT

®

simulation tool in order to transfer the realistic local ultimate tensile strength to LS-Dyna FEM code. The multi-objective optimization strategy has been applied to minimize the air entrapment and maximize the local mechanical properties of Al alloy. The final full integrated, and more realistic, approach permits to estimate the single effect of proper Al diecasting design, remaining defects and residual stress on the absorbed energy under impact condition.

Self-adjustable interval prediction securities (SIPS) are newly proposed prediction securities that are suitable for market-based demand forecasting. The whole feasible region of the demand quantity to be estimated is divided into a fixed number of mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive prediction intervals. Subsequently, a set of winner-take-all-type securities are issued that correspond to these intervals. Each portion of the securities wins a unitary payoff only if the actual sales volume falls in the corresponding interval. The contracts are called SIPS because the borders between the intervals are dynamically and adaptively self-adjusted to maintain the informativeness of the output forecast distribution. This paper first designs a prediction market system using SIPS equipped with a central market maker and then confirms how the system operates through agent-based simulation.

This paper deals with the problem of scheduling feeding tasks of a single mobile robot which has capability of supplying parts to feeders on production lines. The performance criterion is to minimize the total traveling time of the robot and the total tardiness of the feeding tasks being scheduled, simultaneously. In operation, the feeders have to be replenished a number of times so as to maintain the manufacture of products during a planning horizon. A method based on predefined characteristics of the feeders is presented to generate dynamic time windows of the feeding tasks which are dependent on starting times of previous replenishment. A heuristic based on genetic algorithm which could be used to produce schedules in online production mode is proposed to quickly obtain efficient solutions. Several numerical examples are conducted to demonstrate results of the proposed approach.

In this paper, a method to automate industrial manufacturing processes using an intelligent multi-camera system to assist a robotic arm on a production line is presented. The examined assembly procedure employs a volumetric method for the initial estimation of object’s properties and an octree decomposition process to generate the path plans for the robotic arm. Initially, the object is captured by four cameras and its volumetric representation is produced. Thereafter, a quality check with its respective CAD model is performed and the final details of the 3D model are refined. An octree decomposition technique is utilized afterwards to facilitate the automatic generation of the assembly path plans and translate them to a sequence of movements for the robotic arm. The algorithm is fast, computationally simple and produces an assembly sequence that can be translated to any major robotic programming language. The proposed algorithm is assessed and preliminary experimental results are discussed.

Cyclic scheduling problems concerning multimodal processes are usually observed in FMSs producing multi-type parts where the Automated Guided Vehicles System (AGVS) plays a role of a material handling system. Schedulability analysis of concurrently flowing cyclic processes (SCCP) executed in these kinds of systems can be considered using a declarative modeling framework. Proposed representation provides a unified way for performance evaluation of local cyclic as well as supported by them multimodal processes. The main question regards of reachability of a SCCP cyclic behavior. In this context, the sufficient conditions guarantee the reachability of both local and multimodal processes cyclic steady state spaces are discussed.

The production process of most of the footwear companies working in the market segment of classic, casual, and fashion shoes is still handicraft. Moreover, the actual design and production processes are largely independent, and both of them need the physical prototypes of the semi-finished shoes in order to be accomplished. In this context, the IDEA-FOOT project introduces a new method for the shoe integrated design and production in which most of the production parameters are derived from the shoe 3D CAD model and an innovative automated production plant in which manipulators and automated machines are fully integrated. The aim of this paper is to present the main features of the automated plant, the advantages in using a new integrated design and production process, which is totally new for this market segment, and to analyze the impact of this new production model on the production performance and on the company organization.

Considering the rapidly expanding market for mowing robots to homeowners the noticeable question that arises is what are the safety-guided design requirements that could be applied to production management via safety standards? Standardization attempts to protect human during the interaction with this device. It makes an effort to confine residents by implementing more legible guidelines. There is no correct or incorrect list of hazards, only a list that customers and designers agree that is necessary to be handled. However, the requirements may differ in the design stage. All the design requirements shall be included in the physical system design of the robotic mower. In this paper, the authors believe that it is essential to put forward a comprehensive and systematic list of corrective or preventive measures in order to provide a safety checklist throughout the design stages of robot use. These safety criteria intend to minimize the chance of an accident and offer the adequate protection to users.

In this paper, we report on the outcomes of one of the most successful training events organized within the framework of ActionPlanT project. This event was planned using the bottom-up approach of the ActionPlanT Industrial Learning model. The “Muscle car” serious game was used to deliver the training content about lean manufacturing to the participants in this event. The feedback received from the participants through the completed questionnaires indicated that serious games are suitable delivery mechanisms for training themes such as Lean Manufacturing.

The paper explores the impact of physical learning objects and learning styles on flow and learning outcomes in industrial engineering education. Learning is conceptualized with the theory of experiential learning. Comparitive case studies yield data involving more than 100 students since 2009. The findings provide a strong argument for utilizing physical objects in education consistent with construtionist theory. It is futhermore found that flow may have negative impact on the learning scope.

Mobile learning is a powerful addition to the toolset offered by e-Learning solutions. It can extend current e-Learning benefits to provide support and training everywhere, anytime and to anyone registered to have access and with affordable costs. Mobile devices with substantial computational, networking and storage capabilities are ubiquitous today. However, attempts to employ them in training are mostly addressing educational needs of end users with existing competencies in computing, such as students. We propose the development of a specially built mobile learning solution with the aim to provide e-Support to technicians within an e-Maintenance framework. This system will be backed and collaborate with a Learning Management System platform in order to provide on the spot aid and adequate supporting content to maintenance personnel.

This paper introduces a learning scenario created for a serious game to develop competences in the domain of sustainable manufacturing, by applying a Lifecycle Assessment (LCA). A set of behavioral indicators is introduced to assess how particular competences do change while the player is engaged in playing the game scenario. It furthermore presents early evaluation results of the game scenario on a sample of master grade students at the University of Bremen.

This paper presents a Serious Game (SG) about SBCE (Set-Based Concurrent Engineering), which is one element of Lean thinking in Product Development (PD). The game is structured in two stages that simulate the traditional approach to product concept development called PBCE (Pont-Based Concurrent Engineering) and SBCE approaches. Moreover, this paper presents the learning outcomes gained through running the game in a company. Finally, some practical and theoretical insights gained throughout the game play are introduced.

Despite improvements in educational tools, teaching some elements in the field of production engineering is difficult. In this context, teaching PLM systems remains difficult from a motivation point of view. The purpose of this paper is to propose a highly innovative approach around serious gaming. In the PEGASE project, we have realized an environment for coupling a gaming platform and a content platform in order to enact learning scenarios. This article presents this integration environment which is based on the characterization of business activities within the PLM. Then, we describe the design of scenarios in this platform particularly dedicated to learning PLM systems. We then present the validation of our approach based on different experiments performed with students and with industrial partners.

A highly interactive and immersive Virtual Reality Training System (VRTS) is developed, in terms of an educational serious game that simulates the cooperation between industrial robotic manipulators and humans, executing manufacturing tasks. “BeWare of the robot” application ultimately aims at studying the acceptability of human-robot collaboration, when both human and robot share the same workspace. The initial version of the application was evaluated by a group of users. Experimental results on usability and technical aspects are presented and several remarks about users’ experience and behavior in the virtual world are discussed.

This article focuses on the description and implementation of PLM in the education of students at the University of West Bohemia. The concept is designed to be deployed in both Master’s and PhD study programs. It is also used for training research workers in universities and industrial enterprises in the Czech Republic. The entire educational framework is developed in accordance with sustainable management of the product in its entire life cycle.

Serious games have been used in the education of engineering students and professionals for decades, but still they have not reached their maximum diffusion. Learning by gaming is often seen as not serious enough within higher education and vocational training. Consequently, gaming as a teaching method is still often excluded from many curricula. Hence, students lack the experience of active knowledge acquisition during lessons and encounter a barrier for successful participation in serious games later. Although a variety of games have been developed and proved successful for the mediation of skills in complex systems (Windhoff, 2001), this paper discusses why we think that serious games should be considered as a suitable learning method for the mediation of skills needed in the education of engineers and secondly to give some examples of current games and experience of their use.

Competence management has recently become an important issue in companies. Closely related to knowledge management, it considers the capacities of an individual to perform by using his/her knowledge. This knowledge management becomes a tool for companies to manage human resources in the long run. The ability to characterize useful competences, to evaluate how they are improved through past experience and successive jobs occupied, and thus to select project team members according to fully or partly existing skills are some of the concerns that business managers have to tackle. This paper focuses on the coordination of design activities in order to propose a tool dedicated to project managers on an operational level to manage skills for better team building. The aim is to improve team performance in the short and long term while preserving a link with the human resources department. Our work is based on the results of the ATLAS project which studies the coupling between systems design and management. We propose an initial tool to manage skills in a design project.

The steel sector was one of the pioneers to join the Movement for Quality in Brazil in late 1980, because a significant portion of its revenues came from exports. The steel industry needs massive investment to upgrade its technology, which requires a high level of training of their operators. They must form a human capital capable of producing a laminate to win the preference of its customers. Based on four models of knowledge management: the SECI model, CYNEFIN model, the FIVE DISCIPLINES model and the SEVEN DIMENSIONS model, supported by the Knowledge Management Principles established by Davenport and Prusak, combined with the Criteria for Management Excellence, was developed a Competency Development Model. To validate this model has been carried out a field research in the governance representative of the national steel industry, with the aim to ensure safety in production operations and contribute positively to the manufacture with quality, reliability and competitiveness.

In order to maintain sustainability in an ever changing environment, where customer requirements contains a yearly price reduction over the life cycle of a product, decreased time for development of new products and increased product quality, there is an increased need for focus on continuous improvements. A well-known improvement method is the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act), which many companies have succeeded in implementing in the manufacturing department. Not so common, is the use of this method for the development process. The aim of this article is to present success factors which must be in place to succeed in using the specified method, and thereby the desired improvement during continuous improvement initiatives within product development. Management commitment is ranked as most important followed by knowledge about how to use the method, when to apply PDCA, efficient performance and use of internal marketing activities to focusing on the topic.

Manufacturing Industry as an important part of European and Swedish economy faces new challenges with the daily growing global competition. An enabler of overcoming these challenges is a rapid transforming to a value-based focus. Investment in innovation tools for production system development is a crucial part of that focus which helps the companies to rapidly adapt their production systems to new changes. Those changes can be categorized to incremental and radical ones. In this research we studied the Obeya concept as a supporting tool for production system development with both of those approaches. It came from Toyota production system and is a big meeting space which facilitates communication and data visualization for a project team. Four lean companies have been studied to find the role of such spaces in production development. Results indicate a great opportunity for improving those spaces and their application to radical changes in production development projects.

Continuous renewal of products, services, processes and business collaboration increases the company chances to survival. This article draws attention to the features of innovation zone, which result in innovative products, services, or processes. Our research focuses on the innovation of processes included in innovation zone. In simpler terms, we are engaged in creating a dynamic environment using processes with abilities of permanent improvement of innovation process.

The paper depicts an experience-centred approach for innovation enabled by the Internet of Experiences. Based on findings from innovation research as well as the internet-based approaches of the web 2.0 and the Internet of Things, it is argued that artificial systems, e.g. intelligent products, are capable to make experience on their own out of interactions, similar to user-experience today. After an introduction into the field of “experience” from a knowledge management perspective, a broad definition for experience is suggested. According to this definition, the experience-making possibility of artificial conscious systems is substantiated. Based on these findings, an experience-centred innovation approach, utilizing experience from intelligent objects and human users, is argued. The main outcome of this section is a depiction of the Internet of Experiences.

In recent years, the notion of business models has been able to innovate the way companies create new business opportunities. However, because business models most often rest on a complex interplay of several actors, there is a need to be able to explore the nature of a business model.

This paper will propose to describe a business model by means of storytelling. Also, the paper will introduce the notion of archetypes of business models with the aim to seek a pattern in the light of the numerous business models available. Two cases will illustrate and discuss storytelling and archetypes, giving rise to conclude that they represent a valuable approach to understanding and innovating business models.

This study reports on the testing of the hypothesis that there is a positive relationship between business strategy and innovativeness. Business strategy is defined here to include market focus strategy, technology development strategy, and operations priorities - including cost, quality, delivery / dependability, and flexibility. An empirical study is conducted based on data collected using a questionnaire developed. 184 manufacturing firms from different industries in the Northern Marmara region in Turkey participated in the study. Multivariate statistics techniques and structural equation modeling are employed. The results have been affirmative supporting the hypothesis. Market focus and technology development factors are found to mediate the effects of operations priorities on innovativeness. That market focus, technology development and cost efficiency have direct effects on innovativeness is another finding of managerial importance.

We analyze the absorptive capacity (AC) process of a manufacturing company with central R&D and an internationally distributed manufacturing network. Prior research shows that an implementation of the lead factory (LF) is especially supportive if the international manufacturing network struggles with implementing new products and processes. We analyze determinants of AC and show that, in addition to prior related knowledge of the receiving plant, structure can have an even stronger influence. We show that in the case of a low level of prior related knowledge and a low level of AC within the receiving plants as well as high technological heterogeneity between plants and LF, the implementation of an LF may not lead to the expected result. In addition, we conclude that the analysis of the AC process has to move from a single unit to a network. This helps to understand the AC concept in the context of multinational companies.

R&DI institutions have adopted solutions based on Portfolio Management Project (PMP) to select the best projects in terms of both cost and strategic results. The candidate projects must meet sustainability requirements, since investments in sustainability have emerged as the most important global issue for business, industry, government, and academia. The objective of this research was to develop a conceptual model for analyzing a portfolio of sustainability projects. Such a portfolio provides descriptors widely recognized to support technology transfer, notably in the agricultural domain. This conceptual model was developed from a case study of Embrapa (Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation). Although the proposed model has become a simple tool, the results revealed it is interesting for reclassification of the Embrapa’s projects, pointing to solutions on sustainability with a potential for technology transfer.

This paper studies the resource management problem in IT services, where service request arrives to resource management group (RMG) and RMG needs to allocate resources to a request for a service based on availability of resources and service requirement start date. We propose an approach to find optimal number of resources in the context of Poisson arrivals, and service times & lead-times are exponentially distributed. We provide an exact mathematical queuing model for optimal number of skilled resources needed based on waiting time cost, idle time cost and revenue from a customer service for a guaranteed service level agreement. We tested the model with real life data for various types of requirements and analytical results show the benefits of the proposed approach.

As consequence of the economic growth, it is observed the increase of the demand for engineering professionals. The problem of scarcity of engineering manpower is being faced as one of the main obstacles to the continuity of the Brazilian economic growth. The natural demands of infrastructure and industry allied to the fact that engineers are also recruited to occupy non-engineering positions constitute, themselves, already a difficult equation to solve. Besides, along the years, the Brazilian’s scientific production in the engineering field has demonstrated to be very shy. Such combination, either in macro or in micro-economy, reflects in the innovation and competitiveness. The objective of this research is to discuss actions to create engineering competencies in micro-economy that could attenuate those structural problems. Additionally, this work aims having an overview of those actions combined with the new regulatory policy for the automotive sector announced in April/12, which integrates the program “Inovar-Auto”.

The current discussions about the future, especially considering the development has been promoting socio-joint policy in favor of sustainable growth, with relevance to the thoughts of Ignacy Sachs, which emphasizes the perspectives, social, economic, geographic, environmental and sustainability cultural. Thus, a holistic view, such perspectives on aspects of sustainability in the supply chain of oil in pre-salt layer, which has been widely discussed, especially in the scientific community. The research methodology is presented as qualitative and descriptive through literature review. Considering the problems wrapped exploration and logistics, and the magnitude in environmental, spatial, cultural, economic and social, we really prepared? As a result, we found basic technological gaps, as since its discovery in 2006, the pre-salt layer of Brazil and, especially, its operation is highly complex, requiring high costs of research and technological development, especially in innovation, since their peak production, is designed for only 12 years since the discovery.

In a progressively competitive global market, software development companies, under the pressure for conquering new market shares, subject themselves to business demands where the inherent risks to these operations are diversified and of exposure not always calculated. Given that a minority of such companies adopt risk management into their business processes, such exposure may affect the participation and success of these projects. To assure the quality of the software risk analysis and risk assessments are required. Among the uncertainties of software design, some risk factors should be treated: timeline, estimated costs and compliance to business requirements, among others, can be mentioned. Through a bibliographical review it was possible to produce a risk roadmap to provide to the professional in the field the understanding of risks process in a friendly way. To contribute to these software projects, this work presents the activities of a risk management process, in order to insert the culture and capacity of professionals who work in such projects, can objectively target to the mitigation of risks into which such projects are exposed. In addition, the adopted approach is in accordance to ISO 31000 standard.