Advances in Production Management Systems

Higher expectations on supply chain performance force organizations to reinvent themselves in order to cut costs and increase customer service, all to gain competitive advantage. Pursuing the best network of manufacturing, supply and distribution facilities relative the marketplace is therefore on top of many managers “most wanted” list concerning supply chain management. Supply chain planners are thus in need of decision support to be able to establish feasible and sufficient plans. This paper discusses how decision support through advanced planning systems (APS) can assist tactical supply chain planning. A case study is presented showing how APS can act as an enabler in adapting logistics and supply chain principles, as well as reducing costs through streamlining the supply chain. The purpose of this paper is primarily to present findings from a case study regarding supply chain planning with the aid of a master planning APS-module. The case study emphasize that APS in the scope of logistics management have several positive effects on supply chain performance.

This conceptual paper focuses a methodology for the analysis of performances of enterprises operating in production networks. In order to derive adequate results exclusively the operative perspective of performance analysis is investigated. Operative performance analysis implies the analysis of performances of network members considering a special value-adding-process. The introduced approach is divided into two segments: the value adding process-neutral phases and the value adding process-specific phases. In that context special methodologies for the determination of performance indicators, corresponding parameters, evaluation functions and weightings are focussed. Additionally possible consequences are discussed.

The importance of industrial service implies an increasing need for principles to design and manage the associated operations. This paper focuses on the information exchanges in globally decentralised service networks. It thereby emphasises cross-functional interactions from an operations strategy perspective. A balanced scorecard framework is then proposed in order to facilitate the implementation and controlling of the information operations. It was found that its application fosters the strategic coordination of the operational action in a decentralised service organisation.

In order to thrive in global markets, enterprises have to distinguish themselves from their competitors not only by manufacturing high quality products at low costs, but also with superior logistic performance. Logistic Operating Curves (LOC) can be applied to facilitate this as well as to derive strategic measures. This will be demonstrated based on the example of the German forging industry.

The design of manufacturing planning and control systems is a strategic decision for manufacturing firms. In this paper we analyze the interrelationships among the choices of planning and control approaches at different hierarchical levels, including sales and operations planning (chase; level), master scheduling (make-to-order; assemble-to-order; make-to-stock), material planning (time-phased; rate-based), and production activity control (MRP-type; JIT-type). We test the relationships with product characteristics and performance. These relationships are explored through a survey of 128 manufacturing plants.

The results show that choice of approaches at the two higher planning and control levels, i.e. sales and operations planning and master scheduling, are strongly interrelated. The choices at the two lower hierarchical levels, i.e. material planning and production activity control, are also strongly interrelated. However, the link between any of the two upper and any of the two lower levels is much weaker. The most significant drivers of the choice of planning and control approach are: (i) product volume and delivery lead time for sales and operations planning, (ii) product variants and delivery lead time for master scheduling, and (iii) production lead time for production activity control, while material planning is not significantly related with any product characteristic. Significant effects on performance are found for sales and operations planning on volume flexibility, master scheduling on product mix flexibility, and material planning and production activity control approaches on delivery speed. This research supports the notion that sales and operations planning is concerned with volume planning and that master scheduling is concerned with mix planning.

Handling the complexity of Information Management (IM) is a very challenging issue — especially in global organizations. Such organizations consist of several entities with different strengths and weaknesses. They have to decide on common goals and agree on coordinated measures for improving their IM activities. However, many organizations lack the abilities to define and operationalize relevant goals. In addition, the complexity of existing measures makes it difficult for them to decide on those measures that are best suited for meeting their IM goals. This paper presents a methodology to structure goals and measures for improving IM. It starts on a strategic level and operationalizes both, goals and measures down to an application level. By considering human, organizational and technical aspects all relevant factors are included and interdependencies are highlighted. Organizations can benefit from the methodology since it supports the design of their IM activities and takes their specific strategies into consideration

Manufacturing companies often merely attain reduced levels of logistic performance due to inconsistencies between their logistic objectives, logistic performance targets and logistic performance management actions. Qualitative influence models represent the inter-dependencies between these factors on two levels: firstly between logistic objectives, secondly between logistic performance measures and logistic planning and control parameters. Expert knowledge gained from modelling the dynamic behaviour of logistic systems facilitates the interpretation and evaluation of the qualitative influence models. On this basis, consistent logistic objectives can be defined and objective-oriented planning and control actions can be identified. The modelling insights are integrated into a logistic performance diagnosis procedure and tool that improve logisticians’ understanding of the consequences of their management decisions and enhance the closed-loop management of logistic performance.

One of the requisites for winning corporate competitions today is success in the “global marketing” for quickly offering high-quality, latest model products in response to customer needs. For manufacturers to advance “manufacturing” that precisely meets the customers’ preferences, it is vital that their affairs and management sections also share the global view and become a core of corporate management and strategy. More specifically, the key to success in “global production” lies in full functionalization of “partnering,” in which forefront divisions of technology, production, and sales as well as the affairs and management sections collaborate in a cooperative strategic scheme to realize “global quality and optimal production.” This study proposes Global Intelligence Partnering Model for Corporate Strategy, “GIPM-CS” mainly in connection with the administration. Further, the effectiveness of this model is verified at the successful companies.

Developing an efficient heuristic algorithm to solve a

supply chain operations planning

model is the main purpose of this paper. The model considers multi period supply chain planning with capacitated resources. The concept of

multi period capacity consumption

has been developed recently at the context of supply chain management that realizes resource planning at a supply chain. Because of considering setup times and costs, the model contains binary variables. Since the mixed integer model is strongly NP-hard problem and finding a feasible solution is NP-complete, developing an efficient algorithm is remarkable. In this paper a heuristic algorithm is developed to solve this complicated model. Two reasons encouraged the authors to solve this complex problem. First, the model is an advanced and applicable operations planning model at the supply chain environment. Second, this model is strongly NPhard. So it is of important task to develop a solution for the problem to be capable of feasible and efficient.

The most promising feature of a manufacturing system oriented to mass customization is to have at disposal a layout and a governance such to allow: a) to include a new product within the family of products under manufacture; b) and to apply the required modification of the manufacturing process in front of the market-requested product innovations, in such a way to minimise the cost for product inclusion. The inclusion of a new product in a SME network implies to approach two complementary problems: 1) a

post-ponement problem

, that means to recognise the new characters of the innovated product such to specify its difference with respect to the set of other products already processed, and to adjoin the new working sequence in the existing processing program (to be possibly modified at least) already applied by the SME network; 2) an

order-fulfillment problem

, that means to include the a-priori estimated production flow required for the new product, within the programmed flows pattern in the existing SME network, by adding the minimum possible innovations to the network itself. The paper will discuss the proposed solution phases, and illustrate a set of integrated procedure to be applied in order to obtain a mass-customisation strategy of practical utilisation for managing SME networks

Market constant evolution towards more and more customisation and call for “product/service” increases to need of agile and lean organisations, making an heavy use of information and communication technologies. To bring the necessary openness, interoperability and agility features to the enterprises information systems, one can use fruitfully Service Oriented Architecture. Already used at a business level as a potential interoperable and integrating framework, this technology must be adapted to define manufacturing services and to take into account manufacturing constraints, namely time constraint and security integration. In this paper, we propose a global framework to define a “manufacturing service bus”, paying a particular attention to the manufacturing service definition. We also show how mobile agents can be used to set dynamically monitoring systems

The design of the manufacturing network for a firm is an important factor for its competitive position. By manufacturing network we mean the plant or plants of the manufacturing firm and the relationships with external suppliers. The way that these operate together is central to the entire supply system supports the competition of the products in the marketplace. The decisions are typically categorised as related to facilities and vertical integration, two decision categories in an operations strategy. This paper presents the results of a survey of 84 Swedish manufacturing plants. The results show that competitive priorities such as quality and price play different roles in the networks, and that there is a significant difference in terms of how internal and external suppliers are selected

This conceptual paper focuses the problem of dividing the profit earned in a production network to the different network members. In this context different theoretical approaches for profit division are introduced and discussed. It is assumed that a high degree of automation is aimed at by using the modern information and communication technology (ICT) intensively. The task of profit division is integrated in a comprehensive approach considering incentive and sanction mechanisms for harmonising the interests of the network members as well. In that context the basic assumptions of the New Institutional Economics serve as a theoretic basis.

The paper presents a new theoretical framework for coordinating an inter-unit collaborative service process towards a joint customer. The common service process is itself presented as a central coordination mechanism. It defines how tasks and responsibilities are shared between the collaborating units. The framework presents the factors supporting cooperation between the units, the prerequisites of the common service process, and the ways of coordination suitable for inter-unit cooperation. The framework is developed through a single-company longitudinal, qualitative case study that consists of three action research projects.

The potential of an Enterprise Network is the ability to design and to realize innovative, customized products by selecting and integrating for each order the worldwide leading partners. To exploit this potential, it is too late to configure the network and to search for partners on the basis of an already specified bill of material: Co-operation has already to start with the product-idea, where possible contributions to the planned endproduct must be identified while concretizing the bill of material. Only in this way, the network is able to benefit from the expertise of all potential partners and to ensure that the expertise of the planned consortium is also synchronized with the needed capabilities for the requested end-product. In the proposed paper, a method to support the building of consortia within Enterprise Networks on the basis of open product designs will be highlighted. The method starts from an end-product and collects possible contributions from potential collaboration partners.

As the result of the broken-up value chain of the world, design becomes an independent commodity. Goods often are designed in one company and produced in another company. Although product is shaped in manufacturing companies of supply chain, design quality is the key sticking-point for product quality. Therefore, finished goods quality lies on the quality of Design-Manufacturing Chain. This paper defines Design-Manufacturing Chain Quality Management (D-MCQM), analyses poor quality of design and manufacturing and the controllable factor and noise factor for quality stability. Furthermore, the figure and formula are presented for the leverage relationship among design quality, manufacturing quality and product quality.

Structural analysis of supply chains often involves postponement to some degree. The concept has received a lot of attention in the literature but the understanding of how to operationalize the concept still deserves some attention. A framework is introduced that provides an integrative picture of how different aspects of supply chain and operations management interplay in a postponement context. The framework is founded on a process/object perspective where a set of characteristics, properties and concepts are identified for each entity.

This paper will present how the technologies and specifically the PLM data management semantic object model developed within the PROMISE project have been successfully applied to a concrete business scenario in the household sector, allowing the development of new services and functionalities to the customers, creating a real life demonstrator of closed-loop PLM.

The operation of global manufacturing network is challenging due to the complexity in product and information flow, diversity in sites, localization and processes and the information processing needed for control. Thus information technology has to be developed to cope with this complexity and to develop decision support for controlling the network. In this paper the concept of the Global Control Centre for manufacturing activity is developed based on research on a Norwegian supplier of fish hooks. The main elements of the GCC is found to be the global control model, performance measurement system, ICT solutions and the organization and the physical environment. In order to realize the GCC the main challenges are ICT investments and standardization, and the management of change and organizational resistance. The findings presented in this paper are not yet collectively implemented and tested and must therefore only be viewed as conceptual proposals.

In a “Self-Balancing Production Line”, each worker is assigned work dynamically, thus they can keep the balanced production under satisfying the specific conditions. For structure of line, in-tree assembly network line has been analyzed in previous paper. In that paper, line are virtually integrated to one and slowest to fastest sequence can be balanced under the integrated line. However, if an item consists of multiple parts and parallel work is possible, a new approach is applicable under the condition, and performance measure increase comparing to integrated line. In this paper, new integrated approach for both previous self-balancing line and buffer is proposed, and we compare the line that had been proposed in the previous paper.

Modern production management systems consist of transaction processing systems and decision enhancement systems. A clear example of two such components are an ERP systems and APS systems. These systems are often standard software systems, and therefore suitable for many different situations. This paper analyses the combination of ERP and APS from the perspective of change. The paper builds on a classification of ERP-APS integrations and an analysis of changeability of ERP systems. The paper elaborates on issues encountered when changing ERP-APS integrations. The main conclusion is that such changes are technically complex because of different technologies and different data models used. Therefore, end user education and training is emphasized Moreover, they are organizationally complex because many stakeholders are involved.

This article aims to show the problem of Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) monitoring and performance measurement on a case study done in a small company. Losses occur during the production process and the ways of detecting them must be analyzed. The methodology for calculating total Overall Equipment Effectiveness is followed while applying monitoring tools. Some existing methods used for production control, the flow of material and production facilities control and monitoring, and the methods used for maintenance control are demonstrated as examples regarding data acquisition, collecting idle time or occurred accidents. The tools and methods implemented for maintenance control can vary depending on, among other areas, the operational conditions, but when visualization application can be designed for monitored technological process on the SCADA/HMI platform, the implementation can be described as shown in this article.

This research proposes a novel demand forecasting method which will work effectively even in such circumstances where extrapolate-able demand patterns are hardly available. The method uses the market mechanism to aggregate tacit knowledge of the firm’s sales people on the future demand of a product into a continuous forecasted demand distribution. In order to make it work, the paper introduces a new type of prediction security and an original market maker algorithm suitable for the security, and furnishes them into an intra-firm prediction market system. As a result, sufficient liquidity is secured for the market even when the number of the traders is small, and the market maker can output at any time an aggregated demand forecast of the traders as a continuous distribution. An agent simulation model, where each trader has the log-utility function, is also developed to show how the method works, how quickly the output distribution converges, etc.

In the literature, production planning optimization works are widely approached by mathematical researches to integrate more data and constraints toward delivering more reliable plans. In the particular context of vaccine industry, the vaccine product is a molecular substance with diverse definitions and presentations that involve with the closely coordination of many actors in the company. When it is difficult to support planning process by optimization solution, our contribution in this paper consists of proposing a production planning framework to structure some data integration issues according to different planning levels. With the correspondence of a better data management among production planning process, we aim to decline some best practices to provide more stable and reliable plans.

The importance of information sharing (IS) between an enterprise and its customers or cooperating companies has long been recognized in supply chain (SC) research. Many previous studies revealed that IS could play an important role in eliminating inefficiencies caused by the bullwhip effect. However, since most of them studied IS in a macroscopic way from the viewpoint of no/partial/full IS, they do not have great practical value when applied to the implementation of a specific SC. The objective of this study is to suggest a practical guideline for IS in a specific SC by promoting the needs for IS with technical verification using simulation and value analysis within the concept of profit sharing.

This paper investigates customer ordering behavior and compares a particular instance to the standard assumptions of demand planning and control. Experience shows that the performance of these planning processes often do not match what could be expected. Based on a presented case, implications for demand planning performance are inferred. This leads to an analysis tool for diagnosing potential problems in the demand planning approach.

The production system where production facilities and products are widely distributed like a construction production project causes problems by combining and communicating production facilities mutually. There is a limit of the traditional approaches, where the system obtains the product information from the production facilities. In this paper, the production system architecture which manages the dynamic scheduling and material handling by using parts and packets unification technology is proposed. First, the architecture of the production based production with parts and packets unification technology is proposed. In order to treat both scheduling and material handling, not only the information of “what part” and “when exists” but also “where exists” is used. Then, a pilot system is developed and applied to the case studies about the production scheduling and material handling system in a factory. The results of the case studies show the feasibility of proposed production system using parts and packets unification approach.

Abrupt and often surprising changes characterize the situation of manufacturing companies. Important for an order management design are those factors which potentially cause turbulence and lead to schedule deviations. The paper describes a method to capture and assess them qualitatively. Based on an analogy to physics, the morphology of turbulence germs is provided. Then, a procedure is described how to successfully transfer approaches for turbulence management to other companies. The last part reflects in detail on the application experience.

Agility in supply chains is critical for competitive advantages as it helps to explore and exploit opportunities in fast changing markets. Firms are increasingly dependent on information technology (IT) for supply chain management as a competitive tool to facilitate such agility. However, little research has been done on the role of IT on supply chain agility. The paper aims to address this gap by further investigating how IT applications affect supply chain agility. We propose that IT infrastructure integration, consisting of data consistency and cross-functional application integration is critical to achieve agility as various integration processes in agile supply chains can be hampered by fragmented IT infrastructures which enable information flow and coordination activities across function units and network partners. We further illustrate IT infrastructure integration impacts on agility in various operational dimensions, such as speed, flexibility across the supply chain.

The impact of globalization and worldwide competition has forced firms to modify their strategies toward a

real time

operation with respect to customer’s requirements. This behavior, together with the possibilities of communication offered by the up to date Information and Communication Technologies, moves the top management toward the concept of

extended enterprise

in wich a collaborative link is established among supplier, commercial partners and customers. When the information flows involves each agent of the chain, from suppliers to the final distribution centres, the extended enterprise becomes a

virtual firm

, which can be defined as a set of stand-alone operational units that acts to reconfigure itself as a value chain in order to adapt to the business opportunities given by Market. The present work is intended to verify the effective quantitative advantages given by the introduction of the

Value Chain

concept into the supply chain management through a simulation approach. The paper, after a description of SCOR and VCOR methods, makes a comparison between the two methods by the implementation of a simulation approach which point out the main additional requirements that are added to the VCOR model for its implementation.

The capability to efficiently manage product-variety is nowadays a critical success factor for many companies. However, existing models still lack a suitable support for mapping and analyzing variant productions. The paper contributes to this area with a comprehensive but practicable approach. Product families are defined through common attributes with differentiating characteristics. Product structures and process plans of variants belonging to the same product family are represented using generic “plan skeletons”. It is shown how the approach can thereby reduce modeling efforts and enhance the clarity of the resulting model. Furthermore, linking such a model to a simulation allows for assigning performance indicators to the product family’s attributes instead of many product variants. Variant-induced costs can thus be disclosed as additional costs compared to a base product for each characteristic.

This paper presents a method of integrating activity-based costing (ABC) and process simulation in human planning. Our studies have already proposed a method of integrating ABC and process simulation in business process reengineering (BPR) and showed a case study of a chemical plant. Some studies have also already showed some examples of various aspects in manufacturing systems. Although a large number of studies have been made on product-mix/machine loading or scheduling, little is known about human planning. In this paper, effective BPR methodologies to achieve dramatic improvements in business measures of workers’ skills and costs based on ABC are discussed. First, two important tools: process simulation method and ABC analysis that can be customized by organizations for their own BPR are shown. As these tools have been separately used, a unified approach of process simulation and ABC analysis for process redesigns based on simulation. Secondly, a method of process simulation design is shown. It is repeated to consider working ratio and running time of resources. Thirdly, a method of ABC analysis that can be customized by organizations is shown. It automatically shows the data that has been gathered from many sources. By utilizing the data, the process simulation is implemented, and the result of simulation gives the data to ABC analysis. Lastly, this paper shows a case study in BPR and the effectiveness of our method.

The uncertain quality of used products highly affects the performances of remanufacturing systems and quality of remanufactured products. Hence the quality issues of used product cannot be neglected in remanufacturing. To apply the quality concept into remanufacturing system control or simulation, individual management of each product is required. To this end, a multi-agent approach can provide good solutions. The first step in applying the quality concept with the multi-agent approach is an effective modeling of a remanufacturing system. This study proposes a methodology for modeling a quality embedded remanufacturing system (QRS) with two layers. The first layer represents elements in a remanufacturing system as it is. The representation also contains the information of a multi-agent structure for a QRS. The second layer expresses the status of each product and resource agent, and their relationships to manage the multi-agent system. As modeling tools to support the proposed methodology, directed graphs and Petri-Nets are used. A case study is introduced to show an application of the proposed methodology.

In the last years, given the high market pressure and the increased competition in several industries, the search for new business opportunity is focusing on service activities. After-Sales (AS) service has become increasingly important as a source of differentiation and market share for manufacturers and resellers, as well as a strategic driver for customer’s retention. These changes often call for a new conceptual definition of the product-service bundle marketed to the final customer and for a thorough revision of the logistical and organizational configuration of the whole service chain. It comes out the necessity to design appropriate processes and to have a general and shared definition of their structure. Aim of the paper is to suggest a model which provides a common configuration of the assistance processes according to a framework that links the different typologies of assistance with the product service strategies offered by companies. Some case studies have been considered in order to validate the proposed framework and the model.

A system dynamics model is proposed to analyze the human role in planning and scheduling. Based on the interview research results planning and scheduling activities in manufacturing companies are investigated. By selecting important elements in planning and scheduling, a model of the human role is developed assuming a simple manufacturing environment. Two modes of the model is examined in the simulation experiments, and the results indicate the importance of the human role in smoothing the workload by look-ahead decisions and in reducing the uncertainty by collecting information and coordinating planning and scheduling activities.

A formal modeling technique, based on colored timed Petri net and UML static structure modeling languages is used to teach students to model their business process problem as a discrete event system, before they build a working simulation model in a simulation tool (in our case Arena). Combining Petri net and UML static structure diagrams, one can build an abstract, well defined and complete model. This model enables the simulation analyst to make an unambiguous, complete and yet easily readable model of the target operational process. The two most important classes of decisions that are reflected in the conceptual model are the choice of the real world details to be taken in or left out the model and the precise specification of the output parameters of the simulation. This paper describes the modeling technique and discusses its value in teaching and in the formulation of decision problems regarding operational processes.

The after-sales services and in particular the spare parts business have acquired, in recent years, a strategic role for firms manufacturing durable or capital goods, as they represent a source of revenue, profit and a mean to achieve customer satisfaction and retention. Nonetheless, the huge variety and the characteristics of the demand of spare parts make the configuration and management of the spare parts inventory and distribution systems critical decision areas for managers. These decisions, in fact, may lead to very different cost and service performance by the system itself. The case study analyzed concern a world player of heavy equipment based in Sweden. Its spare parts distribution system is described, and the paper analyzes the configuration and allocation decisions concerning a second European warehouse and the transfer to that warehouse of a set of suppliers. A simulation model has been developed in order to support these choices. Discrete event simulation is well suited for studies where time-dependant relations are analyzed. Supply Chain Simulation applied to the case study provides useful insights on the decision choices and the cost structure related to the spare parts distribution system.

In the recent years, companies have begun to strengthen their supply agreements, such as sharing the management of inventories. This type of co-soperation implies that the members of the supply chain share information and arrange a mutual agreement on their performance targets. The increased interest on supply chain topics has attracted researchers’ attention to the problem of co-operation between the buyer and vendor, the two actors directly interacting in the supply mechanism. The present research investigates the way how a particular VMI policy, known as Consignment Stock (CS), may lead to a successful strategy for both buyer and vendor. The previous study [

1

] developed an analytical model of the CS policy, with reference to the centralised decision and deterministic settings. In order to fully explore the potentiality of CS policy, an extension of the model is proposed in this paper. The results indicate that the CS policy could be a strategic and profitable approach to improve supply chain performance in uncertain environments.

This paper describes a novel simulation framework that integrates discreteevent modeling with system-dynamics modeling. The former has strength in system performance evaluation; meanwhile, the later has an advantage of representing feedback mechanisms in complex systems. We are currently developing a hybrid-modeling framework, which combines discrete-event modeling with system dynamics modeling. The objectives of this framework are: (1) to simulate feedbacks of supply-chain activities in social system mechanisms, (2) to enable management simulation in long time terms, and finally (3) to clarify requirement specifications towards supply-chain management gaming. This paper summarizes this framework and represents application examples.

Growing market demands on enterprises and the resulting challenges for their organization have been discussed for many years now. The flexibility and mutability of an enterprise are thereby considered as a significant factor for success. As a reaction to this, many enterprises have realigned their enterprise along the value-added chain. The implementation of flat hierarchies and processoriented work organization make up focus of current discussions about organizational structures in the manufacturing area. New departmental structures, however, often require that decisions are delegated to operative positions, thus increasing the decision-making and action leeway of the operative employees. However, there are currently no methods capable of prospectively examining the suitability of such decentralized decision-making systems. In this context, this paper presents a method with which the suitability of decision-making systems can be examined in a prospective and quantitative manner. In order to attain this goal, the simulation procedure

OSim-Ent

developed at the ifab-Institute of Human and Industrial Engineering of the University of Karlsruhe (Germany), was expanded through generic elements, with which relevant decision-making system elements can be modeled and examined through simulation.

Innovation is key source of a company’s competitiveness in the knowledge economy, and continuous improvement is a key element of such corporate pursuit. Lean production is a globally competitive standard for product assembly of discreet parts. Successful Lean application is conditioned by an evolutionary problem-solving ability of the rank and file. Such ability is in itself contingent on employee involvement in improvement programs and the implementation of appropriate practices. But the challenge of operating innovative Lean systems lacks statistically valid guidance. This empirical study is based on 294 worker responses from twelve manufacturing sites in four Brazilian industry sectors. It identifies particular practices that impact employee participation in change or improvement activities and their performance outcomes.

Business Environments need to react more efficiently and quickly to demand in today’s global markets. Previous research by the authors entailed reviewing the current understanding of the different types of generic business improvements that are applicable to the production environment through a literature review. It highlighted that widely used methodologies have similarly links and differentiating characteristics, thus producing many types of implementation strategies. The research resulted in studying the interrelationships between these Manufacturing Business Improvement Concepts including Cultural Issues surrounding process improvement initiatives, so they can be unified into an integrated Methodology creating a unique strategy that can be correctly tailored to a chosen environment. This paper outlines a methodology that involves ten stages of change including the planning, creating, data collection, analysis and strategic implementation to apply. The approach flows through the change process systematically highlighting how to achieve the best outcome and feedback into the system is also visible.

The paper presents the problems with integration of the companies within the supply chain. Usually the separate actions are undertaken by the companies to implement lean tools for production systems and external logistics processes. This situation leads to minor results or moving the costs between production and logistics processes instead of reduction. The purpose of the paper is to present the new version of Value Stream Mapping method, focused on synchronised reorganisation of company production system, external logistics processes between the company and its suppliers as well as suppliers’ production processes. This paper shows the techniques currently used to support cooperation between enterprises and will demonstrate their incompleteness and how they can be improved.

Although lean is rapidly growing in popularity, its implementation is far from problem free and companies may experience difficulties sustaining long term success. In this paper, it is suggested that sustainable lean requires attention to both performance improvement and capability development. A framework for describing levels of lean capability is presented, based on a brief review of the literature and experiences from 12 Danish companies currently implementing lean. Although still in its emerging phase, the framework contributes to both theory and practice by describing developmental stages that support lean capability development and consequently, lean sustainability.

Within the context of the EU-Project InCoCo-’s’, one of the key aims is to standardize integrative industrial service processes in order to facilitate transparency on service operation performance and the resulting customer benefit. Therefore the Service Performance Measurement System (SPMS) has been developed in order to quantify both the efficiency and effectiveness of industrial service operation activities and to support the measurement of customers’ benefit through industrial service activities. But performance indicators are only a measurable expression of the underlying system performance, a system which is ordinarily complex in nature. It follows, therefore, that it would be beneficial to understand the interdependences between performance indicators in order to better utilize them in evaluating the options for improvements in system performance and the monitoring of an often complex system. Based on a comprehensive literature review and making best use of the tools and expertise available to the InCoCo-S consortium, a process to develop an understanding of the interdependences between performance indicators was created and executed. The results provide both the service provider and the manufacturing customer with an insight into those performance indicators to be targeted for improvement actions and those better suited to monitoring.

In order to face their global competitors, one solution consists for manufacturing companies around the world to implement the Toyota Production System (TPS). Lean manufacturing evolved from TPS. The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate that lean principles and concepts can be successfully applied in a company from the retail industry, such as Seven-Eleven Japan. Lean retailing is now a reality that has forced manufacturers to build standard products ondemand using build-to-order techniques. The retail markets are characterized by a strong competition, short product life cycles, long product development lead times, and highly volatile demand. Today’s powerful retailers insist on low prices and refuse to carry inventory. The main objectives of the paper were achieved by using an extensive review of the literature and a case study.

The importance of business related services has been growing consequently during the past years. Industrial Services constitute the greatest share of business related service with 30% of their intermediate output. But those kinds of services are facing tremendous challenges in terms of synchronizing their process with the manufacturing processes of their customers. The EU funded project InCoCo-S aims to tackle these challenges by the development of an innovative reference model for the collaboration between Service Providers and Manufacturers. Currently, the development of the structure of the reference model is finished and its validation has already begun. In this scope, SKF, as one of the consortium partners, is currently implementing the results in their new service division — Windmill Condition Monitoring. This paper provides detailed information about conducted surveys within the InCoCo-S project, the Reference Model and its practical application.

For mixed-model production lines, this paper proposes a production control system based on lean and agile strategies for responding to changes in product mix is proposed. Performance of the proposed system under the conditions of unstable changes in product-mix is analyzed by simulation experiments, and it can be claimed that the proposed system can respond to changes in product mix by re-allocating work elements into each work center, and inventories can be decreased without decreasing customer service level.

Culture is a powerful, latent, and often unconscious set of forces that determine both of our individual and collective behavior, ways of perceiving, thought patterns, and values. Organizational culture in particular matters because cultural elements determine strategy, goals, and modes of operating. Many international managerial theories or production methods work well locally, but can not receive expected result once they are practiced cross nationally. Although SDWT can be seen as an example of cultural adaptation of lean manufacturing system, yet little is known about the inefficiency caused by the cultural differences. The academic community has remained primarily dedicated to single culture and comparative research which is no more sufficient. Cultures are patterns of interacting elements. To decipher that pattern, we propose an analytical framework based upon the investigation on how Taiwanese enterprises cope with the cultural resistance to achieve expected goals.