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A fictional production and logistics scenario is presented, with different contributors providing advice and solutions. Methods for effectively addressing demand uncertainty issues include taking a proactive approach and creating and directing demand, cautioning against outsourcing in order to own production and customer service, and improving production and inventory planning.

A modeling framework is developed to examine the effect of retail-pricing policies on the choice between make-to-stock and make-to-order in operations management.

The role of response surface methodology (RSM) in searching for the input combination that gives the maximum output is examined. The problems of RSM and techniques for solving them are discussed.

Combination of techniques of stochastic and statistical analysis for subjective modelling of inspection, risk assesment and maintenance cycles in manufacturing facilities is described.

Application of heuristics for studying effects of material flow and job routing on results of planning of machine location.

Usage of combinatorial optimization for cost benefit analysis of material storage, as part of production planning in industrial energy systems, is described.

Simulation of service operations of airlines to reduce passenger boarding time in airplanes, for better management of airport facilities, is described.

The system of enterprise resource planning (ERP) competence constructs constitute a range of management and technical proficiency, and is widely used to promote business operations. A two-step standard procedure to develop and support multi-item scales for testing the efficiency of ERP systems, is implemented.

Management of salt spreading operations and maintenance of roads in Antwerp, by dividing regional road network into sub-networks or districts, to facilitate better organization of regional operations, is discussed.

Motivated by a problem faced by a large manufacturer of a consumer product, we explore the interaction between production planning and capacity acquisition decisions in environments with demand growth. We study a firm producing multiple items in a multiperiod environment where demand for items is known but varies over time with a long-term growth and possible short-term fluctuations. The production equipment is characterized by significant changeover time between the production of different items. While demand growth is gradual, capacity additions are discrete. Therefore, periods immediately following a machine purchase are characterized by excess machine capacity. We develop a mathematical programming model and an effective solution approach to determine the optimal capacity acquisition, production and inventory decisions over time. Through a computational study, we show the effectiveness of the solution approach in terms of solution quality and investigate the impact of product variety, cost of capital, and other important parameters on the capacity and inventory decisions. The computational results bring out some key insights--increasing product variety may not result in excessive inventory and even a substantial increase in set-up times or holding costs may not increase the total cost over the horizon in a significant manner due to the ability to acquire additional capacity. We also provide solutions and insights to the real problem that motivated this work., 1. Introduction This paper was motivated by a problem faced by a large manufacturing firm producing a consumer product. The firm produces many different items that are stocked in inventory [...]

A study was conducted to analyze a unified inventory framework for integrated production system supporting a single product. The production, demand and deterioration rates for the finished product and deterioration levels for raw materials were represented as functions of time. The optimal values for the length of the production stage and inventory cycle minimizing the total variable cost of the unified inventory system were also determined. Results indicated that the solution to the inventory systems is with a novel global optimal solution.

A branch and bound approach is proposed to address the problem of the minimization of open stack problem (MOSP). The method, which utilizes a greedy type strategy to choose the subsequent node to branch, aims to lessen the maximum number of open stacks during a production run. However, the method is computationally difficult to effect.

The use of the robustness approach in studying the classical economic order quantity model under marked uncertainties of the input data showed that the approach outperforms stochastic optimization. It was established that the robustness approach is definitely a logical choice if the probability distribution is undetermined.

An enhanced and solid approach on the use of the asymptotic forms of the Boolean matrix in the design of cellular manufacturing systems is developed. The new approach will enable a better method of determining bottlenecks in production processes. Furthermore, the maximum quantity of natural groups present in a given matrix will be determined more efficiently.

Manufacturing strategies can be classified according to firms' competitive capabilities. Using cluster analysis, 164 large US manufacturing business units are classified according to their capabilities in terms of low price, design flexibility, volume flexibility, conformance, performance, speed, dependability, after sale service, advertising, broad distribution and broad line. A taxonomy is developed by differentiating the firms along two dimensions: scope of line and products and ability to differentiate themselves from competitors. Three main clusters are observed: caretakers, marketeers and innovators, the mapping of which is demonstrated using the two dimensions. Analysis of the interactions among competitive capabilities, business context and manufacturing activities is undertaken.

A study was conducted to analyze the selection of a process plan by trading off cost and load balance goals. The vector optimization problem was changed into a set of auxiliary scalar problems to accommodate difficulties with the problem. Precedence constraints were then relaxed while a set of loading decisions were taken for released orders. In addition, heuristics were evaluated on a set of benchmark problems.