41 research outputs found

    Expanding the Horizons of Manufacturing: Towards Wide Integration, Smart Systems and Tools

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    This research topic aims at enterprise-wide modeling and optimization (EWMO) through the development and application of integrated modeling, simulation and optimization methodologies, and computer-aided tools for reliable and sustainable improvement opportunities within the entire manufacturing network (raw materials, production plants, distribution, retailers, and customers) and its components. This integrated approach incorporates information from the local primary control and supervisory modules into the scheduling/planning formulation. That makes it possible to dynamically react to incidents that occur in the network components at the appropriate decision-making level, requiring fewer resources, emitting less waste, and allowing for better responsiveness in changing market requirements and operational variations, reducing cost, waste, energy consumption and environmental impact, and increasing the benefits. More recently, the exploitation of new technology integration, such as through semantic models in formal knowledge models, allows for the capture and utilization of domain knowledge, human knowledge, and expert knowledge toward comprehensive intelligent management. Otherwise, the development of advanced technologies and tools, such as cyber-physical systems, the Internet of Things, the Industrial Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Cloud Computing, Blockchain, etc., have captured the attention of manufacturing enterprises toward intelligent manufacturing systems

    13th International Conference on Modeling, Optimization and Simulation - MOSIM 2020

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    Comité d’organisation: Université Internationale d’Agadir – Agadir (Maroc) Laboratoire Conception Fabrication Commande – Metz (France)Session RS-1 “Simulation et Optimisation” / “Simulation and Optimization” Session RS-2 “Planification des Besoins Matières Pilotée par la Demande” / ”Demand-Driven Material Requirements Planning” Session RS-3 “Ingénierie de Systèmes Basées sur les Modèles” / “Model-Based System Engineering” Session RS-4 “Recherche Opérationnelle en Gestion de Production” / "Operations Research in Production Management" Session RS-5 "Planification des Matières et des Ressources / Planification de la Production” / “Material and Resource Planning / Production Planning" Session RS-6 “Maintenance Industrielle” / “Industrial Maintenance” Session RS-7 "Etudes de Cas Industriels” / “Industrial Case Studies" Session RS-8 "Données de Masse / Analyse de Données” / “Big Data / Data Analytics" Session RS-9 "Gestion des Systèmes de Transport” / “Transportation System Management" Session RS-10 "Economie Circulaire / Développement Durable" / "Circular Economie / Sustainable Development" Session RS-11 "Conception et Gestion des Chaînes Logistiques” / “Supply Chain Design and Management" Session SP-1 “Intelligence Artificielle & Analyse de Données pour la Production 4.0” / “Artificial Intelligence & Data Analytics in Manufacturing 4.0” Session SP-2 “Gestion des Risques en Logistique” / “Risk Management in Logistics” Session SP-3 “Gestion des Risques et Evaluation de Performance” / “Risk Management and Performance Assessment” Session SP-4 "Indicateurs Clés de Performance 4.0 et Dynamique de Prise de Décision” / ”4.0 Key Performance Indicators and Decision-Making Dynamics" Session SP-5 "Logistique Maritime” / “Marine Logistics" Session SP-6 “Territoire et Logistique : Un Système Complexe” / “Territory and Logistics: A Complex System” Session SP-7 "Nouvelles Avancées et Applications de la Logique Floue en Production Durable et en Logistique” / “Recent Advances and Fuzzy-Logic Applications in Sustainable Manufacturing and Logistics" Session SP-8 “Gestion des Soins de Santé” / ”Health Care Management” Session SP-9 “Ingénierie Organisationnelle et Gestion de la Continuité de Service des Systèmes de Santé dans l’Ere de la Transformation Numérique de la Société” / “Organizational Engineering and Management of Business Continuity of Healthcare Systems in the Era of Numerical Society Transformation” Session SP-10 “Planification et Commande de la Production pour l’Industrie 4.0” / “Production Planning and Control for Industry 4.0” Session SP-11 “Optimisation des Systèmes de Production dans le Contexte 4.0 Utilisant l’Amélioration Continue” / “Production System Optimization in 4.0 Context Using Continuous Improvement” Session SP-12 “Défis pour la Conception des Systèmes de Production Cyber-Physiques” / “Challenges for the Design of Cyber Physical Production Systems” Session SP-13 “Production Avisée et Développement Durable” / “Smart Manufacturing and Sustainable Development” Session SP-14 “L’Humain dans l’Usine du Futur” / “Human in the Factory of the Future” Session SP-15 “Ordonnancement et Prévision de Chaînes Logistiques Résilientes” / “Scheduling and Forecasting for Resilient Supply Chains

    Pathways to Industrialization and Regional Development

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    The world has seen a shift in socio-economic relations, in the patterns and processes of industrialization and regional development. The social regulation of the economic order, flexible production organization and industrial district formation have brought periods, places and pathways to the heart of economic debate. Pathways to Industrialization and Regional Development provides a platform from which to address a new economic order. All the major schools of thought are represented. Focussing upon the interactions between economic logic and political institutions at both the local and global levels, the authors set the agenda for the 1990s

    Using Knowledge Transfer Partnership projects to reveal latent dynamics in the Knowledge-Based View of strategy

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    The Knowledge-Based View (KBV) is a well-regarded theory that places knowledge as the most strategically significant resource of the firm. Grant’s (1996) paper: Towards a Knowledge-Based Theory of the Firm triggered a wave of research and was one of the most cited papers in subsequent years. Yet, just over 20 years after the appearance of the KBV, there are still academic disputes on what the KBV has contributed to the competitive strategic management literature. The reason for prolonged debate stems from the nature of the theory itself. In short, that which is held to make the approach effective renders it as unclear to researchers seeking to explain it as it is to competitors seeking to replicate it. Researchers have tried to overcome the problem of causal ambiguity by isolating individual themes which consequently, makes them only partially useful in explaining both the overall strategy formulation of the firm and its subsequent effects. This thesis makes its contribution by deliberately seeking a context where KBV would be most evident. The goal is to analyse how different KBV-themes are interlinked with each other and hence, this study will enable insight into holistic KBV strategy formulation. Special focus will be given to the role of knowledge among firms that engage in knowledge production and knowledge coordination. The chosen context to unveil the KBV as an act of strategy is knowledge transfer partnerships (KTP) since the main purpose of a KTP is to fill a strategically important knowledge-gap to achieve competitive advantage by using knowledge production and integration mechanisms. The overall goal is to unveil, ex-post and through a newly constructed knowledge-based value chain, how the different KBV-themes, as a holistic view, explain the achievement of competitive advantage and how such advantage could be sustained. The individual, project-based nature of KTPs require a qualitative, case-based research method which is applied to four KTP projects. This study has the following theoretical, methodological and practical knowledge contributions: First – By extrapolating a specific KBV value chain which comprehensively links the primary knowledge processes of knowledge production, coordination and decision making with identified KBV knowledge elements. This allowed for a unique holistic view of the KBV of strategy which no other model in the identified literature provided. Second – By creating a distinctive KBV value chain construct, this thesis enables a reflective case study analysis in the understanding of complementary use of knowledge elements and knowledge processes more linked to SCA. Third – Identifying and defending the use of KTP as a strategic-fit case study environment for the KBV value chain construct. In doing so, this thesis is the first study to have successfully demonstrated how and why the KBV can be used for strategy formulation, while understanding latent dynamics of a holistic KBV of strategy to explain the success and failures within KTP projects. Fourth – The contribution to practice is through the creation, understanding and implementation of a complexity of knowledge model in developing strategy formulation for managers requiring to implement a knowledge-based view of strategy within knowledge production, coordination and decision making

    ACROSS THE CHAIN. DOCK LABOUR SYSTEMS IN THE EUROPEAN PORTS: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ON TWO CONTAINER TERMINALS

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    The main purpose of this study is to provide a comparative analysis on dock labour systems in two European ports, focusing in particular on the container global industry. The research aims at analysing the impact of the market players\u2019 strategies along the maritime-logistics chain on dock labour dynamics in the last years, stressing the role of the institutional, material and structural constraints. By comparing two distinct case studies, the study aims to answer the following research questions: 1. How is the search for economies of scale achieved by market players along the maritime-logistics chain shaping port labour systems, schemes and work organizations in the European ports? 2. To what extent do terminal operating companies respond to the constraints driven by market players, European policies and national regulations, in order to maximize the performance of dock labour in two distinct ports/container terminals? The observation of the entire logistics chain characterizes the peculiar approach of this study. This approach fosters an analysis not only of the dynamic and complex structure of the maritime supply chain, but also of the background tendencies occurring in the overall dimension in which ports are situated, and hence the variety of dock labour systems. The focus on the container handling and the labour that incorporates it underlines the triple nature of the maritime-logistics chain, given the function of the intermodal transport unit. Consequently, this study argues that an \u201cintermodal gaze\u201d is required to grasp the main trends concerning labour in the pivotal link of the maritime-logistics chain. The empirical findings gathered during the fieldworks in the ports of Genoa and Antwerp are presented and discussed. The empirical evidence shows how in the Belgian case shipping companies vertically integrated with global terminal operators, particularly in the container business, demand direct employment for a significant number of their own workers, whereas casual workers are increasingly deployed during periods of peak demand. This setting in principle does not differ from the Italian case. Besides the different business models, dock labour schemes and arrangements, port employers in both cases hire a large part of the dockworkers daily, via \u201cinformal agreements\u201d, on an almost continual basis. In addition, the changing dynamics caused by exogenous factors are provoking a higher deployment of casual workers in Genoa, whereas in Antwerp this trend could further increase in the future, with the new possibility given by the ongoing port reform (after the infringement procedure sent by the European Union to the Belgian government, concerning the port labour system). The strategic action of the main players along the maritime-logistics chain is modifying the working mechanisms of both port labour systems, altering the matching of labour supply and demand, opening up new decision-making prospects for transnational terminal operating companies. In this frame, dock labour policies to date have not been carried out, except for de-regulation processes, mainly driven at supranational level and then acquired at national level. In other words, the organizational models of labour in the ports selected seem to be undermined by the processes of globalization, cutthroat competition along the entire logistics chain, and Europeization of the port labour policies. The comparative analysis displays to what extent the de-structuring processes of the organizational patterns are crossing the ports / container terminals analysed, besides the constraints partially common among the cases and partially specific to each of them. Significant dynamics, notwithstanding the institutional path dependencies and the specific global production networks, occur similarly in both the ports observed. The homogeneous pressures, however, engage with the history at national and local level, the institutional structures and practices that dictate the differences among the cases. This in turn reveals a process in which, as this study hypothesizes, such differences are more and more converging towards a commonly variegated trajectory. Beyond the different dock labour scheme and work organization, a similar division \u2013 or fragmentation \u2013 between permanent and casual workforce has been observed. Moreover, the dock labour systems and schemes compared in this study are differently managed but commonly affected by exogenous and endogenous pressures along the maritime-logistics chain. Furthermore, by looking at the port performance indicators, it has been possible to compare the terminal productivity (linked to the costs) of one cargo handling company operating in both ports, besides the significant differences among the container terminals analyzed (e.g dimension, equipment, etc). Despite the limited data availability, this comparative analysis explores how terminal operating companies behave for maximizing labour productivity in light of the dock labour schemes and regulations in two distinct environments. In short, it turns out that terminal operating companies involved in container handling apply the tariff to their customers starting from the Cash Cost per Box as parameter. The Cash Cost per Box (CCPB) is the indicator that represents how much a container handling company spends only in terms of out-of-pocket costs for each volume unit handled. In this cost structure, labour composes the main value in both cases. Being labour cost the main value, the lower amount of CCPB in the Belgian case with respect to the Italian case is mainly \u2013 but not exclusively \u2013 due to a lower number of workforce employed to handle one container with respect to the Italian case. The amount of workforce per container handled, determined also by different social relations of production in the ports selected, is the key aspect to set a proper comparison between the ports/terminals, linking the productivity indicators to the cost structure. Furthermore, it has been assessed the difference of the wages in both ports (and the distribution in terms of occupational contexts), which are lower in the Italian case and higher in the Belgian case. These findings show that, in a certain sense, the occupational port labour system in the Italian case remunerates more people by distributing lower wages, whereas in the Belgian case it remunerates less people by distributing higher wages. However, the incidence of labour cost does not changes so much in both contexts, but tends to be similar, being the difference mainly a matter of labour quotas differently distributed (and socially produced). Paradoxically, the organization of port labour in Antwerp replicated in Genoa would require, in theory, as a preliminary condition, the exclusion of a certain amount of workforce currently employed in the port operations. The main difference therefore concerns the greater or lower socialization of costs. In turn, these settings have an impact on terminal productivity, the Gross Crane Rate, due to several factors (i.e. labour force composition, work organization at quayside, terminal layout, endogenous and exogenous factors, terminal facilities, capacity, economies of scale, gang system, motivation and structural constraints, etc.). Following the previous reasoning, the empirical findings show that in Genoa the social equilibrium is given by a lower productivity compared to the Belgian case, acknowledged by the port actors involved in order to keep higher workforce in the port operations. The port labour system in Genoa absorbs more work than in the port of Antwerp, but at the same time, the model is less efficient in terms of performances

    Investment in capital markets

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    Investment in Capital Markets creates a strategic vision on the financial capital investment in the capital markets with the aim to get an increased return premium in the short and long time periods. The book is written with a main goal to explain the pros and cons of the financial capital investment in the capital markets, discussing the sophisticated investment concepts and techniques in the simple understandable readable general format language. We would like to highlight the three interesting facts about the book: 1. It is centered on the consideration of the modern investment products, the investment vehicles and the investment mediums for the financial capital investment in the capital markets; 2. It is focused on the financial risk calculation and mitigation techniques for the financial capital investment in the financial capital markets. 3. It is aimed to describe the quantum winning virtuous investment strategies creation and execution techniques during the financial capital investment in the capital markets. The investors, financiers, economists, financial analysts, financial traders, financial advisers, lawmakers, policy analysts, subject experts, professors, and students will certainly enjoy a breathtaking splendid learning journey with the explained new ideas, established concepts and outlined future prospects toward the financial capital investment in the capital markets with the aim to get an increased return premium in the short and long time periods

    Research on cost management methods used in new product development and their relationship to strategic priorities and collaborative competences: A systematic literature review and survey of the German manufacturing industry

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    This doctoral thesis presents a systematic review in both the management accounting as well as the innovation and operation management literature on 15 different methods for cost management. Subsequently, six antecedents of the adoption of cost management methods are identified and empirically analysed. It was found that the antecedents explaining the adoption of this methods during NPD are cost leadership

    An enhanced approximation mathematical model inventorying items in a multi-echelon system under a continuous review policy with probabilistic demand and lead-time

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    An inventory system attempts to balance between overstock and understock to reduce the total cost and achieve customer demand in a timely manner. The inventory system is like a hidden entity in a supply chain, where a large complete network synchronizes a series of interrelated processes for a manufacturer, in order to transform raw materials into final products and distribute them to customers. The optimality of inventory and allocation policies in a supply chain for a cement industry is still unknown for many types of multi-echelon inventory systems. In multi-echelon networks, complexity exists when the inventory issues appear in multiple tiers and whose performances are significantly affected by the demand and lead-time. Hence, the objective of this research is to develop an enhanced approximation mathematical model in a multi-echelon inventory system under a continuous review policy subject to probabilistic demand and lead-time. The probability distribution function of demand during lead-time is established by developing a new Simulation Model of Demand During Lead-Time (SMDDL) using simulation procedures. The model is able to forecast future demand and demand during lead-time. The obtained demand during lead-time is used to develop a Serial Multi-echelon Inventory (SMEI) model by deriving the inventory cost function to compute performance measures of the cement inventory system. Based on the performance measures, a modified distribution multi-echelon inventory (DMEI) model with the First Come First Serve (FCFS) rule (DMEI-FCFS) is derived to determine the best expected waiting time and expected number of retailers in the system based on a mean arrival rate and a mean service rate. This research established five new distribution functions for the demand during lead-time. The distribution functions improve the performance measures, which contribute in reducing the expected waiting time in the system. Overall, the approximation model provides accurate time span to overcome shortage of cement inventory, which in turn fulfil customer satisfaction
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