Today’s Schedules for Today’s Workforce: Hourly Employees and Work-Life Fit

[Excerpt] This paper provides employers with the tools they need to match today’s workplace to today’s workforce. First, the paper describes “just-in-time” schedules – schedules which create instability and unpredictability for hourly workers. It then suggests several means by which employers can reduce such instability in the just-in-time sector, providing increased scheduling effectiveness. Next, the paper discusses scheduling rigidity and provides employers with a variety of means for easing this rigidity by creating a more flexible workplace. The ultimate goal of this paper is to create a win-win outcome for hourly workers and their employers by synchronizing today’s workplace with today’s workforce. We seek to accomplish this goal by helping employers understand the needs of hourly employees with family responsibilities and demonstrating that accommodating these needs does not result in increased labor costs. To the contrary, introducing flexible scheduling and/or predictable scheduling can in fact reduce labor costs

Ecological Interface Design for Flexible Manufacturing Systems: An Empirical Assessment of Direct Perception and Direct Manipulation in the Interface

Four interfaces were developed to factorially apply two principles of ecological interface design (EID; direct perception and direct manipulation) to a flexible manufacturing system (FMS). The theoretical foundation and concepts employed during their development, with findings related to more significant issues regarding interface design for complex socio-technical systems, are discussed. Key aspects of cognitive systems engineering (CSE) and EID are also discussed. An FMS synthetic task environment was developed, and an experiment was conducted to evaluate real-time decision support during supervisory operations. Participants used all four interfaces to supervise and maintain daily part production at systematically varied levels of difficulty across sessions. Significant results provide evidence that the incorporation of direct perception and direct manipulation in interface design produced an additive effect, allowing for greater support for the supervisory agents

A framework of justification criteria for advanced manufacturing technology implementation in small and medium enterprises

Today in order to stay in businesses and prosper, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are seeking higher electiveness and competitiveness across the entire cycle of marketing, product design, manufacture, test and sales. SMEs play an increasingly important role in all aspects of competitiveness: both products and production techniques, but also management methods, the organization of the firm and human resources training. One of the ways by which SMEs can achieve a competitive advantage in manufacturing is through the implementation of Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT). An increasing number of them have chosen and are choosing various levels of AMT as the solution. Realizing the importance of SMEs, an attempt has been made in this paper to review the application of AMT in SMEs. Also, a framework has been offered for the implementation of AMT in SMEs. Finally, a summary of findings and conclusions are presented

The Economic Costs and Benefits of Self-Managed Teams Among Skilled Technicians

This paper estimates the economic costs and benefits of implementing teams among highly-skilled technicians in a large regional telecommunications company. It matches individual survey and objective performance data for 230 employees in matched pairs of traditionally-supervised and self-managed groups. Multivariate regressions with appropriate controls show that teams do the work of supervisors in 60-70% less time, reducing indirect labor costs by 75 percent per team. Objective measures of quality and labor productivity are unaffected. Team members receive additional overtime pay that represents a 4-5 percent annual wage premium, which may be viewed alternatively as a share in the productivity gains associated with innovation or as a premium for learning skills

AI and OR in management of operations: history and trends

The last decade has seen a considerable growth in the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for operations management with the aim of finding solutions to problems that are increasing in complexity and scale. This paper begins by setting the context for the survey through a historical perspective of OR and AI. An extensive survey of applications of AI techniques for operations management, covering a total of over 1200 papers published from 1995 to 2004 is then presented. The survey utilizes Elsevier's ScienceDirect database as a source. Hence, the survey may not cover all the relevant journals but includes a sufficiently wide range of publications to make it representative of the research in the field. The papers are categorized into four areas of operations management: (a) design, (b) scheduling, (c) process planning and control and (d) quality, maintenance and fault diagnosis. Each of the four areas is categorized in terms of the AI techniques used: genetic algorithms, case-based reasoning, knowledge-based systems, fuzzy logic and hybrid techniques. The trends over the last decade are identified, discussed with respect to expected trends and directions for future work suggested

Dynamic modelling of reconfigurable manufacturing planning and control systems using supervisory control

This research is concerned with studying the dynamic performance of reconfigurable Manufacturing Planning and Control (MPC) systems. Such goal requires two main tasks. The first task is to develop a dynamic MPC system model that has the ability to reconfigure to different MPC policies. The second task is to design a supervisory control unit that has as input the high level strategic market decisions and constraints together with a feedback of the current manufacturing system state and then select the optimal suitable operation mode or policy at these conditions. This paper addresses the first task of the proposed research and presents and analyses a dynamic reconfigurable MPC model. The response of the developed model to sudden demand changes under different parameters settings is analyzed. In addition, the stability limits of the system are also studied. The results give a better understanding of the dynamics of reconfigurable MPC systems and the different trade-off decisions required when selecting an MPC policy and the limits for parameters settings. These results represent the first step towards designing the supervisory control unit which will be responsible for managing the reconfiguration of the whole system

NASA space station automation: AI-based technology review

Research and Development projects in automation for the Space Station are discussed. Artificial Intelligence (AI) based automation technologies are planned to enhance crew safety through reduced need for EVA, increase crew productivity through the reduction of routine operations, increase space station autonomy, and augment space station capability through the use of teleoperation and robotics. AI technology will also be developed for the servicing of satellites at the Space Station, system monitoring and diagnosis, space manufacturing, and the assembly of large space structures

Otomatikleştirilmiş rehberli araç sistemlerinin transport tekniğinde modellemesi

The study objectives are to 1) provide information regarding the use and benefits of Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) systems in manufacturing environments, and 2) review the literature related to design, modeling and simulation of AGV systems. We classify the tools utilized in design problems of AGV systems as analytical and simulation-based tools. Then, give examples of both categories from related literature.Çalışmanın amaçları; 1) Otomatikleştirilmiş Rehberli Araç (ORA, ingilizcesi, Automated Guided Vehicle, AGV) sistemlerinin kullanımı ve faydaları hakkında bilgiler vermek ve 2) ORA sistemlerinin tasarım, modellenme ve simulasyonu (benzetimi) ile ilgili kapsamlı bir literatür incelemesinin sonuçlarını sunmaktır. Öncelikle ORA sistemlerinin tasarım problemlerinde kullanılan yöntemleri analitik ve simülasyon yöntemler olarak ikiye ayrılıp, daha sonra, ilgili literatürden her iki gruba ait örnekler verilmektedir

Collaborative Systems, Operation and Task of the Manufacturing Execution Systems in the 21st Century Industry

Until the first two decades of the 21st century, as part of the Enterprise Resourse Planning (ERP), the Manufacturing Execution System (MES) and related systems have undergone development in both complexity and efficiency. In the field of production technology, there are many sources of work nowadays to get a detailed picture of the solutions offered by MES. The purpose of this article is to give a comprehensive overview of the MES solutions that currently used in industry. In addition to the general structure of the systems and Holonic MES are briefly described. Special attencion is paid to various collaborative systems that complement the MES. The additional manufacturing tools for MES is also described shematically in this article