Line balancing in a just-in-time production environment: balancing multiple U-lines

The introduction of multiple, independent production lines has helped many firms to increase their production flexibility, provide for redundancy when equipment breaks down, reduce idle time and labor costs, and achieve many other benefits. This paper introduces and formalizes the multiple U-line balancing problem. Optimal solution methodologies are provided for Type I (minimize the number of stations for a given cycle time), Type II (minimize the cycle time for a given number of stations), and cost-minimization line-balancing problems. A branch-and-bound algorithm is also developed for the situation in which equipment requirements are dependent on the line configuration and the task assignment to stations. Computational results indicate that the greatest benefit of exploiting multiple lines occurs for smaller cycle-time problems that require higher output.     

A DSS for Production Planning

This paper presents a decision support system designed to aid the production planner in choosing the values of the principle parameters governing just-in-time manufacturing. The DSS uses a knowledge base composed of data from simulations of the production of the entire product line under systematically varied conditions. The planners may add data from actual production experience as it is obtained. The stochastic dominance outranking method of Martel and Zaras allows the identification of clusters of parameters that respect the preferences of the decision maker. When launching an order for a product, the decision maker may judge certain sets of parameters to be equivalent. A visual interactive simulation model will then allow their comparison according to three performance criteria.     

iViewer:利用数据服务即时生成跨域数据视图

越来越多的企业和组织选择通过广域、开放的互联网作为其协作平台,业务决策者往往需要即时汇聚并综合分析来自多个部门的资源信息以进行临机决策。如何即时构建满足用户需求的跨组织数据视图,动态维护视图和数据源之间的一致性是需要求解的一个关键问题。提出了一种互联网环境下跨组织业务数据视图的动态生成方法iViewer,利用数据服务来封装自治、异构和动态变化的数据源;通过可视化和易用的数据服务组合操作来动态构建数据视图;提出了一种基于轮询的视图动态更新算法,维护数据源和数据视图的一致性,从而使得数据视图能够随数据源的变化而自主变化;详述了iViewer方法的原理和过程,并通过一个火灾应急处置场景中,面向指挥中心的跨部门火灾救援设备数据视图的动态生成过程例证了iViewer方法的效果。     

Semi-automated user agents in distributed change management

Flexible integration of distributed design and manufacturing activities is one of the key issues in applying just-in-time principles along the logistics chain. The potential of AI based approaches in this field is clear, but the inherent asynchrony, concurrency, and inconsistency of distributed operations has reduced enthusiasm so far.This paper discusses coordination in the context of geographically distributed manufacturing of one-of-a-kind products. Cooperation of partners is based on semi-automated user agents which operate as an integrative layer between more dedicated tools and systems. The management of order changes in elevator manufacture is used as a case example.The work reported here is part of the DIMUN project (DIMUN, 1989) in the RACE program.     

即时定向新闻采集技术研究

互联网的迅速发展带动了信息量的爆炸性增加。如何更快地采集所需信息一直是国内外研究和开发的热点。近年来,不断增长的对特定信息(例如特定领域的新闻)的需求要求有针对性地从指定的网站即时采集相关信息。这些新闻一般具有不可预见性、更新频率较快、时效性强等特点。这要求我们必须能针对这些特点实现即时定向的采集。本文提出了一种有效抓取网页并进行分析的方法,实践表明取得了满意的效果。     

Rolling Kanban: a new visual tool to schedule family batch manufacturing processes with kanban

Rolling Kanban is the name of a kanban management methodology for batch processes manufacturing environment. Proposed in the early 2000s by FESTO Consulting, for two decades we have lost knowledge both from operative and scientific point of view. Basically, Rolling Kanban means a visual planning methodology based on the production of product-families and variants where: (i) set-up times are reduced between the products of the same family, and (ii) relevant times (dozens of minutes if not even hours) must be considered for changeover between products of different families. In addition, the cyclic production sequence between different product families cannot be maintained. Considering that very few technical information and documents are available about this approach, the main objective of this paper is to retrieve and present, for the first time to the scientific community, the Rolling Kanban methodology. Besides, a real industrial implementation concerning a manufacturer of domestic fittings is discussed as a case study. More specifically, two novel versions of the original Rolling Kanban technique are fully presented to effectively overcome certain limits and criticalities found during its operative use, such as the difficulty to realise a pull production, considering increased set-up time for changeover between products of different families.     

基于准时制思想的炼钢—连铸生产动态调度算法

通过对炼钢—连铸生产动态调度问题的分析，建立了基于准时制思想的炼钢—连铸生产动态调度模型．提出了一种基于多个邻域结构和种群进化策略的进化迭代局部搜索算法，用于求解该模型．基于实际生产数据的仿真试验证明了所提出模型和算法的有效性．     

Lean Software Development: Two Case Studies

This paper shows how the concepts of lean manufacturing can be successfully transferred from the manufacture of cars and electrical goods to software development. The key lean concept is to minimize work in progress, so quickly forcing any production problems into the open. Production is then halted to allow each problem with the system producing the goods, to be permanently corrected. While frustrating at first, the end result is very high levels of productivity and quality.Large industrial companies are beginning to transfer their lean production expertise to their in-house software development projects. The two case studies reported here confirm that lean software development can produce rapid quality and productivity gains. A major implementation issue is that lean software development may require deep changes in the way an organization is managed.     

Nash and integrated solutions in a just-in-time seller–buyer supply chain with buyer's ordering cost reductions

The seller frequently offers the buyer trade credit to settle the purchase amount. From the seller's prospective, granting trade credit increases not only the opportunity cost (i.e., the interest loss on the buyer's purchase amount during the credit period) but also the default risk (i.e., the rate that the buyer will be unable to pay off his/her debt obligations). On the other hand, granting trade credit increases sales volume and revenue. Consequently, trade credit is an important strategy to increase seller's profitability. In this paper, we assume that the seller uses trade credit and number of shipments in a production run as decision variables to maximise his/her profit, while the buyer determines his/her replenishment cycle time and capital investment as decision variables to reduce his/her ordering cost and achieve his/her maximum profit. We then derive non-cooperative Nash solution and cooperative integrated solution in a just-in-time inventory system, in which granting trade credit increases not only the demand but also the opportunity cost and default risk, and the relationship between the capital investment and the ordering cost reduction is logarithmic. Then, we use a software to solve and compare these two distinct solutions. Finally, we use sensitivity analysis to obtain some managerial insights.     

Bottleneck Allocation Methodology: An Integrated Manufacturing Management Model—A Systems Study

Bottleneck allocation methodology (BAM) attempts to blend the best features of other popular production planning philosophies. As a result, BAM could offer a better-integrated schedule with more flexible production planning results. This paper does a literature search of previous methodologies and demonstrates how BAM is an integration of these philosophies. This paper also demonstrates the operation of the BAM process.