In the 21st century, computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) systems will not only be the economic development tools but will also be the essential means of achieving a higher level of flexibility, cohesiveness and performance. CIM systems are beginning to settle into our society and industries, with greater emphasis on the integration of economic, cultural and social aspects together with design, planning, factory automation and artificial intelligent systems.This volume of proceedings brings together 10 keynote and invited speaker addresses, and over 180 papers by practitioners from 28 countries. It documents current research and in-depth studies on the fundamental aspects of advanced CIM systems and their practical applications. The papers fall into 3 main sections: CIM Related Issues; Industrial AI Applications Aspects; and Concurrent Engineering, Advanced Design, Simulation and Flexible Manufacturing Systems.

Reactive scheduling is concerned with monitoring and controlling the execution of predictive schedules and making any changes required to bring them in line with unanticipated events or disturbances happening in real time. Whilst predictive scheduling has been a focus of research for many years, it is only recently that explicit attention has been given to the specific problems of reactive scheduling and the relationship between the two.This publication explores the scope and status of both existing and potential approaches to reactive scheduling. Concentration is centred on knowledge-based approaches as the importance of domain knowledge, whether stored in computers or in the brains of experienced schedulers, is becoming increasingly apparent. Contributions examine a variety of approaches ranging from reactive scheduling decision support frameworks in which the knowledge comes mainly from the human, through to completely new approaches to automated reactive scheduling such as neural networks.The book will be of particular interest to researchers, students and engineers involved in the manufacturing and software development industries. In addition to providing a significant reference volume, it also aims to stimulate increased discussion in this emerging field.

The supply of fresh food is being transformed: retailers are gaining increasing power and control from manufacturers and the location and nature of production is evolving. The international practitioner and academic author team analyse state of the art packaging logistics for fresh food retailing and draw on primary research in the UK, Europe and the USA. It demonstrates the benefits to be gained from adopting new techniques and provides lessons on how to achieve successful implementation. It will help organizations and academics understand the changes and opportunities in modern fresh food supply chains and how to overcome the challenges.