Despite the numerous competitive advantages of one-of-a-kind production (OKP), the low efficiency and high costs associated with OKP companies threaten to push their business opportunities into the hands of cheaper overseas suppliers. One-of-a-Kind Production introduces a novel strategy and technology to help OKP companies to efficiently mass-produce customized products. In One-of-a-Kind Production, case studies from OKP companies are used to validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the OKP strategy and technology. These case studies include: a structural steel construction company, a manufacturer of specifically ordered compressors and refrigeration systems, a customized high pressure vessel manufacturing company, and a custom window and door manufacturer. To help readers understand OKP strategy and technology, the authors offer a year’s free access to the OKP Management and Control Software System. This system is based on a new integrated production control and management concept, namely product production structure. It is a useful tool – and One-of-a-Kind Production is a valuable guide – for production engineers and managerial staff in manufacturing companies, as well as for university researchers and graduate students.

Production engineering and management involve a series of planning and control activities in a production system. A production system can be as small as a shop with only one machine or as big as a global operation including many manufacturing plants, distribution centers, and retail locations in multiple continents. The product of a production system can also vary in complexity based on the material used, technology employed, etc. Every product, whether a pencil or an airplane, is produced in a system which depends on good management to be successful. Production management has been at the center of industrial engineering and management science disciplines since the industrial revolution. The tools and techniques of production management have been so successful that they have been adopted to various service industries, as well. The book is intended to be a valuable resource to undergraduate and graduate students interested in the applications of production management under fuzziness. The chapters represent all areas of production management and are organized to reflect the natural order of production management tasks. In all chapters, special attention is given to applicability and wherever possible, numerical examples are presented. While the reader is expected to have a fairly good understanding of the fuzzy logic, the book provides the necessary notation and preliminary knowledge needed in each chapter.

This book is divided into four sections: invited papers, principles, systems and techniques. The invited papers form an extensive overview of the state-of-the-art of production management. The themes range from the everlasting hunt for better productivity to the implications of CIM architectures (particularly CIM-OSA) for production management. The other three sections of the book look at the various problems affecting production management. One of the characteristics of modern production management is the need for better principles, systems and techniques for interorganizational production management. Another topic of crucial relevance is the necessity to master not only repetitive manufacturing but also one-of-a-kind product manufacturing. From the managerial point of view, the forecast-based make-to-stock principles have proven insufficient, with market forces demanding fast and reliable deliveries of customer-oriented products. The goals of production management have been re-evaluated as a result.

Generally speaking, scheduling is the procedure of mapping a set of tasks or jobs (studied objects) to a set of target resources efficiently. More specifically, as a part of a larger planning and scheduling process, production scheduling is essential for the proper functioning of a manufacturing enterprise. This book presents ten chapters divided into five sections. Section 1 discusses rescheduling strategies, policies, and methods for production scheduling. Section 2 presents two chapters about flow shop scheduling. Section 3 describes heuristic and metaheuristic methods for treating the scheduling problem in an efficient manner. In addition, two test cases are presented in Section 4. The first uses simulation, while the second shows a real implementation of a production scheduling system. Finally, Section 5 presents some modeling strategies for building production scheduling systems. This book will be of interest to those working in the decision-making branches of production, in various operational research areas, as well as computational methods design. People from a diverse background ranging from academia and research to those working in industry, can take advantage of this volume.

Just as no man is an island, so no business can operate without being part of a network of businesses proactively collaborating and sharing information for mutual success. This book presents some of the latest thinking on collaborative systems by leading experts in the field.

This book contains the proceeding of the 26th International Conference on Production Research (ICPR). ICPR is a biennial conference that has been hosted for more than a half century. It is regarded worldwide as one of the leading conferences of production research, industrial engineering, and related subjects. The acute impact of the pandemic on human lives is spurring further research and advances: because modern life relies on production and supply networks. The future of production calls for transformative research exploiting the possibilities of artificial intelligence in particular to respond to the challenge of sustainability. This book is of interest to researchers, students, and professionals in industry.

Inventory control is an essential task in production management. An effective inventory control can significantly reduce the holding cost and hence, total production cost. Selecting and implementing a suitable production control system plays an important role in inventory reduction and performance improvement of a production system. Since the introduction of Toyota’s just-in-time philosophy, pull control systems have been adopted by numerous companies worldwide, both in the manufacturing and service sectors. This book provides some recent developments in production management and presents modeling and analysis tools for pull production control systems. It contributes by combining theoretical findings and case study analysis results with a practical and contemporary view on how to effectively manage and control production systems. Each chapter in this book focuses on a specific topic in production control systems, allowing readers to identify the chapters that relate to their interests. More specifically, the book is presented in three sections. The first section focuses on the design and implementation aspects of the pull production control systems, as well as performance evaluation approaches for pull systems. The second section presents a recent and comprehensive literature review. Three different case studies on implementation of pull production control systems are presented in the last section. This book can be used as an essential source for students and scholars who need to specifically study the pull control systems. Since the superiority of these systems is controversial, the book can also provide an interesting and informative read for practitioners, managers, and employees who need to deepen their knowledge on pull production management systems.