In the competitive business arena companies must continually strive to create new and better products faster, more efficiently, and more cost effectively than their competitors to gain and keep the competitive advantage. Computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided engineering (CAE), and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) are now the industry standa

Manufacturing systems have become increasingly complex over recent years. This volume presents a collection of chapters which reflect the recent developments of probabilistic models and methodologies that have either been motivated by manufacturing systems research or been demonstrated to have significant potential in such research. The editor has invited a number of leading experts to present detailed expositions of specific topics. These include: Jackson networks, fluid models, diffusion and strong approximations, the GSMP framework, stochastic convexity and majorization, perturbation analysis, scheduling via Brownian models, and re-entrant lines and dynamic scheduling. Each chapter has been written with graduate students in mind, and several have been used in graduate courses that teach the modeling and analysis of manufacturing systems.

Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS) involve substituting machines capable of performing a wide and redefinable variety of tasks for machines dedicated to the performance of specific tasks. FMS can also be programmed to handle new products, thus extending the machines' life cycles. Thus they represent a change from "standardized goods produced by customized machines" to "customized goods produced by standardized machines". This volume contains new and updated material in this field, and will be of great interest to researchers, managers and students concerned with problems related to flexible manufacturing systems.

The book’s contributing authors are among the top researchers in swarm intelligence. The book is intended to provide an overview of the subject to novices, and to offer researchers an update on interesting recent developments. Introductory chapters deal with the biological foundations, optimization, swarm robotics, and applications in new-generation telecommunication networks, while the second part contains chapters on more specific topics of swarm intelligence research.

Because of their mutually influencing interactions, information systems and modern manufacturing systems are intertwined. They have been so integrated that information systems have become an embedded and critical component of any effective manufacturing system. The impact of the increasing focus on information permeates throughout the manufacturing life cycle, from product conceptualization, design, process planning, all the way to production, order fulfilment, and customer services. For these reasons, it is critical that we study information-based manufacturing in its entirety, crossing the traditional functional boundaries and building as much synergy between Information Systems (IS), Information Technology (IT), and manufacturing as possible. This is the motivation for this book and, to this end, the purpose of this book is threefold: to establish an up-to-date interdisciplinary research framework for information-based manufacturing that builds on the research foundation from IS and IT and manufacturing research; to develop a forward-looking research agenda for information-based manufacturing for identifying future directions for research and applications; and to foster a joint academic and industrial research agenda in information systems and manufacturing by identifying the greatest synergy possible between academic research and industrial practices.