The storage yard is the operational and geographical centre of most seaport container terminals. Therefore, it is of particular importance for the whole terminal system and plays a major role for trade and transport flows. One of the latest trends in container-storage operations is the automated Rail-Mounted-Gantry-Crane system, which offers dense stacking, and offers low labour costs. This book investigates whether the operational performance of container terminals is influenced by the design of these storage systems and to what extent the performance is affected by the terminal's framework conditions, and discusses the strategies applied for container stacking and crane scheduling. A detailed simulation model is presented to compare the performance effects of alternative storage designs, innovative planning strategies, and other influencing factors. The results have useful implications future research, practical terminal planning and optimisation.

Since SAP is emphasizing recent developments in operations management in its SCM initiative, this book describes the methodological background from the viewpoint of a company using SAP systems. It describes order processing both in an intra- and interorganizational perspective, as well as future developments and system enhancements.

The EU's General Data Protection Regulation created the position of corporate Data Protection Officer (DPO), who is empowered to ensure the organization is compliant with all aspects of the new data protection regime. Organizations must now appoint and designate a DPO. The specific definitions and building blocks of the data protection regime are enhanced by the new General Data Protection Regulation and therefore the DPO will be very active in passing the message and requirements of the new data protection regime throughout the organization. This book explains the roles and responsiblies of the DPO, as well as highlights the potential cost of getting data protection wrong.

In the industrial design and engineering field, product lifecycle, product development, design process, Design for X, etc., constitute only a small sample of terms related to the generation of quality products. Current best practices cover widely different knowledge domains in trying to exploit them to the best advantage, individually and in synergy. Moreover, standards become increasingly more helpful in interfacing these domains and they are enlarging their coverage by going beyond the single domain boundary to connect closely different aspects of the product lifecycle. The degree of complexity of each domain makes impossible the presence of multipurpose competencies and skills; there is almost always the need for interacting and integrating people and resources in some effective way. These are the best conditions for the birth of theories, methodologies, models, architectures, systems, procedures, algorithms, software packages, etc., in order to help in some way the synergic work of all the actors involved in the product lifecycle. This brief introduction contains all the main themes developed in this book, starting from the analysis of the design and engineering scenarios to arrive at the development and adoption of a framework for product design and process reconfiguration. In fact, the core consists of the description of the Design GuideLines Collaborative Framework (DGLs-CF), a methodological approach that generates a collaborative environment where designers, manufacturers and inspectors can find the right and effective meeting point to share their knowledge and skills in order to contribute to the optimum generation of quality products.

"Dynamic Modelling for Supply Chain Management" discusses how to streamline complex supply chain management by making the most of the growing number of tools available. The reader is introduced to the basic foundations from which to develop intelligent management strategies, as the book characterises the process and framework of modern supply chain management. The author reviews supply chain management concepts and singles out important factors in the management of modern complex production systems. Particular attention is paid to modern simulation modelling tools that can be used to support supply chain planning and control. The book explores the operational and financial impacts of various potential problems, offering a compilation of practical models to help identify solutions. A useful reference on supply chain management, "Dynamic Modelling for Supply Chain Management" will benefit engineers and professionals working in a variety of areas, from supply chain management to product engineering.

One of the most critical issues facing supply chain managers in today's globalized and highly uncertain business environments is how to deal proactively with disruptions that might affect the complicated supply networks characterizing modern enterprises. Supply Chain Disruptions: Theory and Practice of Managing Risk presents a state-of the-art perspective on this particular issue. Supply Chain Disruptions: Theory and Practice of Managing Risk demonstrates that effective management of supply disruptions necessitates both strategic and tactical measures - the former involving optimal design of supply networks; the latter involving inventory, finance and demand management. It shows that managers ought to use all available levers at their disposal throughout the supply network - like sourcing and pricing strategies, providing financial subsidies, encouraging information sharing and incentive alignment between supply chain partners - in order to tackle supply disruptions. The editors combine up-to-date academic research with the latest operational risk management practices used in industry to demonstrate how theoreticians and practitioners can learn from each other. As well as providing a wealth of knowledge for students and professors who are interested in pursuing research or teaching courses in the rapidly growing area of supply chain risk management, Supply Chain Disruptions: Theory and Practice of Managing Risk also acts as a ready reference for practitioners who are interested in understanding the theoretical underpinnings of effective supply disruption management techniques.

Industries and particularly the manufacturing sector have been facing difficult challenges in a context of socio-economic turbulence characterized by complexity as well as the speed of change in causal interconnections in the socio-economic environment. In order to respond to these challenges companies are forced to seek new technological and organizational solutions. In this context two main characteristics emerge as key properties of a modern automation system - agility and distribution. Agility because systems need not only to be flexible in order to adjust to a number of a-priori defined scenarios, but rather must cope with unpredictability. Distribution in the sense that automation and business processes are becoming distributed and supported by collaborative networks. Emerging Solutions for Future Manufacturing Systems includes the papers selected for the BASYS'04 conference, which was held in Vienna, Austria in September 2004 and sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP).

Industrial Product-Service Systems (IPS2), which is defined as "an integrated industrial product and service offering that delivers value in use," has expanded rapidly over the last decade. IPS2 has allowed us to achieve both high added value and high productivity and has enriched our QOL by improving the performance of products and services. We are now struggling with many awkward issues related to sustainability, but IPS2 is expected to be the "philosopher's stone" for solving these issues. Following the pattern of conferences held in Cranfield in 2009, Linkoeping in 2010, and Braunschweig in 2011, the fourth International CIRP Conference on Industrial Product-Service Systems, held on November 8-9, 2012, in Tokyo, will cover various aspects of IPS2. Topics planned for this year's conference reflect the latest IPS2 information in both the natural sciences and humanities and include case studies from various industries. IPS2 is still a relatively new field, so it is important to keep track of the entire context in order to promote more cross-sectional cooperation between multimodal fields and disciplines. The fourth International CIRP Conference on Industrial Product-Service Systems will serve as a vital platform for such collaborations and the discussion of new scientific ideas.

To compete in today's volatile market with rapidly changing consumer tastes and erce competition, companies in the manufacturing and service industries are - ploying new mechanisms to increase sales, market shares, and pro ts. As an - fective mechanism to segment a market comprising of consumers with different needs, preferences, and willingness-to-pay, many rms have used product (or s- vice) variety with different price points to serve different segments of the market, see Ho (1998). Ideally, the price of each of these products (or services) targets a particular segment of customers. For example, airlines often use different terms of sales (refundable/non-refundable, upgradable/non-upgradable, direct/connecting ight, etc. ) to sell economy class tickets at different prices. Likewise, retailers - ten sell the same product at different prices in different channels (company's own web site, dealers' web sites, or company's physical stores) or at different times (- fore, during, and after the selling season), see Talluri and van Ryzin (2005). Ample academic literature in Operations Management and other areas considered these strategies. However, as consumers become more knowledgeable about the product, pricing, organizational and operational policies that the companies deploy for pr- ucts and services, their purchasing begins to change dramatically. In the academic Operations Management literature, consumer demand is often assumedtobe exogenous so that demand functions are usually modeled as well de- ned and exogenously speci ed functions of price and/or other product attributes such as quality.

This book constitutes revised selected papers from the 4th International Conference on Operations Research and Enterprise Systems, ICORES 2015, held in Lisbon, Portugal, in January 2015. The 14 papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selection from a total of 89 submissions. They were organized in topical sections named: methodologies and technologies; and applications.

Enterprise Networks and Logistics for Agile Manufacturing presents a focused collection of quality chapters on state-of-the-art research efforts in the areas of enterprise networks and logistics, as well as their practical applications towards agile manufacturing. With the increasing decentralisation of manufacturing systems and outsourcing of processes, more robust and practical approaches and systems are needed to support agile manufacturing operations. Enterprise Networks and Logistics for Agile Manufacturing consists of two major sections: the first presents a broad-based review of the key areas of research in enterprise networks and logistics; the second focuses on an in-depth treatment of a particular methodology or system relevant to the book title. Examples include: * sustainable green supply chain; * value creation and supplier selection; * extended enterprise network management; * reverse logistics; and * innovative supply chain systems. The authors take into account the need to pose intellectual challenges while retaining a balanced approach in terms of scope versus depth and theory versus applications. Enterprise Networks and Logistics for Agile Manufacturing can be beneficial to academic researchers, practicing engineers and managers, and graduate students with an interest in any manufacturing sectors. It can enable them to better understand the present state and future trends of research in this important area, in order to position themselves strategically for future challenges as we enter the era of agile and distributed manufacturing.

To meet and adapt to the current and future trends and issues in technology and society, the science committee of The German Academic Society for Production Engineering (WGP) continues to define future topics for production technology. These themes represent not only the key focus for the scientific work of the WGP, but also the central themes of the first annual conference in June 2011, whose paper is publically available in this volume. Such themes, including electric mobility, medical technology, lightweight construction, and resource efficiency, as well as mass production ability have all been identified as future, large-scale, and long-term drivers of change. Future trends influence changes sustainably and fundamentally; they permeate society, technology, economics, and value systems and have an effect in virtually all areas of life. The WGP has, as part of its research, established for itself the goal of not only observing these emerging changes, but also of supervising and influencing their development in order to ensure steady progress, secure sustainability, and shape the future.

Environmental awareness is driven mainly by the scarcity of natural resources and by more strict legal regulations. The modern enterprise policy should look at the relations between economic actions and ecological consequences. Ecoproduction is a new business approach which focuses on the most efficient and productive use of raw materials and natural resources in order to minimize footprints on the natural environment. This book aims to provide the state- of- the- art as well as new ideas of the environmental conscious operations management. The contributors present in the individual chapters problems related to: eco-friendly production technologies; recycling and waste reduction. Scope of topics discussed in this book covers also pollution prevention, energy efficiency. The authors describe problems of information management in complex systems

Value stream design is increasingly asserting itself as the key approach for production optimization, but there has never been a detailed and systematic presentation of the value stream method before - a gap that has now been filled by this book. The author provides an easily comprehensible code of practice for the effective analysis of production processes, product family-oriented factory structuring and the target-oriented development of an ideal future state of production. The book plausibly conveys ten design guidelines for production optimization with corresponding equations, descriptive illustrations and industrial examples well-proven in numerous industrial projects. It addresses the professional public, practitioners wishing to avoid waste and systematically improve their factories' value streams, and students - tomorrow's practitioners. In contrast to other publications, this book complements the value stream analysis and its unique compact visualization of the entire production process by a detailed illustration of the information flow and a comprehensive discussion of the operator balance chart. The "traditional" concept of value stream design is significantly expanded with a view to its applicability in complex productions by way of methodological innovation and further development concerning campaign formation, value stream management and technological process integration. The method is embedded in a comprehensive procedural approach for factory planning, starting with the definition of the desired lean production goals.

Operational Research (OR) deals with the use of advanced analytical methods to support better decision-making. It is multidisciplinary with strong links to management science, decision science, computer science and many application areas such as engineering, manufacturing, commerce and healthcare. In the study of emergent behaviour in complex adaptive systems, Agent-based Modelling & Simulation (ABMS) is being used in many different domains such as healthcare, energy, evacuation, commerce, manufacturing and defense. This collection of articles presents a convenient introduction to ABMS with papers ranging from contemporary views to representative case studies. The OR Essentials series presents a unique cross-section of high quality research work fundamental to understanding contemporary issues and research across a range of Operational Research (OR) topics. It brings together some of the best research papers from the esteemed Operational Research Society and its associated journals, also published by Palgrave Macmillan.

Integrating ideas from the fields of systems science and knowledge science, Knowledge and Systems Science: Enabling Systemic Knowledge Synthesis shows how to create and justify various pieces of knowledge systemically. Written by one of the foremost experts in this area, the book presents approaches for the systemic integration of knowledge, which can help solve complex problems today and in the future. After discussing issues of systemic knowledge synthesis, the book emphasizes the importance of the human dimension in problem solving and introduces a new integrated systems approach called the informed systems approach. It also covers mathematical information aggregation techniques. Moving on to knowledge science concepts and approaches, the book discusses organizational and academic knowledge creation models and considers a sociological interpretation of the knowledge integration system. To support knowledge science as an academic discipline, the author explains how to justify knowledge and summarizes a theory of knowledge synthesis (construction) systems. Through case studies of technology archiving, academic research evaluation, demand forecasting of perishable foods, and other real-world concerns, this book demonstrates the use of new knowledge-based methods in addressing a variety of complex issues. It also illustrates the importance of acquiring a systemic view through trained intuition.

Christian Furber investigates the useful application of semantic technologies for the area of data quality management. Based on a literature analysis of typical data quality problems and typical activities of data quality management processes, he develops the Semantic Data Quality Management framework as the major contribution of this thesis. The SDQM framework consists of three components that are evaluated in two different use cases. Moreover, this thesis compares the framework to conventional data quality software. Besides the framework, this thesis delivers important theoretical findings, namely a comprehensive typology of data quality problems, ten generic data requirement types, a requirement-centric data quality management process, and an analysis of related work.

The continuous search for efficiency gains and the goal of attaining a sustainable competitive advantage have steadily increased the volume of goods and services procured globally from third party vendors. In this context, named as "the next wave of globalization", the offshoring phenomenon has stimulated research and political debates. With the rise of services offshoring, international value chain disaggregation for services has reached a formerly unknown scale. Also, it is increasingly complex transactions, requiring a higher degree of qualification, which are becoming subject to offshoring as well. The Offshoring Challenge: Strategic Design and Innovation for Tomorrow's Organization features selected chapters by an international research community on the topic of offshoring. All potential business models from offshore outsourcing to third party providers are covered, from cooperative arrangements to internal organizational set-ups including captive offshore centers. Contributions have significant insights regarding: the increasing offshoring of knowledge-intensive services; the offshoring process; business models incorporating offshoring; the hidden costs of offshoring; and the administration of offshoring activities within firms The book is aimed at a broad audience of scholars, students and practitioners in the fields of strategy, international business and operations management.

The book provides an introduction to shipping in all its aspects. It is a valuable source of information for students of traditional maritime law as well as for those who seek to understand maritime and shipping services on a global scale. The text includes information and analytical content on national and international practices in shipping, including the age-old dichotomy between freedom in international shipping and the persistent demands of states to control specific maritime areas, as well as the tension between, on the one hand, the desire on the part of sovereign states to regulate and protect their shipping interests and, on the other, the abiding concern and unquestioned right of the international community to regulate the global shipping industry effectively, in order to ensure maritime safety, protection of the environment and fair competition.

Risk analysis is crucial in stochastic supply chain models. Over the past few years, the pace has quickened for research attempting to explore risk analysis issues in supply chain management problems, while the majority of recent papers focus on conceptual framework or computational numerical analysis. Pioneered by Nobel laureate Markowitz in the 1950s, the mean-risk (MR) formulation became a fundamental theory for risk management in finance. Despite the significance and popularity of MR-related approaches in finance, their applications in studying multi-echelon supply chain management problems have only been seriously explored in recent years. While the MR approach has already been shown to be useful in conducting risk analysis in stochastic supply chain models, there is no comprehensive reference source that provides the state-of-the-art findings on this important model for supply chain management. Thus it is significant to have a book that reviews and extends the MR related works for supply chain risk analysis. This book is organized into five chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the topic, offers a timely review of various related areas, and explains why the MR approach is important for conducting supply chain risk analysis. Chapter 2 examines the single period inventory model with the mean-variance and mean-semi-deviation approaches. Extensive discussions on the efficient frontiers are also reported. Chapter 3 explores the infinite horizon multi-period inventory model with a mean-variance approach. Chapter 4 investigates the supply chain coordination problem with a versatile target sales rebate contract and a risk averse retailer possessing the mean-variance optimization objective. Chapter 5 concludes the book and discusses various promising future research directions and extensions. Every chapter can be taken as a self-contained article, and the notation within each chapter is consistently employed.

This book deals with transportation processes denoted as the Real-time Distribution of Perishable Goods (RDOPG). The book presents three contributions that are made to the field of transportation. First, a model considering the minimization of customer inconvenience is formulated. Second, a pro-active real-time control approach is proposed. Stochastic knowledge is generated from past request information by a new forecasting approach and is used in the pro-active approach to guide vehicles to request-likely areas before real requests arrive there. Various computational results are presented to show that in many cases the pro-active approach is able to achieve significantly improved results. Moreover, a measure for determining the structural quality of request data sets is also proposed. The third contribution of this book is a method that is presented for considering driver inconvenience aspects which arise from vehicle en-route diversion activities. Specifically, this method makes it possible to restrict the number of performed vehicle en-route diversion activities.

The book presents several highly selected cases in emerging countries where the production-logistics systems have been optimized or improved with the support of mathematical models. The book contains a selection of papers from the 5th International Conference on Production Research (ICPR) Americas 2010 held on July 21-23 in Bogota, Colombia. The main topic of the conference was "Technologies in Logistics and Manufacturing for Small and Medium Enterprises" which is perfectly aligned with the realities of emerging countries. The book presents methodologies and case studies related to a wide variety of production/logistics systems such as diary production, auto parts, steel and iron production, and financial services. It is focused but not limited to Small/Medium Enterprises.

"Logistic Core Operations with SAP" not only provides an overview of core logistics processes and functionality-it also shows how SAP's Business Suite covers logistic core operations, what features are supported, and which systems can be used to implement end-to-end processes in the following logistic core disciplines: Procurement, Distribution, Transportation, Warehouse Logistics and Inventory Management, and Compliance and Reporting. In this context the authors not only explain their integration, the organizational set-up, and master data, but also which solution fits best for a particular business need. This book serves as a solid foundation for understanding SAP software. No matter whether you are a student or a manager involved in an SAP implementation, the authors go far beyond traditional function and feature descriptions, helping you ask the right questions, providing answers, and making recommendations. The book assists you in understanding SAP terminology, concepts and technological components as well as their closed-loop integration. Written in a clear, straight-forward style and using practical examples, it contains valuable tips, illustrative screenshots and flowcharts, as well as best practices-showing how business requirements are mapped into software functionality.

Shared value not only offers a new concept to face the current business environmental dynamics but it also responds to macro-economic challenges. The creation of more value than mere profits can lead to a sustainable competitive advantage. Thus, it offers huge economic potential and presents a new challenge to corporate optimisation endeavours. Julia Schmitt draws on current sustainability and innovation research approaches in order to provide a deeper understanding of the shared value concept as a differentiation strategy for small and medium sized enterprises. Her empirical study on the German fair trade and organic fashion industry provides insights into possible configurations of a shared value business strategy. The awareness of these findings is essential to make a shared value strategy lead to business success.

A good understanding of Chinese data gathering methods and reporting structures is invaluable to anyone with business or investment plans in China. This book tackles the veracity of Chinese statistics, raising awareness of abuses and problems in real-life examples that have occurred, and provides practical strategies to reduce risk in the future.