Development projects that span different disciplines and groups often face problems in establishing a shared understanding of the project's purpose, deliverables, and direction. Creating Shared Understanding in Product Development Teams: How to 'Build the Beginning' uses research-based cases from TC Electronic, The Red Cross, Daimler AG, and Copenhagen Living Lab to demonstrate one approach to this problem complex. It shows how prototyping specific physical artifacts can function as drivers and focal points for creating the much needed shared understanding. Encompassing both the participant's and the facilitator's point of view, Creating Shared Understanding in Product Development Teams: How to 'Build the Beginning' provides both practical examples and theoretical explanation for the process of creating shared understanding. This book provides a toolbox and a practical guide for planning, executing, and facilitating workshops. The result is a clear outline of how to facilitate the creation of physical artifacts that enables and stimulates communication between team members, users, and stakeholders in order to create shared understanding of projects

This book provides a road-map to successful implementation of strategic outsourcing programmes, providing down-to-earth approaches to outsourcing decision making and programme management, based on a grass-roots understanding. A practitioner-focused book for business leaders and managers providing a holistic view of strategic outsourcing, covering the three essential pillars of success: risks, rewards and relationships. The author shows how business leaders can transform organisational business models, structures and mind-sets, taking the reader on a journey through the book's fifteen chapters, helping the reader truly grasp: the drivers for change as a result of globalisation and convergence and their impact on organisational strategies; how outsourcing can transform the various processes and functions of an organisation; the impact outsourcing is having on various industry vertical sectors; the eight foundations of successful strategic outsourcing programmes, which when combined with strategic decision-making knowledge, guarantees that organisations embarking on the strategic outsourcing journey, derive the transformational benefits they seek.

This contributed volume collects research papers, presented at the CIRP Sponsored Conference Robust Manufacturing Control: Innovative and Interdisciplinary Approaches for Global Networks (RoMaC 2012, Jacobs University, Bremen, Germany, June 18th-20th 2012). These research papers present the latest developments and new ideas focusing on robust manufacturing control for global networks. Today, Global Production Networks (i.e. the nexus of interconnected material and information flows through which products and services are manufactured, assembled and distributed) are confronted with and expected to adapt to: sudden and unpredictable large-scale changes of important parameters which are occurring more and more frequently, event propagation in networks with high degree of interconnectivity which leads to unforeseen fluctuations, and non-equilibrium states which increasingly characterize daily business. These multi-scale changes deeply influence logistic target achievement and call for robust planning and control strategies. Therefore, understanding the cause and effects of multi-scale changes in production networks is of major interest. New methodological approaches from different science disciplines are promising to contribute to a new level comprehension of network processes. Unconventional methods from biology, perturbation ecology or auditory display are gaining increasing importance as they are confronted with similar challenges. Advancements from the classical disciplines such as mathematics, physics and engineering are also becoming of continuing importance.

Risk management has become an essential issue in supply chain management, from the modeling of the decision maker's risk preference, and the studies on uncertain elements such as demand, supply, price, lead time, etc., to the consideration of more practical background including cash flow constraints, inventory financing and delayed cash payment. In this new volume, the authors provide a framework to study the interaction of various factors related to risk and their influence on supply chain management.

The scope of areas covered includes operations management, decision analysis, and business administration. This book focuses on several key issues of risk management in supply chains. Specifically, an analysis framework is presented for studying the supplier selection problem and identifying the optimal sourcing strategy in a one-retailer two-suppliers supply chain with random yields. The optimal sourcing strategy of a retailer and the pricing strategies of two suppliers under an environment of supply disruption are investigated. Besides, the authors study the dynamic inventory control problems with cash flow constraints, financing decisions as well as delayed cash payment. In addition, originating from the annual international iron ore price negotiation, the authors model the bargaining process to deal with the risk of wholesale price in the game analysis context.

Within the three perspectives of risk management in supply chains, the modeling of decision maker's risk preference has been extensively studied and many results have been obtained to guide the practice. However, the analysis on the other two kinds of topics is still in its infancy, and needs more efforts from academia. It is thus the ambition and innovation for this book to contribute on risk management in supply chains in the following ways:

(1) characterizing the explicit sourcing strategy (i.e., single sourcing or dual sourcing) to deal with supply disruption risk;

(2) introducing the concepts of financial risk measurement by incorporating cash flow constraints, inventory financing and delayed cash payment into inventory management models; and

(3) providing insights for the iron ore price negotiation to help steel manufacturers handle the risk of price increase.

Environmentally Improved Production Processes and Products introduces students at institutes of higher education, company management, civil servants, professional designers and process engineers to the field of environmentally oriented product and process improvement. The book deals with improvements that are integrated into processes and products. It differs from other books currently available in that it covers both production and products. It is also different because both social/economic and technical aspects of the improvement of products and production processes are dealt with, rather than the more usual focus either on technical or on social and/or economic aspects. Another characteristic is the wide range of production processes and products covered, ranging from bakeries to olive growing, from nuclear power plants to glues, from office chairs to breweries, and from television sets to steel plants. Geographical coverage ranges from Sweden to China and from India to Italy and the USA.

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.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Industrial Applications of Holonic and Multi-Agent Systems, HoloMAS 2013, held in Prague, Czech Republic, in August 2013, in conjunction with DEXA 2013. The 25 revised full papers presented together with two invited talks were carefully reviewed and selected from 37 submissions. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: MAS in automation and manufacturing; design, simulation and validation; MAS in transportation systems; industrial applications; and new trends.

Analysis, Control and Optimization of Complex Dynamic Systems gathers in a single volume a spectrum of complex dynamic systems related papers written by experts in their fields, and strongly representative of current research trends. Complex systems present important challenges, in great part due to their sheer size which makes it difficult to grasp their dynamic behavior, optimize their operations, or study their reliability. Yet, we live in a world where, due to increasing inter-dependencies and networking of systems, complexity has become the norm. With this in mind, the volume comprises two parts. The first part is dedicated to a spectrum of complex problems of decision and control encountered in the area of production and inventory systems. The second part is dedicated to large scale or multi-agent system problems occurring in other areas of engineering such as telecommunication and electric power networks, as well as more generic context.

In an age of increasing complexity, diversification and change, customers expect services that cater to their needs and to their tastes. Emotional Engineering describes how their expectations can be satisfied and managed throughout the product life cycle, if producers focus their attention more on emotion. Emotion plays a crucial role in value recognition, but it is also important for team work, which extends beyond human-human to human-machine and human-environment to enable people to cope with frequently and extensively changing situations. Emotional Engineering proposes the development of services beyond product realization and the creation of value on a lifetime, not just a one-off, basis. As emotion is very much multidisciplinary, chapters cover a wide range of topics that can be applied to product development, including: * emotional design in the virtual environment; * shape design and modeling; * emotional robot competence; and * affective driving. Emotional Engineering is intended to provide readers with a holistic view of its research and applications, enabling them to make strategic decisions on how they can go further beyond product realization. It is recommended for all pioneers in industry, academia and government, who are trying to work with their customers to create value.

In recognition of Professor Ikujiro Nonaka's contribution to the field of Knowledge Management this book, forming part of The Nonaka Series on Knowledge and Innovation from Palgrave Macmillan, deals with a variety of aspects of the Knowledge Management (KM) theory and the knowledge-based view of the firm.

Strategic Decision Making in Modern Manufacturing introduces and explains the AMBIT (Advanced Manufacturing Business ImplemenTation) approach, which has been developed to bridge the gap between strategic management considerations and the operational effects of technology investment decisions on the manufacturing organisation, so that the likely impact of new manufacturing technology and/or programme implementations can be evaluated, anticipated and accurately predicted. The AMBIT approach focuses specifically on the non-financial aspects of such investment decisions and offers an approach that allows a manager, or more frequently a management team, to understand the impacts of a new technology or a new programme on the manufacturing organisation in terms of manufacturing performance.

Quality Management in Reverse Logistics intends to develop, collect, examine and evaluate a number of quality management (QM) tools and techniques, which can be applied in practice in order to understand, review and improve any closed-loop supply chain process. In other words, the book aims to examine the existing relationship between various well-developed and thoroughly studied quality issues, such as QM, quality assurance, standardization of processes and statistical quality control and the emerging research area of reverse logistics. Quality Management in Reverse Logistics contains modeling and quantitative methods that could be used by practitioners and academics in the reverse logistics industry, as well as a thorough description of QM tools and techniques. The book leads the potential reader to broaden their scope of thinking and acting in the new, promising area of reverse logistics, where QM can be applied.

Reflecting the enhance role of materials/logistics management in today's competitive business environment, this new edition provides a fundamental understanding of the subject and its fuction in all sectors of the economy. It examines the vital area of customer service and shows how to implement a world class, integrated materials/logistics system that control activities starting with the supplier, through the company operation, and concluding with the satisfied customer. Thoroughly revised and updated, the Second Edition features new chapters on Just-In-Time and automation. Additional discussions include achieving world class competitiveness, ISO 9000 and organizational trends. Theoretical and practical examples of materials/logistics management are integrated with numerous real-life examples. This Second Edition of Total Materials Management presents accessible approaches for enhancing materials management/logistics, enabling personnel in purchasing, warehousing, physical distribution, materials handling, inventory control and production control to capitalize on vast opportunities for savings. This book is also an important resource for students in courses on materials/logistics management.

Business process re-engineering tools offer techniques to model the enterprise and identify opportunities to make change. This book examines the approaches, tools and techniques which support redesign of the enterprise to achieve world class performance.

The current, second edition of this book reflects the 15 years of practical experience with the Six Sigma+Lean toolbox. It is a comprehensive collection of all the tools necessary for project work and running workshops when improving processes. All tools have been illustrated in a clear and comprehensible structure with examples and tips for applying the tools included. The chronology corresponds to the procedure of an improvement project comprising the steps D(efine), M(easure), A(nalyze), I(mprove) and C(ontrol). The most important innovation of this edition is the fact that it guides the user to select the appropriate tool using questions. The paradigm change from a Toolset to a Mindset has proven worthwhile in project work and ensures that corporate problems are addressed with the goal of achieving efficient solutions rather than having a large quantity of perfect tools to choose from. The efficiency factor of work in projects and workshops will therefore improve significantly. Through this paradigm change, connected with its unique structure, this book provides an effective tool not only for project and workshop leaders but also for the executives/sponsors involved who will be guided to solve the given task formulation quickly and in a sustainable way.

RFID is a key technology for Europe. Today there is a noticeable shift away from the days of RFID pilot projects, and towards a time where organisations are looking to RFID to drive efficiency and innovation. Although Europe is a leading player in the world of RFID technology, several challenges which are preventing RFID from reaching its full potential need to be addressed.

To further the advancement of this technology, coordinated European efforts need to be promoted, specifically in the areas of standardisation, user guidelines, legislation, technology development, and research and development. These themes have been analysed, and clear recommendations have been derived, stating what the different RFID stakeholders can do to support the technology. This book is aimed at decision makers in all fields of society, e.g. in companies, politics, business associations, etc.

The publication is a summary of the results of the coordination action CE RFID - "Coordinating European Efforts in the RFID Value Chain" - and is a network of European RFID technology providers, vendors and end users. It aims at promoting the use of RFID technology and supporting further development. The project was funded by the European Commission under the 6th Framework Programme.

Understand common security pitfalls and discover weak points in your organization's data security, and what you can do to combat them. This book includes the best approaches to managing mobile devices both on your local network and outside the office. Data breaches, compliance fines, and distribution of personally identifiable information (PII) without encryption or safeguards place businesses of all types at risk. In today's electronic world, you must have a secure digital footprint that is based on business processes that are designed to protect information. This book is written for business owners, chief information security officers (CISO), and IT managers who want to securely configure Office 365. You will follow the Microsoft cybersecurity road map through a progressive tutorial on how to configure the security services in Office 365 to protect and manage your business. What You'll Learn Manage security with the Azure Security Center and the Office 365 Compliance Center Configure information protection for document and electronic communications Monitor security for your business in the cloud Understand Mobile Application Management (MAM) and Mobile Device Management (MDM) Prevent data loss in Office 365 Configure and manage the compliance manager tools for NIST and GDPR Who This Book Is For IT managers and compliance and cybersecurity officers who have responsibility for compliance and data security in their business

This book contains the refereed proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Business Process Modeling, Development and Support (BPMDS 2013) and the 18th International Conference on Exploring Modeling Methods for Systems Analysis and Design (EMMSAD 2013), held together with the 25th International Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering (CAiSE 2013) in Valencia, Spain, in June 2013. The 15 full papers, two experience reports, and three idea papers accepted for BPMDS were selected from 54 submissions and cover a wide spectrum of issues related to business process development, modeling, and support. They are grouped into sections on innovative representations for knowledge-intensive processes; business process management in practice; analysis of business process models; model-based business process analysis; flexible business process management; improvement and change patterns; and process model repositories . The 10 full and 2 short papers accepted for EMMSAD were chosen from 27 submissions and focus on exploring, evaluating, and enhancing current information modeling methods and methodologies. They are grouped in sections on advanced modelling; capturing design knowledge; method engineering; modelling process; specialized modelling; and modelling experiences.

MRP II explores the principles of MRP II systems, and how the manufacturer can utilize and institute them effectively for maximum profit. The book will serve as a valuable professional reference for manufacturers instituting or utilizing an MRP II scheduling system. It will also be a valuable teaching tool for the 2- and 4- year college or university programs, a reference for APICS certification review, and continuing education programs. There are examples throughout, as well as extensive end-of-chapter case studies and their solutions. A glossary of terms is also included.

This symposium was born as a research forum to present and discuss original, rigorous and significant contributions on Artificial Intelligence-based (AI) solutions-with a strong, practical logic and, preferably, with empirical applications-developed to aid the management of organizations in multiple areas, activities, processes and problem-solving; what we call Management Intelligent Systems (MiS).

This volume presents the proceedings of these activities in a collection of contributions with many original approaches. They address diverse Management and Business areas of application such as decision support, segmentation of markets, CRM, product design, service personalization, organizational design, e-commerce, credit scoring, workplace integration, innovation management, business database analysis, workflow management, location of stores, etc. A wide variety of AI techniques have been applied to these areas such as multi-objective optimization and evolutionary algorithms, classification algorithms, ant algorithms, fuzzy rule-based systems, intelligent agents, Web mining, neural networks, Bayesian models, data warehousing, rough sets, etc. This volume also includes a track focused on the latest research on Intelligent Systems and Technology Enhanced Learning (iTEL), as well as its impacts for learners and institutions. It aims at bringing together researchers and developers from both the professional and the academic realms to present, discuss and debate the latest advances on intelligent systems and technology-enhanced learning

The symposium was organized by the Soft Computing and Intelligent Information Systems Research Group (http: //sci2s.ugr.es) of the University of Granada (Spain) and the Bioinformatics, Intelligent System and Educational Technology Research Group (http: // bisite.usal.es/) of the University of Salamanca (Spain). The present edition was held in Salamanca (Spain) on May 22-24, 2013.

OR, Defence and Security presents eleven papers, originally published in the Journal of the Operational Research Society and the Journal of Simulation, which exemplify important themes and topics in Operational Research (OR), as applied to modern-day defense and security issues. Topics range from frontline OR in a peace-support operation to new developments in combat modelling, and from the logistics of overseas intervention to defence planning at the top level. Also included are examples of applications addressing insurgency and terrorism. Edited by Dr Roger A. Forder, who had a distinguished career in OR in the UK Ministry of Defence, he has also written an authoritative introductory chapter which sets the papers in the context of the global strategic environment as it has evolved since the end of the Cold War. The OR Essentials series presents a unique cross-section of high quality research work fundamental to understanding contemporary issues and research in 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.

This book brings together experts from research and practice. It includes the design of innovative Robot Process Automation (RPA) concepts, the discussion of related research fields (e.g., Artificial Intelligence, AI), the evaluation of existing software products, and findings from real-life implementation projects. Similar to the substitution of physical work in manufacturing (blue collar automation), Robotic Process Automation tries to substitute intellectual work in office and administration processes with software robots (white-collar automation). The starting point for the development of RPA was the observation that - despite the use of process-oriented enterprise systems (such as ERP, CRM and BPM systems) - additional manual activities are still indispensable today. In the RPA approach, these manual activities are learned and automated by software robots, either by defining rules or by observing manual activities. RPA is related to business process management, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. Tools for RPA originated from dedicated stand-alone software. Today, RPA functionalities are also integrated into elaborated process management suites. From a conceptual perspective, RPA can be structured into input components (sensors in the wide sense), an intelligence center, and output components (actuators in the wide sense). From a strategic perspective, the impact of RPA can be related to the support of existing tasks, the complete substitution of human activities, and the innovation of processes as well as business models. At present, high expectations are related to the use of RPA in the improvement of software-supported business processes. Manual activities are learned and automated by software robots that interact with existing applications via the presentation layer. In combination with artificial intelligence (AI) as well as innovative interfaces (e. g., voice recognition) RPA creates a novel level of automation for office and administration processes. Its benefit potential reaches a return on investment (ROI) up-to 800% that is documented in various case studies.

4th Party Cyber Logistics For Air Cargo is a technical discussion for researchers and practitioners to understand the issues, models, and future directions of air cargo logistics in the cyber era. This book introduces the many aspects of planning and control of air cargo logistics processes in an e-Business environment. The authors approach this subject matter from the perspective of the logistics service providers. There is tremendous potential of achieving industry-wide collaboration between agents of the air cargo industry via an e-Business community platform. At the same time, there are many intellectually challenging problems regarding the architecture, ownership, decision support environment, and knowledge management of such an e-Business platform.
The authors provide an evolutionary view to conceptualize the developments of websites where e-Commerce activities and e-Business activities co-exist. Four Web eras are detailed, providing an impetus for the development of frameworks of an e-Business platform for air cargo logistics, or e-Platform. The conceptual framework captures the new elements in cyber logistics and what the framework can do for the industry.

"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.

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.