Every company considering or implementing the ISO or QS series of quality standards knows how important documentation and auditing are when it comes to certification. Documenting and Auditing for ISO 9000 and QS-9000 provides a comprehensive explanation of the documentation and audit process from both a practical and a theoretical point if view and leads readers through a detailed approach to preparing documentation and conducting an audit for a quality system in any organization. Each of the chapters and appendices are totally independent of each other and can be used as needed. Examples from a variety of industries illustrate the applicability of the standards and requirements. The need for sound documentation and auditing in the implementation process cannot be underestimated. Documenting and Auditing for ISO 9000 and QS-9000 will facilitate that process and help ensure a smooth registration or certification.

Detailed and comprehensive, "Waste Management in the Oil Industry" deals with strategies required to manage wastes emanating from oil exploration, development, refining, storage, and distribution in an ecologically friendly manner. Drawing on his extensive experience in the environmental engineering industry and pollution control, Dr. Aloysius A. Aguwa takes an in-depth look at the dilemmas facing the oil industry today.

Dr. Aguwa discusses key strategies needed to effectively control and manage waste associated with the oil and gas industry. These strategies can be grouped into the following categories:

Input substitution Product reformulation Production process redesign/modernization Improved operation and maintenance of production Recovery/recycle Waste treatment Drawings, figures, and tables also help support Dr. Aguwa's research. Those responsible for implementing environmentally sound disposal activities in the oil industry will find "Waste Management in the Oil Industry" an invaluable resource.

This book presents firsthand insights into strategies and approaches for the commercial aerospace supply chain in response to the numerous changes that airlines, aircraft OEMs and their suppliers have experienced over the past few decades. In doing so, it investigates the entire product value chain. Accordingly, the chapters address the challenges of configuration and demand, and highlight the specificities of customization in the aviation industry. They analyze component manufacturing, share valuable insights into assembly and integration activities, and describe aftermarket business models. In order to ensure more varied and balanced coverage, the book includes contributions by researchers, suppliers, and experts and practitioners from consulting companies and the aircraft industry. Taken together, they provide a holistic perspective on the transformation drivers and the innovations that have either been implemented or will be adopted in the near future. The book introduces and describes new concepts and innovations such as 3D printing, E2E demand management, digital production, predictive maintenance and open innovation in general, supplementing them with sample industrial applications from the aviation sector.

The Multi-Agent Based Beam Search (MABBS) method systematically integrates four major requirements of manufacturing production - representation capability, solution quality, computation efficiency, and implementation difficulty - within a unified framework to deal with the many challenges of complex real-world production planning and scheduling problems. Multi-agent Based Beam Search for Real-time Production Scheduling and Control introduces this method, together with its software implementation and industrial applications. This book connects academic research with industrial practice, and develops a practical solution to production planning and scheduling problems. To simplify implementation, a reusable software platform is developed to build the MABBS method into a generic computation engine. This engine is integrated with a script language, called the Embedded Extensible Application Script Language (EXASL), to provide a flexible and straightforward approach to representing complex real-world problems. Adopting an in-depth yet engaging and clear approach, and avoiding confusing or complicated mathematics and formulas, this book presents simple heuristics and a user-friendly software platform for system modelling. The supporting industrial case studies provide key information for students, lecturers, and industry practitioners alike. Multi-agent Based Beam Search for Real-time Production Scheduling and Control offers insights into the complex nature of and a practical total solution to production planning and scheduling, and inspires further research and practice in this promising research area.

Load-Oriented Manufacturing Control is unique as it gives comprehensive and self-contained principles for the implementation of an appropriate production control technique of general applicability. It is based on the "funnel model," a new approach to scheduling and scheduling control which has an extensive monitoring and diagnosis system. Its most important system components include throughput diagrams, load-oriented order release, schedule-oriented capacity planning and control. The "funnel model" is getting increasing implementation in manufacturing companies. It is available in numerous variants and is especially significant for the job-shop and series production. Load-Oriented Manufacturing Control provides a large number of practical examples and is therefore relatively easy to understand. It offers direct implementation of this new important technique in manufacturing scheduling and control.

The development of a sustainable agricultural system is a critical concern for any nation in modern society. By implementing proper supply chain processes, available natural resources and food can be better utilized. Agri-Food Supply Chain Management: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice is a compendium of emerging perspectives on the development of an effective agricultural value chain and the optimization of supply chain management within the agriculture and food sectors. Highlighting theoretical frameworks, real-world applications, and future outlooks, this book is a primary reference source for professionals, students, practitioners, and managers actively involved in agricultural development.

"Logistics" is the ideal book for Bachelor students of logistics, providing a solid foundation as well as a practical guide. In modular and clear form, it explains key concepts, principles, and practices of logistics. Learning objectives as well as several case studies are integrated into each chapter.

It features chapters on Principles of Logistics; Logistics Systems; Transport Systems and Logistics Services; Warehousing, Handling and Picking Systems; Inventory, Stock and Provisioning Management; Logistics Network Planning; IT in Logistics; and Logistics Controlling. In addition, the second fully updated German edition has been extended by the chapters Logistics Infrastructure and Investment and Financing in Logistics.

"This book offers, in a very clear and concise manner, access to fundamental management topics of modern logistics. Well-chosen case studies serve to illustrate best practice solutions."

"Professor Peter Klaus, member of Logistics Hall of Fame "

"This new textbook facilitates a comprehensive and easy-to-grasp insight into the complex subject area of logistics. The authors have succeeded in presenting a good mix of theoretical foundation and practical application. Due to its clear structure and extensive range of topics, this book is highly suitable not only for students, but also for practitioners."

"Bernhard Simon, Managing Director, DACHSER GmbH & Co. KG""

Forecasting is a crucial function for companies in the fashion industry, but for many real-life forecasting applications in the, the data patterns are notorious for being highly volatile and it is very difficult, if not impossible, to analytically learn about the underlying patterns. As a result, many traditional methods (such as pure statistical models) will fail to make a sound prediction. Over the past decade, advances in artificial intelligence and computing technologies have provided an alternative way of generating precise and accurate forecasting results for fashion businesses. Despite being an important and timely topic, there is currently an absence of a comprehensive reference source that provides up-to-date theoretical and applied research findings on the subject of intelligent fashion forecasting systems. This three-part handbook fulfills this need and covers materials ranging from introductory studies and technical reviews, theoretical modeling research, to intelligent fashion forecasting applications and analysis. This book is suitable for academic researchers, graduate students, senior undergraduate students and practitioners who are interested in the latest research on fashion forecasting.

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.

Quality control in pharmaceutical products and medical devices is vital for users as failing to comply with national and international regulations can lead to accidents that could easily be avoided. For this reason, manufacturing a quality medical product will support patient safety. Microbiologists working in both the pharmaceutical and medical device industries face considerable challenges in keeping abreast of the myriad microbiological references available to them and the continuously evolving regulatory requirements. Quality Control Applications in the Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Manufacturing Industry presents the importance of quality control in pharmaceutical products and medical devices, which must have very high-quality standards to not cause problems to the health of patients. It reinforces and updates the knowledge of analytical, instrumental, and biological methods to demonstrate the correct quality control and good manufacturing practice for pharmaceutical products and medical devices. Covering topics such as pharmaceutical nano systems, machine learning, and software validation, this book is an essential resource for managers, engineers, supervisors, pharmacists, chemists, academicians, and researchers.

"Productivity and Value" takes a critical look at the generic concepts of productivity as they are used in most of the conventional literature. In this compelling book, the author challenges the concept of total-factor productivity as a valid indicator of successes or failures in economic policy and in the economy generally. Unique to this book is the consistent distinction made between economic and physical expressions. The author examines the difficulties when physical and economic measures are mixed. Instead, he proposes that productivity, as a measure of progress in production, should be limited to single-factor of key commodities, such as land, labor, energy, and capital. Such a measure, he claims, will be more realistic and will also come closer to being understood by the public.

Over the last fifty-plus years, the increased complexity and speed of integrated circuits have radically changed our world. Today, semiconductor manufacturing is perhaps the most important segment of the global manufacturing sector. As the semiconductor industry has become more competitive, improving planning and control has become a key factor for business success. This book is devoted to production planning and control problems in semiconductor wafer fabrication facilities. It is the first book that takes a comprehensive look at the role of modeling, analysis, and related information systems for such manufacturing systems. The book provides an operations research- and computer science-based introduction into this important field of semiconductor manufacturing-related research.

The modern way to improve productivity is by a process- oriented approach. This involves focusing on performance in a company rather than on efficiency. This new way of thinking, commonly referred to as business process re-engineering, is clearly discussed in this book. The book aims to provide readers with a detailed overview of performance measurement and productivity improvement techniques and practice.

The ISO 22000 Standard Procedures for Food Safety Management can help you quickly create a Food Safety Management System that ensures your company's compliance with the requirements established by the ISO 22000:2005 Standard. This important resource is thoroughly researched and reviewed by experts in the field, and it includes procedures and forms for food safety program components such as HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) Plans, Supplier Evaluations, Manufacturing, Traceability, Monitoring/Measurement, Internal Auditing, and Product Recall. Food safety is a growing concern worldwide. Organizations of all sizes and all along the food supply chain face increasing regulations and consumer concerns. Putting a practical and functional Food Safety Management System into place is critical in order to demonstrate the ability to control food safety hazards and ensure that products are safe for human consumption. In addition to the needed ISO 22000 and HACCP procedures and forms, the ISO 22000 Standard Procedures for Food Safety Management provides an informative introduction to food safety management, an explanation of the ISO2200 Standard, and a sample Food Safety Manual. Creating the required documentation can be a difficult and time consuming part of creating a Food Safety Management System. Fortunately there is no need to start from scratch... with the ISO 22000 Standard Procedures for Food Safety Management it has already been done for you

Diagnosing Greatness is the first supply chain book targeted at all levels and functions of business management. It explains how business performance can be enhanced through a concerted effort to implement improvements across a full supply chain network. Using a significant amount of academic studies, published literature and documentation from annual global surveys among supply chain and logistics professionals conducted by Supply Chain Management Review magazine, Computer Sciences Corporation and Michigan State University, the authors combine their first-hand experiences to present a clear and impressive substantiation of what industry leading firms are accomplishing through supply chain efforts. Specifics are given across a wide variety of industries of how a limited number of firms have achieved positions of greatness as their supply chain efforts have matured and industry-best practices have emerged. The authors' basic approach was to isolate the best supply chains through documented accomplishments and then diagnose what led to their superior execution. Findings enabled the authors to articulate the top ten sustainable competencies or traits of greatness that distinguish the leaders from the followers. Each chapter within this book covers a trait which firms in any business can calibrate itself against and initiate a plan for achieving similar progress. Diagnosing Greatness shows how to achieve the greatest return, while better satisfying investors, suppliers, business customers and consumer groups. Using many case examples and actual action stories, the authors bring a new and higher dimension to business success by explaining how to optimize the process steps across an extended business enterprise; bring value to all constituents of a business enterprise, especially the end consumer; and achieve and maintain industry best business results.

With increased globalization and offshore sourcing, global supply chain management is becoming an important issue for many businesses as it involves a company's worldwide interests and suppliers rather than simply a local or national orientation. The storage systems significantly affect the level of quality of products, the customer's service level, and the global logistic cost. The mission of warehousing systems design, control and optimization is to effectively ship products in the right place, at the right time, and in the right quantity (i.e. in any configuration) without any damages or alterations, and minimizing costs. Warehousing in the Global Supply Chain presents and discusses a set of models, tools and real applications, including a few case studies rarely presented with a sufficient detail by other literature, to illustrate the main challenges in warehousing activities. This includes all warehouse operations (from receiving to shipping), problems and issues (e.g. storage allocation, assignment, layout, vehicle routing) for industrial and service systems as parts of global supply chains. Advanced and effective solving methods are also illustrated and the discussed case studies help the reader to quickly apply the proposed models and techniques/algorithms. Warehousing in the Global Supply Chain is useful to managers and practitioners of industry and service sectors for the determination and modeling of the critical issues concerning warehousing systems planning and design. It is a valuable source of information for engineering students, doctoral and post-doctoral students, and researchers of academic institutions who are searching for advanced modeling approaches and solving techniques to complex logistic decision making problems. Warehousing in the Global Supply Chain presents and discusses a set of models, tools and real applications, including a few case studies rarely presented with a sufficient detail by other literature, to illustrate the main challenges in warehousing activities. This includes all warehouse operations (from receiving to shipping), problems and issues (e.g. storage allocation, assignment, layout, vehicle routing) for industrial and service systems as parts of global supply chains. Advanced and effective solving methods are also illustrated and the discussed case studies help the reader to quickly apply the proposed models and techniques/algorithms. Warehousing in the Global Supply Chain is useful to managers and practitioners of industry and service sectors for the determination and modeling of the critical issues concerning warehousing systems planning and design. It is a valuable source of information for engineering students, doctoral and post-doctoral students, and researchers of academic institutions who are searching for advanced modeling approaches and solving techniques to complex logistic decision making problems.

The book provides an encompassing overview of all aspects relating to the sharing economy paradigm in different fields of study, and shows the ongoing research efforts in filling previously identified gaps in understanding in this area. Control and optimization analytics for the sharing economy explores bespoke analytics, tools, and business models that can be used to help design collaborative consumption services (the shared economy). It provides case studies of collaborative consumption in the areas of energy and mobility. The contributors review successful examples of sharing systems, and explore the theory for designing effective and stable shared-economy models. They discuss recent innovations in and uses of shared economy models in niche areas, such as energy and mobility. Readers learn the scientific challenging issues associated with the realization of a sharing economy. Conceptual and practical matters are examined, and the state-of-the-art tools and techniques to address such applications are explained. The contributors also show readers how topical problems in engineering, such as energy consumption in power grids, or bike sharing in transportation networks, can be formulated and solved from a general collaborative consumption perspective. Since the book takes a mathematical perspective to the topic, researchers in business, computer science, optimization and control find it useful. Practitioners also use the book as a point of reference, as it explores and investigates the analytics behind economy sharing.

This management guide to labor productivity represents the author's experience of more than 40 years in the engineering field. Based on his work in over 100 plants and a dozen major corporations, John Martin presents his own personal approach to the specifics of labor productivity control, examining a variety of issues and operations that other books neglect. He fully details longstanding approaches to worker performance and the changes they have undergone, as well as management's responsibilities and industrial engineering functions, all of which are made applicable to manufacturing, processing, and service organizations.

Martin's approach is to examine control strategies that have proven ineffective or incomplete, and to describe alternate methods that he has observed to be workable. To do this, he first explores the basic principles of labor productivity, culled from a combination of historical and modern viewpoints, then follows with discussions of techniques used in general control processes and of various overall control functions. Among the specific topics addressed are work measurement considerations, performance rating and testing, developing and applying time study data, learning curve concepts and applications, wage incentive concepts and plans, and preparing and implementing a productivity control system. New concepts discussed include direct time study versus predetermined motion times, computer-aided application of MTM-1, and advanced applications of measured daywork. Designed as a hands-on reference work, "Labor Productivity Control" will be a valuable resource for manufacturing management personnel, practicing industrial engineers, management and line supervisors, and students in these fields.

"Simulation-based Case Studies in Logistics" presents an intensive learning course on the application of simulation as a decision support tool to tackle complex logistic problems. The book describes and illustrates different approaches to developing simulation models at the right abstraction level to be used efficiently by engineers when dealing with strategic, tactical or operational decisions in logistic systems. 11 simulation-based case studies in logistics and supply chain management are discussed, based on the results of applied research, covering application areas such as production logistics, warehousing, transportation, material flow management, and hospital logistics. "Simulation-based Case Studies in Logistics" is an essential text for postgraduate engineering students and researchers working in the area of logistics modeling and simulation.

The resource transfer problem (RTP) is a modeling and solution framework for integrated complex scheduling and rich vehicle routing problems. It allows the modeling of a wide variety of scheduling problems, vehicle routing problems, their combination with integrated problems, as well as various specific requirements and restrictions arising in practical scheduling and vehicle routing. Based on the unifying resource transfer problem framework, this book proposes a generic constraint propagation approach that exploits the specific structure of scheduling and routing problems.

Technology and U.S. global competitiveness is a major concern today, and yet there is no study that surveys the key issues describing federal and state policies in the United States. What new technologies are likely to increase our national productivity and international competitiveness in the future? Editors Lambright and Rahm have gathered together a group of experts to provide varying perspectives and recommendations for students, scholars, experts, and policymakers to consider. The edited collection describes federal and state programs, institutions, and changing policy issues given the new world order of technology and competitiveness. Part I analyzes federal competitiveness policy, the decontrolling of technology transfer, the role of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the emerging role of the Department of Defense in Technology Transfer. Part II covers turbulent state programs in the 1990s, state space technology programs, and basic research and development. Part III deals with recent theoretical and organizational approaches to U.S. technology policy, changing international relations and U.S.-Japanese competitiveness, and corporate culture in small high tech firms.

This book lays the foundations for quality modeling and analysis in the context of supply chains through a synthesis of the economics, operations management, as well as operations research/management science literature on quality. The reality of today's supply chain networks, given their global reach from sourcing locations to points of demand, is further challenged by such issues as the growth in outsourcing as well as the information asymmetry associated with what producers know about the quality of their products and what consumers know. Although much of the related literature has focused on the micro aspects of supply chain networks, considering two or three decision-makers, it is essential to capture the scale of supply chain networks in a holistic manner that occurs in practice in order to be able to evaluate and analyze the competition and the impacts on supply chain quality in a quantifiable manner. This volume provides an overview of the fundamental methodologies utilized in this book, including optimization theory, game theory, variational inequality theory, and projected dynamical systems theory. It then focuses on major issues in today's supply chains with respect to quality, beginning with information asymmetry, followed by product differentiation and branding, the outsourcing of production, from components to final products, to quality in freight service provision. The book is filled with numerous real-life examples in order to emphasize the generality and pragmatism of the models and tools. The novelty of the framework lies in a network economics perspective through which the authors identify the underlying network structure of the various supply chains, coupled with the behavior of the decision-makers, ranging from suppliers and manufacturers to freight service providers. What is meant by quality is rigorously defined and quantified. The authors explore the underlying dynamics associated with the competitive processes along with the equilibrium solutions. As appropriate, the supply chain decision-makers compete in terms of quantity and quality, or in price and quality. The relevance of the various models that are developed to specific industrial sectors, including pharmaceuticals and high technology products, is clearly made. Qualitative analyses are provided, along with effective, and, easy to implement, computational procedures. Finally, the impacts of policy interventions, in the form of minimum quality standards, and their ramifications, in terms of product prices, quality levels, as well as profits are explored. The book is filled with many network figures, graphs, and tables with data.

This book covers all major areas of operation, pollution control, safety, modernization, diversification, and resource management for cost control in the industrial production of chemicals. The author details the importance of obtaining the right type of raw materials and equipment for maximum plant efficiency and discusses revival of plants that have been idle for long periods. He also presents important issues concerning product quality, energy recovery, safety, pollution control and improving profitability by proper management of resources. The book is ideal for shop floor engineers, middle level management, and owners of small- and medium-scale facilities in many countries as it serves as a guide for keeping the plant operations running in adverse situations, for reducing energy consumption; improving profitability, resource allocation, and workforce planning.

The main focus of this edited volume is on three major areas of statistical quality control: statistical process control (SPC), acceptance sampling and design of experiments. The majority of the papers deal with statistical process control, while acceptance sampling and design of experiments are also treated to a lesser extent. The book is organized into four thematic parts, with Part I addressing statistical process control. Part II is devoted to acceptance sampling. Part III covers the design of experiments, while Part IV discusses related fields. The twenty-three papers in this volume stem from The 11th International Workshop on Intelligent Statistical Quality Control, which was held in Sydney, Australia from August 20 to August 23, 2013. The event was hosted by Professor Ross Sparks, CSIRO Mathematics, Informatics and Statistics, North Ryde, Australia and was jointly organized by Professors S. Knoth, W. Schmid and Ross Sparks. The papers presented here were carefully selected and reviewed by the scientific program committee, before being revised and adapted for this volume.