Embedded RFID Solutions

Full traceability of products is extremely difficult, although it has been sought after for as long as production, distribution and sales chains exist. Electronic traceability methods, such as RFID technology, have been proposed as a possible solution to this problem. In the specific case of RFID, the number of applications that promote innovative solutions in retail and other areas has been continuous growing. However, RFID tags are mostly placed externally on a surface of products or their packages. This is appropriate for logistics, but not for other applications, such as those involving user interaction. In those, not only is the placement of the RFID tag more complex, but it is also necessary that the tag is not visible or not directly accessible, to prevent accidental damage and intentional abuse. This certainly imposes challenges to manufacturing, but mainly creates new challenges to the development of new products and re-design of existing ones. This chapter presents some insights and what we consider to be the two main approaches to incorporating RFID technology into consumer products.

The Drivers for a Sustainable Chemical Manufacturing Industry

This chapter describes the current situation of the chemical manufacturing industry and looks to the future demands on the sector such as: for sustainability, the advent of new bio-based feedstocks for improved energy management and the implications of these demands on the sector. These implications include definitions of sustainability criteria for the chemical manufacturing industry and the need for transparent reporting following the Triple Bottom Line approach. The important role of chemical (or more generally, process) engineers in delivering bio-based sustainable solutions is emphasised, but this also suggests that a new way of thinking about the discipline is required. Indeed, there are arguments that the demand for a sustainable chemical manufacturing sector could bring about the next paradigm shift in the discipline with concomitant education implications.

Tool and Information Centric Design Process Modeling

A new design process modeling approach focused on the information flow through design tools is discussed in this chapter. This approach is applied to three long term mechanical engineering design projects spanning 24 months, 12 months, and 4 months. These projects are used to explore the development of the new modeling approach. This is a first step in a broader effort in 1) modeling of design processes, 2) establishing case study research as a formal approach to design research, and 3) developing new design process tools. The ability of engineers to understand the dynamic nature of information throughout the design processes is critical to their ability to complete these tasks. Such understanding promotes learning and further exploration of the design process allowing the improvement of process models, the establishment of new research approaches, and the development of new tools. Thus, enhancing this understanding is the goal of this research effort.

Dynamics in Knowledge

Since the idea of “artificial intelligence with knowledge” had been introduced, so many thoughts, theories, and ideas in various fields of engineering, science, geology, social study, economics, and management methods have been proposed. Those things have been started as an extension of modern engineering control theories and practices. Firstly, expert system by using IF-Then rules came up to at a production spot in manufacturing, and then agent system method by using intelligent software programs for design, planning, scheduling, production, and management in manufacturing. And then after, the idea of “Knowledge” burst into the artificial intelligence field as a real aid for getting any purpose to be accomplished by having augmented the past key knowledge in terms of management (controlling). However, those augmented knowledge methods used to have usages only in a limited small area. In addition to this, lots of works have to be done before making the systems work for a target problem solving. And what is worse, lots of parts of systems have to be customized for a new application. This chapter introduces a new direction and a method in “Knowledge” by inaugurating the brand new idea of “Dynamics in Knowledge,” which will behave more flexibly and intelligently in real usages.

E-Government Clusters

The concept of industrial clusters has received much attention in the literature over the past few decades and many examples of clusters exist today in a variety of industries, from manufacturing to services. Within such clusters, competitive cost and innovation advantages are generated through co-location. Very recently several examples of e-government clusters have emerged. This chapter offers a conceptualization of what an e-government cluster is, and how it may be different from other industrial clusters. This chapter is an attempt to formulate a framework for e-government clusters and bring out the necessary conditions for policy decisions to support the creation of such a cluster. An attempt has also been made to validate the proposed framework on the basis of case studies and to derive some recommendations to sustain the operation of e-government clusters.

Evaluation of Key Metrics for Performance Measurement of a Lean Deployment Effort

To meet customer’s needs for high-quality goods and avoiding risks of product-liability, global firms continually evaluate the performance of their supply chain for optimum design. Lean management is one of the key techniques businesses adopt in redesigning their processes. The technique is a vital strategy to increase productivity and effectiveness with respect to the movement of goods. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was utilized to evaluate the performance of work cell, shift, worker’s experience, and kaizen event participation level during a lean enterprise deployment effort at a multinational organization. The significance of the effects of these variables were assessed based on various lean supply chain factors such as First In First Out (FIFO), Setup Wheel System (SWS), Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), Clip System(CS), and Key Performances Indicators (KPI). The results support the criticality of metrics and their impact in implementing a lean manufacturing process in a global supply chain environment.

Cell Loading and Family Scheduling for Jobs with Individual Due Dates

In this chapter, cell loading and family scheduling in a cellular manufacturing environment is studied. What separates this study from others is the presence of individual due dates for every job in a family. The performance measure is to minimize the number of tardy jobs. Family splitting among cells is allowed but job splitting is not. Even though family splitting increases number of setups, it increases the possibility of meeting individual job due dates. Two methods are employed in order to solve this problem, namely Mathematical Modeling and Genetic Algorithms. The results showed that Genetic Algorithm found the optimal solution for all problems tested. Furthermore, GA is efficient compared to the Mathematical Modeling especially for larger problems in terms of execution times. The results of experimentation showed that family splitting was observed in all multi-cell solutions, and therefore, it can be concluded that family splitting is a good strategy.

Service Design

Service design is establishing itself as a method for developing services and service business. Service needs, new ideas and ways to utilise technology are encountered when the customer and the end user participate in the design process. This chapter focuses on service design methods and the process of how service design can help in innovating customer-orientated service concepts for e-tourism. Service design connects the areas of cultural, social and human interaction. Use of design methods acts as a link between the different views in the service design process. Service design is an emerging field where the terminology and methods are still developing. Mager (2009) has pointed out that the need for service design is evident, as economic development has changed dramatically during the last four decades from manufacturing to provision of information and services. Service design looks at service development from the designer’s point of view. Design thinking has the ability to create concepts, solutions and future service experiences for users.

Collaborative Demand and Supply Planning Networks

The focus of manufacturing planning and control has gradually expanded from (in-house) production activities towards all manufacturing and logistic activities in the supply chain. Planning of in-house operations is still very important, but the trends towards increased use of outsourcing and mass customisation require that customers and suppliers are able to exchange information frequently to cut down costs and lead time while quickly adapting their manufacturing and logistics operations to market/customer requirements. Many vendors offer systems to plan and control in-house operations, whereas only a few large vendors (such as Oracle, SAP and I2) offer supply chain planning systems. This limits the ability for SMEs to exploit the supply chain planning options. This chapter discuss current supply chain planning solutions and presents a more simple and adaptive concept to be used in both SMEs and larger enterprises. The research presented in this chapter is funded by the EU Union via the EmpoSME, ValuePole projects, and by the Research Council of Norway via the SFI Norman project.

Control Model for Intelligent and Demand-Driven Supply Chains

Orchestrating supply chains is challenging. This chapter describes how to control a supply chain to make it truly demand-driven – based on the assumption that all relevant information is made available to all partners in real time. The chapter explores the elements of a framework for intelligent and demand-driven supply chain control, with regards to the overall concept and associated principles, and demonstrates these in a case example. Challenges to the realization of the proposed control model include trust and power, supply chain dynamicity and uncertainty, and required investments in competence, standardization, and information and communication technology. Some of these can be met through initial small-scale implementations of the proposed model, to demonstrate effects, and by exploiting facilities for information sharing and collaboration, like supply chain dashboards and control studios. Future research within operations management, technology and information and communications technology (ICT) will support broader realization of the proposed control model.