This special issue of Production Planning & Control is devoted to the publication of six papers that were presented at the IEPM03 (Industrial Engineering and Production Management, 2003) held in Porto, Portugal, May 26–28. The Porto gathering was the sixth, with the first held in Mons, Belgium, May 1993, the second in Marrakech, Morocco, April 1995, the third in Lyon, France, October 1997, the fourth in Glasgow, UK, July 1999, and the fifth in Quebec City, Canada, August 2001. These conferences are distinguished by a relatively small number of attendees (between 120 and 150) who constitute a ‘special interest group’ in the field of production planning and control. These conferences draw academics and industrial researchers from the fields of engineering, management and computer science, and are also distinguishable by the relatively small number of parallel sessions (at most three) and the time available for discussion at ‘round table’ forums, at the plenary sessions, and at each session. The small number of participants, the relaxed pace of presentation, and the convivial atmosphere contribute to a fruitful exchange of ideas and cross-fertilization among areas of study.
The papers in this issue have gone through the usual rigorous review process, which explains the interval between the date of the conference and the date of this issue of their publication. These papers cover different aspects of enterprise management from strategic to operational levels. We focus in this special issue on research results with application impact.
The paper ‘Productivity drivers in machine and metal product manufacturing’ by Karjalainen and Miettinen presents the results of a study which looks at the causes of labour productivity improvement in the Finnish machine and metal product manufacturing. The analysis comprises 28 selected cases and is based on data collected using a questionnaire and interviews. Product development efforts, supplier relations and efficiency of production processes seem to be the most important causes for improvement.
Tchernev, Grangeon and Norre in their paper ‘Heuristic-based approach for an industrial three dimensional layout problem’ consider a particular three-dimensional layout problem in a steel sheet manufacturing workshop. The products are laid in a machine according to packs and stacks. The particularities lay on the constraints to put one product above another. The real problem was solved by combining heuristics and meta-heuristics.
The paper ‘Retrieving designs from a sketch using an automated GT coding and classification system’ by Barton and Love presents a novel system that allows automatic coding of engineering drawings and their subsequent retrieval using a drawing of the desired components as the input. This paper describes the development and testing of the search capability of the proposed system using a database of over 3000 engineering components.
Data analysis is a promising method for reducing the complexity of information management when handling huge amounts of data. In their paper ‘Applying two-stage SOM-based clustering approaches to industrial data analysis’, Canetta, Cheikhrouhou and Glardon present the performances of hybrid two-stage methods combining self-organizing map (SOM) and traditional clustering algorithms with the goal of identifying the techniques leading to the best clustering quality. The proposed methods were evaluated on industrial applications.
David, Pierreval and Caux in ‘Enterprise resource planning systems in the aluminium conversion industry’ identify important benefits, but also limitations and problems, which may arise when implementing ERP in the aluminium conversion industry.
The paper ‘An application of cyclical master production scheduling in a multi-stage, multi-product environment’ by Van den broeck, Van Landeghem and Aghezzaf presents an integrated approach to solve a multi-item lot-sizing and scheduling problem in a two-stage flow shop environment. The problem tackled stems from a real world process and the data used are the actual process information. The objective is to develop an integrated repetitive cyclic master production plan, minimising the total set-up and inventory holding costs of the work-in-process and end products. This paper describes the solution approach, the mathematical model and operational results after one year of practical usage.
Acknowledgements
The Guest Editors would like to thank the authors and the reviewers for their contribution to this special issue. Professor S. E. Elmaghraby deserves our sincere thanks and respect for his continuous collaboration.
Abdelhakim Artiba
is a Professor of Operations and Logistics at ETS Engineering School in Montreal/Canada (Ecole de Techologie Supérieure). He gained a Habilitation à diriger des Recherches in sciences in 1995 from Lyon University and a PhD in Automation and Computer Science in 1990 from the University of Valenciennes. He is the President of I4e2 Scientific Association (International Institute for Innovation, Industrial Engineering and Entrepreneurship; www.i4e2.org). He is Chairman of the IESM (Industrial Engineering and Systems Management) conference series.
Professor Artiba has authored and co-authored numerous articles in several journals such as Production Planning & Control, International Journal of Production Economics (IJPE), European Journal of Operational Research (EJOR), IIE Transactions, IEEE and others. He has co-authored a book on simulation with Emelyanon and Iassinovski and co-edited a book on the planning and scheduling of production systems with Professor S.E. Elmaghraby. He also served as editor of special issues of several journals such as EJOR, IJPE, International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, Journal of Intellingent Manufacturing and others. Dr. Artiba is involved in several projects in industrial engineering and systems management with industrial partners. His current research focuses on the integration of simulation and optimisation for decision-making problems.
Ali Gharbi
is Professor and Director of the Master program in the Department of Automated Production Engineering. He is also the Director of the Production System Design and Control Laboratory at École de Technologie Supérieure located in Montreal (Québec), Canada. He received his degree in Industrial Engineering in 1986 from Université du Québec à Trois-Riviéres, Trois-Rivière (Québec), Canada, and MScA and PhD degrees in Industrial Engineering in 1988 and 1992, both from École Polytechnique de Montréal, Montréal (Québec), Canada.
His main research interest is FMS design and control using simulation, experimental design and O.R. modelling. Others research and teaching interests include multiple criteria decision making and performance evaluation of FMS as well as project planning of overhaul manufacturing systems, quality control and engineering economics.