Hossam Ismail

A BALANCED APPROACH TO BUILDING AGILE SUPPLY CHAINS

Purpose – Parallel developments in the areas of agile systems and manufacturing, and supply chain management led to the introduction of the agile supply chains (ASC) concept. How to achieve agility in supply chain is, however, a subject of question and research. This paper proposes a framework for the development of ASC that is based on the integration of existing supply chain analysis and development models and techniques with those of the supply chain design (SCD) and also the design for the supply chain (DfSC).Design/methodology/approach – The framework mainly relies on research previously carried out by the authors in the areas of developing agile manufacturing and systems and models for demand network alignment. An extensive literature survey is carried out to support the ideas and derive the constructs of the conceptual model as a basis for further empirical research.Findings – The model suggest that responding proactively to the market and business environment changes, agility, can be facilitated b...

Achieving agility in supply chain through simultaneous “design of” and “design for” supply chain

Purpose – The two main constituting elements of the supply chains are “product” and “supply chain operations”, which are highly inter‐related across more than one dimension. Many of the drawbacks in the success and sustainability of supply chains often relate to the segregation of these dimensions. This paper seeks to examine the ideas and to propose an integrated approach to facilitate the dynamic and simultaneous design and development of products and supply chains, thus contributing to the notion of agile supply chains.Design/methodology/approach – Two critical areas of product design and development, and supply chain design and management have been studied, leading to the conceptual development of practical models for approaching the subject. The proposed framework then is examined in a field case study in which a number of issues raised in this paper are validated through observing these supply chains.Findings – A detailed view of the model of simultaneous approach to “design of” and “design for” sup...

Agile manufacturing framework and practice

This paper presents a framework for the implementation of agile manufacturing. The framework employs a bottom-up approach taking the company through three iterative implementation phases of robustness of operation, responsiveness to customers and proactive growth tactics. The framework incorporates a detailed assessment of the level of business environment turbulence and the impact of this turbulence on the enterprise. The results of this assessment are used to identify and customise an implantation plan as well as select the required tools and those measures of performance necessary to monitor the plans progress. This is carried while aligning any action to the company strategy.

New approaches for the nesting of two-dimensional shapes for press tool design

In this paper two approaches to the automatic pairwise clustering of two-dimensional shapes for press tool design are discussed. The first is based on extracting the edge information in the form of edge arrays, which are manipulated to obtain the optimum pairing; while the second applies the non-deterministic concepts of genetic algorithms. The results of applying both approaches are also presented.

The role of agile strategic capabilities in achieving resilience in manufacturing-based small companies

This article describes a practical ‘top-down’ strategic framework to assist manufacturing-based SMEs to develop a degree of resilience when operating in turbulent business environments. The approach builds on the premise that resilience occurs as a result of the implementation of both operational and strategic capabilities. The framework is based on earlier work in the area of manufacturing agility implementation in SMEs developed by the authors, and involves the integration of operational agility tools with tools and approaches from the strategic development literature. With the inclusion of a multi-strategy assessment tool, SMEs are able to prioritise their capabilities to achieve a level of ‘strategic readiness’. This article demonstrates how the approach is applied using two case studies carried out within two traditional manufacturing-based SMEs.

Automated Design of Progressive Dies

This paper describes the structure and operation of a prototype intelligent system for progressive die design and manufacturing. The system is developed using X Window ‘C’ programs to create an interface linking the CAD (computer aided design) package, AutoCAD and the expert system shell, Kappa. AutoCAD is used for the input of the piece part geometry, creating the temporary drawings and final design drawings of the tool parts and assembly while Kappa is used to create the knowledge base, the databases of the standard tool parts and the menu system for entering design data. Purpose-built ‘C’ programs are also used for some numerically intensive computations, for example calculating the best material utilization. The system knowledge is based on a structured analysis of present press tool design techniques.

New developments in innovation

The purpose of this paper is to examine some recent developments in the field of new products innovation. As a starting point, the reader is introduced to a brief history of management, setting innovation in its historic context. Some major issues facing new products managers are then briefly reviewed, and three recent developments in the innovation literature are discussed. These are: the growing role of improvisation in new product development as a reaction to conventional planning models; the role of “heart” in the workplace as a means of improving the creative potential of organisations; and the importance of qualitative‐based approaches as a means of tapping into the latent and unmet needs of consumers.

The Nesting of Two-dimensional Shapes using Genetic Algorithms

The general two-dimensional cutting stock problem is concerned with the optimum layout and arrangement of two-dimensional shapes within the spatial constraints imposed by the cutting stock. The main objective is to maximize the utilization of the cutting stock material. This paper presents some of the results obtained from applying a combination of genetic algorithms and heuristic approaches to the nesting of dissimilar shapes. Genetic algorithms are stochastically based optimization approaches which mimic natures evolutionary process in finding global optimal solutions in a large search space. The paper discusses the method by which the problem is defined and represented for analysis and introduces a number of new problem-specific genetic algorithm operators that aid in the rapid conversion to an optimum solution.

Agile marketing for the manufacturing‐based SME

Purpose – To examine the application of the principles of “agile manufacturing” to marketing strategy, planning and management, in the context of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs).Design/methodology/approach – Uses the case‐study method to test the development and deployment of “agile marketing” by applying the marketing techniques normally practised only by larger companies, within the “hard” and “soft” constraints imposed by one small companys managerial attitudes, corporate resources and time horizons. The host company was a UK supplier of technological products to other manufacturers; it had no history of marketing. The focus of the study was on the third stage of the agility framework: how a proactive marketing approach can be used to generate new custom.Findings – “Agile marketing” innovations released latent capacity, and a strategic marketing plan was devised to win new custom. After follow‐up, four new customers had been recruited, and the potential for developing long‐term relations wit...

An Intelligent Object-Oriented Approach to the Design and Assembly of Press Tools

Abstract In recent years, research communities and industries have started to develop knowledge-based tooling design systems to tackle the common difficulties that most companies have. The most widely used strategy is accommodating the know-how into an expert system and linking it with a CAD system. This paper describes the structure and operation of a prototype intelligent system for progressive die design and manufacturing. The system is developed using X Window C programs to create the interface linking the CAD package, AutoCAD, and the expert system shell, Kappa. AutoCAD is used for the input of the piece part geometry, creating the temporary drawings and final design drawings of the tool parts and assembly. Kappa is used to create the knowledge base, the databases of the standard tool parts, and the menu system for entering design data. C programs are also used for some intensive computations, for example, calculating the best material utilisation.