M. Reza Abdi

Grouping and selecting products: the design key of Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems (RMSs)

A Reconfigurable Manufacturing System (RMS) is a new paradigm that focuses on manufacturing a high variety of products at the same system. Having specified a design strategy for an RMS as the first design step at the tactical level, products must be grouped to identify and allocate corresponding manufacturing facilities. An interface between market and manufacturing called reconfiguration link is presented to specify and arrange products for manufacturing. The reconfiguration link incorporates the tasks of determining the products in the production range, grouping them into families and selecting the appropriate family at each configuration stage. The proposed approach of (re)configuring products before manufacturing facilitates assigning product families to the required manufacturing facilities in terms of (re)configuring manufacturing systems. This paper contributes an overall approach of grouping products into families based on operational similarities, when machines are still not identified. Since the problem of product family selection consists of quantitative and qualitative objectives, the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) is then used while considering both market and manufacturing requirements. The AHP model is verified in an industrial case study through using Expert Choice software. The solutions take advantage of monitoring sensitivity analysis while changing the priorities of manufacturing and/or market criteria. The concept of the proposed model is generic in structure and applicable to many firms. However, the model must be adapted according to the specific nature of the company under study. For instance, product family choices may differ from one company to another because of the available technology and the volume and type of existing products in the production range.

Layout configuration selection for reconfigurable manufacturing systems using the fuzzy AHP

Reconfigurable Manufacturing System (RMS) is designed to rapidly respond to changing market requirements. The system operates on various products grouped into families according to their operational requirements. Therefore, an RMS may require different layout configurations while switching from one product to the other. This paper investigates the criteria, which can influence layout configuration selection. In particular, an Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) model is developed to structure the criteria for the selection of the most appropriate layout for each configuration stage. The criteria are indicated based on the layout reconfigurability, cost, quality and reliability. The alternatives are identified based on the serial/parallel configurations for the set of specified machines. Due to dealing with vague data in the decision process, the uncertain criteria are characterised by triangular fuzzy sets. The integrated fuzzy AHP is analysed within the boundary limits of the fuzzy criteria through a case study.

Product family formation and selection for reconfigurability using analytical network process

The paper develops a conceptual framework for product family formation towards reconfigurability through proposing a product-process reconfiguration link. Different decisive factors affecting product family formation and selection such as manufacturing requirements, market requirements, manufacturing cost and process reconfiguration are investigated. An analytical network process (ANP) model is proposed to incorporate all the outlined decisive factors and major criteria and elements influencing the product family formation and selection. As a consequence of the interactive nature of the product family selection problem, most of the childrens’ elements within the same cluster and/ or different clusters are associated with each other. As a result, all the clusters are connected to each other (outer dependencies) as well as their connections to themselves (inner dependencies). The proposed ANP model is examined through a case study in a manufacturing company for validation. Synthesis judgments and sensitivity analysis are carried out for selecting the most appropriate product family along with analysing the influence of the selected critical elements.

Case study: Information system for flight disruption management

Airlines operate in a macro-economic environment characterised by stiff competition and stringent regulatory constraints. Disruption management can play a key role to assist the industry towards a minimum unit cost. This paper investigates communication process business drivers required for flight operations and disruption management. The disruption management in the company under study (Emirates airlines) is studied in order to derive an operational strategy in which input resources and transformation process are reconsidered to deliver effective output services to passengers. Effects of different types of flight disruptions are studied and the role of Network Control Centre (NCC) is identified through subsequent stages. A Management Information System (MIS) approach is proposed to offer solutions to disruption management. The flight disruption at the company are analysed along with their impacts on airport, aircraft and passengers through a case study.

Decision support system for monitoring environmental-human interactions

The specific aim of this study is to investigate popular attitudes toward trees. The paper is involved the understanding of biophilia tendencies with respect to people’s views in an urban area. Biophilia is considered as the idea insisting on the dependency of human identity on his relationship with nature. The biophilia fundamental tendencies were explored to establish a biological framework for valuing and affiliating the natural world. Accordingly, the nine tendencies i.e. utilitarian, naturalistic, ecologistic-scientific, aesthetic, symbolic, humanistic, moralistic, dominionistic, and negativistic were investigate to find out how people relate to the nature especially trees. The investigation was based on a quantitative interview which was applied to the public population in the Liverpool urban parks. Data collected from the designed questionnaire was followed by analysis of the data to identify people’s attitudes towards trees. The results indicated how important the physical appeal and beauty of trees was for the people and also showed the people’s emotional attachments to trees. Furthermore, a decision support model was proposed to evaluate human instincts and preferences in relation to their surrounding areas using the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP). The proposed model composed the environmental factors and the biophilia tendencies as the criteria of evaluating environmental-human interactions. A case study was then conducted in Liverpool parks to examine theses interactions. The data gathered was used as the input to the AHP model for the attribute analysis. The AHP model would enable environment managers to compose the relevant information via a link between human feelings about urban trees, and environmental factors for monitoring purposes and performance analysis.

Strategic/tactical information management of flight operations in abnormal conditions through Network Control Centre

The internal/external environments, in which flight operations are running, are very important to signify the operation management strategy. Different types of flight operations in abnormal conditions are explained and the responsibilities of Network Control Centre (NCC) are identified for each condition. The paper explores the development of NCC information system in Emirates Airlines. It then conducts an environmental analysis and identifies the factors affecting flight operations. In particular, a political economical social technological (PEST) analysis is used to indicate the critical factors to the strategic flight operations management for the current and future macro-environmental circumstances. An information management strategy and a tactical approach are proposed to manage the interruptions caused by abnormal conditions within the current infrastructure of the company.

RMS capacity utilisation: product family and supply chain

The paper contributes to development of RMS through linkage with external stakeholders such as customers and suppliers of parts/raw materials to handle demand fluctuations that necessitate information sharing across the supply chain tiers. RMS is developed as an integrated supply chain hub for adjusting production capacity using a hybrid methodology of decision trees and Markov analysis. The proposed Markov Chain model contributes to evaluate and monitor system reconfigurations required due to changes of product families with consideration of the product life cycles. The simulation findings indicate that system productivity and financial performance in terms of the profit contribution of product-process allocation will vary over configuration stages. The capacity of an RMS with limited product families and/or limited model variants becomes gradually inoperative whilst approaching upcoming configuration stages due to the end of product life cycles. As a result, reconfiguration preparation is suggested quite before ending life cycle of an existing product in process, for switching from a product family to a new/another product family in the production range, subject to its present demand. The proposed model is illustrated through a simplified case study with given product families and transition probabilities.

Constraints on the Adoption of Adaptive Water Management Principles: the Case of Greater Tehran

Adaptive Water Management (AWM) could provide a sustainable route to address the existing complex problems of urban water management such as continued water shortage and flooding through the future. The AWM application could be a new alternative path in water management especially in developing countries which suffer from common weakening features such as unreliable infrastructure and poor institutional organisations. The AWM distinguishing characteristics such as polycentric governance, organisational flexibility and public participation are considered for feasibility study of the AWM implementation. The paper investigates whether AWM could be applied to a developing-country city in order to deal with future uncertainties of water supply/demand. The required data was collected from the water professionals of Tehran Province Water and Wastewater Company (TPWW Company), which is in charge of water supply and management of 12 million people of the Province. The key elements of AWM performance are transformed to a multi criteria decision model of Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) in order to facilitate quantification of the influence of corresponding qualitative elements derived from semi-structured interviews held in the Company, and for further analysis of urban water managers’ views in a structured way. The research findings show that despite the lack of structural adaptability there are positive attitudes towards inter departmental communication and linking to the external decisive actors such as the Company’s consumers. As a generalising result, the AWM concept would be applicable to the similar developing-country cities particularly located in the Middle-East region while simultaneously promoting technical and institutional performances.

Integration of manufacturing strategy and process validation for pharmaceutical industries: a case study

Safety of patients should be considered as the key element for production planning in pharmaceutical industries. Compliance with stringent regulations from regulatory agencies to guarantee quality and safety drugs, has been recognised by all pharmaceutical companies. Accordingly, a process validation strategy is required to optimise manufacturing processes, cleaning validation and equipment qualification while gaining routine flexibility. In this paper, an integrated approach is developed to link a pharmaceutical manufacturing strategy with its process validation in order to optimise the validation efforts through using a product-equipment cleaning matrix. Product selection for the next validation stages is derived by using a multi-criteria decision making model. In particular, an Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) model is proposed to analyse product candidates for validation through a case study whilst considering the critical decision elements.

Projects Management Office: A Case Study for Best Practices

Project Management Office (PMO) for Information Technology (IT) projects can play a key role for monitoring project performance, reflecting required operations, and reacting properly by recognizing the existing resources to overcome potential weak performance. This paper investigates IT project management structure with a PMO structure along with IT project lifecycle with the deliverables through the six identified phases. A case study has been undertaken within the Group IT office at Dubai Holding, which consolidates a number of mega projects. Accordingly, the ineffective areas of the IT projects operating cycle are explored and corrective actions are suggested. Finally, the ongoing implementation of the proposed methodology in the software applications and development is evaluated for operational efficiency and service levels.