Fixed Cost Management as an Enabler for Agile Manufacturing Networks

Integrated management systems: An agile manufacturing enabler

Research has shown that organisations are moving towards agile manufacturing in response to a rapidly changing business environment. Agility is the competence of an organisation to respond to unpredictable business forces. This requires that an organisation develop dynamic management systems that are able to support continuous change. This paper examines systems thinking and proposes a holistic...

Robust Optimization for Smart Machining Systems: an Enabler for Agile Manufacturing

This paper reports our efforts towards developing a mathematical and information framework for optimization of machining processes within a Smart Machining System (SMS). An SMS uses diverse integrated technologies that enable an enterprise to: (1) produce the first and every product correct; (2) improve the response of the production system to changes in demand (just in time); (3) realize rapid...

Enterprise Networks and Logistics for Agile Manufacturing

The demand for research and development of enterprise networks and logistics has been on an upward trajectory over the last decades. With a need for more innovative and responsive enterprise network structure, technology and supply chain to deal with an ever-changing and highly competitive market, the agility of processes, organisations and their supply chain, particularly in a manufacturing en...

Wireless Sensor Networks as an Enabler for Cooperating Logistic Processes

In this paper a promising application for wireless sensor networks (WSN) in future logistics is described. We present a hardware infrastructure for the intelligent container that enables real-time transport supervision and dynamic quality forecasts for sensitive and/or perishable goods. This is achieved by employing a WSN system in conjunction with a combined embedded agent system/communication...

Emerging Technology as a Key Enabler for Modernizing Pharmaceutical Manufacturing.