This White Paper describes the separate features of MES and Advanced Planning & Scheduling Systems and shows how an integrated MES/APS solution should work. It shows how an integrated and collaborative approach will help to significantly increase the benefits that would be obtained compared with a separate and independent implementation of these systems on a Make-to-Order plant.

The Department of Community Nursing and the Open Learning Centre of Technikon Natal (South Africa) and the community-owned Community Development Programme are collaborating to provide online learning to rural and urban community nurses. The project involves the development of a multimedia pharmacology course, a virtual Internet class, and the provision of information points (telecenters) in fac...

in this study, a two-objective mixed-integer linear programming model (milp) for multi-product re-entrant flow shop scheduling problem has been designed. as a result, two objectives are considered. one of them is maximization of the production rate and the other is the minimization of processing time. the system has m stations and can process several products in a moment. the re-entrant flow sho...

This study compared the relationship between learning style preferences and learner success of students in an online graduate level instructional design course with an equivalent face-to-face course. Comparisons included motivation maintenance, task engagement, and cognitive controls. Results revealed significant relationships between preferences and course success on five constructs for the fa...

this paper deals with the problem of forbidden states in discrete event systems modeled by petri net. to avoid the forbidden states, some constraints which are called generalized mutual exclusion constraints can be assigned to them. enforcing these constraints on the system can be performed using control places. however, when the number of these constraints is large, a large number of control p...

Enterprises are seeking novel approaches to reduce cost in complying with regulations and requirements from original equipment manufacturers. Consequently, enterprises are investing in manufacturing execution system (MES) solutions for realizing these requirements. However, most of the MES solutions do not support processing of real-time process data acquired from shop floor for online monitori...

Today, industry is confronted with a fast changing market. Customers demand a high-quality, low price and tailored product. This requires flexible manufacturing systems. At K.U. Leuven, a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) is designed, that allows to adjust execution to quickly changing circumstances. This paper discusses how this MES can cooperate with existing planning systems. A collaborat...

This paper demonstrates how MES can help meet the challenges of sustainable production in addition to conventional uses. The methodology for extending the scope of MES to achieve energy efficiency and other sustainability goals is explained using standardized practices and actual installations.