International Journal of Production Management and Engineering

A conceptual framework for multi-objective facility layout planning by a bottom-up approach

2023-01-12T02:53:09+01:00

The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual framework to facilitate academics and practitioners’ decision making related to multi-objective facility layout planning (mFLP) by employing a bottom-up approach. Based on a literature survey framed in the mFLP context, this work identified and discussed a set of criteria that have become limitations of the traditional top-down approach. These criteria served as the basis to conceive the proposed conceptual framework. Our conceptual framework formalises FLP as a multi-objective problem by following the two traditional planning phases (block- and detailed phase) in reverse by a bottom-up approach, and by also integrating a third phase, called the refined phase, which has not previously been contemplated in the literature. Apart from identifying the inputs and outputs of each phase, the conceptual framework groups together several objectives related to mFLP that have been recently considered in the literature and formalises and contextualises them according to the planning phase in which they are involved. This is the first time that mFLP is addressed with a bottom-up approach.

A review on financial and non-financial measures of supply chain performance

2022-12-20T17:53:04+01:00

This study ascertains the pertinent measures and metrics of supply chain performance through an extensive literature review. A total of 53 international peer-reviewed journal articles published between 2012-2021 were retrieved from Scopus, Emerald insight, Elsevier and Springer databases for review. The articles reviewed were selected and categorised based on the approach, scope and contribution in assessing and ascertaining the measures and metrics of supply chain performance. Limited to the review of literature, this study provides a benchmark and approaches for ascertaining the level of supply chain performance from financial and nonfinancial perspectives. Throughout the review, the study found inventory turnover ratio, supply chain and logistics costs and cash flows reflected in terms of ROI, ROE, ROA, profit margin, working capital and assets as the prime financial measures of supply chain performance. Moreover, the study found customer satisfaction, delivery performance, quality services, enhanced relationships and competitive advantages as the key non-financial measures of supply chain performance. The study concludes and recommends the financial and non-financial measures as the appropriate approaches for ascertaining the level of supply chain performance. In order to appropriately ascertain the level of supply chain performance, performance measurement should be accounted for by all actors at each node of the supply chain, using the same approach, measures and metrics. Additionally, further studies are required to address the benefits and issues that impede supply chain performance and measurements across different sectors of the economy.

EDUKA: Design and development of an intelligent tutor and author tool for the personalised generation of itineraries and training activities in inmersive 3D and 360° educational environments

2022-12-09T04:23:58+01:00

Nowadays, Virtual and Augmented Reality have begun to be integrated in the educational field for the creation of immersive learning environments. This research presents the results of a project called “EDUKA: Intelligent tutor and author tool for the personalised generation of itineraries and training activities in immersive 3D and 360º educational environments”, funded by the Basque Government (BG) (Economic Development, Sustainability and Environment Department). The project started in April 2018 and was completed in December 2020. Nowadays, an improved version is being developed in a project called IKASNEED, also supported by the BG. The aim of the study was to develop research around a set of latest generation technologies that offer interdependence to educational centres for the adoption, development and integration of Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and immersive content technologies in their study plans.

Industrial eco-productivity tool: A case study of industrial SMEs

2022-12-23T15:03:18+01:00

This paper presents a new, unified method to measure and increase production and environmental performance in industrial SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises), which have very limited resources, by identifying areas to improve and forming related projects. This structured, easy-to-apply method is based on standard systems to measure waste production efficiency and eco-efficiency and unifies them in a single reference value. In addition, a case study is shown where the industrial eco-efficiency of the company is obtained with the developed tool.

Application of the environmental pillar within the world-class manufacturing methodology for the purpose of achieving environmental sustainability

2022-12-20T17:26:47+01:00

Environmental sustainability is one of the main dimensions involved in achieving sustainable industrialization through the application of practices reduction the consumption of environmental resources, and reduce the volume of waste and emissions, so the study aims to apply the environmental pillar associated with the methodology of (World Class Manufacturing – WCM) in one of the Iraqi manufacturing organizations for the purpose of achieving its environmental sustainability. The study site lacks knowledge of modern scientific theories related to these practices. The results of the study indicate that there are a number of gaps in the application of environmental procedures within the study site, and the extent of compliance with them, and the study concludes that the success of achieving environmental sustainability depends on the extent of commitment to achieve the study proposals, the most prominent of which were internal environmental goals, the application of the environmental training program, the extent of application of energy management standards, as well as the conformity of the international standard (ISO 14001 2015) of the Environmental Management System.

Interpretive structural modelling of critical success factor for lean product lifecycle management in industry 4.0

2022-12-12T11:46:47+01:00

The industrial revolution has gone through four revolutions, this fourth one is Industry 4.0 or I4.0, which aims to improve the performance of companies by moving towards digitalization and relying on the internet of things technology IOT and the cyber physical system CPS. Lean-PLM is a system that has become a pillar of Industry 4.0 because of the benefits it brings: productivity improvement, performance, waste reduction. The objective of our study is to examine the correlation between Lean/Industry 4.0 and PLM/I4.0 and to present an implementation model using the ISM (Interpretive Structural Modelling of Critical Success Factor) method of Lean-PLM in Industry 4.0. The results obtained from this research show that Lean can be associated with Industry 4. 0, which gives us Lean 4.0, PLM is a pillar of Industry 4.0 and finally the success of the Lean-PLM model in Industry 4.0 is based on the support and commitment of top management”, “Big Data (BD)”, “Change Management” and “Professional Training and Development (PTD)”.

Logistics services outsourcing decision making: a literature review and research agenda

2023-01-12T01:39:11+01:00

Logistics plays important role in any firm’s supply chain. Outsourcing allows firms to focus on core business. Logistics outsourcing to third party logistics or logistics service providers (LSP) helps the companies to reduce costs, improve performance, sustainability, customer satisfaction and profitability. Logistics assessment and selection of LSP is a complex and important aspect of outsourcing decision. The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of logistics outsourcing literature to provide an insight to the trend, opportunities, criteria and techniques adopted in logistics outsourcing decision-making. This paper is based on literature review of 62 research articles published related to LSP evaluation and selection during 2010-2020. The analysis includes publications in journals, year, selection criteria and evaluation methods. It has been found that 44 major selection criteria have been used by different authors but most commonly used are: price, on-time delivery, service quality, reliability, flexibility, equipment and technology, customer relationship, while environmental and social criteria are rarely adopted. It is also observed that multi criteria decision making (MCDM) methods have been adopted by majority of researchers wherein Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), Technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) and their fuzzy variant are highly applied. Conclusion, implications for researchers and practitioners, limitations, and direction for future research are provided.

A survey on supply chain ontologies

2022-12-20T17:52:24+01:00

Nowadays, the business area cannot be sustainable and efficient without the presence of the Supply Chain. However, Supply Chain Management is by no means an easy task. Experts, in their effort to achieve the most efficient Supply Chain Management, have turned their attention to the management of knowledge related to supply chains. Thus, they model the concepts and the semantic relationships between them in Supply Chain Networks and create conceptual models and ontologies. In this paper, a survey of the existing ontologies in this field is carried out, with the aim of creating a new ontology of the Supply Chain that will unify its structural elements and lead to the integration of all supply systems. For this purpose, 22 ontological models from different supply systems, from over 90 sources, have been collected, briefly presented and commented on. These models, although being an intersection in the effort to model business operations and delineate a good basis for businesses to engage in Logistics processes, they lack an adequate formulation of appropriate semantics and terminology to describe all the different functions of the Supply Chain. Consequently, this lack inevitably leads to incompatible interpretations and uses of the knowledge that results from intercompany transactions.