One of the most popular heuristics used to solve the permutation flowshop scheduling problem (PFSP) is the NEH algorithm. The reasons for the NEH popularity are its simplicity, short calculation time, and good-quality approximations of the optimal solution for a wide range of PFSP instances. Since its development, many works have been published analysing various aspects of its performance and proposing its improvements. The NEH algorithm includes, however, one unspecified and unexamined feature that is related to the order of jobs with equal values of total processing time in an initial sequence. We examined this NEH aspect using all instances from Taillard’s and VRF benchmark sets. As presented in this paper, the sorting operation has a significant impact on the results obtained by the NEH algorithm. The reason for this is primarily the input sequence of jobs, but also the sorting algorithm itself. Following this observation, we have proposed two modifications of the original NEH algorithm dealing with sequencing of jobs with equal total processing time. Unfortunately, the simple procedures used did not always give better results than the classical NEH algorithm, which means that the problem of sequencing jobs with equal total processing time needs a smart approach and this is one of the promising directions for further research.

This study is aimed at investigating the functionality of Visual Performance Management (VPM), along with determining the necessary features such a method should demonstrate to be an effective and meaningful tool for the development of Lean Management in an organisation. Based on the analysis of a case study in a large manufacturing organisation, a crosscutting assessment of such a system was made, a literature review proves the lack of such a comprehensive study. Six critical features of VPM were identified, they are very practical and giving many interesting insights into studied Lean method. The view emerged from empirical investigated shows VPM as of the wider functionality then only visual information exchange methodology. The VPM serves as cascade information exchange system and has substantial potential to support employee’s participation.

The paper considers the negative pandemic-type demand shocks in the mean-variance newsvendor problem. It extends the previous results to investigate the case when the actual additive demand may attain negative values due to high prices or considerable, negative demand shocks. The results indicate that the general optimal solution may differ to the solution corresponding exclusively to the non-negative realizations of demand.

The new industrial era, industry 4.0, leans on Cyber Physical Systems CPS. It is an emergent approach of Production System design that consists of the intimate integration between physical processes and information computation and communication systems. The CPSs redefine the decision-making process in shop floor level to reach an intelligent shop floor control. The scheduling is one of the most important shop floor control functions. In this paper, we propose a cooperative scheduling based on multi-agents modelling for Cyber Physical Production Systems. To validate this approach, we describe a use case in which we implement a scheduling module within a flexible machining cell control tool.

Since the beginning of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, enterprises have been promising the main advantages and benefits of implementing the Industry 4.0 technologies. However, the perception of new Industry 4.0 technologies may vary between different types of enterprises. The paper focuses on the main advantages of Industry 4.0 technologies for manufacturing enterprises. We analyze the difference of enterprise size and technological intensity in enterprise managers’ perception. The research was conducted based on a questionnaire survey that participated 217 enterprises from the Czech Republic. Statistical analysis showed that higher productivity and production volume are the main advantages of Industry 4.0. The present results show differences between enterprises according to their size. However, differences related to the technological complexity of enterprises have not been confirmed as an essential factor.

The consumption of various forms of primary and secondary energy is one of the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere. Also, the increase in the prices of energy resources is an important factor affecting the economic profitability of running a business organization. Legal requirements in the European Union also affect the need to implement appropriate solutions aimed at increasing energy efficiency, which translates into the need of implementing Energy Management Systems, based the ISO 50001 standard, in many enterprises.. In the case study presented in the article, which is based on a company from the energy industry in Poland, the most important Energy Performance Indexes and the impact of the quality of their information on the results obtained were reviewed. In the analyzed example, the main process used only 28% of the total energy consumption in the organization. Insufficient attention to auxiliary processes led to an undercut of Energy Performance by nearly 11% in the first year of operation. It is partic-ularly important to properly collect data on auxiliary processes, which are very often omitted or treated in general in companies, and as shown may constitute a significant share in the total amount of energy consumed.

Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) is a very complex technology. Although the installation of pipelines by means of this technology is often successful, examples of unsuccessful projects are also known. Due to the complexity of the technology, with the interaction of multiple processes, risks related to uncertainties in these processes play important role. These risks are related to the variability of underground strata, changing natural environment, changes in economic environment, as well as limitations of the equipment, technical disruptions and human factors. This paper describes the risk evaluation results of the FMEA and a Pareto– Lorenz analysis for 14 external risk factors (8 natural or environmental risk factors as well as 6 economic risk factors) in HDD technology. In the proposed approach not only the probability of the external risk factor occurrence was considered, but also its consequences and the ability to detect faults, which were not plainly separated and taken into account in the literature so far. Such an approach has shown the relationship between occurrence, severity and detection for the analysed external failures. Moreover, 40 detection possibilities for the external risks in HDD technology were identified. The calculated risk priority numbers enabled ranking HDD external failures and identified the most critical risks for which the suggested detection options were unsatisfactory and insufficient, and therefore other types of risk response actions need to be explored.

The aim of the work was to develop a prioritizing and scheduling method to be followed in small and medium-sized companies operating under conditions of non-rhythmic and nonrepeatable production. A system in which make to stock, make to order and engineer to order (MTS, MTO and ETO) tasks are carried out concurrently, referred to as a non-homogenous system, has been considered. Particular types of tasks have different priority indicators. Processes involved in the implementation of these tasks are dependent processes, which compete for access to resources. The work is based on the assumption that the developed procedure should be a universal tool that can be easily used by planners. It should also eliminate the intuitive manner of prioritizing tasks while providing a fast and easy to calculate way of obtaining an answer, i.e. a ready plan or schedule. As orders enter the system on an ongoing basis, the created plan and schedule should enable fast analysis of the result and make it possible to implement subsequent orders appearing in the system. The investigations were based on data from the non-homogenous production system functioning at the Experimental Plant of the Łukasiewicz Research Network – Institute of Ceramics and Building Materials, Refractory Materials Division – ICIMB. The developed procedure includes the following steps: 1 – Initial estimation of resource availability, 2 – MTS tasks planning, 3 – Production system capacity analysis, 4 – ETO tasks planning, 5 – MTO orders planning, 6 – Evaluation of the obtained schedule. The scheduling procedure is supported by KbRS (Knowledge-based Rescheduling System), which has been modified in functional terms for the needs of this work assumption.

The automotive industry is a highly competitive sector. Manufacturers must effectively control highly complex production processes in order to fulfil all customer orders for customized cars on time, on budget and to the required quality. In this paper, the authors focus on improving the flow time of asynchronous automotive assembly lines by reducing the buffer time. A simulation-search heuristic procedure was developed and confirmed in a 5 workstations asynchronous assembly line installed in an automotive company. The proposed procedure identifies optimal performing buffer profiles for each storage level which guarantees lowest flow time while keeping the same throughput level. Experiments results show that our new algorithm significantly outperforms existing results, especially for large scale problems.

The purpose of servitization is to provide new business opportunities mainly to manufacturing companies. Companies strive to develop new services through utilizing servitization models, which are required to be applicable in several servitization scenarios. The main objective of this study is to propose a servitization model, known as “end-to-end servitization model” suitable for servitization purposes in companies. The model was developed based on several validated and commonly utilized service design models. Moreover, testing the validity of the model was implemented with the usability survey (usefulness, ease to use, easy of learning and satisfaction) with the Master’s level students, while they were developing new services by utilizing the proposed model. The results of this study indicate that the proposed servitization model can be utilized in different organizations to provide new services. Furthermore, the model can be concluded as useful, easy to use, easy to learn and it is at a satisfactory level based on the empirical evidence.

This article presents the assessment of the creative culture and the level of innovativeness in selected manufacture enterprises. The theoretical part of the article discusses the space for creativity in the company and the microfoundations of the pyramid of needs related to creative culture. The pyramid consists of different microfoundations, which were used to create a questionnaire to assess the level of creative culture. This study assessed creative culture according to a model of the hierarchy of needs, developed by the author of this study based on Maslow’s pyramid of needs. The assessment used an innovation questionnaire and a creative culture questionnaire. This article presents a sample analysis of the results obtained from two of the companies that participated in the study. Furthermore, the article summarizes the results obtained from all participating companies and gives recommendations related to establishing creative culture based on these results. Every company should implement appropriate standards to help it develop a creative working environment. The goal of assessing creative culture in a company is to assist managers in building a workplace that fosters creativity, since such a workplace is a significant factor affecting the emergence of innovation. The analysis of the creative culture of the companies revealed their weaknesses and strengths in this respect. The developed methodology will undoubtedly influence an increase of awareness and knowledge of enterprises in the field of creating a pro-creative company culture. Such actions will contribute to the increase of company’s innovation, thus influencing its development.

The activities of the organisation concentrate mainly on meeting customers’ requirements. For this purpose, various activities are being conducted for customer satisfaction surveys. In this context, it is important to predict the quality of the product and the changes in the cost of the purchase product. The purpose of this study is to propose a method for predicting the quality level of a product and change the cost of the product considering current customers’ requirements for a combination of product feature states and pro-quality changes. The method includes the calculation of the quality level of the product using the punctationformalised method, where the level depends on a combination of values of states (parameters) attributes of the product, that is, current and modified. The method was tested as an example of a household vacuum cleaner for which 20 attributes were determined. According to the Pareto rule (20/80), the four product attributes important for customers were selected. Thereafter, for important attributes, possible combinations of the values of these attributes were determined. In addition, an algorithm for determining the possible combinations of product attribute states in the MATLAB program was developed. Additionally, the change in the current cost of the product considering the change in the quality level was estimated. The product cost changes were determined based on the actual cost of the product and the current product quality level. The method allows the determination of all combinations of values of state attributes of the product, such that it is possible to take appropriate improvement actions both in terms of quality and cost. The results from the method allow the prediction of product satisfaction for customers and they are favourable in terms of production cost. Therefore, it is possible to design the product in advance and support the producer in preparatory activities.

Sustainability manufacturing is crucial in many aspects in terms of environmental impact. It concerns the consumption of energy, raw materials and materials, as well as the emission of harmful substances and waste. The implementation of sustainability manufacturing requires many actions at various levels, including strategic, tactical and operational ones. In order to implement measures aimed at minimizing the negative impact of the company on the environment, employees’ competencies are needed. The article presents preliminary research on key green competencies for sustainability companies. The research was carried out in the form of individual interviews with medium and large production companies. The result of the research is the division of competencies (knowledge, skills and attitudes) into three stages of the organization’s development, indicating the key competencies for each stage of the development of sustainability management.

Employers signal difficulties in sourcing technically-educated staff. They often engage, though to a limited degree, in cooperation with vocational schools to mitigate this difficulty. One of the reasons for the limited involvement of enterprises in cooperation with schools is the difficulty in assessing the benefits that it may bring. The aim of the study in the article was to develop and initially verify a model for evaluating the results of supporting secondary technical schools by manufacturing enterprises. The article features a multiple case study using several types of interviews, a distributed questionnaire and an analysis of secondary sources. The study was conducted in cooperation with four large manufacturing enterprises. The result of the research is a more thorough understanding of the possibilities and limitations in evaluating the results of support for schools. This support should translate in enterprises into more effective and efficient management of the competences of the future.

Understanding of how to implement Lean successfully and how it contributes to performance in manufacturing organizational is still relatively lacking so that Lean exploration is still needed in the management aspect. This research will examine the effect of LMS, LWRT on LBR. This research was conducted on 30 companies in industrial centers in Indonesia, and the data were processed using the Structural Equation Model method. It was found that LMS has no significant effect on LBR, but LMS has a significant effect on LWRT, while LWRT has a significant effect on LBR. In detail, LBR variation of 78.8% is simultaneously influenced by LMS and LWRT, 21.2% is influenced by other variables. While 72.7% LWRT variation is influenced by LMS variation, and 27.3% is influenced by other variables. This result confirms Bergmiller’s research (2009) that LMS has a significant effect on LBR through LWRT for the manufacturing industry in Indonesia.

We investigate the effect on firm performance of the motivation for applying maturity models in manufacturing and information technology organizations. We expect the association between profitability and maturity models to be less if motivated by external contract requirements (e.g., for certain government contracts), than if motivated internally to improve processes. Using a sample of firm-year observations for 1,105 SEC registrants in the manufacturing (Standard Industry Classification (SIC): 3600-3812) and IT industries (SIC: 7370-7374) for 2017 and 2018, and CMMI information from the CMMI institute published appraisal results system, it is observed that 28 public firms (17 IT firm-years and 23 manufacturing firm-years) in the sample had CMMI appraisals between 2017 and 2018. We use logistic regression to test if the likelihood of CMMI appraisal is positively associated with government sales. The results support for the manufacturing industry, but not for the IT industry, prior research’s assertion that maturity is a source for competitive advantage.

The objective of this article is to carry out a systematic review of the literature on multivariate statistical process control (MSPC) charts used in industrial processes. The systematic review was based on articles published via Web of Science and Scopus in the last 10 years, from 2010 to 2020, with 51 articles on the theme identified. This article sought to identify in which industry the MSPC charts are most applied, the types of multivariate control charts used and probability distributions adopted, as well as pointing out the gaps and future directions of research. The most commonly represented industry was electronics, featuring in approximately 25% of the articles. The MSPC chart most frequently applied in the industrial sector was the traditional T2 of Harold Hotelling (Hotelling, 1947), found in 26.56% of the articles. Almost half of the combinations between the probabilistic distribution and the multivariate control graphs, i.e., 49.4%, considered that the data followed a normal distribution. Gaps and future directions for research on the topic are presented at the end.

The EFQM recognition system is an acknowledged method of assessing business excellence understood as the degree of implementation of quality management in an organization. The paper aims to examine whether a high rating under the EFQM recognition system simultaneously means a high general management maturity level. The investigation covers the 35 organizations that won EFQM awards in Portugal. The study is based on points awarded to organizations under the EFQM recognition system and on questionnaires/interviews with managers responsible for quality management in the studied organizations. The results indicate a positive and robust correlation between the quality management implementation (rating under the EFQM recognition system) and general management maturity. The study helps to close the gap in the literature regarding the relationship between quality management and management maturity in an organization.

The green logistics item as a part of distribution processes represents an innovative perspective in many views. This perspective is current from an offer and demand point of view. Many authors examine only the businesses aspect, while labour market acceptance is important. The aim of this article is to create and verify a green distribution model and this examines the green distribution perception from the consumer’s point of view in a context of chosen demographic characteristics. The creation of a green distribution model is supported by secondary research at which consists of four parts – input, transport, production and sale. Model verification was taken with primary research which base was created of 409 respondents. In the study, we use many statistical and mathematical, as well as scientific and philosophical methods. Among the most significant belong Cronbach’s alpha and McDonald’s omega. We used to verify and estimate model reliability, correlation analysis for relation research, one-way ANOVA test for research hypotheses verification and cluster analysis for identification of possible hidden clusters. The model can be considered a reliable one. Results indicate a low influence of distribution ecological factor in a consumer’s perspective, as well, it can be stated, the age, contrary to sex, represents a significant factor in a green distribution perception. Results can be used in both the academic and commercial spheres in various fields and disciplines. The primary survey was conducted in Slovakia, but it would be appropriate to examine the model in other countries, as well as to identify factors that may affect the model of green distribution in the future.

Value Stream Mapping has been a key Lean tool since its publication in 1988, offering a strategic view on the reconfiguration of an organization’s processes to reduce overall lead time. It has since been used in many different domains beyond (car) manufacturing. However, the potential offered by its concise representation of both material flow and its controlling information flow seems to have been largely underused. Most literature reports on VSM in the context of waste detection and local improvements. VSM also supports redesigning the material flow (even on a supply chain level) towards (pure) pull systems. However, it fails to adequately give guidance on how to gradually evolve towards this ultimate ideal state. This paper wants to offer a significant contribution to practitioners on how to use VSM to bridge this gap. Another key challenge that remains largely unpublished is how to adapt the planning systems accordingly at each reconfiguration of the material flow. This paper presents extensions to the basic VSM tool to meet these challenges. It includes a more comprehensive 5-level hierarchy that allows to position most lean flow-related techniques. It also extends the basic “door-to-door” VSM with new symbols to accommodate these techniques into the map. Finally, it introduces a new set of 13 questions to support redesigning not only the material flow, but also the information flow. The resulting richer future state maps better support the gradual evolution towards a leaner future shop floor, as illustrated with an example.

The study was conducted to assess and substantiate the key systemic problems of the national engineering of different countries in the context of economic globalization. To achieve this goal, the study used the author’s method to assess the dependence of mechanical engineering in Ukraine, Poland and Germany on imports of intermediate goods. According to the results, it was determined that in the periods of increasing economic globalization of mechanical engineering in Ukraine, Poland and Germany has undergone systemic destructive changes and is in a threatening state, from the standpoint of economic security. In particular, in Ukrainian and Polish mechanical engineering, the dependence on imports of high-tech intermediate goods is excessively high. In contrast, German engineering, unlike Ukraine’s and Poland’s, is less dependent on imports of high-tech products, but requires much more resource-intensive intermediate goods. It is analytically substantiated that the identified problems with the import dependence of mechanical engineering in Ukraine, Poland and Germany are the result of irrational, one-sided perception of economic globalization by the main economic entities of these countries.

The article is to present the application of genetic algorithm in production scheduling in a production company. In the research work the assumptions of the methodology were described and the operation of the proposed genetic algorithm was presented in details. Genetic algorithms are useful in complex large scale combinatorial optimisation tasks and in the engineering tasks with numerous limitations in the production engineering. Moreover, they are more reliable than the existing direct search algorithms. The research is focused on the effectivity improvement and on the methodology of scheduling of a manufacturing cell work. The genetic algorithm used in the work appeared to be robust and fast in finding accurate solutions. It was shown by experiment that using this method enables obtaining schedules suitable for a model. It

The manufacturing industry has been reshaping its operations using digital technologies for a smart production towards a more customized demand. Nevertheless, the flexibility to attend the production plan changes in real time is still challenging. Although the Internet of Services (IoS) has been addressed as a key element for Industry 4.0, there is still a lack of clarity about the IoS contribution for advanced manufacturing. Through a case study, the paper aims to validate the adherence of a theoretical model named Service-Oriented Manufacturing Architecture (SOMA) in two manufacturing companies that have been already engaged in Industry 4.0. As main results, it was concluded that IoS could suit in one case of Industry 4.0 flexible production process but not in a mass production one. Considering the scarcity of research that exemplifies the IoS contribution, the present paper brings an important assessment on a real manufacturing scenario.

The main objective of the research work was to identify the dimensions of complexity and study the relationship between these defined dimensions in the industrial automation sector. To achieve these objectives in the study, there was assumed the following major hypothesis: With the increasing role of dynamic cross-section of the complexity there is growing importance of relationship dimension for competitive advantage. In the study there were diagnosed four dimensions of complexity. Existence of the relationship between these four identified dimensions of complexity occurred by the use of the Fisher’s exact test, which is a variant of the test of independence ��2. Furthermore, there were calculated V-Cramer factors to estimate the intensity of the above-mentioned relationship between analyzed dimensions. The research discovered that the three out of four dimensions such as the number of elements, variety of elements and uncertainty depend on the last dimension of complexity which is the relationship between elements. In the turbulent environment there is a growing importance of the relationship dimension. It forms competitive advantage and is a key condition of success in creating a new type of modern enterprise strategy that occurs within complexity management in the industrial automation sector.