planning and control

Due to increased competition, semiconductor manufacturing has received considerable research attention over the last few decades. As a result, several optimisation and heuristic solution procedures are available to solve a variety of operational planning and control ...

We consider planning and control problems for underactuated manipulators, a special instance of mechanical systems having fewer input commands than degrees of freedom. This class includes robots with passive joints, elastic joints, or flexible links. Structural control properties are investigated, showing that manipulators with passive joints in the absence of gravity are the most difficult to control. With reference to

Accurate inventory records are an essential element in the effective use of enterprise resource planning tools and systems. This paper reviews the methods used in cycle counting and examines important issues involved in implementing a successful cycle counting program. In addition, we review the literature to discuss the effects of cycle counting in inventory planning and control as well as

This paper presents the results of empirical research on the use of management accounting systems in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and the relationship with company performance. The results show that the use of planning and control methods differ significantly according to the size and industry of the firm. Successful companies seem to have more formal long-term plans. While

Little attention has been given to the role of leadership characteristics in the organization design literature despite significant evidence of its importance in explaining firm behavior. This study develops and tests a model to assess the effects of leadership style on three control choices that are considered integral elements of a firm's management control system; namely the delegation choice, the

Accurate inventory records are an essential element in the effective use of enterprise resource planning tools and systems. This paper reviews the methods used in cycle counting and examines important issues involved in implementing a successful cycle counting program. In addition, we review the literature to discuss the effects of cycle counting in inventory planning and control as well as

In this paper we describe the main characteristics of NPM and illustrate the current state of affairs in three main areas: (a) the effectiveness of NPM reforms, (b) NPM's impact on planning and control in government entities, and (c) the implementation and use of accrual accounting methods in government. We use the responses of 105 (mostly Dutch) practitioners in government and non-profit organizations. Most respondents recognize performance improvements, but only a minority attribute these improvements directly to NPM reforms. Improved planning and control systems are seen to have only a limited impact on the work of professionals, while accrual accounting is considered to have only limited potential to support political decision making.

Performance management is important because it plays a pivotal role in any organization's human resource framework. There are clear benefits from managing individual and team performance to achieve organizational objectives. Similarly, compensation in the form of pay, bonuses, stock options and other benefits can be linked to the achievements of particular goals. But such links do not necessarily produce extended results. This is a problematic and complex area in which common-sense solutions do not work. A well- ...

Increasing complexity and interdependency in manufacturing enterprises require an agile manufacturing paradigm. This paper considers a dynamic control approach for linking manufacturing strategy with market strategy through a reconfigurable manufacturing planning and control (MPC) system to support agility in this context. A comprehensive MPC model capable of adopting different MPC strategies through distributed controllers of inventory, capacity, and WIP is presented. A hierarchical supervisory controller (referred to as decision logic unit, DLU) that intakes the high-level strategic market decisions and constraints together with feedback of the current manufacturing system state (WIP, production, and inventory levels) and optimally manages the distributed controllers is introduced. The DLU architecture with its three layers and their different functionalities is discussed showing how they link the higher management level to the operational level to satisfy the required demand. A case study for an automatic PCB assembly factory is implemented to demonstrate the applicability of the whole approach. In addition, a comparative cost analysis study is carried out to compare between the developed agile MPC system and classical-inventory- and capacity-based MPC policies in response to different demand patterns. Results showed that the developed agile MPC policy is as cost effective as the inventory-based MPC policy in demand patterns with steady trends, as cost effective as capacity-based MPC in turbulent demand patterns, and far superior than both classical MPC polices in mixed-demand patterns.

This paper described a scalable, expandable and platform-independent operator interface system for controlling future long range, high endurance unmanned aerial vehicles. MIIIRO (multi-modal immersive and intelligent interface for remote operation), developed based on open Internet technologies including the Java 2 platform, Java 3D, VRML, RMI, and CORBA, enables collaborative planning and coordinated control of UAVs over a network for achieving a common mission goal. Our work now is focused on the Interface Agent which is envisioned to be a personal assistant cooperating with the operator in planning and control the UAVs. The Interface Agent tries to understand the goal and intention of the operator based on the head motion and other inputs, the task context and current situation. When the need of the operator is identified, the Interface Agent invokes the services of other agents to satisfy the operator's desire. When the operator needs to watch for a number of concurrent act...

This paper is aimed at laying the groundwork for the application of operational research to European air traffic flow management (ATFM). It is based on a project carried out at the EUROCONTROL Central Flow Management Unit (CFMU), the organisation that manages traffic flows in the 36 states belonging to the European Civil Aviation Conference. The paper describes the making of the CFMU, its organisation and systems, the different measures, levels of planning and stakeholders in ATFM and how flow managers carry out their work. In so doing the paper identifies potential applications of operational research to European ATFM, and describes a re-routing demonstrator developed to illustrate different decision support possibilities for re-routing measures.

The objective of this paper is to estimate the manufacturing and product costs by using activity-based costing (ABC) method in an advanced manufacturing system that is run under either material requirements planning (MRP) or just in time (JIT) system. ABC is a method that can overcome many of the limitations of traditional costing systems. This paper reports and discusses the implementation of the ABC alongside a mathematical and simulation model to estimate the manufacturing and product cost in an automated manufacturing system. The potential effects of manufacturing planning and control strategies implemented on financial structure of the manufacturing system are initially analysed. ABC has been used to model the manufacturing and product costs. An extensive analysis has been carried out to calculate the product costs under the two strategies. The comparison of the two strategies in terms of effects on the manufacturing and product costs are carried out to highlight the difference between the two strategies.

Contemporary trends in global competition, rapid technological developments and increased use of management information systems and the Internet, developments in planning and control and management thinking, and changing demographics are putting pressures

Lean construction is a new philosophy guided toward construction production administration. Its main objective is the elimination of non – adding activities (losses). In order to contribute to such aim, Ballard and Howell, designed a new planning and control system, known as the Last planner system, with fundamental changes in the way construction projects are planned and controlled.

One issue that concerns the data fusion community is whether or not fusion of sensory information is beneficial. Beneficial results from fusion can be understood from a logical argument that if two types of sensors are measuring an object and only one source is available, then fusion is beneficial. Such an argument holds in the case of person identification system