In this thesis a custom embedded system and control software developed for an Automated Storage and Retrieval System (AS/RS) which is based on the Computer Integrated Manufacturing Laboratory (CIMLAB) located in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Middle East Technical University. Primary objective of this study is AS/RSs related control rules can be applicable to the current physical system. The secondary objective is determined as developing the control system in a flexible way that allows adding new equipments to the system and configuring parts of the system. Two types of control board are manufactured and also boards&rsquo / firmware and computer software are developed. These two boards communicate with computer one at a time. Some AS/RS related control rules are implemented at the control software. According to these rules the control software assigns tasks to the related board. Also the control software records necessary information in order to measure the performance of the AS/RS. Several control rules as storage assignment, dwell point and sequencing of storage and retrieval order rules are applicable to the AS/RS without need for low level programming. Because of the physical limitation, batching rules cannot be applied to the current system. Also a graphical user interface is developed for using the system easily and observing the real time status of the system equipments. Two experiments are designed and run in order to show flexibility of the control system. Different control rules applied to each of the experiment. Experiment results put forth the control system was quite successful in meeting the objectives.

<p>Background: Generally, operation management includes a set of complicated systems interfacing each other. Most important systems which impact and impacted by the operations management system are production management system and maintenance management system. But to treat the interfacing losses has been difficult as interact and partially overlap each other. In this study, case-operational system was treated with developed model that analysis and design integrated operational system in order to make it easier and cost effective to manage.</p><p>Methods: A model was developed based on latest literature survey work using systems paradigm methodology and systems engineering approach.</p><p>Results: Among five analysis techniques, four types of interfacing losses were identified, seven requirements were extracted, nine conceptual solutions were generated, one of them was selected and based on it the integrated operational management system were designed.</p><p>Conclusions: The results suggest that the operational system in case-company shall be integrated by organization management, process management, and control management, in addition to data management.</p> / <p>Bakgrund: I allmänhet har operations verksamhet en del komplicerade system där friktion kan förekomma. De viktigaste systemen som har påverkan på operations verksamhet är produktion och underhålls system. Att behandla friktions förluster har varit svårt eftersom de både samverkar och delvis överlappar varandra. I dem här studien har olika fall av operationssystem behandlats med att först utveckla en modell, analysera och designa den integrerade operationssystemet för att få den billigaste och dem mest kostnads effektiva sätt att klara av.</p><p>Metod: En modell har utvecklats baserat på de senaste metoderna genom att använda system paradigm metoder och systemtekniska angreppssätt.</p><p>Resultat: Genom att använda fem sätt att analysera, sju bestämmelser extraherade, nio lösningar generade, valdes en av lösningarna och med lösningen som grund designades operations verksamhet.</p><p>Slutsats: Resultatet förslog att operations verksamhet skall integrera organisation, process och kontroll ledningar och inte bara data ledningen.</p>

Originally presented as the author's Thesis--Technische Universität Berlin, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

How to make teams Flexible without sacrificing their Efficiency? This is an important question especially in the context of Product Development (PD) organizations, as they operate in a dynamic environment and are highly team-driven. The answer to this question lies in understanding the role of all individual constituents that contribute to building Team Flexibility. One such constituent is teams’ Structure. This research work examines the role of Structural antecedents in building Flexibility into PD teams. This study considers PD Team Flexibility as a means to deal with both change and uncertainty. A conceptual framework of structural practices was developed to reflect this perspective. An ex-post facto survey based research design with Convenient Sampling technique was adopted for this study. Data was collected from 108 PD teams (both public and private sector) about their current structural practices, complexity of product development activity and their performances. The information collected from these teams was analysed to determine the key factors which would result in building Team Flexibility. The analysis of the data resulted in producing five antecedents. The results from the study suggest that, in general, designing structural practices centered on team ‘Participation and Control’ and ‘Time Bound Formalization’ antecedents helps in simultaneously achieving high Flexibility and Efficiency. The result also hints at the possibility of Large teams achieving both Flexibility and Efficiency with the introduction of appropriate practices designed around these antecedents. A caveat to the above claim is that complexity of PD activity would moderate the effectiveness of these antecedents and hence should be borne in mind before implementing them.

The re-emergence of South Africa into the global automotive market has had a significant impact on domestically based Original Equipment Manufactures (OEMs) and their component suppliers. While South Africa's exposure to the global market has brought about opportunities for firms to gain access to global markets, it has brought with it a vast number of pressures, including the pressure to comply with local and international environmental standards. Many of the OEM's have been set a deadline of January 2005 for ISO 14001 certification. The aim of the research was to explore and understand the complexities of the ISO 14001 implementation process with the objective of establishing the barriers that hamper its implementation, the determination of what factors influence these barriers and the investigation of possible recommendations on how organisations could overcome, or minimize, these barriers. To achieve this, a study was conducted on the Durban Automotive Cluster (DAC) investigating the following areas: 1. Determine the reasons for seeking ISO 14001 certification. 2. Determine what the organisations perceived and experienced as the barriers to implementation. 3. Determine the strategic implications of an Environmental Management System (EMS). A theoretical basis of ISO 14001, the implementation process and its strategic implications were established by reviewing previous research. A survey was conducted on the DAC's members through the use of a self-administrated questionnaire. The research showed that organisations chose to seek ISO 14001 certification in order to satisfy customer requirements and subsequently the strategic implications of ISO 14001 certification are very high. In terms of barriers to implementation, finance, resources allocation, expertise and implementation time proved to be the most problematic areas. In order for organisations to implement ISO 14001, they need to give due recognition to its strategic implications and use these implications as the basis for its justification. In order for organisations to be able to capitalize on the benefits of the system and use it to build a competitive advantage, they should attempt to integrate the environmental management system with their other management systems. / Thesis (M.B.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.

This study investigated the production strategies employed by the small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) in the Jacobs area in Durban. The research on the production strategies employed by SMMEs supports the government’s initiative of growing small businesses to help create employment and contribute to poverty alleviation in the country. This study is also significant as its recommendations will be of value to SMME owners and prospective SMME owners. The research methodology employed in this study is quantitative research methodology. The questionnaire used in this study elicited views of seventeen questions designed from the literature review. The questionnaire used the five point Likert scale for question two to seventeen, while in question one respondents had to choose from a list of production strategies. The questionnaire was divided into five parts with each part of the questionnaire linked to one of the five objectives of the study. A sample of 30 registered SMMEs in the Jacobs area was used. Though this is a small scale study, if its findings and recommendations are followed by the SMME owners they will add to their businesses an abundance of value. The findings from the field work provided by the respondents to the questionnaire were consistent with the findings in the literature review. The key findings of the study were that there are challenges when implementing production strategies; however the effectiveness, benefits and the risks of not having a production strategy in place far outweigh those challenges, furthermore it was found that with good planning, training and communication the effect of those challenges can be mitigated. A rigorous study on SMMEs that do not use production strategies was recommended as a suggestion for further research to establish if their productivity and profitability were the same as those SMMEs that employed production strategies. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

The purpose of this creative project is to develop transparency masters for the course, Product and Manufacturing System Design, as outlined in the Indiana Industrial Technology Education Curriculum Guide. Since the curriculum's acceptance, there has been a need for visual instructional material to support the new courses. The author identified this need by assembling a committee to advice his creative project and thus developed instructional media in the form of transparency masters. Now that the transparency masters are developed, instructors in the field of industrial technology education may now benefit by utilizing the materials to help convey the information to their students. / Department of Industry & Technology

Submitted by Milena Rubi (milenarubi@ufscar.br) on 2017-09-29T15:21:14Z No. of bitstreams: 1 SILVA_Thiago_2017.pdf: 1181442 bytes, checksum: 4f23a7c4f6982cfaacf64f298b2b15d5 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Milena Rubi (milenarubi@ufscar.br) on 2017-09-29T15:21:28Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 SILVA_Thiago_2017.pdf: 1181442 bytes, checksum: 4f23a7c4f6982cfaacf64f298b2b15d5 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Milena Rubi (milenarubi@ufscar.br) on 2017-09-29T15:21:46Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 SILVA_Thiago_2017.pdf: 1181442 bytes, checksum: 4f23a7c4f6982cfaacf64f298b2b15d5 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-29T15:21:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 SILVA_Thiago_2017.pdf: 1181442 bytes, checksum: 4f23a7c4f6982cfaacf64f298b2b15d5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-05-12 / Não recebi financiamento / Sustainable development raises at present days a number of challenges to manufacturing, precisely in order to make production more sustainable, equating economic and financial issues with environmental and social issues. Cleaner Production represents one of the approaches which can be used by manufacturing companies in the attempt to achieve this purpose, rightfully represent this a strategy oriented to the reduction of negative impacts arising from production processes in all its extension. As a direct result of the implementation of cleaner production practices, enhances the efficiency of the production process, thus increasing competitiveness of enterprises, whether in terms of increases in manufacturing capacity, both in terms of better prospects of generating financial results. However, in the case of the Brazilian context, are relatively sparse theoretical-empirical evidence that greater intensity as the implementation of cleaner production practices on the part of corporations effectively shown able to influence your financial performance. Under such circumstances, the objective of the present study is to assess whether the greater or less intensity about the implementation of cleaner production practices by manufacturing companies listed on the BM&FBOVESPA shown effectively able to provide significant differences in terms of financial performance. To this end, a survey research was undertaken by the manufacturing companies listed on the BM&FBOVESPA, whose research instrument was constituted in the questionnaire. The collected data were subjected to statistical analysis by means of appropriate software to such purpose, by use of Multivariate Statistical technique called multiple Linear Regression. Finally, the survey results point to the perception that some of the cleaner production practices seem to influence corporate financial performance, profitability, and profitability, than be seen to be viable your implementation under the economic-financial point of view. / A temática do desenvolvimento sustentável suscita na atualidade uma série de desafios à manufatura, mais especificamente no sentido de que se faz urgente levar a efeito um modelo de produção mais sustentável, equacionando-se de tal maneira as questões de ordem econômico-financeira com as questões de ordem ambiental e social. A Produção Mais Limpa representa uma das abordagens das quais podem se valer as empresas de manufatura no intento de alcançar o propósito de tornar a produção mais sustentável, na medida em que se configura em uma estratégia orientada à redução dos impactos negativos decorrentes dos processos produtivos em toda a sua extensão. Como resultado direto da implementação de práticas de Produção Mais Limpa, potencializa-se a eficiência global do processo produtivo, ampliando-se assim a competitividade das empresas, seja isso em termos de incrementos na sua capacidade manufatureira, seja em termos de melhores perspectivas de geração de resultados financeiros. No entanto, em se tratando do contexto brasileiro, são relativamente escassas as evidências teórico-empíricas de que maior intensidade quanto à implementação de práticas de Produção Mais Limpa por parte das corporações efetivamente se mostra capaz de influenciar seu desempenho financeiro. Sob tais circunstâncias, o objetivo do presente estudo consiste em avaliar se a maior ou a menor intensidade quanto à implementação de práticas de Produção Mais Limpa por parte das companhias de manufatura listadas na BM&FBOVESPA se mostra efetivamente capaz de proporcionar diferenças significativas em termos de desempenho financeiro. Para tanto, foi empreendida uma pesquisa survey junto às companhias de manufatura listadas na BM&FBOVESPA, cujo instrumento de pesquisa se constituiu no Questionário. Os dados coletados foram submetidos a análises estatísticas por meio de software apropriado a tal finalidade, mediante emprego da técnica de Estatística Multivariada denominada Regressão Linear Múltipla. Finalmente, os resultados da pesquisa apontam para a percepção de que algumas das práticas de Produção Mais Limpa parecem influenciar o desempenho financeiro das corporações, mais especificamente a lucratividade e a rentabilidade, do que se depreende seja viável sua implementação sob o ponto de vista econômico-financeiro.

O presente trabalho apresenta uma pesquisa que teve por objetivo analisar as configurações de processos de aprendizagem organizacional, observados no ambiente fabril, e avaliar as contribuições dessas configurações para o desempenho operacional, em organizações da cadeia automotiva. A partir de uma construção teórica em torno de dois pontos específicos: aprendizagem organizacional e manufatura, foram identificados e sistematizados os processos de aprendizagem associados ao espaço fabril e aos processos, atividades e práticas desenvolvidos nesse espaço. A pesquisa de campo foi realizada em caráter qualitativo, através de estudo de caso múltiplo em três organizações manufatureiras do segmento automobilístico, buscando identificar, analisar e sistematizar os processos de aprendizagem, dentre as atividades e práticas de produção desenvolvidas. Elementos que facilitam e/ou dificultam os processos de aprendizagem também foram identificados e analisados na pesquisa de campo. Os instrumentos de coleta de dados constituíram-se de entrevistas, pesquisa a documentos e observação direta. Para análise dos dados, adotaram-se as técnicas de análise de conteúdo e análise documental. O público-alvo das entrevistas foi composto por gestores, operadores e facilitadores que atuam direta ou indiretamente na área fabril. A análise dos dados revelou que diversos processos de aprendizagem ocorrem no ambiente analisado e que esses contribuem para o desempenho operacional da manufatura. Contudo, as organizações ainda não exploram devidamente o potencial desses processos de aprendizagem. O entendimento da importância da aprendizagem organizacional e de sua contribuição para o desempenho operacional requer especial atenção de todos os indivíduos que compõem uma organização para que seja possível o desenvolvimento de uma cultura voltada para a aprendizagem, de modo a gerar vantagem competitiva para a empresa. / The present work shows a research which had as its main goal to analyse the configurations of processes of organizational learning observed in a factory environment and this work also intended to evaluate the contributions of these configurations to the operational performance in organizations of the automobile factories. From the theoretical construction about two specific points: organizational learning and manufacturing; the processes of learning related to the factory environment and to the processes, activities and practices developed in this environment were identified and structured. The field research was held in a qualitative way through the multiple case study in three automotive manufacturing organizations, trying to identify, analyse and systematize the learning processes among the activities and production practices developed. Elements which facilitate and/or complicate the learning processes were also identified and analysed in the field research. The data collecting tools were interviews, research in documents and direct observation. Techniques of analysis of content and documental analysis were adopted in order to analyse the referred data. The target audience of the interviews was composed by managers, operators and workers who act directly or indirectly in the factory environment. The data analysis showed that several learning processes happen in the analysed environment and that these processes contribute to the operational performance of the manufacturing. However, the organizations still don´t explore properly the capacity of these learning processes. The understanding of the importance of the organizational learning and its contribution to the operational performance demand special attention of all individual who make part of an organization to make possible the development of a culture focused on learning to create a competitive advantage for the company.

Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro / O objetivo deste trabalho é o gerenciamento da cadeia de suprimentos a partir da sincronização do fluxo do processo construtivo à logística de abastecimento do canteiro de obras, visando à redução dos tempos de espera e à eliminação das paradas no processo produtivo. A supressão dos desperdícios e redução do tempo de execução das atividades realizadas nos canteiros de obra da construção predial pode ser obtida por meio do uso de diversas ferramentas de Planejamento e Controle da Produção (PCP), como o MRP, JIT, e outras. Entretanto, o gerenciamento do projeto e o PCP não podem apenas vislumbrar soluções para os problemas do canteiro, mas sim de todo o sistema da cadeia de valor. É, portanto, necessária uma gestão integrada com seus colaboradores (projetista, fornecedores, etc), em que se fará uso do conceito de Design Colaborativo e da Gestão da Cadeia de Suprimentos. A cooperação destas equipes é fundamental e uma tomada de decisão compartilhada é de suma importância. A comunicação e a colaboração se tornam fundamentais para o desenvolvimento da Metodologia de Planejamento proposta neste trabalho, definindo os procedimentos impostos ao Sistema de Informações Gerenciais (SIG) que melhor avaliam a relação do fluxo do processo construtivo da obra com a cadeia de fornecedores. Essa integração resulta em ganhos significativos de produtividade e redução dos prazos do projeto. / The objective of this work is the supply chain management, based on the synchronization of the flow of the Construction process with the logistics of the construction site supply, seeking a reduction of the wait times and the elimination of stoppages in the productive process. The elimination of waste and the reduction of execution times of activities carried out at construction sites can be achieved by the use of various tools of Planning and Control of Production (PCP), such as the MRP, JIT, among others. However, project management and PCP cannot glimpse only a solution for the problems of the construction site, but also of all the value chain system. Management needs to be integrated with its collaborators (designer, suppliers, etc), so as to use the concepts of Collaborative Design and Supply Chain Management. The cooperation of these teams is basic and shared decision making is of the utmost importance. Communication and collaboration become key for the development of the Planning Methodology proposed in this work, and define the procedures which must be imposed on the Management Information System, to best gauge the relation of the constructive process flow of the job to the chain of suppliers. This integration results in significant gains in productivity and reduction of project timetables.