Guest editorial

Citation

Saad, S. and Perera, T. (2006), "Guest editorial", Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, Vol. 17 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmtm.2006.06817daa.001

Guest editorial

Sameh M. Saad is a Reader in Advanced Manufacturing Systems, the Postgraduate Course Leader at the Systems Engineering and Technology Programme Area, Faculty of Arts, Computing, Engineering and Sciences, Sheffield Hallam University. He is a member of the Research Degrees Committee. Saad’s research interests revolve around aspects of design and analysis of manufacturing systems, production planning & control, systems integration, reconfigurable manufacturing systems, manufacturing responsiveness, ERP, enterprise modelling and management and next generation of manufacturing systems. Over the last ten years, he has been involved in many research projects. Most of these projects were EPSRC and IMI supported and involved major collaboration from industry. He has published over 100 refereed papers in various national and international academic journals and conferences.

Terrence Perera is a well-known researcher, consultant and practitioner in the field of systems modelling and simulation. He assists companies to deploy simulation-based solutions and develops user-friendly customised models to address specific issues. He is also actively engaged in promoting the use of simulation in the healthcare sector. Perera is also an active researcher in this area. He has received more than £1M from the research councils and industry to investigate both fundamental and application related issues of simulation. An example of this is the work with BAE Systems to develop a framework for deploying simulation technologies across the design and manufacture of airframes. His current research work focuses on flexibility of simulation models, model documentation, automated model generation and applications in healthcare.

This special issue is primarily based on papers presented at the Second International Conference on Manufacturing Research ICMR2004 incorporating the Twentieth National Conference on Manufacturing Research NCMR2004. The conference was hosted by School of Engineering, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, UK, on 7-9 September 2004. Authors from 12 different countries have contributed over 100 papers covering the latest applied research in industry, which was one of the main aims of the conference.

Double blind review of all the invited papers was conducted after which ten papers have been finally accepted for publication in this special issue. The accepted papers cover a broad range of contributions include technology roadmapping (Gindy, Cerit and Hodgson), six sigma strategy (Thomas and Barton), reconfiguration of manufacturing systems (Anosike and Zhang), risk evaluation of manufacturing systems (Burduk and Chlebus), lean implementation within SMEs (Achanga, Shehab, Roy and Nelder), translating knowledge of supply chain into business strategy (Koh and Tan), modelling strategy for managed inventory (White and Censlive), time to market prediction (Baguley, Page, Koliza and Maropoulos) and optimisation of PCB industry (Saad, Khalil, Perera, Basarab-Howrth and Fowks). The content of the papers is briefly summarised below.

The first paper is “Technology roadmapping for the next generation manufacturing enterprise”. Owing to the increase demand from the high technology companies to identify the technology requirements to enable the development and manufacture of innovative product, Gindy et al., in this paper, presented an integrated technology roadmapping methodology that enable management to define their required technology taking into consideration both tangible and intangible factors to create a balanced technology project portfolio. The presented roadmap in this paper consists of six key steps, namely, requirement capture, benchmarking, technology watch, project generation, project prioritisation and portfolio optimisation.

The second paper is “Developing an SME based six sigma strategy”. This paper argues that the implementation of six sigma SMEs is poor and the authors developed an integrated SME six-sigma model aiming to defeat the biggest excuses cited by SMEs as the reasons six sigma is not feasible. The authors also covered the managerial aspects of using the integrated model and its benefits, in particular, the achievement of continuous improvement of a system in an almost continuous systematic approach.

The third paper is “Dynamic reconfiguration and simulation of manufacturing systems using agents”. This paper presented an integrated approach for modelling restructuring, reprogramming of manufacturing systems. The authors used simulation to examine the generated configurations dynamically and create what if configurations in order to enable decision makers compare performance and justify any additional costs of system restructure. The work suggested that the agent-based modelling enables manufacturing resources to be allocated dynamically in an optimal manner.

The fourth paper is here titled “Variant simulation in design and risk estimation of manufacturing system”. The authors used simulation as a tool to evaluate the level of risk in manufacturing systems and processes in real case study and they study the effect of risk factors on selected parameters of the production processes. Base on this real life case study, the authors created seven models for risk evaluation.

The fifth paper is “Critical success factors for lean implementation within SMEs”. This paper presented the critical success factors that constitute a successful implementation of lean manufacturing within SMEs. In their studies, the authors identified four key main factors that are fundamentals and critical for the implementation of lean manufacturing in SMEs. They include, leadership and management, finance, skills and expertise, and culture of the recipient organisation.

The sixth paper is “Translating knowledge of supply chain uncertainty into business strategy and actions”. The authors of this paper divided the process of translating knowledge of supply chain uncertainty into three steps namely, collecting and diagnosing the underline causes, collecting the effect, and translating knowledge. In the case study provided, they used a decision-making tool called TAPS in order to translate the knowledge into business strategy and actions and also they demonstrated how the TAPS tool can facilitate the generation and communication of actions in ERP controlled manufacturing environment.

The seventh paper is “Simulation for product life cycle management”. This paper presented a novel application of simulation to modelling the whole life cycle of a product, including multiple component failures and repair. The authors develop a dynamic model to investigate the effects of different situations, two batches of products: product with and without features that improve reliability. It is believed that, it is first known application of manufacturing systems simulation software for modelling product life cycle.

The eighth paper is “Observations on modelling strategies for vendor managed inventory”. The paper described transfer methods to control vendor-managed inventory aiming to examine the limitation of modelling approaches within the control-theoretic models. The authors concluded that a simple control system model of a VMI managed pipeline inventory and order based production and control system (IOBPCS) exhibits large differences if modelled with continuous or discrete forms and with differing delay formulations. For discrete modelled systems, the differences in peak order rate or WIP can be up to four times worse with models that use a finite delay.

The ninth paper is “Time to market prediction using type-2 fuzzy sets”. The need for a model that can leverage design process knowledge and predict time to market from performance measures is a potentially valuable tool for decision-making and continuous improvement. The authors presented a demonstration of how the type-2 fuzzy logic model works and outlined directions for further research into the digital enterprise technology for time to market.

The tenth paper is “Taboo search vs genetic algorithms in solving and optimising PCB problems”. The authors of this paper provided a clear insight into how some of the problems associated with the production of printed circuit boards can be solved simultaneously using metaheuristics such as taboo search and genetic algorithms. The differences and common features of taboo search and genetic algorithms in solving the problem of board type sequencing on the assembly line simultaneously with the combined problem of feeder assignment and component placement sequencing in the printed circuit board industry were provided. The use of Taboo search is proved marginally preferable to Genetic Algorithms when the goal is to obtain the best assembly time.

This special issue attempted to emphasise some recent research and development and despite the differences in the contents of the papers presented, most of them are aiming to improve the way in which enterprise manage its technology and systems in today’s highly dynamic market in an integrated manner.

Finally the Guest Editors would like to thank all who were involved in making this special issue possible, which includes the authors, referees, editorial staff of the Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management and in particular Prof. David Bennett for his continuous support and advice.

Sameh Saad, Terrence PereraFaculty of Arts, Computing, Engineering and Sciences,Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, UK