Both researchers and industrial engineers interested in Manufacturing Scheduling and Control (MSC) are frustrated by the complexity of the problem and the wide range of approaches that have been proposed. The research environment often discourages scientists from the extensive effort and hands-on experience needed to gain a realistic view of the problem, and manufacturing engineers have no way ...

Our research focused on the analysis of face-to-face (FTF) social interaction of groups working on maths problems using the GCC framework in traditional classroom setting. The GCC framework requires students to analyze maths problems with "solutions" that contained conceptual or oversight errors, critique these solutions with mathematical arguments, and finally fix the "solutions" collaborative...

Reconfigurable machines form a new class of machines that are designed around a specific part family of products and allow rapid change in their structure. They are designed to allow changes in machine configuration according to changes in production requirements. The reconfiguration may be related to changes in machine functionality or its scalability, i.e., the change in production volumes or...

The multi-objective optimization problem is the main purpose of generating an optimal set of targets known as Pareto optimal frontier to be provided the ultimate decision-makers. The final selection of point of Pareto frontier is usually made only based on the goals presented in the mathematical model to implement the considered system by the decision-makers. In this paper, a mathematical model...

This paper presents a new mathematical model for integrated dynamic cellular manufacturing systems and production planning that minimizes machine purchasing, intra-cell material handling, cell reconfiguration and setup costs. The presented model forms the manufacturing cells and determines the quantity of machine and movements  during each period of time. This problem is NP-hard, so a meta-heur...

Mathematical programming and artificial intelligence (AI) methods are known as the most effective and applicable procedures to form manufacturing cells in designing a cellular manufacturing system (CMS). In this paper, a bi-objective programming model is presented to consider the cell formation problem that is solved by a proposed multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO). The model c...

Virtual Prototyping (VP) technique has been interpreted in many different ways, which causes confusion and misunderstanding among researchers and practitioners. Based on a review of the current related research and application, this paper proposes a definition of VP as well as components of a virtual prototype. VP is then compared with and distinguished from virtual reality (VR), virtual enviro...

An essential part of a modern economy is an information market. In this market, information products are being traded in countless ways. Information is bought, modified, integrated, incorporated into other products and then sold again. Usually, the manufacturing of an information product requires the collaboration of several participants. A virtual enterprise is a community of business entities...