Matthew J. Liberatore Department of Management Villanova University Villanova, PA 19085 1. BACKGROUND The weakening competitive position of many segments of u.s. manufacturing has been analyzed, debated and discussed in corporate boardrooms, academic journals and the popular literature. One result has been a renewed commitment toward improving productivity and quality in the workplace. The drive to reduce manufacturing related costs, while meeting ever-changing customer needs, has led many firms to consider more automated and flexible manufacturing systems. The extent to which these new technologies can support business goals in productivity, quality and flexibility is an especially important issue for manufacturing firms in the u.s. and other Western nations. Problems have arisen in developing performance measures and evaluation criteria which reflect the full range of costs and benefits associated with these technologies. Some would argue that managerial policies and attitudes, and not the shortcomings of the equipment or manufacturing processes, are the major impediments to implementation (Kaplan 1984).

This text illuminates the contemporary issues and technologies related to the economic evaluation and justification of advanced technologies. Included are modern tools, as well as application-based cases that demonstrate the use of these tools. Students, researchers and decision makers will benefit from this useful resource.

This work examines all the fuzzy multicriteria methods recently developed, such as fuzzy AHP, fuzzy TOPSIS, interactive fuzzy multiobjective stochastic linear programming, fuzzy multiobjective dynamic programming, grey fuzzy multiobjective optimization, fuzzy multiobjective geometric programming, and more. Each of the 22 chapters includes practical applications along with new developments/results. This book may be used as a textbook in graduate operations research, industrial engineering, and economics courses. It will also be an excellent resource, providing new suggestions and directions for further research, for computer programmers, mathematicians, and scientists in a variety of disciplines where multicriteria decision making is needed.

Competitive advantage is a key factor to the success of any business in modern society. To achieve this goal, effective strategies for process improvement must be researched and implemented into an organization. The Handbook of Research on Managerial Strategies for Achieving Optimal Performance in Industrial Processes examines optimization techniques for improved business operations and procedures in the industrial sector. Highlighting management techniques, innovative approaches, and technological tools, this publication is an essential reference source for professionals, researchers, consultants, upper-level students, and academicians interested in the advancement of knowledge in industrial communities.

The information age has enabled unprecedented levels of data to be collected and stored. At the same time, society and organizations have become increasingly complex. Consequently, decisions in many facets have become increasingly complex but have the potential to be better informed. Technologies for Supporting Reasoning Communities and Collaborative Decision Making: Cooperative Approaches includes chapters from diverse fields of enquiry including decision science, political science, argumentation, knowledge management, cognitive psychology and business intelligence. Each chapter illustrates a perspective on group reasoning that ultimately aims to lead to a greater understanding of reasoning communities and inform technological developments.

"This book offers the latest research within the field of HAIS, surveying the broad topics and collecting case studies, future directions, and cutting edge analyses, investigating biologically inspired algorithms such as ant colony optimization and particle swarm optimization"--

This book presents some definitions and concepts applied in Latin America on lean manufacturing (LM), the LM tools most widely used and human and cultural aspects that most matter in this field. The book contains a total of 14 tools used and reported by authors from different countries in Latin America, with definition, timeline with related research, benefits that have been reported in literature and case studies implemented in Latin American companies. Finally, the book presents a list of softwares available to facilitate the tools' implementation, monitoring and improvement.

The three volumes IFIP AICT 438, 439, and 440 constitute the refereed proceedings of the International IFIP WG 5.7 Conference on Advances in Production Management Systems, APMS 2014, held in Ajaccio, France, in September 2014. The 233 revised full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 271 submissions. They are organized in 6 parts: knowledge discovery and sharing; knowledge-based planning and scheduling; knowledge-based sustainability; knowledge-based services; knowledge-based performance improvement, and case studies.

Risk management is often complicated by situational uncertainties and the subjective preferences of decision makers. Fuzzy Hierarchical Model for Risk Assessment introduces a fuzzy-based hierarchical approach to solve risk management problems considering both qualitative and quantitative criteria to tackle imprecise information. This approach is illustrated through number of case studies using examples from the food, fashion and electronics sectors to cover a range of applications including supply chain management, green product design and green initiatives. These practical examples explore how this method can be adapted and fine tuned to fit other industries as well. Supported by an extensive literature review, Fuzzy Hierarchical Model for Risk Assessment comprehensively introduces a new method for project managers across all industries as well as researchers in risk management. this area.

Issues in Technology Theory, Research, and Application: 2011 Edition is a ScholarlyEditions™ eBook that delivers timely, authoritative, and comprehensive information about Technology Theory, Research, and Application. The editors have built Issues in Technology Theory, Research, and Application: 2011 Edition on the vast information databases of ScholarlyNews.™ You can expect the information about Technology Theory, Research, and Application in this eBook to be deeper than what you can access anywhere else, as well as consistently reliable, authoritative, informed, and relevant. The content of Issues in Technology Theory, Research, and Application: 2011 Edition has been produced by the world’s leading scientists, engineers, analysts, research institutions, and companies. All of the content is from peer-reviewed sources, and all of it is written, assembled, and edited by the editors at ScholarlyEditions™ and available exclusively from us. You now have a source you can cite with authority, confidence, and credibility. More information is available at http://www.ScholarlyEditions.com/.