This book gathers the proceedings of the EPPM 2019 conference, and highlights innovative work by researchers and practitioners active in various industries around the globe. Recent advances in science and technology have made it possible to seamlessly connect and integrate various elements of engineering systems, and opened the door for innovations that have transformed how we live and work. While these developments have yielded enhanced efficiency and numerous improvements in our current practices, the problems caused by the increased complexity of these integrated systems can be extremely difficult. Accordingly, solving these problems involves applying cross-disciplinary expertise to address the heterogeneity of the various elements inherent in the system. These proceedings address four main themes: (I) Smart and Sustainable Construction, (II) Advances in Project Management Practices, (III) Toward Safety and Productivity Improvement, and (IV) Smart Manufacturing, Design, and Logistics. As such, they will be of interest to and valuable to researchers and practitioners in a range of industries seeking an update on the translational fields of engineering, project, and production management.

Amidst the relentless pace of the contemporary business landscape, information technology (IT) projects grapple with an escalating challenge — the need to deliver solutions swiftly, adapt to evolving customer demands, and create value within the ever-shifting dynamics of the market. In this demanding environment, the traditional project management paradigms often fall short, necessitating a shift towards methodologies that embody flexibility, customer collaboration, and iterative development. Herein lies the crux of the issue faced by modern IT projects. Practical Approaches to Agile Project Management is a guide in the tumult of IT project complexities. This book provides a comprehensive solution to the complexities of contemporary project management by delving into topics such as alternative pricing models and the alignment of organizational cultures in IT partnerships, making it an indispensable resource for professionals, academics, and students navigating the domains of business, information technology, or project management. Primarily aimed at IT professionals involved in project management and service delivery, this book caters to a broad spectrum of individuals, including IT Project Managers, Consultants, Entrepreneurs, and Executives at IT Service Firms. Additionally, it extends its value to Business Leaders undertaking IT-enabled transformations and Academic Researchers delving into the intersection of agile methodologies and IT service delivery. From prioritization strategies for IT Project Managers to frameworks for consultants, entrepreneurs, and executives, this book addresses the diverse needs of its readership, offering practical, evidence-based insights to optimize IT service delivery across various organizational contexts.

This book presents recent developments, research results, and industrial experience to increase the knowledge base of academics and industry. In a small world where trade is the new global driving force conquering countries and continents alike, international competitiveness is becoming the ultimate challenge. It requires high-quality products manufactured with state-of-the-art technologies at low cost under the assumption of highly efficient operations management as well as clear corporate goals and strategy. This in turn is based on improved engineering training and education, relevant applied research, and an active interaction between academia and industry.

This Handbook provides the knowledge needed to design and deploy proactive construction project procurement and delivery systems based on essentials while addressing emerging construction industry imperatives in order to boost overall performance. Section 1 of the Handbook provides an overview, while Section 2 provides the fundamentals with fresh insights into the building blocks and trends in performance-linked procurement and delivery, including procurement strategies and commercial priorities, project briefs and management plans, design management, stakeholder management, risk management, ethics and professionalism, team building, information and knowledge management, digital aids, conflict, claims and dispute management, collaborative contracting, relationship-based teamworking and linking to built asset management. Section 3 explores and expands on specific trends, including sub-contractor selection, Building Information Modelling (BIM) in project cost management; off-site and modern methods of construction; 4IR/5IR technologies; and constructing for the circular economy, supply chain resilience and social value imperatives in this domain. While other books describe standard processes or focus on specific strategies such as design and build, target cost contracting or integrated project delivery, this Handbook presents the fundamentals of such processes and protocols together with invited specialist insights into growing trends and imperatives in holistic procurement and delivery. Those who could benefit from this Handbook include academics, researchers, postgraduate students, policy makers and administrators, managers in both public and private sectors involved with planning and overseeing construction project procurement and/or delivery and undergraduates looking for a balanced introduction and useful insights into what is critical to the success of construction projects, organisations and the industry itself.

This handbook provides an innovative, thorough overview of service management. It draws together an impressive, international group of leading scholars who offer a truly global perspective, exploring current literature and laying out guidance for future research. Beginning with defining service as a perspective on value creation, and service management as “a set of organizational competencies for enabling and realizing value creation through service,” it then moves on to follow the evolution of service research. From there, the book is structured into six main themes: perspectives on service management; service strategy; service leadership and transition; service design and innovation; service interaction; quality and operations; and service management and technology. This book is valuable reading for academics, lecturers, and students studying service management, operations management, and service research.

The construction industry is amidst a digital transformation that is focused on addressing well-documented issues and calls for significant improvements and changes through increased productivity, whole-life value, client focus, reduction of waste, and being more sustainable. The key aspect to driving change and transformation is the education and upskilling of the required workforce towards developing the required capacities. Various approaches can be taken to embed digital construction within education and through collaborative efforts in order to drive change and facilitate improvements. The Handbook of Research on Driving Transformational Change in the Digital Built Environment focuses on current developments in practice and education towards facilitating transformation in the built environment. This book provides insight, from a practice perspective, in relation to the client’s understanding, digitally enabled collaboration, interoperability and open standards, and maturity/capability. Covering topics that include digital transformation and construction, digitally enabled infrastructure, building information modelling, collaborative digital education, and the digital built environment, this book is an ideal reference source for engineers, professionals, and researchers in the field of digital transformation as well as doctoral scholars, doctoral researchers, professionals, and academicians.

This book offers a timely yet comprehensive snapshot of innovative research and developments at the interface between manufacturing, materials and mechanical engineering, and quality assurance. It covers a wide range of manufacturing processes, such as cutting, grinding, assembly, and coatings, including ultrasonic treatment, molding, radial-isostatic compression, ionic-plasma deposition, volumetric vibration treatment, and wear resistance. It also highlights the advantages of augmented reality, RFID technology, reverse engineering, optimization, heat and mass transfer, energy management, quality inspection, and environmental impact. Based on selected papers presented at the Grabchenko’s International Conference on Advanced Manufacturing Processes (InterPartner-2020), held in Odessa, Ukraine, on September 8–11, 2020, this book offers a timely overview and extensive information on trends and technologies in production planning, design engineering, advanced materials, machining processes, process engineering, and quality assurance. It is also intended to facilitate communication and collaboration between different groups working on similar topics and offer a bridge between academic and industrial researchers.

Over the past years, businesses have had to tackle the issues caused by numerous forces from political, technological and societal environment. The changes in the global market and increasing uncertainty require us to focus on disruptive innovations and to investigate this phenomenon from different perspectives. The benefits of innovations are related to lower costs, improved efficiency, reduced risk, and better response to the customers’ needs due to new products, services or processes. On the other hand, new business models expose various risks, such as cyber risks, operational risks, regulatory risks, and others. Therefore, we believe that the entrepreneurial behavior and global mindset of decision-makers significantly contribute to the development of innovations, which benefit by closing the prevailing gap between developed and developing countries. Thus, this Special Issue contributes to closing the research gap in the literature by providing a platform for a scientific debate on innovation, internationalization and entrepreneurship, which would facilitate improving the resilience of businesses to future disruptions.