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In the complex environment of manufacturing system, it is proper to design a production system which meets the market requirements in the most economical and competitive manner. Flexible manufacturing system (FMS) is one of the options to meet the uncertainty in demand and high variety of products. This paper aims to review the definition, classification, and measurement of manufacturing flexibility concerned with manufacturing flexibility management.

The selection process consists of the synthesis and critical evaluation of the concepts put forward in the extant literature. As a consequence of this process, three primary flexibility dimensions are identified: volume, variety and machine. Simulation approach is used to study the behavior of FMS under different demand scenarios and levels of flexibility.

Four hypotheses are tested in five different flexibility levels. The following conclusions are obtained from the study. For any flexibility level, as the traffic density (TD) increases, the system utilization increases; as the TD increases, the throughput time increases; and as the number of part type increase, the system utilization decreases. A comparison between five flexibility levels showed that flexibility level 4 is best in terms of system utilization and throughput time. Flexibility level 2 perform second best, better than flexibility level 3 and flexibility level 5 which is not in line with initial assumption. Lastly, from the above results it is concluded that partial flexibility is better as compare to no flexibility and total flexibility.

It is felt that the contribution of the paper lies in demonstrating the usefulness of simulation technique in quantifying the aspects related to FMS. The effect that a specific design variable has on a specific system level flexibility type can change with the level of part processing flexibility present and flexibility trade‐off in manufacturing systems is not inevitable. This would help the planners of FMS to think and design FMS in a holistic manner.

A new quantum effect device which is capable of highly coherent electron emission is theoretically proposed and analysed. The new device works by using the potential induced accumulation layer at a heterointerface to produce dimensionally reduced electrons. These electrons tunnel through a heterobarrier ensuring that their energy is quantised in the direction of propagation. To avoid the problem of unquantised three dimensional electrons dominating the current the two dimensional electrons that tunnel through the barrier are replenished by electrons from two side contacts. A self‐consistent model is used to analyse the performance of the device and it is found that the new device performs very well, producing electrons with a very narrow energy spread in the direction of propagation. The current density/coherency combination is easily controlled by the applied bias and the device also offers the potential for ultra fast switching through the transition between coherent and incoherent states.

Presents a case study of a production seat booking system for the photographic color film manufacturing industry. This manufacturing process is a hybrid flow shop, which consists of two manufacturing stages: first, processing of the film bulk‐rolls in batches, and second, packing of the final product specifications in a continuous‐process line. A production seat booking system is a new scheduling system, which reduces planning lead‐time significantly, by simplifying the time‐for‐delivery adjustment work. It was found possible to shorten planning lead‐time sharply based on this booking system. Additionally, it became possible simultaneously to reduce inventory levels and logistic‐related costs through such management innovation as shortening planning lead‐time and other entry delivery systems and such improvement activities as making small lot‐size.

Robotic surgery is limited by the lack of haptic feedback to the surgeon. The addition of tactile information may enable surgeons to feel tissue characteristics, appropriately tension sutures, and identify pathologic conditions. Tactile feedback may also enable expansion of minimally invasive surgery to other surgical procedures and decrease the learning curve associated with robotic surgery. This paper aims to explore a system to provide tactile feedback.

A pneumatic balloon‐based system has been developed to provide tactile feedback to the fingers of the surgeon during robotic surgery. The system features a polydimethyl siloxane actuator with a thin‐film silicone balloon membrane and a compact pneumatic control system. The 1.0 × 1.8 × 0.4 cm actuators designed for the da Vinci system feature a 3 × 2 array of 3 mm inflatable balloons.

The low‐profile pneumatic system and actuator have been mounted directly onto the da Vinci surgical system. Human perceptual tests have indicated that pneumatic balloon‐based tactile input is an effective means to provide tactile information to the fingers of the surgeon.

Application of a complete tactile feedback system is limited by current force sensing technologies.

The actuators have been designed such that they can be mounted directly onto the hand controls of the da Vinci robotic system, and are scalable such that they can be applied to various robotic applications.

A transfer from a richer individual to a poorer one seems to be the most intuitive and straightforward way of reducing income inequality in a society. However, can such a transfer reduce the welfare of the society? We show that a rich-to-poor transfer can induce a response in the individuals’ behaviors which actually exacerbates, rather than reduces, income inequality as measured by the Gini index. We use this result as an input in assessing the social welfare consequence of the transfer. Measuring social welfare by Sen’s social welfare function, we show that the transfer reduces social welfare. These two results are possible even for individuals whose utility functions are relatively simple (namely, at most quadratic in all terms) and incorporate a distaste for low relative income. We first present the two results for a population of two individuals. We subsequently provide several generalizations. We show that our argument holds for a population of any size, and that the choice of utility functions which trigger this response is not singular – the results obtain for an open set of the space of admissible utility functions. In addition, we show that a rich-to-poor transfer can exacerbate inequality when we employ Lorenz-domination, and that it can decrease social welfare when we draw on any increasing, Schur-concave welfare function.

To investigate the impact of number of components (NC) and component commonality (CC) (i.e. product structure characteristics) on the effectiveness of component reservation methods and partial order releases (i.e. order review and evaluation (ORE) procedures).

Simulation experiments were conducted using a multistage production‐inventory system with MRP for planning. The results were analyzed using analysis of variance.

The results indicate that: in the presence of component availability problems, partial order release is a more effective ORE procedure than component reservation; product structure characteristics should be considered when selecting partial order release proportions; and high levels of shop congestion (SC) mitigate the influence of ORE procedures, regardless of product structure characteristics.

This study used fixed lot sizes and two factors to characterize product structures (NC and CC). Thus, studies that investigate the impact of alternative lot sizing strategies and a wider range of product structure factors could provide additional insight into the order release process.

The results provide a useful source of information for managers to consider when addressing problem orders related to material availability.

Although the literature on order review/release (ORR) recognizes the possibility of material availability problems, very little guidance is provided on how managers should react to the situation. This paper fulfils an identified information need by integrating and extending the research streams on product structure and ORE activities.

Companies using just‐in‐time principles are currently moving from centralized to decentralized storage areas. A question that needs to be addressed is whether this move is cost efficient. Presents a costing model which can be used to determine if further consideration should be given to decentralized storage in a facility currently utilizing centralized storage. Evaluates whether the savings in material handling flow costs associated with moving from centralized to decentralized storage outweighs the additional costs associated with implementing and utilizing decentralized storage for a designated period of time. Through the process of solving the cost model, a new layout will be created for the decentralized storage system. The layout includes the placement of the additional material storage and receipt areas as well as the rearrangement of the other departments in the facility.

In this chapter, we explore the implications of benign and malicious envy in the workplace and suggest methods by which leaders can manage the situational context to minimize negative responses to envy and promote positive responses. We argue that three aspects of the organizational context are especially influential in the development of envy: perceptions of fairness, employees’ feelings of control over their situation, and organizational culture. All three impact whether felt envy will be benign or malicious. In addition, the right organizational culture can prevent any feelings of malicious envy from leading to undesirable behaviors. We suggest that by fostering justice, promoting employee feelings of control, and exemplifying an ethical organizational culture leaders can manage the manifestation of envy and resulting behaviors in a positive direction.

Describes a project to develop an intelligent robot system to mechanize the finishing of dies and moulds. Examines the concept of the finishing of surfaces and the distinction between grinding and polishing.