Scheduling For Flexibility

Scheduling is a broad research area and scheduling problems arise from several application domains (production systems, logistic, computer science, etc.). Solving scheduling problems requires tools of combinatorial optimization, exact or approximated algorithms. Flexibility is at the frontier between predictive deterministic approaches and reactive or "on-line" approaches. The purpose of flexibility is to provide one or more solutions adapted to the context of the application in order to provide the ideal solution. This book focuses on the integration of flexibility and robustness considerations in the study of scheduling problems. After considering both flexibility and robustness, it then covers various scheduling problems, treated with an emphasis on flexibility or robustness, or both.

Misbehaviour in organizations can be difficult for management to detect and correct, and as a consequence, the cost to organizations can be high. This book presents useful theories and empirical evidence that help to describe, explain, predict and control both attitudinal and behavioural problems in an organizational setting. The book analyzes the current research, examines the causes of different types of misbehaviour, and makes suggestions for remedies and managerial practices that can help to reduce its occurrence and impact.

Appropriate for experienced elementary librarians as well as students in school library preparation programs, this powerful book explains the advantages of utilizing a flexible schedule with collaboration as compared to a fixed schedule without collaboration. The aptly titled The Library Collaboration and Flexible Scheduling Toolkit: Everything You Need to Know to Get Started takes readers step by step through the process of considering collaboration as a method to deliver library services. Authored by an experienced elementary librarian and author for School Library Monthly and School Library Connection, the text begins by explaining the relevant research and underscoring the importance of being able to articulate the meaning of the research to library stakeholders. Next, readers learn how to gain support from administration and to train the staff in effective collaboration to impact student achievement. The book provides a complete answer to the complex question that many librarians and librarians in training have: "How do I go about putting collaboration and a flexible library schedule into place in my library?" Specific methods and solutions for handling problems that may come up—such as ways to win over a reluctant staff, or what to do in situations where a library assistant is not available—are provided to lend the author's real-world experience to the challenges that the librarian might encounter in undertaking collaboration.

The book familiarizes the reader with the flexible assembly systems planning and scheduling issues and various operations research modelling and solution approaches. Some of the many topic highlights presented are the overall structure and components of a flexible assembly system, bi-objective integer programming models and algorithms for machine loading, assembly routing, and assembly plan selection, and fast combinatorial heuristics for scheduling flexible assembly lines with limited intermediate buffers. Also the book deals with just-in-time scheduling of flexible assembly lines, and dynamic dispatching algorithms for simultaneous scheduling of assembly stations and automated guided vehicles.

This book was previously titled, Be Excellent at Anything. The Way We're Working Isn't Working is one of those rare books with the power to profoundly transform the way we work and live. Demand is exceeding our capacity. The ethic of "more, bigger, faster" exacts a series of silent but pernicious costs at work, undermining our energy, focus, creativity, and passion. Nearly 75 percent of employees around the world feel disengaged at work every day. The Way We're Working Isn't Working offers a groundbreaking approach to reenergizing our lives so we’re both more satisfied and more productive—on the job and off. By integrating multidisciplinary findings from the science of high performance, Tony Schwartz, coauthor of the #1 bestselling The Power of Full Engagement, makes a persuasive case that we’re neglecting the four core needs that energize great performance: sustainability (physical); security (emotional); self-expression (mental); and significance (spiritual). Rather than running like computers at high speeds for long periods, we’re at our best when we pulse rhythmically between expending and regularly renewing energy across each of our four needs. Organizations undermine sustainable high performance by forever seeking to get more out of their people. Instead they should seek systematically to meet their four core needs so they’re freed, fueled, and inspired to bring the best of themselves to work every day. Drawing on extensive work with an extra-ordinary range of organizations, among them Google, Ford, Sony, Ernst & Young, Shell, IBM, the Los Angeles Police Department, and the Cleveland Clinic, Schwartz creates a road map for a new way of working. At the individual level, he explains how we can build specific rituals into our daily schedules to balance intense effort with regular renewal; offset emotionally draining experiences with practices that fuel resilience; move between a narrow focus on urgent demands and more strategic, creative thinking; and balance a short-term focus on immediate results with a values-driven commitment to serving the greater good. At the organizational level, he outlines new policies, practices, and cultural messages that Schwartz’s client companies have adopted. The Way We're Working Isn't Working offers individuals, leaders, and organizations a highly practical, proven set of strategies to better manage the relentlessly rising demands we all face in an increasingly complex world.

The book considers the lot-sizing and scheduling problem for flexible flow line production facilities. Flexible flow lines are flow lines with parallel machines on some or all production stages. They can be found in a vast number of industries. A three-phased solution approach is presented that solves the integrated lot-sizing and scheduling problem in a hierarchical manner. The approach is able to handle several important features relevant in industrial practice, such as back-orders and setup carry-over. The developed solution procedures solve practically sized problems in a relatively short amount of time. One of the procedures is based on a novel mixed integer programming (MIP) model, which employs integer variables instead of binary variables. This makes it possible to find (near-)optimal solutions using standard algorithms such as CPLEX. Another procedure uses two nested Genetic Algorithms. An application of the framework in the semiconductor industry is given.