Due to globalized business operations, companies in different economic sectors are part of complex supply chain networks. Their value-added processes comprise product and information flows, e.g. with a focus on manufacturing, service or trade. Until the final product is delivered to the end customer, it needs to pass many different processes in cooperating organizations. As a result, there a lot of business-to-business (B2B) interactions with crossenterprise transactions, often including cross-border communications and sometimes even cross-industry trades with technological and often cultural implications. Especially the interfaces of supply chain networks are prone to inefficiencies, misunderstandings and delays due to a lack of standardized B2B transactions, which leads to waste in form of rework, errors and mistakes. In addition, new customers are hard to find for the manufacturing or trading company, since potential customers are so far limited to a regional network. The advantages of extending the customer base still need to be explored by many organizations. This paper discusses the opportunities by streamlining the communication along supply chain networks in a general fashion and then describes the application in a B2B automotive retail business. A concept of a web-based trading platform, which provides a seamless service for all steps of a convenient and efficient used vehicle remarketing business, is developed. It includes all phases, like offering and price finding in a comprehensive online platform, which also covers further activities, such as logistic services, financial transactions, and a mandatory feedback loop. The suggested B2B vehicle-trading platform enables a quick turnover of each transaction, which is analyzed and optimized based on the application of cross-enterprise Value Stream Management.

This paper reports the results of an analysis of indicators describing the effectiveness of actions taken and repairs made by the maintenance services in a food industry company which had implemented a new manufacturing execution system (MES) 10 months prior to the study. The application of the above effectiveness indicators plays a significant role in the rationalization of functioning of maintenance services. Therefore, it is vital that they are calculated correctly and interpreted in a way that has a positive effect on the organization of maintenance works. The paper investigates four effectiveness indicators employed by the maintenance services of the company in question, i.e., mean time to failure (MTTF), mean time between failures (MTBF), mean time to repair (MTTR) and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). The objective of the analysis was to verify the correctness of determination of the above indicators in the analysed company. In addition, the study was to determine whether the use of correctly determined indicators and results interpretation could lead to a higher effectiveness of the actions taken by the maintenance services department. Moreover, the paper presents a diagnosis of problems connected with incorrect determination and visualization of the above-mentioned indicators in the analysed company.

One of the key factors of a competitive economy is creating a strong, internationally competitive SME sector. This essay is based on the fact that management tools used in the SME sector are insufficient. With the development of these tools, the competitiveness of companies could improve. According to the literature, using lean thinking has a positive influence on the company’s effectiveness, and also proved that lean approach can be successfully extended out of the car industry, into the limitedly resourced SME sector, too. Even though the topic of lean manufacturing is analysed by many studies, there is a lack of papers dealing with its usage in the SME sector. The originality of this paper lies in analysing the current status of using lean manufacturing practices among the Hungarian SMEs operating in the manufacturing industry. The paper includes an examination about how deeply the elements of lean thinking are present in the Hungarian SME sector, how large the development reserves are, and whether there is a difference between the usage of lean practices. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection. SMEs’ representatives, mostly CEOs and managers from the Hungarian manufacturing industry participated in the survey. The sample contained 128 observations. The study has two control variables, which are the size of the company and the relation to the lean management. The survey brought the following results. First of all, it shows that the level of using lean is low among the Hungarian SMEs. Furthermore, customer orientation is a key factor in the sector, however, there are considerable possibilities for progress by the inner processes and the handling and involvement of the suppliers. Firstly, a good basis to increase the effectiveness could be the creation of thinking in processes influencing the supply chain. Secondly, the development of the leadership and the involvement of the employees at some level are also significant. Key findings is that without state incitement and the involvement of outside experts, progress cannot be expected to spread on a broad scope. The background of the research method was created to fit the available literature and to capable to be used in other countries, too. Moreover, this way the available information can be expanded with a regional dimension, in case further studies are going to be made.

This paper presents the modeling and the resolution of a two dimensional cutting stock problem for a wooden industry. It is about a real problem of minimization of the wood wastes for an industry of furnishing. The raw material to be cut is a set of beams of various sizes. The purpose of the cut is to supply a list of orders characterized by a set of articles of various sizes. The problem is converted into an integer linear program where the decision variables are the numbers of beams to cut according to a set of feasible “patterns”. The designed solution is a heuristic in two stages: – Generation of the feasible patterns by various classic heuristics of the Bin-packing Problem. – Resolution of the integer linear program with the generated patterns as input variables. Moreover, based on this approach, the “Application Cutting Optimization” is developed to allow the immediate resolution of the problem and widening the stock management horizon. To end, a real case is studied to confirm the effectiveness of this approach.

A product is referred to as robust when its performance is consistent. In current product robustness paradigms, robustness is the responsibility of engineering design. Drawings and 3D models should be released to manufacturing after applying all the possible robust design principles. But there are no methods referred for manufacturing to carry and improve product robustness after the design freeze. This paper proposes a process of inducing product robustness at all stages of product development from design release to the start of mass production. A manufacturing strategy of absorbing all obvious variations and an approach of turning variations to cancel one another are defined. Verified the application feasibility and established the robustness quantification method at each stage. The theoretical and actual sensitivity of different parameters is identified as indicators. Theoretical and actual performance variation and accuracy of estimation are established as robustness metric. Manufacturing plan alignment to design, complimenting the design and process sensitivities, countering process mean shifts with tool deviations, higher adjustable assembly tools are enablers to achieve product robustness.

The purpose of this research is to develop a Lean-RFID based waste identification system (LRWIS) for small-medium manufacturing companies. The specific objective of this research is to develop and implement the LRWIS from integrating the appropriate lean tools and advanced technologies for wastes reduction and inventory management. Subsequently, the framework was converted into a system for a small-medium sized wood processing manufacturer in Malaysia and integrated into a computerized program. The LRWIS can monitor real-time inventory and production status so the manufacturer can optimise the quantity of the primary products and deliver them on time as per the RFID information of each container. The manufacturer can also make decision instantly for controlling and changing different products in the production progress. The system provides simple constructed framework under a low cost infrastructure, yet it is of practical value in reducing the wastes and also optimising the production process.

Lean manufacturing has been the most deliberated concept ever since its introduction. Many organization across the world implemented lean concept and witnessed dramatic improvements in all contemporary performance parameters. Lean manufacturing has been a sort of mirage for the Indian automotive industry. The present research investigated the key lean barriers to lean implementation through literature survey, confirmatory factor analysis, multiple regression, and analytic network process. The general factors to lean implementation were inadequate lean planning, resource constraints, half-hearted commitment from management, and behavioral issues. The most important factor in the context of lean implementation in Indian automotive industry was inadequate lean planning found with the help of confirmatory factor analysis and multiple regression analysis. Further analysis of these extracted factors through analytic network process suggested the key lean barriers in Indian automotive industry, starting from the most important were absence of proper lean implementation methodology, lack of customer focus, absence of proper lean measurement system, inadequate capital, improper selection of lean tools & practices, leadership issues, resistance to change, and poorly defined roles & responsibilities. Though literature identifying various lean barriers are available. The novelty of current research emerges from the identification and subsequent prioritization of key lean barriers within Indian automotive SMEs environment. The research assists in smooth transition from traditional to lean system by identifying key barriers and developing customized framework of lean implementation for Indian automotive SMEs.

In small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the ways of operating are dependent on the specific nature of their business activity, while management methods are often used intuitively. The paper shows that specialization, defined as offering products to companies from one or from two to four industries, is of great importance among SMEs in the gas sector. The analysis of the applied management methods allows us to conclude that the most important ones are those related to human capital.

Management and Production Engineering Review (MPER) is a peer-refereed, international, multidisciplinary journal covering a broad spectrum of topics in production engineering and management. Production engineering is a currently developing stream of science encompassing planning, design, implementation and management of production and logistic systems. Orientation towards human resources factor differentiates production engineering from other technical disciplines. The journal aims to advance the theoretical and applied knowledge of this rapidly evolving field, with a special focus on production management, organisation of production processes, management of production knowledge, computer integrated management of production flow, enterprise effectiveness, maintainability and sustainable manufacturing, productivity and organisation, forecasting, modelling and simulation, decision making systems, project management, innovation management and technology transfer, quality engineering and safety at work, supply chain optimization and logistics. Management and Production Engineering Review is published under the auspices of the Polish Academy of Sciences Committee on Production Engineering and Polish Association for Production Management. The main purpose of Management and Production Engineering Review is to publish the results of cutting-edge research advancing the concepts, theories and implementation of novel solutions in modern manufacturing. Papers presenting original research results related to production engineering and management education are also welcomed. We welcome original papers written in English. The Journal also publishes technical briefs, discussions of previously published papers, book reviews, and editorials. Letters to the Editor-in-Chief are highly encouraged.