Research

This month Industrial Engineer highlights two articles that show industrial engineers contributing to more efficient manufacturing process design and operation. Remco Bierbooms of the Laboratory for Industrial Mathematics Eindhoven (LIME), professor Ivo Adan of Eindhoven University of Technology, and Marcel van Vuuren of Consultants in Quantitative Methods (CQM) proposed a fluid flow model in "Performance Analysis of Exponential Production Lines with Fluid Flow and Finite Buffers" to predict the high-volume production of Heineken's bottle lines. In "Manufacturing System Design by Considering Multiple Machine Replacements under Discounted Costs," Nima Safaei, a former postdoc who is currently a senior specialist at Bombardier Bombardier Aerospace, and Ali Zuashkiani, director of educational programs at the center, show that in the design phase it is possible to select equipment to minimize operation and maintenance costs over a given time horizon.