Fourth Aegean International Conference on “Analysis of Manufacturing Systems”

It is an honour and a great pleasure for me to welcome you on behalf of the University of the Aegean and the Organising Committee to the Fourth Aegean International Conference on the Analysis of Manufacturing Systems.
This year we return to Samos, where, as you know, we held our Inaugural Conference in 1997. Many of you here this morning were at that First Conference and your pres-ence is testimony to the value of these conferences as well as confirmation of your in-tention to continue our co-operation in research work on the analysis of manufacturing systems.
At the start of the Conference there will be a series of presentations in Logistics and Supply Management. I wish to thank the presenters from the sponsoring companies: Mr. Aris Constantatos from BSH and Mr. Antonios Tatarakis, from Oracle Hellas S.A for coming to address the Conference on the topic of “The importance of Logistics and Supply Management to the Enterprises of the Aegean Archipelagos”. They are both leading experts in the area of Logistics and Supply Management in their firms. I wish to thank Professor Lambros Laios for chairing this very important session and leading the discussion on these themes. Special thanks are due to the Greek Ministry of the Aegean for encouraging and supporting the organization of this first day’s session of our Conference.
We are very much in debt to our invited Speaker, Professor James MacGregor Smith for agreeing to address the conference on the topic of “Dilemmas in Factory Design: Paradox and Paradigm”. As you are aware, Professor MacGregor Smith is a leading expert in this area and has contributed greatly to our understanding of the many interesting and important issues in this area.
As you will see from the programme, 30 papers are to be presented at this conference. The Scientific Committee has as usual done excellent work in selecting the papers and arranging them into a suitable programme of presentations. We are all in the debt of this Committee, the members of which work so diligently to ensure the smooth running of the Conference.
I should like to express my appreciation to the Members of the Organising Committee and in particular to Mr. Christos Tsagaris for executive services in respect of the Conference.
The University of the Aegean has been involved in this series of conferences since 1997. Perhaps the time has come to broaden the organising and sponsoring bases of this series of conferences. I shall be very pleased to hear of an interest from other universi-ties and/or other countries in hosting one of these conferences in the future. We could work towards a series of conferences on the Analysis of Manufacturing Systems which would be based in this geographical area or even on a worldwide basis. Whereas I like the product, it is not really a branded Aegean or even Grecian product and there are no patents involved. So I look forward to hearing proposals for product transfer or migration!
We deeply appreciate the sponsorship of many organisations which contributed to the resources required to plan, organise and run the Fourth Aegean Conference on the Analysis of Manufacturing Systems. The full list of sponsors is given on page VII of the Conference Proceedings.
I should like to thank the Session Chairpersons for agreeing to act. However, as we all know only too well, the success of any conference depends on the participation by the participants. From experience, I know that you will participate fully in this Conference, as you have done in the earlier conferences. I am sure that you will use the opportunity to network with your colleagues so that you will return to your laboratories and research facilities full of enthusiasm to solve the many unsolved problems in respect of manu-facturing systems.
We are in Samos, which has a very proud history. Here the philosopher – mathematician Pythagoras, the astronomer Aristarchus and the bard Aesop attended court during the ‘golden age’ of Samos. According to Herodotus the Samians of all the Greeks “have achieved the three greatest contributions”. These are the immense harbour mole constructed by the ancient slaves, the 1,040 metre Evpalinio Orygma (Eupalinos’ Tun-nel) an aquaduct built by Polykrates through the hillside in the northwest of Samos and Hera Temple, which although planned to be the largest temple in Greece was never completed. I do hope that you take a little time to marvel at the achievements of those who inhabited this island about two and a half thousand years ago.
My hope is that by the end of the conference you will have been challenged by the presentations of the papers and will be relaxed and refreshed by the good food, drink, music and dance which are an essential part of Greek culture and the experience of the Greek Islands. Naturally, I am assuming that the weather will be to everyone’s satisfaction.

Chrissoleon T. Papadopoulos, Conference Chairman

Contents

• Emre Enginarlar, Jingshan Li and Semyon M. Meerkov
  “How Lean Can Be Lean”
• Marcel van Vuuren, Ivo J.B.F. Adan and Simone A.E. Resing – Sassen
  “Performance Analysis of Multi-Server Tandem Queues with Finite Buffers”
• Stéphane Mocanu
  “Decomposition Algorithms for Performance Evaluation of Continuous Flow Production Lines Driven by General Markov Chains”
• Horst Tempelmeier
  “Simultaneous Buffer and Workload Optimization for Asynchronous Flow Production Systems”
• Javad Sadr and Roland P. Malhamé
  “Bottleneck Identification and Maximal Throughput Evaluation in Unreliable Transfer Lines”
• Jongyoon Kim and Stanley B. Gershwin
  “An Integrated Quality/Quantity Model of a Transfer Line”
• Gido A.J.F. Brouns and Jan van der Wal
  “Monotonicity Properties in a Batch Workload Model with Controlled Phase-Type Service Times”
• Baris Tan
  “Capacity Investment and Pricing Decisions for Producers and Their Subcontractors”
• Ehsan Elahi, Saif Benjaafar and Karen Donohue
  “Inventory Competition in Make-to-Stock Systems”
• G. Liberopoulos, A. Chronis and S. Koukoumialos
  “Base Stock Policies with Some Unreliable Advance Demand Information”
• Fikri Karaesmen
  “Inventory Systems with Advance Demand Information and Random Replenishment Times”
• A. Matta and T. Tolio
  “First Study on Manufacturing Flow Lines with Shared Buffer”
• Alexandros C. Diamantidis and Chrissoleon T. Papadopoulos
  “Analysis of a Discrete Material Unreliable Merge System with a Finite Intermediate Buffer and Three Stations with Operational – Dependent and Idleness Failures”
• M. I. Vidalis and C. Heavey
  “On the Workload Allocation Problem of Short Unreliable Production Lines with Finite Buffers”
• Stefan Helber
  “Analysis of Flow Lines with Cox-2-Distributed Processing Times and Limited Buffer Capacity”
• M. A. Jafari and A. Amini
  “A Distributed Discrete Event Dynamic Model for Supply Chain of Business Enterprises”
• T. van Woensel, L. Kerbache, H. Peremans and N. Vandaele
  “A Vehicle Routing Problem with Stochastic Travel Times”
• Georges Saharidis, Yves Dallery, Fikri Karaesmen
  “Centralized Versus Decentralized Production Planning in Supply Chains”
• Stella Sofianopoulou
  “Application of Advanced Production Techniques in a ‘Real-World’ Manufacturing Environment”
• Sven Axsäter
  “Planning Production for an Assembly System with Random Operation Times”
• Daniel Quadt and Heinrich Kuhn
  “Production Planning in Semiconductor Assembly”
• Α. Daryanto, J.C.W van Ommeren, W.H.M. Zijm
  “A Closed-Loop Two-Indenture Repairable Item System”
• Jingshan Li
  “Modeling and Analysis of Complex Production Systems”
• H.P.G. van Ooijen and J.W.M. Bertrand
  “The Optimal Arrival Rate Control Policy in Production Systems with Workload Dependent Processing Rates”
• P.L.M. van Nyen, J.W.M. Bertrand, H.P.G. van Ooijen and N.J. Vandaele
  “The Control of an Integrated Production-Inventory System with Job Shop Routing and Stochastic Arrival and Processing Times”
• M. Colledani, A. Matta and T. Tolio
  “Performance Evaluation of Production Lines with Finite Buffer Capacity Producing Two Different Products”
• Hiroki Ishikura
  “Production Planning for Short Life-Cycle Products Using the Intuition of Specialists as Information -In the case that there are correlations between models-“
• John Geraghty and Cathal Heavey
  “An Experimental Comparison of Production Control Strategies”
• Nico J. Vandaele
  “Advanced Resources Planning”