Journal of King Saud University – Engineering Sciences 30 (2018) 205
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Journal of King Saud University – Engineering Sciences
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Editorial
Special issue on ‘‘Industrial performance appraisal: Theory, application
and future directions”
The objective of special issue on Industrial Performance Apprai-
sal: Theory, Application and Future Directions is to identify
research contributions and implementation of modern manage-
ment frameworks, strategies, techniques, technologies, method-
ologies, informatics platforms and models in context to industrial
performance enhancement, assessment and or appraisal.
This Special Issue aims to impart and share the recent research,
development and applications dealing with engineering, technol-
ogy and management aspects of industrial performance enhance-
ment, assessment and or appraisal. From the past literature
survey, it is evident that in recent years, many manufacturing orga-
nizations have adopted number of manufacturing strategies to
improve the efficiency of the various sub-systems of the production
systems to gain an edge in the increasingly competitive market. The
choice of which manufacturing strategy to choose is a complex
strategic question and calls for evaluating trade-off between multi-
ple conflicting criteria, involving capacity, manpower, machine
investment, material trade-off, money trade-off, flexibility, etc.
Similarly, there are situations in tactical and operational decisions
too. Thus, the Special Issue disseminates discussion and exchange
global experience in applying design, run, control and optimize
industrial activities. The focus is also on sharing innovative
approaches that are relevant to the sustainable development of
manufacturing sector in the global context. JKSUES received num-
ber of papers; among them we selected eight for the special issue.
The first paper, presents the integration of simulation modeling
along with response surface methodology and design of experi-
ments in order to analyze and improve the productivity in a
selected continuous paint manufacturing industry. The presented
approach can be generalized to other manufacturing systems to
improve their productivity in a timely and cost-effective manner.
The second paper has focused to investigate the feasibility of inte-
grating tools from different domains such as Parametric computer
aided design modeling and finite element analysis, which gives a
concept to the industrialist how to get an optimum arm design
to increase their production rate etc. The paper presents the con-
cept of optimum design of material handling tools by considering
the different design parameters which makes it more efficient
and reliable to be used in the manufacturing industry.
The third paper explores a finite production rate model featur-
ing overtime option and rework of nonconforming products. Clas-
Peer review under responsibility of King Saud University.
Production and hosting by Elsevier
https://doi.org/10.1016/S1018-3639(18)30326-X
sic finite production rate model assumed all items produced are of
perfect quality. The model is case studied in real fabrication sys-
tems, owing to diverse uncontrollable conditions; production of
nonconforming items is inevitable. The fourth paper addressed
the need for organizational culture to better facilitate lean
approach and its success among small and medium enterprises
in Saudi Arabia as a case.
The fifth paper adopted simulation model as tool to evaluate the
effect of the repair rates of machines and the buffer capacity on
production line efficiency. The case studied a production system
consisting of two unreliable stages and a buffer between them is
considered, where the first stage incorporates two identical machi-
nes in parallel, and the second stage incorporates one machine. The
sixth paper explores the significance of machining parameters such
as pulse on time, servo voltage, pulse off time, peak current; wire
feed rate and cable tension. Principal component analysis is uti-
lized for the optimization of machining parameters.
Similarly, to withstand in global manufacturing market it is
necessary to acquire advance materials as well as advance non-
conventional manufacturing process technology. Accordingly, the
seventh paper studied sheet forming process with important pro-
cess parameters using the adaptive finite element simulation.
The presented approach will help to understand the complex
deformation process and to reduce the manufacturing cost with
the help of simulation tool. To achieve this eighth paper presents
an importance of advanced material such as NiTi alloy which has
unique properties such as biocompatibility, high strength, high
corrosion resistance, shape memory effect etc.
I, as guest editor to this special issue, would like to thank Prof.
Anis H. Fakeeha (Editor-in-Chief of the JKSUES) for his support and
encouragement which helped us to take initiatives to announce
this Special Issue and bring it to the current form. Secondly, would
like to thank Eng. Yahya Ahemad Mohammed (Assistant to Editor-
in-Chief of the JKSUES) for his kind cooperation in continuous fol-
low up and administrative work required for the special issue. Also
would like to thank ELSVIER staff members for their kind coopera-
tion in production of this special issue. I am also thankful to all the
reviewers, without whose cooperation, these eight papers could
not have been screened out. Finally, would like to thank all the
authors who responded to the call for papers, and the authors of
the published papers in this issue for allowing us to share the
results of their research with the rest of the research community.
Guest Editor
Ateekh-Ur-Rehman
Department of Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering, King Saud
University, PO Box 800, Riyadh 11471, Saudi Arabia
E-mail address: arehman@ksu.edu.sa