Abstract
This chapter presents an innovative collaborative planning (CP) approach for non-hierarchical production networks that enhances collaboration between partners in two different lifecycle phases of the virtual organizations (VOs). The first phase concerns the first planning iteration for the customer, and it basically defines the operations plan and a quotation for the customer, supported by a negotiation process between partners. The second phase concerns a detailed specification of the manufacturing operation and its planning. The chapter first presents a summary of the main trends and previous work concerning collaborative network (CN), governance models and approaches for CP. Next, it provides the requirements for the CP. The chapter ends with the methodology proposed for CP, considering two planning schemes and the evaluation of the quality of the solutions. © 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Abstract
In this work, we propose a general integer programming model to address the staff scheduling problem, flexible enough to be easily adapted to a wide-range of real-world problems. The model is applied with slight changes to two case studies: a glass plant and a continuous care unit, and also to a collection of benchmark instances available in the literature. The emphasis of our approach is on a novel formulation of sequence constraints and also on workload balance, which is tackled through cyclic scheduling. Models are solved using the CPLEX solver. Computational results indicate that optimal solutions can be achieved within a reasonable amount of time.

Abstract
Managing perishability may represent a remarkable problem in supply chain management of a varied set of industries. In fact, perishability can influence, for example, productivity or customer service and it may happen to occur in one or more processes throughout the supply chain. In this paper a review on planning models that handle perishability issues in production and distribution is conducted. The contribution of this paper is three-fold. First, a new framework for classifying perishability models based on multiple process features is presented. Second, it draws the community attention to the importance of managing perishability in many different industries' supply chains by showing its relevance and by reviewing the literature related to production and distribution planning. Finally, it points towards research opportunities so far not addressed by the research community in this challenging field.

Abstract
The operating theater is the biggest hospital budget expenditure. The usage of surgery related resources and its intrinsic planning must be carefully devised in order to achieve better operational performance. However, from long to short term planning, the decision processes inherent to the operating theater are often the subject of empiricism. Moreover, the current hospital information systems available in Portuguese public hospitals lack a decision support system component, which could assist in achieving better planning solutions. This work reports the development of a centralized system for the operating theater planning to support decision-making tasks of surgeons, chief specialty managers, and hospital administration. Its main components concern surgery scheduling, operating theater's resource allocation and performance measurement. The enhancement of the planning processes, the increase of policy compliance, and the overall performance of the operating theater compared to the former methodologies are also discussed. © 2013, IGI Global.

Abstract
Controlling, maintaining, and improving quality is a central topic in manufacturing. Total Quality Management (TQM) provides several tools and techniques to deal with quality related topics, which are not always applicable. With the increased use of Information Technology (IT) in manufacturing there is a higher availability of data with great potential of further improvements. At the same time this results in higher requirements for data storage and processing with demanding, time consuming sessions for interpretation. Without suitable tools and techniques knowledge remains hidden in databases. This paper presents a methodology to help analyzing root causes of nonconformities (NCs) through a pattern identification approach. Hereby a methodology of Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD) is adapted and used as a quality tool. As the core element of the KDD methodology, the data mining, a well-known statistical measure from the field of economics—the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI)—is integrated. After presenting the theoretical background a new methodology is proposed and validated through an application case of the automotive industry. Results are obtained and presented in the form of patterns in matrices. They suggest that concentration indices may indicate possible root causes of NCs and invite for further investigations. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2013.

Abstract
In this paper a new heuristic is proposed to solve general multi-level lot-sizing and scheduling problems. The idea is to cross-fertilize the principles of the meta-heuristic Variable Neighborhood Decomposition Search (VNDS) with those of the MIP-based Fix&Optimize heuristic. This combination will make it possible to solve the kind of problems that typically arise in the consumer goods industry due to sequence-dependent setups and shifting bottlenecks. In order to demonstrate the strength of this procedure, a GLSP variant for multiple production stages is chosen as a representative. With the help of artificial and real-world instances, the quality of the solution as well as the computational performance of the new procedure is tested and compared to a standard MIP-solver.