Abstract
Este livro é o resultado do arranjo e compilação de textos didáticos produzidos ou adaptados pelos seus autores para apoio a unidades curriculares dos mestrados em Engenharia Mecânica - Gestão Industrial e Engenharia Eletrotécnica e Computadores – Sistemas de Planeamento Industrial, do Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Politécnico do Porto. Esses textos foram revistos e reorganizados, com vista, não só a manterem a função original de ajuda à formação de estudantes afetos a esta área do conhecimento, como também a constituírem uma referência de conhecimentos para quem deseje iniciar-se nestes temas; procuram ainda ser uma base de consulta e informação para engenheiros ou outros profissionais com funções na gestão da produção. O livro percorre os marcos mais significativos da trajetória histórica da gestão da produção, com particular foco no planeamento e controlo da produção, procurando interpretar e tornar compreensível a sua evolução, e relevando, sempre que oportuno, a influência da tecnologia nos modelos de gestão, e sua interligação. Começa por uma referência à tipologia dos sistemas de produção no capítulo I e aborda, no capítulo II, as principais funções do planeamento, programação e controlo da produção em contexto MRP, normalmente considerada uma visão mais clássica do tema. Outras duas aproximações com expressividade, a Teoria das Restrições e o JIT/Lean, são abordadas nos capítulos III e IV respetivamente. No capítulo V, o livro finaliza o seu conteúdo com uma breve referência a sistemas de informação empresariais, particularmente vocacionados para contextos de produção. Os autores expressam o seu agradecimento a todos os colegas, alunos e editor, que, com os seus contributos, permitiram chegar ao documento que agora disponibilizamos. Esperamos que lhe seja útil, prezado leitor, que suscite em si a mesma satisfação que o seu longo processo de compilação nos proporcionou, e que possa vir a ser, em próxima revisão, enriquecido com as valiosas críticas, sempre bem-vindas, que haja por bem dedicar-lhe.

Abstract
This paper compares the performance of Simulated Annealing and Tabu Search meta-heuristics in addressing a parallel machine scheduling problem aimed at minimizing weighted earliness, tardiness, total flowtime, and machine deterioration costs-a multi-objective optimization problem. The problem is transformed into a single-objective problem using weighting and weighting relative distance methods. Four scenarios, varying in the number of jobs and machines, are created to evaluate these metaheuristics. Computational experiments indicate that Simulated Annealing consistently yields superior solutions compared to Tabu Search in scenarios with lower dimensions despite longer run times. Conversely, Tabu Search performs better in higher-dimensional scenarios. Furthermore, it is observed that solutions generated by different weighting methods exhibit similar performance. © 2025 The Author(s).

Abstract
The hotel sector is a diversified and highly technical sector, where the complexity of the facilities, the specific characteristics, and requirements of the area, as well as the regulations and applicable legislation, constitute an enormous challenge. Thus, a structured maintenance plan must include periodic intervention, the proper functioning of equipment, along with a greater reliability of services and energy efficiency. All these aspects will ensure greater protection and comfort to the customers of the hotel units and will enable the effective management of resources, impacting on the overall costs represented by the maintenance area in a hotel structure. This article aims to demonstrate the key importance of the maintenance area in the hotel sector, concluding that hotel facilities’ management enables processes’ optimisation, providing a significant contribution for the processes’ dynamics and the overall performance of the hotel, the staff and, therefore, the hospitality business. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Abstract
(1) Background: In this study on Robotic Process Automation (RPA), the feasibility of sustainable RPA implementation was investigated, considering user requirements in the context of this technology’s stakeholders, with a strong emphasis on sustainability. (2) Methods: A multi-objective mathematical model was developed and the Weighted Sum and Tchebycheff methods were used to evaluate the efficiency of the implementation. An enterprise case study was utilized for data collection, employing investigation hypotheses, questionnaires, and brainstorming sessions with company stakeholders. (3) Results: The results underscore the significance of user requirements within the RPA landscape and demonstrate that integrating these requirements into the multi-objective model enhances the implementation assessment. Practical guidelines for RPA planning and management with a sustainability focus are provided. The analysis reveals a solution that reduces initial costs by 21.10% and allows for an efficient and equitable allocation of available resources. (4) Conclusion: This study advances our understanding of the interplay between user requirements and RPA feasibility, offering viable guidelines for the sustainable implementation of this technology.

Abstract
In the context of a distributed/agile/virtual enterprise (D/A/VE) and due to the large number of potential candidate resources, it is important to make a selection of those that will give more guarantees in terms of success of this cooperation and bring better performance to D/A/VE. There are several projects of D/A/VE with different approaches to the selection process. Considering the functionalities of the resources selection model of our project, the main objective of this paper is to present the development of a prototype/demonstrator tool to support it. As result a tool, named SelecE A/VV0, was developed and providing following features: pre-selection ofresources with and without integration of the value analysis (VA), and final selection of resources. This tool supports the development of BMVEARM selection model and permits the validation of the importance of VA integration in the final performance of the resources system selected. Copyright © 2016 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Abstract
A production system constrained by workers and machines, where machines are not fully staffed and workers can be transferred between machines, is here considered. Previous simulation research on this type of dual resource constrained production systems assumes that machines are fully reliable. However, this is questionable in most practical situations. Discrete event simulation is used as research method to assess the impact of machine failures on where to transfer workers. Experimentation was carried out for different levels of machine availability, worker utilization and worker assignment rules. Results show that the modified operation due date rule for worker assignment improves tardiness related performance for all production situations considered. This rule shifts between a focus on completing jobs on dune and a focus on speeding up jobs with short processing time. Results further show that ignoring the machine state at worker assignment may lead to significant performance deterioration. For a machine availability of 97% and a worker utilization of 90%, a deterioration between 101% and 416% on the percentage of tardy jobs was observed, compared to scenarios where machines are always available. However, if the machine state is considered, deterioration ranges only between 11% and 30% under the same conditions. 'This highlights the need to considered machine availability at worker assigment.