To date, very few publications have been found that describe how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are adopting knowledge management (KM). The same is true concerning attempts to develop a framework to help them implement it. To redress this, this paper presents the results of four case...

Quality function deployment (QFD) is a system for translating customer requirements (government regulations, operating conditions and buyer expectations) into suitable technical characteristics and ensuring that important ones are prioritized in the design. The method has been successfully...

The use of improvement tools in manufacturing industry has proven to be an important aspect of continuous improvement activities. To determine whether the same is true in the UK construction industry, a survey was conducted to assess the current level of use and perceived importance of such...

Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) is a young metaheuristic algorithm which has shown promising results in solving many optimization problems. To date, a formal ACO-based metaheuristic has not been applied for solving Unequal Area Facility Layout Problems (UA-FLPs). This paper proposes an Ant System...

The ecological issues arising from manufacturing operations have led to the focus on environmental sustainability in manufacturing. This can be addressed adequately using a closed-loop supply chain (CLSC). To attain an effective and efficient CLSC, it is necessary to imbibe a holistic...