The advanced capitalist nations are currently undergoing an enormous economic, social, and political transformation. At the heart of this transformation is the transition between large scale, standardized production (Fordism) and new, more flexible approaches to manufacturing (flexibility), and...

In this book quantitative approaches are proposed for production planning problems in automated manufacturing. In particular, techniques from operations research provide ways to tackle these problems. Special attention is given to the efficient use of tools in automated manufacturing systems....