Abstract
In the fiercely competitive era induced by expansion of open business archetypes, the managerial aspects of Extended Manufacturing Environments (EMEs) are experiencing growing concerns. There is no scope of leaving a possible operational improvement unexplored. For enhanced operational efficiency and capacity utilization the balancing and scheduling problems of EMEs are, therefore, rightfully considered and an integer programme is proposed in this paper. The model is designed in a spread sheet and solved through What'sBest optimizer. The model capabilities is assessed through a test problem. The results have demonstrated that the model is capable of defining optimized production schedules for EMEs. © 2015 AISTI.

Abstract
Manufacturing environments require a real-time adaptation and optimization method to dynamically and intelligently maintain the current scheduling plan feasible. This way, the organization keeps clients satisfied and achieves its objectives (costs are minimized and profits maximized). This paper proposes an optimization approach - Selection Constructive based Hyper-heuristic for Dynamic Scheduling - to deal with these dynamic events, with the main goal of maintaining the current scheduling plan feasible and robust as possible. The development of this dynamic adaptation approach is inspired on evolutionary computation and hyper-heuristics. Our empirical results show that a selection constructive hyperheuristic could be advantageous on solving dynamic adaptation optimization problems.

Abstract
User modelling has become a central subject for anybody interested in understanding how users interact with technology. Personalization is a key issue in an era when there is so much information and so many people interacting in so many ways. Modern users desire a customized experience that adapts itself to their requirements and understands what they need even before they notice it. In order to morph any system into an adapting one, every relevant interaction with its users has to be maintained. Then, a mathematical structure capable of discovering patterns amongst that information is necessary, being able to classify users according to the roles they play. With a correct user categorization, the system knows when, how and what to do to adapt its content, via a mixed-initiative approach. In this paper, an artificial neural network is selected as classifier and users are divided in three roles, from beginners to experts. ADSyS, the target system of this proposal, adapts its content based on who is operating it, providing a higher usability. This guide on how to adapt a system to its users is built as part of ADSyS, but is intended to be generalized as a foundation to other systems.

Abstract
Global competition nd the customers demand for customized products with shorter due dates, marked the roduction of the Extended Enterprise. In this Extended Manufacturing Environment (EME), lean, virtual, networked and distributed enterprises collaborate respond to the market demands. In this paper we study the influence of the batch size on Flexible Flow Shop makespan minimization problem FFC parallel to C-max for two multi-sites approaches, the FSBE (Flow Shop Based Factories) and the PMBF (Parallel-Machines Based Factories). The computational study demonstrates how the performance of the PMBF model decreases with the increase of batch size and determines the batch sizes in which the performance is similar.

Abstract
In the fiercely competitive era induced by expansion of open business archetypes, the managerial aspects of Extended Manufacturing Environments (EMEs) are experiencing growing concerns. There is no scope of leaving a possible operational improvement unexplored. For enhanced operational efficiency and capacity utilization the balancing and scheduling problems of EMEs are, therefore, rightfully considered and an integer programme is proposed in this paper. The model is designed in a spread sheet and solved through What's Best optimizer. The model capabilities is assessed through a test problem. The results have demonstrated that the model is capable of defining optimized production schedules for EMEs.

Abstract
The problem of sequencing jobs on a single machine to minimize total cost (earliness and tardiness) is nowadays not just important due to traditional concerns but also due to its importance in the context of Collaborative Networked Organizations and Virtual Enterprises, where precision about promptly responses to customers' requests, along with other important requirements, assume a crucial role. In order to provide a contribution in this direction, in this paper the authors contribute with an applied constructive heuristics that tries to find appropriate solutions for single machine scheduling problems under different processing times and due dates, and without preemption allowed. In this paper, two different approaches for single-machine scheduling problems, based on external and internal performance measures are applied to the problem and a comparative analysis is performed. Computational results are presented for the problem under Just-in-Time and agile conditions on which each job has a due date, and the objective is to minimize the sum of holding costs for jobs completed before their due date and tardiness costs for jobs completed after their due date. Additional computational tests were developed based on different customer and enterprise oriented performance criteria, although preference is given to customer-oriented measures, namely the total number of tardy jobs and the maximum tardiness.