Abstract
This study explores strategic agility of an automotive corporate group and its influence on facility layouts and operational performance. Strategic agility is viewed here as a firm's strategic intent to achieve agile operations through collaboratively deploying the layouts of a set of facilities, driven by a management focus on improving its responsiveness and adaptability to customers' requirements. Our "collaborative multi-facility layout problem" involves the physical organization of departments between and inside several facilities geographically dispersed, that collaborate in manufacturing a complex product in a given time window. The model proposed in this work allows us to analyse the benefits of new horizontal collaboration forms with respect to several objectives, namely costs (material handling inside and between facilities, re-layout) and adjacency between departments. A case study of a first tier supplier in the automotive industry shows the applicability potential of the approach to real-life problems. The results show that horizontal collaboration among the facilities can positively influence the performance of the corporate group as a whole, and that of each firm individually.

Abstract
This paper studies the Facility Layout Problem (FLP) of a first tier supplier in the automotive industry. This complex manufacturing system involves multiple facilities, complex products, and layout reconfiguration constraints. One of the key requirements of this particular system is the need for high levels of flexibility in the reconfiguration of the layouts. This problem is formulated as a mixed-integer programming (MIP), based on a FLP model with multiple objectives and unequal areas. The model allows for two reconfiguration types: small and large changes. We explore the application of optimization methodologies to produce efficient and flexible layouts.

Abstract
The multi-facility layout problem involves the physical organization of departments inside several facilities, to allow flexible and efficient operations. This work studies the facility layout problem in a new perspective, considering a group of facilities, and two different concerns: the location of departments within a group of facilities, and the location of departments inside each facility itself. The problem is formulated as a Quadratic Programming Problem with multiple objectives and unequal areas, allowing layout reconfigurations in each planning period. The objectives of the model are: the minimization of costs (material handling inside facilities and between facilities, and re-layout); the maximization of adjacency between departments; and the minimization of the "unsuitability" of department positions and locations. This unsuitability measure is a new objective proposed in this work, to combine the characteristics of existing locations with the requirements of departments. The model was tested with data from the literature as well as with a problem inspired in a first tier supplier in the automotive industry. Preliminary results show that this work can be viewed as an innovative and promising integrated approach for tackling real, complex facility layout problems.

Abstract
The scarcity of federal resources allocated to the Ministry of Defense causes the need for Brazilian Armed Forces to implement strategies that may allow achieving "more with less". For the Navy of Brazil, this strategy includes the need to improve and implement risk management tools and techniques in large defense projects. In this sense, the present study aims at contributing to this process through the design and validation of a synthetic risk model for military shipbuilding, containing the main risk events, causes and associated effects that may affect the success of these projects, in terms of costs and deadlines. This model will help in the prediction and control of these variables and their possible effects, enabling the anticipation of responses and the reduction of uncertainty. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Abstract
A process of risk management in projects is a rational chain of practices by which decision-agents plan and execute actions and control the results in order to keep the implementation of the project under certain conditions (time, cost and quality parameters' set). With the purpose of providing guidelines for the selection of the best practices taking into account the organizational maturity and project complexity, a theoretical framework to classify and associate those practices to each phase of the project life cycle and to each project risk management process is proposed. Future research efforts will be directed towards refining the framework and testing it in multiple case studies. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Abstract