The Solution Path

The Solution Path

Problem solving is one of the most valuable skills for managers, supervisors, and executives. In The Solution Path, Tasos Sioukas combines practical techniques and tools with spirituality, life skills, and an emphasis on relationships and teams. He presents proven methods that enable readers to take action and create solutions. Unlike other books on the subject that leave readers thirsty for inspiration, Sioukas inspires readers to capitalize on positive thinking and their own creative abilities. He assists readers to understand themselves and others so that they can build effective problem-solving teams and enables them to use facilitation, a set of techniques that help team members maximize their time together. The Solution Path supports readers in taking action on a specific challenge. It provides a step-by-step path to solutions, which begins by visualizing ideal outcomes and using creativity exercises to generate as many ideas as possible, continues with synthesizing the ideas into the best workable solution, and ends with designing an action plan to make the solution a reality. The Solution Path maximizes the collective genius of teams while achieving buy-in and commitment for lasting organizational change.

The Solution Path

Multi-Agent Based Beam Search for Real-Time Production Scheduling and Control

The Multi-Agent Based Beam Search (MABBS) method systematically integrates four major requirements of manufacturing production - representation capability, solution quality, computation efficiency, and implementation difficulty - within a unified framework to deal with the many challenges of complex real-world production planning and scheduling problems. Multi-agent Based Beam Search for Real-time Production Scheduling and Control introduces this method, together with its software implementation and industrial applications. This book connects academic research with industrial practice, and develops a practical solution to production planning and scheduling problems. To simplify implementation, a reusable software platform is developed to build the MABBS method into a generic computation engine. This engine is integrated with a script language, called the Embedded Extensible Application Script Language (EXASL), to provide a flexible and straightforward approach to representing complex real-world problems. Adopting an in-depth yet engaging and clear approach, and avoiding confusing or complicated mathematics and formulas, this book presents simple heuristics and a user-friendly software platform for system modelling. The supporting industrial case studies provide key information for students, lecturers, and industry practitioners alike. Multi-agent Based Beam Search for Real-time Production Scheduling and Control offers insights into the complex nature of and a practical total solution to production planning and scheduling, and inspires further research and practice in this promising research area.