Angappa Gunasekaran – författare

The scope of the book is to present the undergraduate and graduate students, senior managers and researchers in manufacturing systems design and management, industrial engineering and information technology with the conceptual and theoretical basis for the design and implementation of AMS. Also, the book focuses on broad policy directives and plans of agile manufacturing that guide the monitoring and evaluating the manufacturing strategies and their performance. A problem solving approach is taken throughout the book, emphasizing the context of agile manufacturing and the complexities to be addressed.

Managing Organizations for Sustainable Development in Emerging Countries focuses on the main challenges and opportunities of managing firms and emerging economies in the light of sustainable development. One of the key questions of sustainable development is how organizations from developing countries are achieving their economic goals while considering, simultaneously, environmental issues like conservation of natural resources, eco-efficiency, biodiversity conservation, and climate-change mitigation. These questions are relevant for government, industry, and urban sustainability. However, in the modern literature that discusses organizational management for sustainable development, few studies focus on the reality of organizations from emerging countries. Moreover, changing environmental legislation in emerging countries (such as China and Brazil) will affect organizational managers. In this context, this book may contribute to organizational management in the search for more sustainable organizations, as well as deal with the challenges of managing organizations in the context of increased social problems, degradation of natural resources, loss of biodiversity, and climate change.

This book was published as a special issue of the International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology.

Managing Organizations for Sustainable Development in Emerging Countries focuses on the main challenges and opportunities of managing firms and emerging economies in the light of sustainable development. One of the key questions of sustainable development is how organizations from developing countries are achieving their economic goals while considering, simultaneously, environmental issues like conservation of natural resources, eco-efficiency, biodiversity conservation, and climate-change mitigation. These questions are relevant for government, industry, and urban sustainability. However, in the modern literature that discusses organizational management for sustainable development, few studies focus on the reality of organizations from emerging countries. Moreover, changing environmental legislation in emerging countries (such as China and Brazil) will affect organizational managers. In this context, this book may contribute to organizational management in the search for more sustainable organizations, as well as deal with the challenges of managing organizations in the context of increased social problems, degradation of natural resources, loss of biodiversity, and climate change.

This book was published as a special issue of the International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology.

This book presents a series of studies analyzing critical factors that promote and constrain textile & clothing (T&C) production and trade in the Belt & Road (B&R) countries, and forces that drive the restructuring and transforming of global T&C supply chain and operations in the B&R context. The book also offers insights into the challenges and opportunities for T&C manufacturing in B&R countries through interviews with T&C experts, and also examines how Hong Kong can strengthen its “super-connector” role by facilitating sustainable trade and development in the T&C industries, as well as discussion on the impact of global trade wars on T&C trade. In the studies presented in this book, they offer topics ranging from the macro-economy, international business environment and strategies, logistics and supply chain, policy changes, to sustainability. The studies offer descriptive, theoretical and empirical analyses that explore T&C business and management related opportunities and challenges that are derived from the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Econometric analysis with the gravity model is applied to T&C trade and extended to cover other areas that have not been considered in previous studies, such as production costs, export supply chain costs, technologies, demographical factors, and factors related to the business environment and policies, including qualitative variables. Studies using in-depth interviews and linear regression analysis are also present to explore new factors for T&C trade and production relocation to B&R countries.

Effective decision-making while trading off the constraints and conflicting multiple objectives under rapid technological developments, massive generation of data, and extreme volatility is of paramount importance to organizations to win over the time-based competition today. While agility is a crucial issue, the firms have been increasingly relying on evidence-based decision-making through intelligent decision support systems driven by computational intelligence and automation to achieve a competitive advantage.  The decisions are no longer confined to a specific functional area. Instead, business organizations today find actionable insight for formulating future courses of action by integrating multiple objectives and perspectives. Therefore, multi-objective decision-making plays a critical role in businesses and industries. In this regard, the importance of Operations Research (OR) models and their applications enables the firms to derive optimum solutions subject to various constraints and/or objectives while considering multiple functional areas of the organizations together. Hence, researchers and practitioners have extensively applied OR models to solve various organizational issues related to manufacturing, service, supply chain and logistics management, human resource management, finance, and market analysis, among others. Further, OR models driven by AI have been enabled to provide intelligent decision-support frameworks for achieving sustainable development goals.

The present issue provides a unique platform to showcase the contributions of the leading international experts on production systems and business from academia, industry, and government to discuss the issues in intelligent manufacturing, operations management, financial management, supply chain management, and Industry 4.0 in the Artificial Intelligence era. Some of the general (but not specific) scopes of this proceeding entail OR models such as Optimization and Control, Combinatorial Optimization, Queuing Theory, Resource Allocation Models, Linear and Nonlinear Programming Models, Multi-objective and multi-attribute Decision Models, Statistical Quality Control along with AI, Bayesian Data Analysis, Machine Learning and Econometrics and their applications vis-à-vis AI & Data-driven Production Management, Marketing and Retail Management, Financial Management, Human Resource Management, Operations Management, Smart Manufacturing & Industry 4.0, Supply Chain and Logistics Management, Digital Supply Network, Healthcare Administration, Inventory Management, consumer behavior, security analysis, and portfolio management and sustainability.  

This book presents a comprehensive examination of the complex journey toward achieving environmental resilience in the twenty-first century. It brings together leading voices from various fields to showcase the challenges and promising solutions in sustainability and green futures. Organized into thematic divisions, each chapter presents a different facet of environmental resilience, offering incisive analysis, creative techniques, and case studies from around the globe. The book explores the complex intersections of environmental, social, and economic elements, including climate change mitigation and adaptation, sustainable urban development, biodiversity conservation, and renewable energy technology.

Contributions from distinguished scholars, policymakers, activists, and practitioners encourage interdisciplinary discourse and collaboration to address urgent environmental challenges. The book inspires readers to envision and actively contribute to a more sustainable and resilient future through rigorous research, visionary thinking, and practical ideas.

Combining intellectual rigor with approachable prose, this book serves as an invaluable resource for students, scholars, policymakers, and anyone committed to creating a greener and more resilient society. It provides vital information and inspiration for navigating the path toward environmental resilience, whether dealing with the complexity of climate change, seeking innovative solutions for sustainable development, or advocating for environmental justice.