Numerous organizations are striving to maximize the profit of their businesses by the effective implementation of competitive advantages including cost reduction, quick delivery, and unique high-quality products. Effective production-scheduling techniques are methods that many firms use to attain these competitive advantages. Implementing scheduling techniques in high-mix low-volume (HMLV) manufacturing industries, especially in Industry 4.0 environments, remains a challenge, as the properties of both parts and processes are dynamically changing. As a reaction to these challenges in HMLV Industry 4.0 manufacturing, a newly advanced and effective real-time production-scheduling decision-support system model was developed. The developed model was implemented with the use of robotic process automation (RPA), and it comprises a hybrid of different advanced scheduling techniques obtained as the result of analytical-hierarchy-process (AHP) analysis. The aim of this research was to develop a method to minimize the total production process time (total make span) by considering the results of risk analysis of HMLV manufacturing in Industry 4.0 environments. The new method is the combination of multi-broker (MB) optimization and a genetics algorithm (GA) that uses general key process indicators (KPIs) that are easy to measure in any kind of production. The new MB–GA method is compatible with industry 4.0 environments, so it is easy to implement. Furthermore, MB–GA deals with potential risk during production, so it can provide more accurate results. On the basis of survey results, 16% of the asked companies could easily use the new scheduling method, and 43.2% of the companies could use it after a little modification of production.

Due to technological enhancements, traditional, qualitative decision-making methods are usually replaced by data-driven decision-making even in smaller companies. Process simulation is one of these solutions, which can help companies avoid costly failures as well as evaluate positive or negative effects. The reason for this paper is twofold: first, authors conducted a Quality Function Deployment analysis to find the most vital reliability indicators in the field of production scheduling. The importance was acquired from the meta-analysis of papers published in major journals. The authors found 3 indicators to be the most important: mean time between failure (MTBF), mean repair time and mean downtime. The second part of the research is for the implementation of these indicators to the stochastic environment: possible means of application are proposed, confirming the finding with a case study in which 100 products must be produced. The database created from the simulation is analyzed in terms of major production KPIs, such as production quantity, total process time and efficiency of the production. The results of the study show that calculating with reliability issues in production during the negotiation of a production deadline supports business excellence.

It is essential for every company to know their business processes well, because these companies must allocate their resources in an efficient way in order to keep or strengthen their market position. During the research we aimed at optimizing the material flow at a wooden box producer company with the use of the generalized network flow model as this model is widely used for modelling production processes. In the first part of our work we calculated the optimal material flows focusing on two objectives, and in the second part we determined a compromise solution. Finally, we compared and evaluated the results of the three models.

Generally, engineering projects are getting bigger and bigger and more complex to handle. Due to the developments of information technology, managers have the opportunity to plan the execution of their projects and calculate the critical paths of those projects precisely, regardless of the types and sizes of their projects. However, these indicators are not realistic; in many cases the predetermined partial-deadlines cannot be kept, therefore the end of the project must be postponed. The aim of the research is to modify the inputs of the critical path method with the application of fuzzy values. The use of fuzzy values in business planning can support project managers in building the uncertainty factor into their model.

In past decades, manufacturing companies have paid considerable attention to using their available resources in the most efficient way to satisfy customer demands. This endeavor is supported by many Industry 4.0 methods. One of these is called MES (Manufacturing Execution System), which is applied for monitoring and controlling manufacturing by recording and processing production-related data. This article presents a possible method of implementation of a risk-adjusted production schedule in a data-rich environment. The framework is based on production datasets of multiple workshops, which is followed by statistical analysis, and its results are used in stochastic network models. The outcome of the simulation is implemented in a production scheduling model to determine how to assign the production among workshops. After collecting the necessary data, the reliability indicator-based stochastic critical path method was applied in the case study. Two cases were presented based on the importance of inventory cost and two different scheduling results were created and presented. With the objective of the least inventory cost, the production was postponed to the latest time possible, which means that workshops had more time to finish their previous work on the first day due to the small production quantity. When the cost was not relevant, the production started on the first day of each workshop, and the production was completed before the deadline. These are optimal solutions, but alternative solutions can also be performed by the decision maker based on the results. The use of the modified stochastic critical path method and its analysis shed light on the deficiency of the production, which is a merit in the continuous improvement process and the estimation of the total project time.