Prof. Michael Bourlakis
Director of Centre for Logistics & Supply Chain Management
Cranfield School of Management, UK
Professor Michael Bourlakis holds the Chair in Logistics & Supply Chain Management. He is the Director of Research for Cranfield School of Management, the Head of the Logistics, Procurement & Supply Chain Management Group and the Director of the Centre of Logistics & Supply Chain Management. He was appointed at Cranfield School of Management in 2013. Previously, he worked at Brunel University Business School (Leadership Roles: Director of Postgraduate Studies for 7 MSc programmes, “Impact” Champion for REF2014, Director of OASIS Research Centre), Kent University Business School (Leadership Roles: Head of Marketing and Supply Chain Management Group, Director of Enterprise), Newcastle University (Leadership Roles: Director of Undergraduate and Postgraduate Programmes), Oxford University Templeton College (Oxford Institute of Retail Management), Leicester University Management Centre. Professor Michael Bourlakis has generated more than 250 publications including 63 journal papers and 3 edited books. He sits on the Editorial Board of 15 journals including most leading logistics, supply chain and operations management journals (e.g. International Journal of Operations and Production Management, Production, Planning and Control: The Management of Operations, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, International Journal of Logistics Management etc.). Michael has been a Co-Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Logistics: Research & Applications. He has also acted 11 times as the Guest Editor for journal special issues (European Journal of Marketing, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Production Planning & Control, Technological Forecasting & Social Change etc.). Based on this extensive expertise, Professor Bourlakis acted as an Expert Advisor for the CABS / ABS Journal Ranking List (2015).
Clair AUGSBURGER
FlexSim Software Products,France
Mr Clair AUGSBURGER is a consulting engineer in modeling, simulation and optimization of logistics and production systems. His first experience on FlexSim simulation software was in 2009 during his Master Degree from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. Since then, Mr AUGSBURGER has been focused on providing simulation services such as model building, technical support and training on FlexSim to industrial clients. He started his business in France in 2011 as an independant consultant, then moved to the US in 2013 to join the team of FlexSim Software Products, and returned back to France to establish the local FlexSim distributor in 2014.
Title: Logistics Simulation and Optimization with FlexSim
Prof. Wafik Hachicha
College of Engineering
Taif University, KSA
Dr. Wafik Hachicha is an Associate Professor in Industrial Engineering at the Higher Institute of Management of Sfax (ISGIS, Tunisia) and recently, at the College of Engineering in Taif University (Arabia Saudi). He has an Industrial Engineer Diploma from National School of Engineering of Tunis (ENIT, Tunisia) since 1999. After a five-year professional experience in various industries, he was obtained his PhD in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering (2009) and his HdR in Logistic and Industrial Engineering (2014) from the University of Sfax (Tunisia). He was a former Head of the Industrial Management Department at the Higher Institute of Management of Sfax (ISGIS, Tunisia) and he is a member of several scientific and technical committees at the Ministry of Higher Education and Research (Tunisia). His specialization is about Applied Quantitative Methods in Quality and Industrial Engineering. His research activities deal principally with three topics includes the following. (1) Quality Engineering and Process Control. (2) Sustainable Development and Supply chain Risk Management (3) Modeling, Optimization, and Simulation of Supply Chain and Manufacturing System. Dr. Wafik Hachicha has generated more than 70 publications including 30 journal papers. He has acted as a reviewer for many journals including most leading industrial Engineering, simulation, supply chain and operations management journals (e.g. Computer and industrial Engineering, International Journal of Production Research, Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory, European Journal of Operational Research, World Review of Intermodal Transportation Research, etc.).
Title: How perform and succeed a stochastic simulation based-approach?
Abstract: An industrial system or generally a supply chain can be too complex to describe it through mathematical equations. Even if a mathematical model was formulated, it could be too complex to obtain a solution by means of analytical techniques. Indeed, simulation technique is actually a widely accepted tool in complex industrial and supply chain systems design and analysis. It can provide a valuable idea about the most important variables and how they interact. It can also be used to experiment with new situations about which little or no information is available (uncertainty), and to check new policies and decision rules before risking experiments with the real supply chain. Simulation literature can be classified according various categories and types. The first objective of this editorial is to explain the basics of stochastic simulation technique and the required input and output statistical analysis. The second objective is about how perform a simulation based-approach and what are the principal tips that researcher and engineer need to know before start a simulation-based approach.