Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM)

Description

The Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) R&D Group congregates 122 researchers (83
PhD and 39 MSc), and its focus is on Modelling, Organization and Management of Industrial and
Services Systems.

The Industrial Systems Design & Management area deals with the design and performance evaluation of industrial and service systems, under collaborative, agile and lean production environments.

The Economics and Management of Engineering Systems area focuses on economic and social aspects inherent to strategic decisions on the allocation and use of resources, supported by risk analysis, sustainable innovation, project management. Energy planning and management has been one field of application, fostering sustainability and contributing to environmental compliance across industrial and social sectors.

The Ergonomics and Human Factors are focused on human factors of production systems, dealing with physical risk factors, ergonomics and safety performance, under the health and safety domain.

Reliability, maintenance management, data quality and uncertainty modelling are also covered by the IEM group.

Multidisciplinary research has been pursued under a systems approach view, within the Group and with different Groups of the Centre, suitable to address industry and service challenges and bring relevant contributions to the society.

The Group is particularly prone to industrial applications, shown by the funded research projects, industrial awards (e.g. Logistics Excelente Award, 2022) and also by the Master dissertation projects in industry, totalling more than 100 per year in 2018-23.

Impact of IEM research

Overall, the impact of IEM research in 2018-2023 can be measured using two key ratios:

a) 6.3 indexed (ISI or Scopus) papers per integrated researcher and year, of which 2.4 published in Q1/Q2 journals;
b) 12.3 KEuros of non-FCT funded projects per integrated researcher and year.

Three major contributions

1) International activities

The IEM members have a large level of international activities here highlighted:

– MIT-Portugal Program National Director;

– Associate Editors of high quality Scopus Journals including Production (ISSN 1980-5411) and Energy (ISSN 1873-6785). Members of the Editorial Board of Int. Journal of Quality and Reliability, AIMS Environmental Science, Smart Energy, Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science, International Sustainable Energy Planning and Management, International Journal of Applied Management Science, Journal of Social Entrepreneurship and Production Engineering Archives;

– Expert Evaluators of projects – Horizon Europe, Austrian Climate and Energy Fund, Dutch Research Council (NWO) or FNRS (Belgium);

– Visiting Researchers at AeroASTRO MIT, Milwaukee School of Engineering, MSOE, and several other EU and Brazilian Universities;

– Organizers/Chairs of International Conferences series: International Conference on Quality Engineering and Management (since 2014), ICOPEV2018 – International Conference on Production Economics and Project Evaluation; ICEE2019- International Conference on Energy and Environment; ISIRC2023- International Social Innovation Research Conference, and the International Symposium on Occupational Safety and Hygiene;

– Awards: IEM researcher included in the “World’s Top 2% Scientists 2023, Elsevier”; Best Paper Award by the International Academy for Quality, 2019, Lisboa, Portugal; Best Paper Award at the 49 th International Conference on Computers & Industrial Engineering, 2019, China.

2) Funded R&D

The Group captured non-FCT research funds of which a few main projects with industrial collaboration may be highlighted:

– Advanced Decision Making in productive systems through Intelligent Networks, 2021- 2023, total budget 2.1 M€, UMinho budget 806 k€;

– PT SMART RETAIL: Portugal as a reference for the new generation of autonomous and intelligent retail, 2022-2024, total budget 31.23 M€, UMinho budget 1.52 M€;

– GreenAuto: Green Innovation for the Automotive Industry, 2022-2025, total budget 118.46 M€, UMinho budget 2.27 M€;

– CORIM – Collaborative Tool for Operational Risk Management, 2021-2023, total budget 941 k€, UMinho budget 224 k€;

– SIMME – System for Intelligent Management of Measuring Equipment, 2020-2023 , total budget 585 k€, UMinho budget 99 k€;

Other non-FCT projects involving or coordinated by IEM researchers include several ERASMUS+ projects amounting to more than 500 k€ for UMinho.

3)Doctoral Programme

The IEM coordinates, together with SEOR Group the Doctoral Programme in Industrial and Systems Engineering (PDEIS). Between 2018 and 2023, 39 PhDs were successfully completed and supervised (or co-supervised) by IEM members, 18 of them evaluated by international committees. The IEM also coordinates the Doctoral Programme Advanced Engineering Systems for Industry (AESI), and 4 PhDs were successfully completed.

Main Publications in 2018-2023

Hernandez-Vivanco, A., Domingues, P., Sampaio, P., Bernardo, M., & Cruz-Cázares, C. (2019). Do multiple certifications leverage firm performance? A dynamic approach. International Journal of Production Economics, 218, 386–399.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2019.07.016

Ramakurthi, V., Manupati, V. K., Machado, J., Varela, L., & Babu, S. (2022). An innovative approach for resource sharing and scheduling in a sustainable distributed manufacturing system. Advanced Engineering Informatics, 52, 101620.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2022.101620

Dranka, G. G., & Ferreira, P. (2019). Review and assessment of the different categories of demand response potentials. Energy, 179, 280–294.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2019.05.009

Bravo, G., Castellucci, H. I., Lavallière, M., Arezes, P. M., Martínez, M., & Duarte, G. (2022). The influence of age on fatal work accidents and lost days in Chile between 2015 and 2019. Safety Science, 147, 105599.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2021.105599

Bittencourt, V. L., Alves, A. C., & Leão, C. P. (2021). Industry 4.0 triggered by Lean Thinking: insights from a systematic literature review. International Journal of Production Research, 59(5), 1496–1510.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2020.1832274

IEM Coordinator: Paula Fernanda Varandas Ferreira

IEM Coordinator: Paula Fernanda Varandas Ferreira

IEM Members:

IEM Research Groups:

Recent IEM Publications: