Welcome to the Homepage of
Vincent C.S. Wiers
last updated: February 2, 2011
Personal Details
|
Vincent Wiers lives in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. He
is the founder and director of the consultancy company Twinlog
that focuses on realizing business improvements using Advanced Planning &
Scheduling (APS) solutions.
He is also employed by the Eindhoven
University of Technology as an Industrial Fellow. At this university, he obtained
a MSc and a PhD degree in Industrial Engineering and Management Science.
Subsequently, he
has worked at several consulting companies and most of his projects included
improving Supply Chain performance of large industrial customers.
Vincent Wiers is 41 years old and has three children.
His hobbies include running, aikido, guitar playing and skiiing.
He is one of the three co-authors of
the logistical site LogistiekAnders.
|
 |
Currently I am
enjoying my consultancy work very much. However, on the medium term, I am
looking for an academic position at a University. Currently I spend one day per
week on research, maximum. My ambition is to expand my research activities but
also to teach. If you know of a position which could be interesting for me,
please let me know.
Appointment Industrial
Fellow
| Vincent Wiers
has been appointed as Industrial Fellow at the School of Industrial
Engineering at the Eindhoven University of Technology. His appointment
lecture has been held at January 18th, 2011, as part of a
mini-symposium. Vincent Wiers is the first Industrial Fellow at the
School of Industrial Engineering. The task of an Industrial Fellow is to
explicitly bring industry experiences to the university, by
participating in research and educational activities. |
 |
Research Interests
|
The Human Factor in
Production Control
There is some knowledge in
literature regarding the human factor in production control tasks in
general. However, the majority of texts and monographs focus on
mathematical models and formal systems and avoid entering the arena of
human traits and skills. As a result, there have been few examples of
formal optimization methods for planning & scheduling being used or
shown to be usable. Although finite scheduling tools - also known
as Advanced Planning & Scheduling (APS) - have had
theoretical algorithms embedded in them for schedule generation and
regeneration, there has not been any evidence that the logic is widely
used or that the generated plans can be followed. Most APSses are used
by planners in a decision support mode, without using algorithms. The variety of tasks and the lack of academic description leads
to the fact that process descriptions of these tasks have little reference
material to start from. In other words, consultants in industry often have to
start from scratch when modeling these tasks. Moreover, a deeper understanding
of these tasks from an academic perspective is hampered by the opaqueness of the
production control task domain. This leads to the fact that the domain of human
factors in planning and scheduling suffers from anecdotal studies. It is my ambition to conduct research in the field of the Human Factor in
Production Control that deepens our insight in the field and at the same
time complies to high methodological standards.
Design and Implementation
of Enterprise Information Systems - ERP and APS
A large part of my daily work is designing and implementing APS systems
in conjunction to ERP systems. I have investigated the question why these system are (not)
being used in practice, and have written down guidelines to improve the
design and implementation process for these systems. I have also carried
out work in functional architectures of APS, ERP and MES systems – how
these systems are interrelated, how functions should be divided over
different systems and between a central and local level.
|
 |
Publications
Books
McKay, K.N.
& Wiers, V.C.S. (2004).
Practical Production Control: A Survival Guide for
Planners and Schedulers. Boca Raton: J. Ross Publishing.
Japanese version published by
Nikkei. Russian version
published by Grevtsov.
Wiers, V.C.S. (1997). Human–computer interaction in
production scheduling: Analysis and design of decision support systems for
production scheduling tasks.
Ph.D. Thesis Eindhoven University of Technology. Download
PDF Here
Journals
Fransoo, J.C. & Wiers, V.C.S. (2006). Action Variety of Planners:
Cognitive Load and Requisite Variety.
Journal of Operations Management, special issue “Incorporating Behavioral
Theory in OM Empirical Models”, 24, 813-821.
Fransoo, J.C. & Wiers, V.C.S. (2008). An empirical
investigation of the neglect of MRP information by production planners,
Production Planning & Control, 19(8), 781 — 787
Hameri, A.-P., McKay, K.N. & Wiers, V.C.S. (in
review). A Phased Maturity Model Schema For Supply Chain Management. Submitted
to the Special Issue Supply Chain Design: Issues, Challenges, Frameworks and
Solutions of the International Journal of Production Research
McKay, K.N., & Wiers, V.C.S. (1999). Unifying the Theory and Practice of
Production Scheduling. Journal of Manufacturing Systems, 18(4), 241–255.
McKay, K.N., & Wiers, V.C.S. (2003). Integrated Decision Support for Planning,
Scheduling, and Dispatching Tasks in a Focused Factory. Computers in Industry,
50(1), 5-14.
McKay, K.N., & Wiers, V.C.S. (2003). Planners, Schedulers and Dispatchers: a
description of cognitive tasks in production control. Cognition, Technology &
Work, 25(2), 82-93.
Riedel, R. Fransoo, J.C. & Wiers, V.C.S. (accepted).
Modelling dynamics in decision support systems. Behavior & Information
Technology.
Stoop, P.P.M., & Wiers, V.C.S. (1996). The Complexity of Scheduling in Practice.
International Journal of Operations and Production Management, 16(10), 37–53.
Wiers, V.C.S. (1996). A Quantitative Field Study of the Decision Behavior of
four Shop Floor Schedulers. Production Planning and Control, 7(4), 381–390.
Wiers, V.C.S. (1997). A Review of the Applicability of OR and AI Scheduling
Techniques in Practice. OMEGA – The International Journal of Management Science,
25(2), 145–153.
Wiers, V.C.S. (1997). Decision Support for Production Scheduling Tasks – part I
of a Case Study: Analysis and Task Redesign. Production Planning and Control,
8(7), 711–721
Wiers, V.C.S. (2002). A case study on the integration of APS and ERP in a steel
processing plant. Production Planning & Control 13(6), 552-560.
Wiers, V.C.S. (2009). The relationship between shop
floor autonomy and APS implementation success : evidence from two cases.
Production planning & control, 20(7), 576-585
Wiers, V.C.S., & Schaaf, T.W. van der, (1997). A Framework for Decision Support
in Production Scheduling Tasks. Production Planning and Control, 8(6), 533–544.
Wortmann, J.C., Euwe, M.J., Taal, M., & Wiers, V.C.S. (1996). A Review of
Capacity Planning Techniques within Standard Software Packages. Production
Planning and Control, 7(2), 114–125.
Book Chapters (refereed)
Crawford, S., & Wiers, V.C.S. (2001). From anecdotes to theory: reviewing the
knowledge of the human factors in planning and scheduling. In B.L. MacCarthy &
J.R. Wilson (Eds.), Human Performance in Planning and Scheduling. London: Taylor
& Francis, pp. pp. 15-44
McKay, K.N., & Wiers, V.C.S. (2001). Decision support for production scheduling
tasks in shops with much uncertainty and little autonomous flexibility. In B.L.
MacCarthy & J.R. Wilson (Eds.), Human Performance in Planning and Scheduling.
London: Taylor & Francis, pp. 165-177
McKay, K.N. & Wiers, V.C.S. (2006). The Organizational Interconnectivity of
Planning and Scheduling. In: R.J. Jorna, A.M. Meystel, W.M.C. van Wezel (Eds).,
Planning in Intelligent Systems: Aspects, motivations, and methods. New
York: Wiley, pp.177-202
McKay, K.N. & Wiers, V.C.S. (2006). The Human Factor In Planning And
Scheduling. In: J.W. Herrmann (Ed.), Handbook of Production Scheduling.
New York: Springer.
Wiers, V.C.S. (2001). Design of a Knowledge Based Scheduling System for a Sheet
Material Manufacturer. In B.L. MacCarthy & J.R. Wilson (Eds.), Human Performance
in Planning and Scheduling. London: Taylor & Francis, pp. 201-216.
Conferences
Hart,
M.W. ’t, & Wiers, V.C.S. (1994). A Framework for Improving Performance in Complex Tasks. In Proceedings
of the First European Conference: Cognitive Science in Industry, September 28–30 (pp.145). Luxembourg:
Centre de Recherche Public – Centre Universitaire.
McKay,
K.N., & Wiers, V.C.S. (1998). Accounting
for The Human in Scheduling Systems: A Sociotechnical View. In Proceedings
of the INFORMS Conference Workshop on Human Factors in Planning, Scheduling and
Supply Chain Management, Canada, April 26–29. Montreal, Canada: INFORMS.
Riedel, R., Fransoo, J.C. & Wiers, V.C.S. (2006).
Modelling Dynamics in Decision Support Systems. In Proceedings of the 16th
congress of the International Ergonomics Association, The Netherlands, July
10-14.
Wiers,
V.C.S. (1995).
Cognitive
Technology in Production Scheduling. In Proceedings
of the First International Conference on Cognitive Technology, Hong Kong, August
24–27 (pp.131 – 140). Hong
Kong: City University of Hong Kong.
Wiers,
V.C.S. (1995). Decision
Support for Human Decision Making in Production Scheduling. In Proceedings
of the XIV European Annual Conference on Human Decision Making and Manual
Control, The Netherlands, June 14 – 16 (pp.2-2-1 – 2-2-11). Delft, The
Netherlands: Delft University of Technology.
Wiers,
V.C.S. (1995). Human
Computer Interaction in Production Scheduling. In Proceedings of the European Conference and Workshop on Human Factors and
Ergonomics in Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT) – ECAME’95, Belgium,
June 8–9 (pp. 195–214). Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium: ECA.
Wiers,
V.C.S., & McKay, K.N. (1996). Task allocation: Human computer interaction in
intelligent scheduling. In Proceedings of
the 15th Workshop of the UK Planning & Scheduling Special
Interest Group, UK, November 21–22 (pp. 333–344). Liverpool, UK:
Liverpool John Moores University.
Vakbladen (in Dutch)
Wiers, V.C.S.
(2004 - 2007). De APS Dokter (column). ITLogistiek.
Wiers, V.C.S.
(2006). Het Verschil tussen ERP en APS.
www.logistiek.nl.
Wiers, V.C.S.
(2000 - 2004). Wiers en Waarachtig (column). ITLogistiek.
Wiers, V.C.S.
(2002). Modellering APS systemen leidt tot grote problemen”. Tijdschrift voor
Inkoop en Logistiek, Januari/Februari.
Wiers, V.C.S.
(2002). Logistieke organisatie knelpunt bij meeste SCM projecten. Tijdschrift
voor Inkoop en Logistiek, Oktober.
Contact Details
|
Eindhoven
University of Technology
Faculty
Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences
Subdepartment
Operations Planning, Accounting & Control (OPAC)
PO
Box 513, PAV F.16
Eindhoven 5600MB
The
Netherlands
|
|
 |
| Pictures of my partner
here. |
|
