WEBINAR SERIES ON PRODUCTION PLANNING AND CONTROL:

ISSUES AND RESEARCH TOPICS

Opening Address

First of all, I would like to welcome all of you to the webinars and thank you for participating
in this activity. We have been almost two years confronting the Covid 19 outbreak, and we
realize it is not easy to live side by side with the coronavirus in our daily life because we
deal with a trade-off. On one side, we have to lock down our daily activities. We, at least,
have to limit our social interactions among all people to an absolute minimum. Still, at the
same time, we have to live as naturally as possible while strictly practicing the so-called
health protocols, as we have to run our education, research, and economic activities at our
best. In these latter activities, interaction among people intensively and extensively is a
must. Conceptually, we can consider that the mentioned trade-off is an Industrial
Engineering problem as there are problems in designing an integrated system and
searching for the optimal solution. However, the difficulty is that almost all variables and
parameters are difficult or even impossible to determine.
Furthermore, in such a condition, keeping connected with other colleagues while taking
the most advantage of Information and Communication Technology will be an excellent
platform for us to remain productive in academic activities even though we have faced a
hard constraint of the Covid 19 pandemic. I am sure that the idea of having a webinar series
is remarkable because the webinar series will keep us connected and friendship. Therefore,
by this opportunity, let me deliver my appreciation and congratulations to Dr. Sukoyo and
his team for their hard work in realizing the webinar series in Production Planning and
Control, especially in the production scheduling area.
I am sure you have already known that this webinar series will be held on Saturday, once
in two weeks, until March 2022. The motivation for conducting this webinar is to keep all
of us doing research and improve our understanding of Industrial Engineering, especially in
research on Industrial Engineering problems. The committee has assigned me to deliver
two presentations. In my first presentation, I would like to discuss what Industrial
Engineering problems are and the solution methods. I do hope we will have the same
understanding in these matters. In my second presentation, I would like to show you
research problems in the production scheduling area.
Starting from the third presentation, for this first batch, the speakers will be Ph.D. holders
under my supervision at the Doctorate Program of Industrial Engineering and Management,
Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB). While in the batches to come, the speakers can be anyone
researching Production Planning and Control, especially production scheduling. Another
motivation is to collaborate in research and education among us and or among our
institutions. The audience can also observe the topics, the approach, and the depth of the
research substances if anyone is interested in pursuing the doctorate program at ITB. The
last but not most negligible benefit of this webinar series is whether the audience is
interested in joint research and publication with any of us. Therefore, please take
advantage of this webinar series the most.
Finally, I pray the Covid-19 pandemic will soon be over, and we get back to the previous
routine and ordinary world—best wishes for our happiness and health.

Bandung, 5 August 2021

Dr. Abdul Hakim Halim
Professor
Manufacturing Systems Research Group
Department of Industrial Engineering
Faculty of Industrial Technology
Institut Teknologi Bandung