Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a process of joining materials to make objects from 3D model data, usually layer by layer, as opposed to subtractive manufacturing methodologies. Selective Laser Melting, commercially known as Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS®), is the most diffused additive process in today’s manufacturing industry. Introduction of a DMLS® machine in a production department has remarkable effects not only on industrial design but also on production planning, for example, on machine scheduling. Scheduling for a traditional single machine can employ consolidated models. Scheduling of an AM machine presents new issues because it must consider the capability of producing different geometries, simultaneously. The aim of this paper is to provide a mathematical model for an AM/SLM machine scheduling. The complexity of the model is NP-HARD, so possible solutions must be found by metaheuristic algorithms, e.g., Genetic Algorithms. Genetic Algorithms solve sequential optimization problems by handling vectors; in the present paper, we must modify them to handle a matrix. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithms will be tested on a test case formed by a 30 Part Number production plan with a high variability in complexity, distinct due dates and low production volumes.

Using advanced technology in business has created hyper-competition among organizations to satisfy customers' needs. Using advanced technology aims to provide customers with quality products/services at suitable prices in the right place better than competitors. Therefore, the current study's purpose is to explore the influence of cloud computing services on Jordanian commercial organizations’ competitive advantages, organizations which use cloud computing services. The study uses quantitative, cause-effect, and cross-sectional methods and uses a convenience sampling approach to collect the data by questionnaire from 111 managers and/or owners of commercial organizations. The collected questionnaires are examined and inserted into SPSS. The instrument validity, normal distribution, and reliability are verified, then descriptive analysis is performed, the relationship between independent and dependent variables is tested, and finally multiple regressions are used to test the hypotheses. The findings indicate that commercial organizations are concerned about cloud computing services as well as competitive advantage sub-variables. The results also show that there was a significantly strong correlation between cloud computing services and competitive advantage. Moreover, cloud computing services influence the dimensions of competitive advantages (quality, cost, reliability, innovation, and responsiveness) of commercial organizations, where cloud computing services have the most significant influence on quality followed by cost and responsiveness, respectively. However, cloud computing services do not significantly influence innovation and reliability. Finally, the study recommends doing comparable research on other sectors, and industries as well as in other countries to test the results' generalizability.

Activity based costing (ABC) is a new age accounting system developed to overcome the limitations of traditional costing system, which in today’s technologically advanced world has lost its ability to provide accurate and useful cost information often required in taking various managerial decisions, like setting of selling price, ascertaining profitability of products as well as customers, taking a make or buy decision, eliminating the non-beneficial activities, and rewarding the employees. In this paper, an ABC model is developed for a government hospital in the state of Bihar in India to quantify its various public health related services. Although, there are limited published research papers related to application of ABC model in a specific department or method of a healthcare system, none of them has investigated its scope for organization-wide implementation. The results obtained from the developed ABC model in the public hospital would provide more comprehensive and accurate cost information, and radically contribute to the hospital administration in effective planning, controlling and decision making. This paper also elucidates about various obstructions and difficulties encountered during the implementation phase of ABC model in an Indian healthcare setting.