Author: Jezdimir Knezevic

Dr Mohamed Ben-Daya has been a professor in the Department of Systems Engineering at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, since 1999. He gained his Ph D in Operations Research in 1988 from Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, where he also gained his MSc in 1984. Dr Ben-Daya’s research interests are: mathematical programming; production and inventory control; scheduling; and maintenance engineering and quality control. Dr Salih O. Duffuaa has been a professor in the Department of Systems Engineering at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, since 1994. His research interests include: mathematical modelling; network flow; mathematical programming; quality assurance and control; maintenance engineering; and management optimization of quality and maintenance systems. Dr Duffuaa gained his Ph D in Operations Research in 1982 from the University of Texas at Austin, USA. Dr Abdul Raouf has been a professor at the Institute of Management and Technology, University of Management and Leadership in Lahore, Pakistan, since 2000. He gained his Ph D from the University of Windsor. Dr Jezdimir Knezvic established the self-financing centre for Management of Industrial Reliability, Cost and Effectiveness (MIRCE) at Exeter University in 1991, where he is still a professor. He has contributed to over 300 publications worldwide including books, papers and reports. Dr Knezvic gained his Bachelors degree, Masters degree and Ph D from the University of Belgrade. Dr Daoud Ait-Kadi has been a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Université Laval, Sainte-Foy, Quebec, since 1990. He gained his Ph D from the Université de Montréal in 1985. Dr Ait-Kadi’s research interests include: design and control of production systems; optimization of themaintenance and reliability systems subject to random failures; optimization of a system’s life cycle; development of advanced technologies for the design and control of supply chains in a probabilistic context; optimization of validation texts for the reliability of innovative systems; and reliability.