Fast advances in information technology have led to a smarter world vision with ubiquitous interconnection and intelligence. Smart Manufacturing Innovation and Transformation: Interconnection and Intelligence covers both theoretical perspectives and practical approaches to smart manufacturing research and development triggered by ubiquitous interconnection and intelligence. This reference work discusses the transformation of manufacturing, the latest developments in smart manufacturing innovation, current and emerging technology opportunities, and market imperatives that enable manufacturing innovation and transformation, useful tools for readers in industry, academia, and government.

It is commonly known that fashion is big business, yet given its global significance, little has been written on the phenomenon of the fashion system. Instead, books have tended to focus on dress history, although recently the discipline has taken a more theoretical turn, with a spate of books appearing that analyze the underlying forces motivating fashion. This pioneering book unites theory and practice to provide an integrated series of snapshots taken from different perspectives of the fashion business in the second half of the twentieth century. Featuring contributions by leading experts in three main areas of important debate within the industry - the theory and culture of fashion; design and industry; and image and marketing - the book will be an essential reference for students, practitioners and theoreticians. It addresses such key issues as: the relationship between culture and clothing; the intersection of fashion and modernity; the origins of glamour; the role of creativity and the power of design; the chain store challenge; the age of the thinking designer; retail concepts; and minimalism in fashion. It is certain to be required reading on fashion courses and in related disciplines, including media, cultural and consumption studies.

Whether used as predictors or indicators of stock prices, financial risk, merger candidates, or bond yields, financial ratios have been, and continue to be, a popular tool for analyzing a firm and its performance. Practitioners and academics who employ financial ratios often compare and contrast across several industries, but such evaluations assume that the ratios of one industry measure the same underlying concepts as the ratios of another. This book provides evidence on the comparability of financial ratios across several industries, assessing the similarity or dissimilarity of ratios among industry taxonomies, or groups of ratios.

Extending previous studies that focused primarily on manufacturing firms, this work surveys a wide variety of both manufacturing and retail corporations, and determines the classification patterns of their respective financial ratios. The taxonomies of thirty two ratios, in seven representative industries, are examined for the ten-year period from 1978 through 1987. Two introductory chapters detail the nature of the research, the data utilized, variables employed, and statistical methodologies, as well as providing a brief summary of the results. A third chapter furnishes results for the entire economy by factors of return, cash flow, cash position, inventory, sales, liquidity, and debt; while seven separate chapters describe the study's conclusions for each of the primary industries: automobile and aerospace; chemical, rubber, and oil; electronics; food; retail; steel; and textile. The work concludes with a summary of the study and its conclusions, and an examination of the limitations of this type of research and possibilities for its extension. This book will be a valuable practical resource for accounting and finance professionals, as well as an important reference for courses in finance, accounting, and management. Public, academic, and business libraries will also find it a useful addition to their collections.

The book is focused on various applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in additive manufacturing such as aerospace and defense, automotive, consumer products, industrial products, medical devices and more. The book not only highlights the latest research status in the domain but also identi?es future scope of work for the field of manufacturing. It provides a provides a deep and state-of-the-art technological-scientific approach and offers a comprehensive guide on AI in additive manufacturing. It presents a necessary discussion on the successes and challenges within the excitement of building a future with AI technology and serves as a guide for how the technology impacts industries, how the technology has matured and been implemented, and the long-term competitive advantages. This book will present case studies, literature reviews, recent examples and technical developments to illustrate existing technologies and prospects for the future. There is no doubt that AI in additive manufacturing has gained interest and the research in the area will continue to develop, with this book itself adding to the commentary.

This book assesses the state of international manufacturing strategy and clarifies how recent developments, for example regarding configuration, technology, and the environment, are impacting on its content and direction and on its relationship to manufacturing performance. In providing up-to-date coverage of the consequences of such forces and factors for international manufacturing, this book aims to expand the debate concerning international manufacturing strategy and cast light on its current evolution. International manufacturing is operating within a time of great flux. While offshoring of activities has dominated over recent decades, nearshoring and reshoring are increasingly being considered and observed in practice. At the same time, technologies such as 3D-printing are gaining traction and the role of ICT and data analytics is increasingly important in the international manufacturing landscape while digitization becomes more prevalent and the embrace of the Internet of Things (IOT) accelerates. Furthermore, issues related to the environment are figuring more prominently in international manufacturing considerations, and assumptions regarding the long-term cost of energy are being called into question. International manufacturing is also experiencing greater servitization.

This work serves as a comprehensive update to Jesse W. MarkhaM's 1952 industrial organization study, Competition in the Rayon Industry. It extends MarkhaM's study to all large volume man-made fibers in a manner that will also be applicable to other industries. David Goldenberg offers new insights into the structure, price and nonprice behavior, and performance of a large and technically advanced industry. This study provides a practical test of industrial organization theory and performance, as well as a real-world examination of many of the issues most crucial to the man-made fibers industry.

Goldenberg begins his work with an introduction and general summary that outline the study's major conclusions. Subsequent chapters provide a brief overview of the U.S. man-made fibers industry, and a detailed look at the numerous structural issues. Among the subjects covered are the conditions of supply and demand, the structures of the subindustries composing the larger fibers industry, and the structural determinants such as costs and economies of scale, existence, and integration. Two chapters focus on the price aspects of the industry's behavior, including price trends, cyclical and short-run behavior, price structures, and selling terms, as well as nonprice behavior. The final chapter examines the industry's performance in terms of its overall social benefits, productivity, and workability. This work will be an important resource for scholars and students in the industrial organization and industrial economics fields, as well as for public, academic, and business libraries.

This work explores the rise of manufacturing in antebellum America through the beliefs and practices of key industrialists and their families, exploring how they represented the diverse possibilities for the organization of a new industrial society.

The capital goods industries--machinery, electrical and electronic equipment, transport equipment (except automobiles), and instruments and related equipment--provide more than one-third of total U.S. exports. But in the past twenty years, these industries have displayed a continual weakening of their competitive position. In this study, Robert Eckley investigates this leading sector of the American economy and its competition for global markets by concentrating on case studies of seven companies that represent the principal segments of the capital goods industries.

The approach that Eckley takes is an empirical one, utilizing the experience of IBM, Boeing, General Electric, Eastman Kodak, Caterpillar, Cummins, and Cincinnati Milacron to illustrate the developments that have occurred in this sector of the world economy. The companies are all leaders within their industries, and also offer a representative variety of the products, processes, and labor organizations found in the capital goods industries. Following a detailed introduction, Eckley devotes one chapter to each of the seven companies, seeking out commonalities within the larger capital goods sector and drawing conclusions about costs, markets, and organizational and managerial practices. A concluding chapter focuses on the keys to regaining American leadership: increasing capital investment, remedying educational deficiencies, and improving business decisions. Marketing and planning executives in international business will find this work to be an invaluable resource, as will students in business and public policy courses.

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems are now the backbone of the information systems in many commercial companies and public sector organisations. The intended benefits of these systems are well known (coping with the fragmentation of former information systems, providing functional integration and supporting best practices for instance). Yet, their implementation in a company is still a traumatising project, with these difficulties being reported in many articles and books explaining reasons for failure, listing conditions of success, or suggesting project management methods aimed at improving their implementation.

A Socio-technical Insight on ERP Systems and Organisational Change is based on the premise that two distinct communities are interested in this problem: engineers and consultants on the one hand, and researchers of Human and Social Sciences on the other hand. The first group often emphasises the technical benefit of the ERP adoption as a source of performance improvement, while the latter group is mainly oriented on the difficulties - and perhaps impossibility - of the adoption of such systems by individuals and organisations.

A Socio-technical Insight on ERP Systems and Organisational Change brings together the views of experts from the two communities to allow for interpretations of the different interrelations amongst ERP systems, organisations and individuals. As ERP systems are software systems that are supposed to support both organisation activity and individual work, the book emphasises not only the influence of the software on the organisation but also how the different ways they are used in practice result in the unpredictable mutualadjustment between those in the organisation and the tool. Together, the chapters illustrate various aspects of this mutual adjustment and are written by engineers, computer scientists, consultants, sociologists, economists and researchers situated in the information and communication sciences. This affords a unique and comprehensive insight into the problem. Without trying to build an artificial consensus, several case studies are commented upon alternatively with a technical and social view, showing how the same facts can have different interpretations providing a better understanding of the phenomenon in question.

A Socio-technical Insight on ERP Systems and Organisational Change is a must-read text for students and researchers in management, engineering science and sociology, as well as for technical and human resource managers and consultants in charge of implementation projects.

This book represents a major milestone in the endeavour to understand how communication is impacting on the fashion industry and on societal fashion-related practices and values in the digital age. It presents the proceedings of FACTUM 19, the first in a series of fashion communication conferences that highlights important theoretical and empirical work in the field. Beyond documenting the latest scientific insights, the book is intended to foster the sharing of methodological approaches, expand the dialogue between communications' studies and fashion-related disciplines, help establish an international and interdisciplinary network of scholars, and offer encouragement and fresh ideas to junior researchers. It is of high value to academics and students in the fields of fashion communication, fashion marketing, visual studies in fashion, digital transformation of the fashion industry, and the cultural heritage dimension of fashion. In addition, it is a key resource for professionals seeking sound research on fashion communication and marketing.

Achieving operative excellence is an important endeavour for all companies ? it is the golden path that leads to increased value over the long term. Through this book you too can achieve operations excellence within your own company.

This book explores, describes and explains the predictors essential for the acceptance of social media as a digital platform to share professional knowledge in the field of automotive repair in Germany. It reports a rigorous literature review covering key elements of social media, knowledge management and technology acceptance studies. The book assumes a pragmatist approach and applies mixed methods in an exploratory sequential design, combining qualitative and quantitative methods to ensure robust collection and analysis of the collected data. Based on a survey on German automotive repair shops, the author provides a framework, for various stakeholders, to comprehend the motivations for knowledge sharing for automotive repair professionals in Germany. This book not only adds to the existing academic body of knowledge but also provides implications for industry and legislation on a European scale.

Written in the context of contemporary theoretical debate in international political economy,The text argues that state policy proces ses, this text overturns a number of myths about the political economy of trade in one of the oldest areas of industry. It systematically links the changing characteristics of the trade regime to structural change and adjustment in global industry. International regimes and the industrial adjustment strategies of firms must be conceptualized as integrated processes of governance cutting across levels of analysis in the global political economy.

This study of a specific industry's survival and growth in three countries is a useful resource for research on industrial development in 19th century Europe. Presenting the history of three major cutlery districts in Western Europe during the 19th century - Sheffield in England, Bergische land (Solingen and Remscheid) in Germany, and Eskilstuna in Sweden - the author focuses on each region's industrial development in relation to its socio-cultural context. This work challenges the flexible specialisation thesis often used to explain the seeming persistence of small-scale and decentralised production within the cutlery industry since the 19th century, and argues that growing businesses had to develop competitive strategies for control over important resources.

In an era of fierce international competition, manufacturing firms must have a thorough understanding of their cost structure and how that structure relates to pricing and product mix decisions. Two competing conceptual approaches to designing product cost systems that support decision making are Activity-based Costing and the Theory of Constraints. Rather than argue in favor of one to the exclusion of the other, Robert J. Campbell presents a new approach to cost system design that combines the strengths of each school of thought, thereby overcoming the significant limitations of each. The need to price the product mix in order to exploit constrained resources is advocated by the Theory of Constraints, while the need to examine resource consumption from activities, both value adding and non-value adding, to support the principles of JIT is advocated by Activity-based Costing.

After examining the nature of a firM's cost structure as it relates to the activities performed by various functional areas, Campbell discusses the development of activity-based cost systems through an extensive example. Activity-based costing can lead to building excessively complex accounting systems that lack focus and provide confusion about short-run versus long-run changes in the cost structure. After a chapter examining short-run cost behavior and cost relationships, an in-depth discussion of the Theory of Constraints and how it is contrasted to, and complemented by, activity-based costing follows. In these middle chapters the strengths of each methodology are identified and combined into a unified approach to product cost systems. Later chapters provide discussion on pricing strategies, customer profitability analysis, and providing cost measures that recognize either loss of learning or volume-related efficiencies in machine-paced organizations. This book is an important resource for executives or consultants seeking to implement new cost management systems that lead to improved decision making, as well as for educators seeking to reconcile and understand Activity-based Costing and the Theory of Constraints.

This short history tells the story of five hundred years of papermaking against the general background of the coming of paper and printing in Britain, through the major developments of the Industrial Revolution, up to the technological advances which have made possible the enormous high-speed paper machines of the present day.

This book presents a comprehensive study of adoption and diffusion of technology in developing countries in a historical perspective. Combining the development of growth trajectories of the Indian economy in general and its manufacturing industry in particular, the book highlights the effective marriage between qualitative and quantitative methods for a better understanding and explaining of many hidden dynamic behaviors of adoption and diffusion trend in manufacturing industry. The use of various econometric methods is aimed to equip readers to make a judgement of the current state of diffusion pattern of new technologies in India and simulate a desirable future pattern in view of the various pro-industrial growth policies.

This authored monograph provides in-depth analysis and methods for aligning electricity demand of manufacturing systems to VRE supply. The book broaches both long-term system changes and real-time manufacturing execution and control, and the author presents a concept with different options for improved energy flexibility including battery, compressed air and embodied energy storage. The reader will also find a detailed application procedure as well as an implementation into a simulation prototype software. The book concludes with two case studies. The target audience primarily comprises research experts in the field of green manufacturing systems.

This book gets behind much generality about globalisation to examine the production of relatively familiar commodities such as refrigerators and ovens in different countries. By considering a range of countries - China, Taiwan and South Korea, South Africa, Brazil and Turkey - it makes a substantive contribution to the understanding of the diffusion of management methods, the role of the state in employee relations, the nature of trade unionism and the impact of social structure on production relations.

This book deals with the concepts of leadership and communication in business organizations, initially on a general level and then in detail through an analysis of specific cases. First the book provides a contextual framework to explain the role and importance of the topic. The foundation is provided by selected behavioural and situational theories. Then 15 different leadership models and their respective communication strategies are specified. The interaction of leadership and communication is examined explaining organizational communication and its tools. In the third part the book looks in detail at the glass, textile and confection industries. It examines the relationship between socio-demographic variables of employees, leadership types and communication styles and systems of managers in these sectors. The results of this study provide researchers and professionals with a number of suggestions for more effective organizational communication and better leadership practice.