The furniture industry serves as an indicator for the changing state of American manufacturing. A brief history of U.S. furniture manufacturing creates the context for continuing geographic shifts among Asian locations, foreign ownership impacts and global market considerations, as well as the demands of three significant domestic market demographics. The furniture industry is separated into its various parts from wood to metal, home to institutional markets. Government actions including tariffs, health, and environmental regulations are also considered. Based on numerous interviews and site visits, strategies of corporate survivors in the face of mergers, and emergence of new players are profiled to indicate practices for increasing adaptive capacity and marketing the appeal of "made here". This book highlights the role of global networks, lean and green production methods, customized quality versus price competitiveness, online outreach along with showroom access, labor issues, and related factors that continue to compel location shifts and extensions.

Distributed manufacturing offers the promise of bringing jobs back to local communities, producing goods that are personalized or harmonize with distinctive cultures, and thereby reversing significant aspects of the globalization that has dominated in recent years. Large corporations may still have important roles to play, but in collaboration with local workshops, providing machinery, software, databases of designs, and communication media suitable for a diverse and dynamic workforce. For years, a set of computer simulation laboratories has flourished, in which millions of people have used virtual machines to produce a great variety of products: massively multiplayer online role-playing games. Their systems are highly diverse, complex, and provide information capable of serious social science analysis. This book deeply explores 30 of these production-capable social media, based on thousands of hours of observation and extensive collection of statistical data, extracting hypotheses that may generalize to the real-world distributed manufacturing of the near future. This book begins with an overview of this universe of online virtual worlds then demonstrates the principles of virtual manufacturing, modes of work-related communication, socio-economic structures and dynamics, and the function of artificial intelligence in these human-technology systems. It concludes with consideration of the large-scale technical and cultural variation illustrated both by individual examples and by the rather large industry in which they have long been successful.

Providing a framework that highlights waste and its negative effects on process performance, value stream maps (VSMs) are essential components for successful Lean initiatives. While the conventional VSM format has the basic structure to effectively describe process operations, it must be adapted and expanded to serve its purpose in the process industry. This book describes in detail how to create a complete VSM for a process industry manufacturing operation. Detailing the unique features of process operations and why they require additions and adjustments to traditional VSMs, the book walks readers through the steps in analyzing the map. It explains how to scope improvement projects, prioritize them, and then use future state VSMs to illustrate and motivate systemic improvement. In doing so, it supplies readers with a roadmap for a complete Lean transformation. Describes how to analyze the map for waste and flow issues so that they can be reduced and even eliminated Provides examples of the calculations needed for the flow parameters in data boxes Explains how the VSM concept can be applied to the entire supply chain Includes strategies for engaging your entire workforce in map creation The book introduces a target manufacturing process and uses it to describe how to create a complete VSM. The target process is complex enough to illustrate the issues often encountered in mapping a process industry operation, but straightforward enough to explain all of the mapping considerations and decisions. The book includes real examples of how VSMs brought much greater clarity to the real issues the processes faced and cases where the insight enabled management to avoid costly, inappropriate investments.

Dieses Fachbuch bundelt das Wissen von insgesamt 70 Experten aus Wissenschaft und Industrie. Sie beschreiben die Leistungsfahigkeit der Klebtechnik beim Fugen von Kunststoffen mit Kunststoffen oder anderen Werkstoffen. Ohne den Einsatz der industriellen Klebtechnik ware es heute kaum moeglich, kunststoffbasierende Produkte auf den Markt zu bringen. Die branchenubergreifenden Anforderungen an die Fugetechnologie Kleben sind allerdings hoch und wachsen kontinuierlich.Alle fur das erfolgreiche Kleben von Kunststoffen wichtigen Aspekte werden behandelt. Zahlreiche Best-Practice-Beispiele aus verschiedensten Industriebranchen beleuchten anschliessend die anwendungstechnischen und wirtschaftlichen Moeglichkeiten der Klebtechnik beim Fugen von Kunststoffen. Der Anwender in der industriellen Praxis erhalt mit diesem Werk anwendungsnahe Unterstutzung bei der erfolgreichen Loesung von Klebaufgaben zur Herstellung innovativer Produkte in allen Industriebereichen.

Die kostenoptimale Planung von Solaranlagen stellt ebenso eine Herausforderung dar, wie die Vermeidung von kostspieligen Schadensfallen. Hierbei hilft das vorliegende Buch allen in der Praxis tatigen und gibt daruber hinaus Anleitung fur die Dimensionierung und Anordnung von Anlagen. Die Thermohydraulik von Solaranlagen wird ausfuhrlich besprochen und die Gebiete Rohrnetzberechnung, Druckhaltung, Stagnation sowie Entluftung und Entgasung entsprechend berucksichtigt. Die zur Entluftung erforderliche Fliessgeschwindigkeit des Warmetragers wird in der Theorie beschrieben, experimentell bestimmt und die Ergebnisse im Hinblick auf die praktische Anwendung eroertert.

Lean Transformations for Small and Medium Enterprises: Lessons Learned from Italian Businesses summarizes two decades of research, teaching, and practice on lean thinking. Based on quantitative analysis of 100 cases of Lean transformations and 20 in-depth case studies of successfully transformed SMEs, it explains how to undertake lean transformations that lead to operational and financial performance improvement, and uses the Lean Transformation Framework --conceptualized by John Shook at the Lean Enterprise Institute-as a practical approach to design and de-risk the transformation process. SMEs' leaders wishing to undertake and sustain a lean transformation must: Make a serious and lasting commitment to transform, avoiding the temptation to change course of action; Choose accurately the value streams that require improvement as defined by strategy deployment; Build capabilities to sustain the transformation; Lead by example by going to gemba and creating a culture of respect for people that goes beyond the visible devices and artifacts of Lean tools.

A World History of Rubber helps readers understand and gain new insights into the social and cultural contexts of global production and consumption, from the nineteenth century to today, through the fascinating story of one commodity. * Divides the coverage into themes of race, migration, and labor; gender on plantations and in factories; demand and everyday consumption; World Wars and nationalism; and resistance and independence * Highlights the interrelatedness of our world long before the age of globalization and the global social inequalities that persist today * Discusses key concepts of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including imperialism, industrialization, racism, and inequality, through the lens of rubber * Provides an engaging and accessible narrative for all levels that is filled with archival research, illustrations, and maps

Steel companies were at the birth of the modern business corporation. The first billion dollar corporation ever formed was U.S. Steel in 1901. By the mid-twentieth century the steel mill and the automobile plant were the two pillars upon which the twentieth century industrial economy rested. Given the scale of capital and operations, vertical integration was seen to be pivotal, from the raw materials of iron ore and coal on one end of the supply chain to the myriad of finished products on the other. By the end of the twentieth century, however, things had dramatically changed. Take a look inside for a brilliant and concise history of the steel industry. The author presents a comprehensive account of the economics of the industry, with an overview of how the industry operates and the environment in which it operates. This book includes a detailed discussion of the regulation of the industry; a documentation of the reasons why a rejuvenated steel industry will be critical to the economic health of the modern economy; and a rationale for the reemergence of the steel industry in particular, and manufacturing in general, as a vital force in the North American economy of the new millennium. It is widely perceived that the United States is moving from an industrial age into an information age, driven by high technology. That image for steel is now being reversed. The steel industry has continuously been forced to remake itself, and this book describes those developments and dynamics. Information technology is pervasive across the industry and ecological improvement is steel intensive.

A World History of Rubber helps readers understand and gain new insights into the social and cultural contexts of global production and consumption, from the nineteenth century to today, through the fascinating story of one commodity. * Divides the coverage into themes of race, migration, and labor; gender on plantations and in factories; demand and everyday consumption; World Wars and nationalism; and resistance and independence * Highlights the interrelatedness of our world long before the age of globalization and the global social inequalities that persist today * Discusses key concepts of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including imperialism, industrialization, racism, and inequality, through the lens of rubber * Provides an engaging and accessible narrative for all levels that is filled with archival research, illustrations, and maps

Recent studies by professional organizations devoted to engineering education, such as Vision 2030 (ASME) and Vision 2025 (ASCE), highlight the need for the restructuring of engineering education. Deficiencies of many engineering graduates include poor systems thinking and systems analysis skills, lack of sensitivity for sustainability issues, poorly developed problem solving skills and lack of training to work in (multi-disciplinary) teams, as well as a lack of leadership, entrepreneurship, innovation, and project management skills. The book's contents include an analysis of current shortfalls in engineering education and education related to professional practice in engineering. Further, the authors describe desirable improvements as well as advocacy for the use of lean tenets and tools to create a new future for engineering education. This book presents, for the first time, an outside-in lean engineering perspective of how this commonly accepted and widely practiced and adapted engineering perspective can shape the direction in which the engineers of the future are trained and educated. By its very nature, lean engineering demands systems thinking and systems analysis as well as problem solving skills. In this sense, "Lean Engineering" immediately talks to sustainability of operations. Hence, this book adds to the body of knowledge regarding engineering education. It blends the perspectives and expertise of mechanical, industrial and production engineers and academics and the perspective from social sciences on the challenges encountered in engineering education. Because of the unique mix of authors, the book presents a well-rounded perspective of how lean thinking can address shortcomings in engineering education.

Manufacturing is a vital sector of a modern economy and is crucial for national defense and security. Since 1990, however, the U.S. has lost one in every three manufacturing jobs. In 1990, U.S. employment in manufacturing was 17,695,000. By 2011, the number of Americans employed in manufacturing had dropped to 11,734,000 - - a stunning loss of roughly 6 million jobs, a 34% drop in manufacturing employment. The decline of the U.S. manufacturing industry has been severe and the impacts devastating to countless American families and communities. Many cities are filled with vacant and abandoned factories and are plagued with high unemployment. Because of the vast job losses, and concerns regarding economic viability and national security, manufacturing is now a major topic of discussion.Rebuilding American Manufacturing presents and reviews why manufacturing matters. The book discusses the important contributions made by manufacturing to a vibrant economy, including the payment of good wages, driving innovation, creating exports and positive contributions to trade balance, and supporting national defense and security. Moreover, the book presents arguments that the loss of manufacturing is not inevitable and is not primarily the result of productivity gains nor of high wages. Analysis of the establishment data including the number of employees shows that, over time, somewhat surprisingly, the vast majority of factory closings were the larger plants with the greatest number of employees. This was true for most industries - the largest factories and plants were the ones most likely to close. This fact has major implications for business strategy and government policy because many companies are now considering reshoring manufacturing from abroad back to the U.S. If successful, this trend will help lower the unemployment rate and strengthen the economy.