This work provides a history of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. Topics covered include: the union's influence on political legislation and global economy; the story of the East European immigrants at the turn of the 20th century; and the union's spirit of social reform.

This new edition provides an alternative overview of 18th-century British economy. Recent macroeconomic history has discounted many of the achievements of the Industrial Revolution, but this text dissects the characteristics and processes of industry in the 18th century. A male industrial revolution has been presented as the general experience, but new industries, notably in textiles and metal products, were primarily employers of women. This work gives these industries and their workforce due prominence. Technologies, work processes, labour forces and markets shifted in a variety of directions and forms to create a sector of dynamic new initiatives alongside stable and declining crafts. The key to the Industrial Revolution lies in the sources of technological creativity and the structures of industrial communities. The rise of the factory system was one result. This text reasserts the primacy of the industrial experience to Britain's economic history.

This new edition provides an alternative overview of 18th-century British economy. Recent macroeconomic history has discounted many of the achievements of the Industrial Revolution, but this text dissects the characteristics and processes of industry in the 18th century. A male industrial revolution has been presented as the general experience, but new industries, notably in textiles and metal products, were primarily employers of women. This work gives these industries and their workforce due prominence. Technologies, work processes, labour forces and markets shifted in a variety of directions and forms to create a sector of dynamic new initiatives alongside stable and declining crafts. The key to the Industrial Revolution lies in the sources of technological creativity and the structures of industrial communities. The rise of the factory system was one result. This text reasserts the primacy of the industrial experience to Britain's economic history.

This comprehensive book presents a methodology for continuous process improvement in a structured, logical, and easily understandable framework based on industry accepted tools, techniques, and practices. It begins by explaining the conditions necessary for establishing a stable and capable process and the actions required to maintain process control, while setting the stage for sustainable efficiency improvements driven by waste elimination and process flow enhancement. This structured approach makes a clear connection between the need for a quality process to serve as the foundation for incremental efficiency improvements. This book moves beyond talking about the value contribution of tools and techniques for process control and continuous improvement by focusing on the daily work routines necessary to maintain and sustain these activities as part of a lean process and management mindset. Part 1 discusses process quality improvement with an understanding of variation and its impact on process performance. It continues by stressing the importance of standardizing a process to achieve process stability. Once process stability is reflected in a consistent and predictable output, attention is turned to ensuring the process is capable of consistently meeting customer requirements. This series of activities sets the foundation for process control and the sustainable pursuit of efficiency improvements. Part 2 focuses on efficiency improvement by eliminating waste while improving process flow using proven tools and methods. Although there is a clear relationship between waste elimination and process flow, these activities are discussed separately to allow those more interested in waste elimination to work independently from those looking to optimize value stream flow. Part 3 explores the principles, practices, systems, and behaviors required to maintain process control while creating a mindset of continuous incremental improvement. It considers the role organizational structure, discipline, and accountability play as essential components for long term operational success. This book will: Provide readers with a clear roadmap for establishing, achieving, and maintaining process control as the foundation upon which to pursue efficiency improvements. Establish direction and methods for continuous and sustainable process improvement Define the practices, systems, and behaviors required to realize desired results and develop a culture of process control and continuous improvement along the road to operational excellence.

The late A.H. Shorter is widely acknowledged for his pioneering work on the history of the British paper-making industry, and his books continue to provide the basis for further research. The present volume brings together all his many articles, hitherto scattered across a variety of specialist publications and often virtually inaccessible. In these studies Dr Shorter tackled the subject with a broader scope than was possible in his books; in particular, they cover the period after 1800, tracing the changing geographical pattern of the industry. They also contain a wealth of detailed information on papermaking across Britain, notably in the counties of southwest England, that is impossible to find elsewhere, and is now made accessible through the comprehensive indexes to the volume. Le regrette A. H. Shorter est largement reconnu pour ses travaux originaux sur l'histoire de l'industrie papetiere britannique et ses ouvrages continuent d'Atre A la base de toutes recherches supplementaires. Le present volume rassemble la totalite de ses nombreux articles, jusqu'A present disperses sur tout un eventail de publications specialisees et bien trop souvent inaccessibles. Au travers de ces etudes, l'auteur s'attaque au sujet sur un rayon plus large que cela n'avait ete possible dans ses livres; couvrant en particulier la periode apres 1800 et traAant la structure geographique de l'industrie. Le recueil contient aussi abondance d'informations detaillees sur la fabrication du papier partout en Grande-Bretagne, notamment dans les contes du sud-ouest de l'Angleterre, et qu'il est impossible de trouver ailleurs.

Emphasises an introduction and explanation of the practical methods used in reliability, and risk studies with a discussion of their uses and limitations Offers basic and advanced methods in reliability analysis that are commonly used in daily practice Provides methods that address unique topics such as dependent failure analysis, importance analysis, and analysis of repairable systems Presents a comprehensive overview of modern probabilistic life assessment methods such as Bayesian estimation, system reliability analysis, and human reliability Includes many ends of chapter problems, a tools website with computational codes, along with a solutions manual to support course adoptions

Japanese manufacturing investment in the European Community has grown dramatically over the last twenty years. At first, instances of investment were few, concentrated in a small number of industrial sectors. But since the mid-1980's there has been a surge of investment in a much wider range of industries.
This volume details the growth of Japanese manufacturing investment in Europe in fourteen industrial sectors. The impact of Japanese competition and direct investment on European industries is considered in the context of the emergence of the three major trading blocs: the United States, Japan and the EC. Roger Strange concludes by making important policy recommendations, and arguing for the need for a new theoretical framework for assessing the political economy of foreign direct investment.

This book, first published in 1983, offers a new explanation for the poor performance of British manufacturing since 1950. Rather than invoke orthodox economic theory or general social factors, the book analyses four national conditions - enterprise control over the labour process; market structure and the composition of demand; the relation of manufacturing enterprise to financial institutions like banks and stock exchanges; and the relation of manufacturing enterprise to government.

History is replete with examples of one political system replacing another, one scientific discovery invalidating another - and this cycle has occurred repeatedly in the production of goods and products for society. This book, first published in 1998, examines the massive transition currently taking place: the decline of the system of mass manufacturing. Various global changes in American business and manufacturing have forced a review of accepted thinking, and this book is a key text in this evaluation.

First published in 1991, this book offers a thorough examination of the decline of heavy industry in industrialised countries in the West, which focuses on problems in the shipbuilding industry. Todd argues that three points are central to its demise: industrial life cycles, the international division of labour and the energy crises of 1973. His work begins with despondency in western shipbuilding, going back as early as 1956, when Japan usurped Britain as the pre-eminent ship producer. The book goes on to explore international trade and industry in the second half of the 20th century, with analysis on industrial reorganisation and East Asian conglomerates, diversification with the marine industries, and shipbuilding in Brazil, India, and China.

First published in 1990, this book provides an overview of the global distribution of the electronics industry and the structural factors which promoted this distribution by the end of the 1980s. Regarded as a 'flagship' sector in both advanced and developing countries, the electronics industry is encouraged by governments everywhere. Covering both the civilian and the military sides of the industry, Professor Todd reflects on the future of civilian electronics in the light of its global segmentation, and hints at the fundamental role of governments in the unfolding of both civilian and defence-electronics developments. He also endorses the overwhelming significance of strategies being played by electronics enterprises in both the USA and Japan.

First published in 1957, this book is a detailed analysis on Christian Democracy, a movement backed by Protestants as well as Catholics, which has become one of the great social forces of Western Europe. It is strong in eight countries. The first half of Fogarty's book sets out what the many Christian-Democratic movements stand for. The second part of the book shows how these movements began, how they have grown, changed, and consolidated, and how they developed into the mid-20th century. This is a broad and useful survey which delves the history, nature and significance of the Christian Democratic movements in Europe. In Fogarty's analysis, Christian Democracy may indeed bring about a renewed unity of the Christian tradition in Western society.

This title was first published in 2003. Bringing together contemporary innovation pattern theories inspired by the two original patterns developed by Joseph A. Schumpeter, this book develops an innovative new model of long wave aggregate level economic activity. This model is rigorously tested with post-war US manufacturing data, revealing an intriguing correlation between the data and the model. The book examines different theories of technological change, and provides a detailed account of the long wave which makes use of the relevant aspects of these theories, without betraying their main features and messages. These theories are synthesized and shown to be consistent with the development of post-war US manufacturing. Shedding light on the dynamics of the technological advances that have taken place in the last 20 years, economists and students alike will find this volume an invaluable read.

This title was first published in 2000: Steven Nivin analyzes a process vital to economic development - technological change. He furthers understanding of the processes driving innovation, so that we may gain a deeper insight into the development of economies. Specifically, the study explores the concept of innovation potential and the factors that result in variations in innovation potential across metropolitan areas, using the US machine tool industry as a case study. To provide a comparison, the same models are also estimated for the semiconductor industry. The findings indicate that urbanisation economies, localization economies, human capital, universities, and invention-derived knowledge are significant factors. The study assesses the contributions of three different skill levels of human capital; college-educated, graduate degree, and locally produced PhD's in mechanical and electrical engineering. Only the graduate and PhD degree measures are found to be significant, indicating the importance of having a highly skilled pool of labour within the region. The influences of the factors appear to be similar across industries, with some slight differences. The transfer of knowledge through patents is also studied. It is found that the transmission of this knowledge is slower between different industries, relative to the transmission within the same industry.

Once recognised as a high-performing newly industrialising Asian economy with the potential for economic and developmental success similar to South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, Thailand's growth rate and competitive edge have declined substantially. With slower adoption and movement towards the knowledge-intensive industries, the loss of the competitive edge is a cause of growing concern among Thai policymakers, with Thailand succumbing to the middle-income trap. This book analyses Thailand's declining competitiveness in the past 50 years, considering both the national and sectoral roles and capabilities of key players, including the government, universities and research institutes, as well as the electronics, food, and automotive industries. Including comparative analyses with other Asian nations, this book is a must-read for both students and practitioners with interests in development economics, industrial economics and public policy.

In order to ensure environmentally responsible production and disposal of products, local governments are imposing stricter environmental regulations, some of which even require manufacturers to take back their products at the end of the product's useful life. These government regulations, together with increasing environmental awareness, have forced manufacturers to invest in environment-conscious manufacturing. The multiple Criteria Decision Making Techniques presented in this book can be employed to solve the problems of environment-conscious manufacturers in product design, logistics, disassembly and remanufacturing.

Small and medium enterprises (SME) have attracted increasing interest in the last few years, and industrialization is no longer seen as a linear way of development. This book analyzes how SME clusters emerge in a developing economy. Using India as a case study, it addresses one central question: If growth has largely failed to be inclusive so far, and if employing a work force in increasing returns activities through a different trajectory of industrialization is largely dependent upon industrial clusters of small and medium sized firms, then what are the structural infirmities and asymmetries that need to be taken into account in the context of framing policies related to industrial clusters? The book identifies the structural infirmities in industrial clusters in India, which could be typical to any of the developing countries and sharply in contrast to European success stories. Blending theory and empirical material, it provides a middle ground between the two extremes of a uniform policy assuming 'one size fits all', and a specific policy based on individual cases. The book redraws the broad contours where space and production processes mutually constitute each other, giving rise to outcomes somewhat generic to underdevelopment. It is of interest to academics working in the fields of economics, business administration/ management and development economics.

China's expansion and growing influence in Africa is arguably the most remarkable global political and economic development in the 21st century. China's foray into Africa started in the late 1990s, propelled by its desire to obtain new sources of raw materials and energy for its economic growth, as well as new markets for its manufactured goods. While China's "no political strings attached" policy proves attractive to many of African leaders, China has been criticized as neo-colonialist, interested solely in stripping Africa of its mineral wealth without proper environmental or social precautions. This book addresses the controversy by exploring the motivations and practices of China's African engagement, providing a comprehensive account of the intensified interactions between China and African states. The first part examines the debate surrounding whether China has pursued a neo-colonialist path in Africa, by looking at the perception of China by the locals and the challenges that the intensified relationship has posed for African states. The second part analyses China's strategic motivations to see if Beijing has acquired sustaining power and influence in Africa in competition with the West. The third part focuses on economic and business practices of Chinese companies in Africa, as well as China-Africa trade patterns. The articles in this book were originally published in special issues of the Journal of Contemporary China.

In the past, company success was typically measured by financial indicators. Lately though, non-financial measures such as employee morale have become popular. Although there are approaches that look into quantitative and qualitative performance measures affecting company success, none of them characterize it in a holistic way, combining all the critical performance measures. This book presents a multifaceted approach that prepares engineers and future organizational leaders/managers to measure, monitor, and predict company success in a more meaningful way.

This study of working conditions in shoemaking in the informal sector in Indonesia and the Philippines, along with their gender dimensions and national and international policy implications, is based on the author's experience in both countries during 2002, with applied qualitative research techniques: in-depth interviews and worksite visits. Intended audience: Occupational and environmental health policymakers, practitioners, and researchers; work environment specialists at international organizations; chemical safety specialists; footwear industry representatives; trade unions representing footwear employees.

Here is a great introduction to the remarkable mind of Shigeo Shingo, indisputably one of the great forces in manufacturing. In this book Dr. Shingo describes his approach to manufacturing improvements, developed and refined over the course of a brilliant career. He called it the Scientific Thinking Mechanism (STM).

"The Sayings of Shigeo Shingo "leads you through the five stages of STM, with appropriate examples taken from notes Dr. Shingo collected during his consulting trips to American and Japanese plants. It shows how, in many cases, the most brilliant ideas are often so simple they're overlooked. Or they're dismissed because they seem ridiculous:

A Japanese plant, after first rejecting the idea as "too silly," finds that unhulled rice is ideal for smoothing the rough surfaces on pressure-formed ebonite switchesGranville-Phillips, in Boulder, Colorado, reduced defects to zero in one process after Dr. Shingo suggested illuminating circuit boards from belowto reduce errors involved in the insertion of diodes and resistors

"The Sayings of Shigeo Shingo" is must reading for plant managers and engineers. It formalizes the powerful and creative way of thinking that Shingo himself used time and again to overcome problems that seemed virtually insurmountable.

The phenomena of Japan emerging as one of the most competitive industrial nations in the twentieth century and the general shift of competitiveness to East Asia since the 1980s have been widely studied by many scholars from different fields of the social sciences. Drawing on sources from Japanese, Swiss, and American archives, the historical analysis of this book tackles a wide range of actors and sheds light on the various processes that enabled Japanese watch companies to transfer technology and expand commercially starting in the second half of the nineteenth century. By exploring the case of the watch industry, this book serves to establish a better understanding of the origins of the competitiveness of Japanese manufacturing and its evolution until its decline in the post-bubble economy (in the 1990s and 2000s).

This volume examines the role of textiles within the expanding global economy in the Age of European Exploration. Major themes include: the opening of new markets and responses to competition in the cloth trade, evolving techniques and modes of production, and changes in the patterns of consumption of local and imported cloth in a comparative, cross-cultural context.

Georgian Dublin is synonymous with a period of unprecedented expansion in the market for luxury goods. At a time when new commodities, novel technologies and fashionable imports seduced elite society, silver enjoyed an established association with gentility and prestige. Earlier studies have focused predominantly on the issue of style. This book considers the demand for silver goods in Georgian Ireland from the perspectives of makers, retailers and consumers. It discusses the practical and symbolic uses of silverware, interpreted through contemporary guild accounts, inventories, trade ephemera and culinary manuscripts. For the first time the activities of Dublin's goldsmiths and their customers are considered in the context of the British Isles, acknowledging Dublin's 'second city' status in relation to London. How did the availability of new products like English porcelain and Sheffield Plate affect the demand for silver in Dublin, and how did silver imports from London affect the Dublin trade? To what extent do the practices of Dublin goldsmiths mirror their North American counterparts seeking to infer associations with the fashionable metropolis of London? Drawing on an extensive range of documentary and object evidence this wide-ranging analysis considers the context in which silver goods were made, used, valued and displayed in Georgian Ireland.