American manufacturing is on life support--at least, that's what most people think. The exodus of jobs to China and other foreign markets is irreversible, and anything that is built here requires specialized skills the average worker couldn't hope to gain. Not so, says Dan DiMicco, chairman and former CEO of Nucor, America's largest steel company. He not only revived a major US manufacturing firm during a recession, but helped galvanize the flagging domestic steel industry when many of his competitors were in bankruptcy or headed overseas. In American Made, he takes to task the politicians, academics, and political pundits who, he contends, are exacerbating fears and avoiding simple solutions for the sake of nothing more than their own careers, and contrasts them with the postwar leaders who rebuilt Europe and Japan, put a man on the moon, and kept communism at bay. We need leaders of such resolve today, he argues, who can tackle a broken job-creation engine by restoring manufacturing to its central role in the U.S. economy--and cease creating fictitious service businesses where jobs evaporate after a year or two, as in a Ponzi scheme. With his trademark bluntness, DiMicco tackles the false promise of green jobs and the hidden costs of outsourcing. Along the way, he shares the lessons he's learned about good leadership, crisis management, and the true meaning of innovation, and maps the road back to robust economic growth, middle-class prosperity, and American competitiveness.

Written by a working CEO who increased earnings in some of the companies he led by 400 percent, this book provides a real-world prescription for prosperity and growth for any company, in any industry. For nearly two decades, America's industrial manufacturing sector has been in decline—and as a result, the nation's prosperity and strength is at risk. Meanwhile, China's manufacturing capabilities and competence continue to grow, threatening to overtake America as the world's most powerful and prosperous nation. Drawing on straightforward principles that can effectively be applied to a broad spectrum of manufacturing companies, author Steven L. Blue taps his leadership skills and proven processes honed over his career of growing companies—and saving them—to offer readers an inspiring vision for revitalizing the entire manufacturing sector. Using case studies and examples from his own experiences, both at Miller Ingenuity and in other roles earlier in his career, the author organizes his lessons in leadership, strategy, and change management into seven values of ingenuity: innovation, excellence, commitment, community, teamwork, respect, and integrity. The book explains how this highly integrated system of operating values can be implemented to turn around a company (if needed) or to propel it to extraordinary growth and prosperity.

Manufacturing has played a key role in the economic fortunes of the East and South Asian regions. This timely book analyses patterns of rapid catch-up and relative stagnation in the manufacturing sector and links these to economic growth in the region. Dr Timmer describes the manufacturing performance of five Asian countries since the 1960s: China, India, Indonesia, South Korea and Taiwan. Over this period Asian industrial development is placed in an international perspective by comparison with the world productivity leader, the USA. The author uses new empirical data to assess the degree of structural change in the manufacturing sector and its importance for productivity growth. He then discusses conditions for economic growth and catch up, and reviews the role of industrial and technology policies in the promotion of industrial development in Asia.

Many companies today are unable to respond fast enough to market shifts because they have concentrated too much on making technology more specialized to their own needs, hoping that this will preserve their competitive edge. Unfortunately, this has actually left many R&D staff short of the cross-functional skills they need to enable large projects to work. This innovative and original book, written by a leading management consultant, addresses these concerns and provides new insights into the theories and practices of innovation management. Ultimately, this book argues, the innovation process is no longer limited to 'know-how' but depends instead on 'know-who'. For companies to remain competitive and respond to market shifts, they must change their focus from internal specialization to learning through relationships. Three in-depth case studies from Canon, Sony and Toyota demonstrate the intracorporate benefits of external collaboration. This book provides concrete examples on how these companies use the principles of open sharing ideas, technologies and human resources; and performance measurement systems that reward cooperation and collective achievements. More importantly, it links the Japanese 'learning through know-who principle' with these practices in order to explain the high R&D performance, reduced development lead-times and improved overall competitiveness of these three firms. This book will be of great interest to business managers, international scholars of R&D and innovation and postgraduate students taking courses in technology and innovation.

The second great transformation of our society in the modern era has demoted manufacturing to a position that is secondary to the service industries, thus originating today's information society. This volume examines how massive social change over the past few decades has created a new set of winners and losers and what this has done to society. The author rejects the orthodox explanations for the losers' plight--such as job stagnation, income inequality, and an increase in crime and violence--and argues that the main causes of success or failure in today's society are psychosocial. While today's losers lack the character structure and values that would help them adjust to change, the winners--the Chameleons--have acquired a character structure symmetrical with the needs of the new society. This new elite, however, is not immune to anxiety and fear because of the contradictions and impossible demands that characterize what Rosen calls the "Chameleon Complex" and because different factions of the elite constantly fight to control culture and shape the nation's identity. Rosen puts contemporary social change in an historical context, showing that today's turmoil resembles the disturbances that have taken place whenever society has undergone rapid and fundamental social change.

Global manufacturing has been altered by the emergence of a new approach to production which differs radically from the principles of mass production. This approach has been characterised by successful manufacturers in Asia and the West who have engaged in a continuous process to improve quality, process productivity and cost performance. The authors of Beyond Quality argue that many of the methods used by these new firms are equally suitable for manufacturers in developing countries and the transition economies of eastern and Central Europe. Using case study material from Latin America, Africa and Central Europe, the authors demonstrate that it is the skill and organization of people - rather than sophisticated equipment - which determines growth in productivity and product quality. These new forms of improvement are not dependent on economies of scale and so provide small producers with the flexibility to compete effectively against mass producers.

The book provides a holistic and practical approach to lean management throughout the business value chain. The lean management framework and tools demonstrate the optimal design and use of methods, tools and principles for companies and organisations. The author describes comprehensively how lean management enables companies to concentrate on value-adding activities and processes to achieve a long-term, sustainable competitive advantage. A wealth of best practices, industry examples and case studies are used to reveal the diversity and opportunities of lean management methodologies, methods and principles. Moreover, the book shows how lean management principles are ultimately applied in industries like automotive, healthcare, education and services industries.

'This book represents a major contribution to our thinking about modern manufacturing industries - and is not just timely, it is long overdue! The authors have done an outstanding job in bringing to bear a range of multi-disciplinary perspectives on a domain which all too often suffers from rather narrow disciplinary analyses. Ranging from engineering to social science and drawing on examples from the US, Europe and Asia, the book provides not only a wealth of fact and illustration but a rich landscape to inform those charged with industrial policy and manufacturing strategies.' - From the foreword by Sir Mike Gregory, University of Cambridge, UK The Handbook of Manufacturing Industries in the World Economy provides a critical and multi-disciplinary state-of-the-art review and analysis of current manufacturing processes, practices and policies. Expanding our knowledge and understanding of production and innovation, this volume demonstrates that manufacturing continues to matter in the world economy. The contributors, including scholars ranging from engineering to policy to economic geography, cover manufacturing policy and the revival of the industrial base in the US, UK and Canada, and engage national and regional strategies for implementing advanced manufacturing policies. Questions of economic resilience in the wake of the recent recession are asked, and industry and firm case studies are utilised in an international comparative context. Applying a wide range of international cases from the US, EU, Australia and Asia, this approach allows readers to view transformations in production systems and processes across sectors, technologies and industries. Students, scholars and policymakers in the fields of public policy, economic geography, city and regional planning, and business and management will find this collection invaluable in understanding how firms and industries adapt, through dynamic and design-driven strategies, to produce for established and emerging markets. Contributors: M.A. Brown, J.R. Bryson, S. Christopherson, J. Clark, M. Cowell, M. Doussard, D.M. Drake, C.G. Drury, A. Dugenske, M. Feldman, P.L. Forrester, C. Gibson, P.V. Hall, Y. Hansen, C. Harris, P. Jalette, R.V. Kalafsky, W.C. Kessler, G. Kim, D.F. Kogler, L. Lanahan, F. Livesey, N.J. Lowe, L. McCormick, R. Mulhall, S. Ock Park, P. Pavlinek, J. Provo, M. Ronayne, G. Schrock, C.D.Treado, V. Vanchan, S. Walcott, B. Wang, M. Ward, A. Warren, S. Weller, L. Winther, L. Wolf-Powers

The rapid pace of technological innovation and the effects of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) revolution have resulted in dramatic changes on a global scale, from the empowerment of the individual to the spawning of global markets. From the business perspective, the widespread deployment of Information Technology (IT) has resulted in many organisational changes and the development and use of new management and business processes. An important challenge for today's manufacturing organisations is to be able to anticipate the impact of investments in new (frequently IT-based) manufacturing technologies and programmes. Ideally, management needs to be able to identify and articulate the many ways in which investment decisions influence their organisation - in terms of performance across a range of measures. Furthermore, in today's manufacturing environment, it is increasingly necessary that a close relationship exists between manufacturing decision making and corporate business strategy, so that manufacturing decisions complement and are fully aligned with the organisation's strategic objectives.
Strategic Decision Making in Modern Manufacturing introduces and explains the AMBIT (Advanced Manufacturing Business ImplemenTation) approach, which has been developed to bridge the gap between strategic management considerations and the operational effects of technology investment decisions on the manufacturing organisation, so that the likely impact of new manufacturing technology and/or programme implementations can be evaluated, anticipated and accurately predicted. The AMBIT approach focuses specifically on the non-financial aspects of such investment decisions andoffers an approach that allows a manager, or more frequently a management team, to understand the impacts of a new technology or a new programme on the manufacturing organisation in terms of manufacturing performance.
The prediction of future trends and patterns is a very imprecise and ambiguous activity at the best of times. Yet despite such ambiguity, managers need to be forward looking. They need appropriate tools and approaches to help them anticipate the future. Thus, whilst the pages of organisational history may be filled with anecdotes about organisations that failed to "predict" the future, it is the challenge of today's organisations to evade such a fate. The AMBIT approach delineated in this book has been specifically developed to anticipate the future by analysing the impact of managerial decisions.

Exploring the issue of foreign ownership of corporate America, a leading economist and the president of the steel producer, Esmark, revisit the sale of that company to a Russian firm. Is it a good idea to allow foreigners to purchase critical and strategic American assets? No, say authors James Koch and Craig Bouchard. In America for Sale: How the Foreign Pack Circled and Devoured Esmark, Koch and Bouchard use the sale of Esmark-a transaction that put over 50 percent of American steel production into foreign hands-to make the case that this trend presents a clear and present danger to the economic future of United States of America. America for Sale recaps the amazing, sometimes incredible events leading up to the sale of Esmark, including intense pressure from the United Steelworkers and the company's major public shareholder to make a decision not in the best interest of all shareholders. It also analyzes the efforts by the Esmark board of directors to observe its fiduciary duty, details the company's "poison pill" effort to raise its sales price, and describes the actions of Leo Gerard and Ron Bloom of the United Steelworkers Union-which led to some surprising alliances. The authors-one Esmark's president and vice chairman of the board, the other an Esmark director, preeminent American economist, and former university president-then provide their own assessment of the Esmark story. They offer legislative and policy prescriptions aimed at making sure U.S. business doesn't devolve into one big garage sale to foreigners seeking to take advantage of the coming decline of the U.S. dollar. Previously unseen documents relating to the hostile reverse tender merger of Esmark, a historic first in unseating the board of directors of a publicly traded company in the United States A chronology of the "America for Sale" phenomenon and of key events in the American steel industry, from the 1970s to 2009 Approximately 25 tables and one dozen graphs that make it easy for readers to interpret data related to the Esmark sale and the overall foreign stake in American companies Text boxes that focus on human interest stories and the amazing quirks attached to the sale of Esmark-for example, one of the Russian bidders also was interested in acquiring the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team and preventing its star Russian hockey player from leaping from a team in the remote Ural mountains to the NHL; that star subsequently led the NHL in scoring in the 2009 NHL season

The southern textile strikes of 1929-1931 were ferocious struggles--thousands of millhands went on strike, the National Guard was deployed, several people were killed and hundreds injured and jailed. The southern press, and for a time the national press, covered the story in enormous detail. In recounting developments, southern reporters and editors found themselves swept up on a painful and sweeping re-examination and reconstruction of southern institutions and values. Whalen explores the largely unknown world of southern journalism and investigates the ways in which the upheaval in textiles triggered profound soul-searching among southerners. The southern textile strikes of 1929-1931 were ferocious struggles--thousands of millhands went on strike, the National Guard was deployed, several people were killed and hundreds injured and jailed. The southern press, and for a time the national press, covered the story in enormous detail. In recounting developments, southern reporters and editors found themselves swept up on a painful and sweeping re-examination and reconstruction of southern institutions and values. Whalen explores the largely unknown world of southern journalism and investigates the ways in which the upheaval in textiles triggered profound soul-searching among southerners.

The worlds of labor, journalism, and the American South collide in this study. That collision, Whalen claims, is the prelude to the stunning social, economic, and cultural transformation of the American South which occurred in the last half of the twentieth century. The textile strikes shocked the mind of the South, a fact that can readily be seen in hometown papers, as reporters and editors ran the gamut from denial and scheming to hoping and dreaming--sometimes even bravely confronting the truth. The reevaluation of southern manners and mores that would culminate in the Civil Rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s can be dated back to this period of turmoil.

The book introduces the concept of cloud manufacturing and describes the cloud service technology system behind it. The authors discuss key technologies of manufacturing cloud service management, including service construction, evaluation and composition, and scheduling. With abundant case studies, the book is an essential reference for researchers and engineers in manufacturing and information management.