Offering proof-of-concept (POC) to inventors is often a difficult task for most Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs). Through an in-depth analysis of 15 years of IP portfolio management by Oxford University Innovation (OUI), this book identifies the salient aspects of the technology transfer evolution and the role that technology transfer managers (TTMs) play in closing the gap between academia and business. Innovation Finance and Technology Transfer: Funding Proof of Concept seeks to prove that a well-managed POC Fund can achieve positive financial results and that the chances for an IP portfolio management to be "in the money" increases if the TTO is attached to an entrepreneurial University. This work illustrates how innovation based on Intellectual Property Rights protected and managed by a highly-skilled group of technology transfer managers succeeds in technology transfer. It offers a vademecum to practitioners to follow a step by step best practice procedure embraced by the Oxford TTO to manage the POC investment process. This book is valuable reading for intellectual property scholars, business school students, social sciences researchers, investment professionals and technology transfer practitioners, as well as those working in innovation think tanks and policy circles.

This Introduction to Manufacturing focuses students on the issues that matter to practicing industrial engineers and managers. It offers a systems perspective on designing, managing, and improving manufacturing operations. On each topic, it covers the key issues, with pointers on where to dig deeper. Unlike the many textbooks on operations management, supply chain management, and process technology, this book weaves together these threads as they interact in manufacturing. It has five parts: Getting to Know Manufacturing: Fundamental concepts of manufacturing as an economic activity, from manufacturing strategy to forecasting market demand Engineering the Factory: Physical design of factories and processes, the necessary infrastructure and technology for manufacturing Making Information Flow: The "central nervous system" that triggers and responds to events occurring in production Making Materials Flow: The logistics of manufacturing, from materials handling inside the factory via warehousing to supply chain management Enhancing Performance: Managing manufacturing performance and methods to maintain and improve it, both in times of normal operations and emergencies Supported with rich illustrations and teaching aids, Introduction to Manufacturing is essential reading for industrial engineering and management students - of all ages and backgrounds - engaged in the vital task of making the things we all use.

All companies which reach a critical size are faced with outsourcing decisions that can increase the value of their products and services primarily through lower costs, greater reliability and improved efficiency. Successful outsourcing decisions have an important knowledge dimension, where the outsourcing professionals need to be supported by historical and contextual knowledge regarding their own products performance but also the performance of suppliers. "Outsourcing in Manufacturing: the Knowledge Dimension" explains in detail how a manager can acquire, create, transfer and use knowledge that optimizes their outsourcing decisions and improves the changes of marketplace success.

"Outsourcing in Manufacturing: the Knowledge Dimension" gives examples of the key decisions that needs to be taken by managers regarding effective outsourcing. Decisions are divided around the structural and infrastructural aspects of outsourcing and the key knowledge that needs to be managed to support good decisions. The book contains illustrations and examples of key processes throughout and concludes with a section dedicated to case studies. These case studies represent a variety of manufacturing system types and sizes focused on supply chain integration, and which deploy various manufacturing paradigms including craft, mass, lean, adaptive, and sustainable manufacturing.

"Outsourcing in Manufacturing: the Knowledge Dimension" covers many theoretical and practical examples of critical outsourcing decisions, their knowledge aspects and how knowledge challenges can be dealt with in a systematic way. It provides a key resource for students, lecturers and industry managers looking to solidify their understanding and application of outsourcing decision making strategies.

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This book addresses the question of how competition takes place in international manufacturing industries. It examines patterns of rivalry among firms from different countries across national boundaries and their influences on international trade and investment. By using various data on Japanese firms in manufacturing industries from the late 1950s through the early 2000s, the first part of this book presents a series of empirical analyses that examines effects of market structure on export pricing, linkages of domestic and foreign market structures on trade performance, and patterns of oligopolistic interactions among firms from different countries in exporting. The second part of this book deals with the impact of strategic interactions on foreign direct investment. In particular, the book examines 'bunching' in foreign direct investment, strategic interactions in intra-industry cross-market foreign direct investment, and their effects on entry patterns and post-entry performance.

How can manufacturers of capital goods succeed in service business development? What are the potential network approaches for manufacturing companies planning on extending their service business? Over the last decade, the business environment of capital goods manufacturers has changed dramatically. Few capital goods manufacturers are able to outrun the competition with pure product-related technologies and innovation alone. For this reason they have added services to products as a way of responding to eroding margins and the loss of strategic differentiation through product innovation and technological superiority. Based on over twelve years of research, this book provides academics and business professionals with a thorough overview of the strategies available for value creation through service business development. It features case studies and covers a wide range of topics, including emerging issues such as service business in small and medium-sized companies, business innovation through services and the impact of rapidly growing Asian markets.

Hierarchical and Supply Chain Planning describes the application of hierarchical planning techniques to all major functional areas of supply chain planning, including production, distribution, warehousing, transportation, inventory management, forecasting and performance management. The book reviews well-known, original hierarchical production planning techniques and implementations dating back several decades and numerous more current hierarchical planning methods and applications covering an array of supply chain activities. A number of novel hierarchical planning techniques and algorithms covering different components of supply chain planning are offered as is an original approach for integrating supply chain measurements into systems such as the balanced scorecard which evaluate total firm performance. The book covers the interests of private industry practitioners, academic researchers, and students of operations, logistics and supply chain management and planning.

The team of authors see this book as a contribution to lifting the standard of debate and towards restarting in-depth comparative research. Concentrates on the seven countries which between them (excluding South Africa) account for 60 per cent of total manufacturing in sub-Saharan Africa. The contributors look at the role of manufacturing and industry in the development of these countries, arguing that future prosperity could be enhanced by a three-pronged approach to industrialisation. Published in association with the ODI

This book covers bleach plant effluents, that most polluting effluent from the pulp and paper industry. Disappearance of benthic invertebrates, a high incidence of fish diseases, and mutagenic effects on the aquatic fauna are some of the consequences of the disposal of bleach effluents into surface waters. This book describes environmental impact of bleach plant effluents, environmental regulations, and measures to reduce the pollution load by internal process modification and external treatment of bleach plant effluents.

Cotton's Renaissance is an analytical and interpretive history of the responses of US cotton growers to problems of supply and demand, and of the unique public-private organization they founded to help them grow, compete, and survive in an increasingly competitive marketplace. It is a story of how cotton growers learned, after more than a century and a half of trying to manage supply, that they could actually influence demand for their commodity. The impact of that company, Cotton Incorporated, on the markets for cotton was a remarkable achievement in organizational entrepreneurship. In its 'total marketing' effort to rebuild cotton's market share, it has fostered substantial scientific, technological, and managerial improvements in the quality and performance of cotton. In doing so, it has enhanced the efficiency of not only the farmers who grow cotton, but also those who transform it into consumer goods.

A juicy true story about sex, drugs, money, power, high heels, and overcoming adversity.
Tamara Mellon used her business savvy, creative eye, and flair for design to build Jimmy Choo into a premier name in global fashion. But despite her eventual fame and fortune, Mellon didn't have an easy road to success. Her seemingly glamorous beginnings were marked by a tumultuous family life, battles with anxiety and depression, and a stint in rehab. Now Mellon shares the whole larger-thanlife story--from her time as a young editor at Vogue to her partnership with cobbler Jimmy Choo to her very public relationships.
In creating the shoes that became a fixture onSex and the City and red carpets around the world, Mellon relied on her own impeccable sense of what her customers wanted. What she didn't know at the time was that success would come at a high price: struggles with an obstinate business partner, a conniving first CEO, a turbulent marriage, and a mother who tried to steal her hard-earned wealth.

Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) was a master potter who pioneered the industrialisation of pottery manufacture during the early Industrial Revolution. His experimental work on ceramics resulted in many innovations in the production and decoration of pottery. This three-volume work, edited by his great-granddaughter Katherine Eufemia Farrer and first published between 1903 and 1906, contains Wedgwood's letters to his business partner, the Liverpool merchant Thomas Bentley (1730-1780). Wedgwood's highly successful partnership with Bentley is credited with the expansion and development of Wedgwood's reputation across Europe. The letters cover the years 1762 to 1794 and provide a lively account both of the growth of the business partnership and of Wedgwood's domestic life. Wedgwood and Bentley also maintained a keen interest in current affairs, and these volumes provide a fascinating glimpse into the society and domestic life of the late eighteenth century. Volume 1 covers 1762-1772.

Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) was a master potter who pioneered the industrialisation of pottery manufacture during the early Industrial Revolution. His experimental work on ceramics resulted in many innovations in the production and decoration of pottery. This three-volume work, edited by his great-granddaughter Katherine Eufemia Farrer and published between 1903 and 1906, contains Wedgwood's letters to his business partner Thomas Bentley (1730-1780) and others. Wedgwood's highly successful partnership with Bentley is credited with the expansion and development of Wedgwood's reputation across Europe. The letters cover the years 1762 to 1794 and provide a lively account both of the growth of the business partnership and of Wedgwood's domestic life. Wedgwood maintained a keen interest in current affairs, and these volumes provide a fascinating glimpse into the society and domestic life of the late eighteenth century. Volume 3 covers 1781-1794.

Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) was a master potter who pioneered the industrialisation of pottery manufacture during the early Industrial Revolution. His experimental work on ceramics resulted in many innovations in the production and decoration of pottery. This three-volume work, edited by his great-granddaughter Katherine Eufemia Farrer and first published between 1903 and 1906, contains Wedgwood's letters to his business partner, the Liverpool merchant Thomas Bentley (1730-1780). Wedgwood's highly successful partnership with Bentley is credited with the expansion and development of Wedgwood's reputation across Europe. The letters cover the years 1762 to 1794 and provide a lively account both of the growth of the business partnership and of Wedgwood's domestic life. Wedgwood and Bentley also maintained a keen interest in current affairs, and these volumes provide a fascinating glimpse into the society and domestic life of the late eighteenth century. Volume 2 covers 1772-1780.

This is an innovative analysis of the agrarian world and growth of government in early modern Germany through the medium of pre-industrial society's most basic material resource, wood. Paul Warde offers a regional study of south-west Germany from the late fifteenth to the early eighteenth century, demonstrating the stability of the economy and social structure through periods of demographic pressure, warfare and epidemic. He casts light on the nature of 'wood shortages' and societal response to environmental challenge, and shows how institutional responses largely based on preventing local conflict were poor at adapting to optimise the management of resources. Warde further argues for the inadequacy of models that oppose the 'market' to a 'natural economy' in understanding economic behaviour. This is a major contribution to debates about the sustainability of peasant society in early modern Europe, and to the growth of ecological approaches to history and historical geography.

The work of Martin Schmuck empirically investigates the phenomenon of financial distress and corporate turnaround in the automotive supplier industry. Based on a sample of 194 publicly listed automotive suppliers, the effectiveness of managerial, operational, financial, and asset restructuring activities is analyzed in a multivariate research setting. Archetypes for successful turnarounds are identified and matched with strategies of non-distressed companies.

The rubber industry was an industry born in bankruptcy and built through bankruptcies. Many of the great rubber barons found themselves or company in bankruptcy courts. Bankruptcies defined the very nature and structure of the rubber industry we know today. Fortunately, the rubber industry has always proven as elastic as its product. The very man that invented rubber, Charles Goodyear, started out in a Philadelphia debtor's prison after failing in the hardware business. Amazingly near the end of his life he would return to prison again for debt problems over his failing rubber enterprise. Bankruptcy and failure would become part of the story of rubber. Harvey Firestone entered the rubber business after failing in other businesses, B. F. Goodrich after failing in earlier business endeavors such as oil drilling moved his failed rubber company from New England to start over in Akron, and F. A. Seiberling, founder of Goodyear Rubber, was forced out of the company he founded to avoid a total bankruptcy of the company and lost most of his personal wealth. Rubber proved far from an elastic gold, but it would be an industrial jewel, once conquered. In the early years, it was a search for an American location to process the rubber of the tropics. The industry would shift from its roots in New England to Akron, Ohio. The collapse of the industry is the story of the de-industrialisation of America.

The changing manufacturing environment requires more responsive and adaptable manufacturing systems. The theme of the 4th International Conference on Changeable, Agile, Reconfigurable and Virtual production (CARV2011) is "Enabling Manufacturing Competitiveness and Economic Sustainability". Leading edge research and best implementation practices and experiences, which address these important issues and challenges, are presented. The proceedings include advances in manufacturing systems design, planning, evaluation, control and evolving paradigms such as mass customization, personalization, changeability, re-configurability and flexibility. New and important concepts such as the dynamic product families and platforms, co-evolution of products and systems, and methods for enhancing manufacturing systems' economic sustainability and prolonging their life to produce more than one product generation are treated. Enablers of change in manufacturing systems, production volume and capability scalability and managing the volatility of markets, competition among global enterprises and the increasing complexity of products, manufacturing systems and management strategies are discussed. Industry challenges and future directions for research and development needed to help both practitioners and academicians are presented.

Explores the Latin American economy and management through the study of Japanese companies in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. Based on detailed case studies, this volume offers a bird's eye view of foreign investments in Latin America.

American cities are rediscovering the economic and social value of urban manufacturing. However, urban manufacturing is often invisible and poorly understood in terms of urban design, architecture, and policy. The Design of Urban Manufacturing brings a multidisciplinary approach to a new complex reality that urban manufacturing now sits squarely at the intersection of research, education, and neighborhood revitalization. Using cases studies from across North America and beyond, this book presents innovative approaches not only to the design of districts and buildings, but to the design of policy as well: the special roles that governments, local development corporations, and not-for-profit organizations all have to play in supporting manufacturing. This book presents current models for working neighborhoods where factories enable fine-grained, mixed-use communities and face-to-face contact while creatively solving the very real problems of goods movement and functional buildings. Design guidelines and policy recommendations are calibrated to different types of production districts. The Design of Urban Manufacturing is the essential resource for policy makers, designers, and students in urban design, planning, and urban and economic development.

'The way that Ricardo Semler runs his company is impossible; except th at it works, and works splendidly for everyone. I relish this book. It revived my faith in human beings and my hope for business everywher e' Charles Handy--Workers make the decisions previously made by their bosses--Managerial staff set their own salaries and bonuses--Everyone has access to the company books--No formality - a minimum of meetings, memos and approvals--Internal walls torn down--Shopfloor workers set their own productivity targets and schedulesResu lt - Semco is one of Latin America's fastest-growing companies, acknow ledged to be the best in Brazil to work for, and with a waiting list o f thousands of applicants hoping to join it. This book offers the chanc e to learn Ricardo Semler's secrets and let some of the Semco magic ru b off on you and your company

Innovation is a key to corporate success, particularly in times of rapid technological change. This book sheds new light on the introduction of technology in the manufacturing sector. The author considers the use of innovative technology in both Britain and Japan by examining nine firms in each country. He focuses on computerized machine tools (CNC) and shows how the various firms have risen to the challenge of implementing the new technology. Particular emphasis is placed on the differing employment relations in the factories, the nature of operator training and workload distribution. Dr. Whittaker identifies fundamentally different approaches in the two countries that have implications for competitiveness as well as future innovation. The contrast is especially interesting since Japanese industrial relations are commonly distinguished by their cooperative nature while industrial relations in Britain have tended to be more confrontational. These conventional views are challenged with an original perspective on the labor process and new technology. The book will be of major interest to specialists in technical innovation and industrial relations. Managers eager to learn the practical lessons of a comparison between British and Japanese work habits will also gain much from reading this book.

Adopting a multi-disciplinary approach and using the case of the automotive industry as a starting point this volume discusses how industrial companies can remain competitive in spite of the current economic downturn.

This book addresses the question of how competition takes place in international manufacturing industries. It examines patterns of rivalry among firms from different countries across national boundaries and their influences on international trade and investment. By using various data on Japanese firms in manufacturing industries from the late 1950s through the early 2000s, the first part of this book presents a series of empirical analyses that examines effects of market structure on export pricing, linkages of domestic and foreign market structures on trade performance, and patterns of oligopolistic interactions among firms from different countries in exporting. The second part of this book deals with the impact of strategic interactions on foreign direct investment. In particular, the book examines 'bunching' in foreign direct investment, strategic interactions in intra-industry cross-market foreign direct investment, and their effects on entry patterns and post-entry performance.

In the contemporary automotive manufacturing industry, service providers are continuously working to improve system optimization in order to remain competitive in the market and deliver quality products to satisfy their customers. With this comes the possibility of failure, rejection and reworking of the components or services in the system, which can incur high costs and impact the reputation of an organization. This book uses Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) to assess, investigate and predict the Risk Priority Number (RPN) of potential failures for three companies within the manufacturing industry: A metal component supplier in the automotive sector Part manufacturer for the automobile and engineering industries Manufacturer of suspension components for commercial vehicles Integrating human expertise and artificial intelligence on a single platform, the authors use fuzzy logic as a tool to overcome the vagueness associated with traditional methods of assessing potential failures. The book also details the procedure and scales of how to conduct FMEA, offering guidance on how to input and rank each risk within manufacturing processes across a range of sectors's. Each of the three real-world cases offer suggested improvements for the companies themselves, alongside takeaways for researchers and professionals within the fields of manufacturing and supply chain management.

Focusing on safety and environmental protection issues, this book provides incisive, cutting-edge theoretical analysis that evaluates the impact of new automotive technologies, and the associated public policies, on social welfare.