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.

What are the forces that are driving firms and industries to globalize their operations? This volume explores how specific industries have organized their global operations through case studies of seven manufacturing industries: garments and textiles, automobiles and auto parts, televisions, hard disk drives, flat panel displays, semiconductors, and personal computers. Based on long-term research sponsored by the Sloan Foundation, the chapters provide readers with a nuanced understanding of the complex matrix of factor costs, access to inimitable capabilities, and time-based pressures that influence where firms decide to locate particular segments of the value chain.
The book examines globalization within the context of five factors affecting locational decisions: advances in transportation and communication; the clustering of knowledge assets; the drive to reduce cycle times; the commodification of existing products; and the relative advantages of proximity to customers. The case studies are framed by Paul Deguid's Preface on the significance of power in value chains and Bruce Kogut's conclusion on the importance of knowledge in locational decisions. Together, the chapters reveal a remarkable diversity of responses across industries to these forces, and suggest that any understanding of globalization must appreciate this diversity.
This volume is ideal for both MBA and undergraduate students studying the location of economic activities by multinational firms.

How much does regulation matter in shaping corporate behavior? This pathbreaking, in-depth study of fourteen pulp manufacturing mills in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand reveals that steadily tightening regulatory standards have been crucial for raising environmental performance. But while all firms have shown improvement, some have improved more than others, many going substantially beyond compliance. What explains the variation in compliance? It's not necessarily the differences in regulation in each country. Rather, variation is accounted for by the complex interaction between tightening regulations and a social license to operate (especially pressures from community and environmental activists), economic constraints, and differences in corporate environmental management style. Shades of Green provides the most extensive and systematic empirical study to date of why firms achieve the levels of environmental performance that they do.

How much does regulation matter in shaping corporate behavior? This pathbreaking, in-depth study of fourteen pulp manufacturing mills in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand reveals that steadily tightening regulatory standards have been crucial for raising environmental performance. But while all firms have shown improvement, some have improved more than others, many going substantially beyond compliance. What explains the variation in compliance? It's not necessarily the differences in regulation in each country. Rather, variation is accounted for by the complex interaction between tightening regulations and a social license to operate (especially pressures from community and environmental activists), economic constraints, and differences in corporate environmental management style. Shades of Green provides the most extensive and systematic empirical study to date of why firms achieve the levels of environmental performance that they do.

Spoiled Silk is the story of two immigrants from the Rhineland, William Brueckmann and his wife Katherine, who started a new life in America's first industrial city, Paterson NJ, nourishing a vision of their adopted country that was never to be. Committed to a socialist dream, they struggled to improve the lot of their follow immigrants and, at the same time, to raise a family in the midst of the turbulence that surrounded them. Their efforts contributed in the long run to improved working conditions in American mills, but their dream of a socialist America was never to be realized. It was in 1913 that the workers in the Paterson textile mills, having learned that a new kind of loom would put many of them out of work went on strike against the mill owners. In desperation, they called in Big Bill Haywood and the Wobblies of the I.W.W. to help them. The Paterson authorities moved quickly to crush the strike by forbidding the strikers to hold public meetings. Alone among elected local officials, William Brueckmann, Mayor of the neighboring town of Haledon, defied the Paterson authorities and their police department and upheld the constitutional rights of the strikers by giving them a safe haven in his town. His action marked the beginning of a long and bitter struggle that brought thousands of workers to the open fields of Haledon and forced the city of Paterson to its knees.The strike is an important chapter in the history of the American labor movement. For William and Katherine Brueckmann it did not however, mark the end of their struggles. Spoiled Silk also chronicles the prejudice they had to face during the First World War and the pressures that eventually drove them to compromise with post-war America and its Good Times. It was a compromise that would bring with it a different kind of tragedy and sorrow, the death of an only son and their own drawing apart from one another. The recent interest in immigrants to America has almost overlooked the largest group of immigrants, the German Americans. Spoiled Silk is a moving story about two of them. Vividly told, Spoiled Silk brings to life the experiences of these valiant people in the early decades of the century just past.

Following the journey of eight bargain store objects, Alison Hulme reveals the complex story behind society's simplest and cheapest commodities. Inspired by Walter Benjamin's Arcades Project, On the Commodity Trail explores the colourful and fascinating histories of everyday objects.Along the way, we observe raw materials on municipal rubbish dumps in China, newly re-made products in the world's largest wholesale market, and take a journey across the seas, to bargain stores in Europe and North America, arriving finally in the homes of consumers. Weaving together narratives from the people we meet at different parts of the commodity chain - waste peddlers, wholesalers, store owners, and shoppers - the book examines the places and people at the heart of these localized yet immense global networks.Unlike other investigations of commodity chains, this study does not chart a straightforward trajectory from production to consumption. Instead, it demonstrates that the low-end commodity chain is one of constant rupture in which products are made and re-made, blurring the dividing line between producing and consuming.An ethnography of material culture as well as an examination of commodity culture at a time of economic downturn, this deeply-engrossing book makes a unique contribution to our understanding of commodity chains and consumer culture.

Currently, the prime focus for US business plans should not be on the manufacturing process design and delivery processes, but on greatly improving innovation leadership, design engineering capability, and sales and marketing innovation. These three areas have been sadly lacking significant performance improvement during the past 20 years. The magic word for US business is "simplification." Most of the books written to date focus on the solution development aspect of the Innovation System Cycle, which is less than 15% of the total innovative system. Focusing on solution development is only the start -- the rest of the innovation system cycle is what turns an idea into a profitable business. The techniques in this book are directed at key tasks across the innovative process, such as maximizing quality, productivity, maintainability, usability, and reliability, while focusing on reducing the product cycle time and costs within the innovative process. This book uses more than 50 different approaches/concepts, which leads the reader in a very simple method for understanding, establishing, and effectively using an innovative system to provide a significant marketing advantage. Previous books have focused on what to do; however, this book focuses on how to do it. It transforms a complicated complex system into easy-to-use and understand methodology.

Spoiled Silk is the story of two immigrants from the Rhineland, William Brueckmann and his wife Katherine, who started a new life in America's first industrial city, Paterson NJ, nourishing a vision of their adopted country that was never to be. Committed to a socialist dream, they struggled to improve the lot of their follow immigrants and, at the same time, to raise a family in the midst of the turbulence that surrounded them. Their efforts contributed in the long run to improved working conditions in American mills, but their dream of a socialist America was never to be realized. It was in 1913 that the workers in the Paterson textile mills, having learned that a new kind of loom would put many of them out of work went on strike against the mill owners. In desperation, they called in Big Bill Haywood and the Wobblies of the I.W.W. to help them. The Paterson authorities moved quickly to crush the strike by forbidding the strikers to hold public meetings. Alone among elected local officials, William Brueckmann, Mayor of the neighboring town of Haledon, defied the Paterson authorities and their police department and upheld the constitutional rights of the strikers by giving them a safe haven in his town. His action marked the beginning of a long and bitter struggle that brought thousands of workers to the open fields of Haledon and forced the city of Paterson to its knees.The strike is an important chapter in the history of the American labor movement. For William and Katherine Brueckmann it did not however, mark the end of their struggles. Spoiled Silk also chronicles the prejudice they had to face during the First World War and the pressures that eventually drove them to compromise with post-war America and its Good Times. It was a compromise that would bring with it a different kind of tragedy and sorrow, the death of an only son and their own drawing apart from one another. The recent interest in immigrants to America has almost overlooked the largest group of immigrants, the German Americans. Spoiled Silk is a moving story about two of them. Vividly told, Spoiled Silk brings to life the experiences of these valiant people in the early decades of the century just past.

This book, first published in 1992, is a study of the development of Barcelona's cotton industry from its origins in calico-printing in 1728 to its introduction of steampower in 1832. It thus describes the experiences of the leading industry of the city, and one which provides the only Mediterranean exception to the tendency of early industrialization to be concentrated in northern Europe. The book bridges the 'pre-industrial' and early 'industrial' periods, offering answers to such questions as: what caused 'merchant capital' to move into industrial investment? what were the links between 'pre-industrial' industrial activity and industrialization proper? is it apt to refer to the economic changes of these years as an 'industrial revolution'? should industrialization be studied on a regional or a national basis? A further purpose is to provide an interpretation of the characteristics of the Catalan economy and of its relationship to that of Spain as a whole thereby contributing to the understanding of the 'Catalan question'.

Die Aluminiumdruckgussbranche sieht sich einem sehr hohen Kostendruck durch hohe Energieintensitat der Produktion sowie steigende Energie- und Rohstoffpreise ausgesetzt. In dem Verbundforschungsprojekt ProGRess wurden gezielt Losungen erarbeitet, um unternehmensubergreifend den Energie- und Ressourcenverbrauch signifikant zu senken. Die in der Praxis erprobten Losungen werden anhand von Fallbeispielen in der Wertschopfungskette vorgestellt. Die Auswirkungen der vorgeschlagenen Massnahmen in der Praxis konnen in einem ganzheitlichen Bewertungsansatz fur Produktionsprozessketten verglichen werden

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.

It is dealt with two main decision problems which arise when flow-line production systems are installed and operated. The assembly line balancing problem consists of partitioning the work, necessary to assemble the product(s), among different stations of an assembly line. If several models of a product are jointly processed on a line, this medium-term problem is connected with the short-term problem of determining an operating sequence of the models. In Part I balancing and sequencing problems are discussed, classified, and arranged within a hierarchical planning system. In the second edition special emphasis is given to u-shaped assembly lines which are important components of modern just-in-time production systems. Part II is concerned with exact and heuristic procedures for solving those decision problems. For each problem type considered, a survey of existing procedures is given and new efficient solution methods are developed. Comprehensive numerical investigations are reported.

This book reopens and restructures the grand debate on the nature of economic development in China prior to the Communist revolution. It rejects the debate's old contours in which quantitative data were used to argue that the trajectory of Chinese development was either "positive" or "negative." Instead, the author combines quantitative analysis with a detailed study of local politics, culture, and gender to explain the shaping of the modern Chinese economy.
Focusing on silk production in Wuxi county in the Yangzi Delta, the author argues that local elites used social dominance to build a silk industry continuum--"one industry"--fusing modern factory production with older patterns of peasant-family farming. The resulting social configuration was "two Chinas"--one populated by wealthy urban elites transformed into a new, silk-industry bourgeoisie, and the other by peasant families whose women became the workforce for cocoon production.
The author describes the roles of merchant guilds and other elite organizations established to protect the silk industry from outside competition and excessive taxation; the methods and styles of elite networking and investment in building modern silk filatures; and the roles of women--elite women in sericulture reform and peasant women in silkworm raising. She also reveals the cooperation between silk-industry elites and Nationalist government officials in the 1920's and 1930's, which resulted in an industry that was virtually state-directed and designed to pass downward to the peasants the costs of building more competitive silk filatures. This discovery challenges the prevailing tendency to think in terms of radical ruptures between Nationalist and Communist rule.

This book introduces fundamental, advanced, and future-oriented scientific quality management methods for the engineering and manufacturing industries. It presents new knowledge and experiences in the manufacturing industry with real world case studies. It introduces Quality 4.0 with Industry 4.0, including quality engineering tools for software quality and offers lean quality management methods for lean manufacturing. It also bridges the gap between quality management and quality engineering, and offers a scientific methodology for problem solving and prevention. The methods, techniques, templates, and processes introduced in this book can be utilized in various areas in industry, from product engineering to manufacturing and shop floor management. This book will be of interest to manufacturing industry leaders and managers, who do not require in-depth engineering knowledge. It will also be helpful to engineers in design and suppliers in management and manufacturing, all who have daily concerns with project and quality management. Students in business and engineering programs may also find this book useful as they prepare for careers in the engineering and manufacturing industries. Presents new knowledge and experiences in the manufacturing industry with real world case studies Introduces quality engineering methods for software development Introduces Quality 4.0 with Industry 4.0 Offers lean quality management methods for lean manufacturing Bridges the gap between quality management methods and quality engineering Provides scientific methodology for product planning, problem solving and prevention management Includes forms, templates, and tools that can be used conveniently in the field

Das Kleben gilt in der industriellen Fertigung als unverzichtbare Alternative zum Schweissen und Loten. Den aktuellen Stand der Klebe-Technologie stellt das bewahrte, in der 6. Auflage erscheinende Fachbuch dar. Die Neuauflage dokumentiert den neuesten Wissensstand auf der Grundlage von zwolf nationalen und internationalen Fachzeitschriften sowie 140 nationalen und europaischen Patentschriften. Mit dem Buch sollen Klebstoffanwender und -hersteller in ihrem Bestreben unterstutzt werden, die Potenziale des Fertigungssystems Kleben nutzbar zu machen."

Technology is the key factor in global industrial competition, and Japan's national system of technological innovation has been critical to the economic success of the country since the Second World War. This book examines the historical development of the system, innovation in four major manufacturing industries, the career paths of engineers and overseas R&D, and the influence of public sector institutions and regulations.

Das Buch widmet sich der Hydro-Umformung, der wohl wichtigsten Verfahrensgruppe auf dem Gebiet der Umformung mit Wirkmedien, wobei das flussige Medium in einem Hohlraum wirkt, der durch Werkstuck und Dichtsystem abgeschlossen ist. Die Monographie ist sowohl Nachschlagewerk fur den in der Praxis tatigen Ingenieur als auch Lehrbuch fur Studierende. Schwerpunkte bilden Verfahrensgrundlagen, Prozessgestaltung, Werkzeugtechnik und Anlagenkomponenten fur die Hydro-Umformung. Dabei werden u.a. Verfahrenskenngrossen, Verfahrensvarianten, Werkzeugfertigung sowie Maschinen und Anlagensteuerung in besonderen Kapiteln behandelt. Fur die betrachteten Verfahrensvarianten werden typische Prozesslosungen und Versagensfalle mit zugehorigen Simulationsergebnissen diskutiert. Schliesslich wird die Bedeutung der FEM-Simulation fur die Prozessoptimierung dargestellt. Ein einfuhrender historischer Abriss und Betrachtungen zum Anwenderpotential sowie abschliessende Planungsbeispiele und Wirtschaftlichkeitsbetrachtungen runden den Inhalt des Buches ab. Angefugt sind Symbol- und Stichwortverzeichnis sowie ein Literaturverzeichnis."

This book shows how to consistently obtain annual and multiannual manufacturing target profit regardless of the evolution of sales volumes, increasing or decreasing, using the Manufacturing Cost Policy Deployment (MCPD) system. Managers and practitioners within the manufacturing companies will discover a practical approach within the MCPD system that will help them develop and support their long-term, medium-term, and short-term profitability and productivity strategy. The book presents both the basic concepts of MCPD and the key elements of transforming manufacturing companies through MCPD system, as well as supporting the consistent growth of external and internal profit by directing all systematic and systemic improvements based on meeting the annual and multiannual Manufacturing Cost Improvement (MCI) targets and means for each Product-Family Cost (PFC). This book is unique because it presents two types of systematic and systemic improvement projects for MCI that have been applied over the years in various multinational manufacturing companies operating in highly competitive markets, in order to address the consistent reduction of unit manufacturing costs by improving the Cost of Losses and Waste (CLW). Readers will discover the practical approach of MCI based on a structured approach to MCPD system beyond the traditional approach to manufacturing improvements based mainly on improved time and quality. Therefore, from the perspective of the MCPD system, the multiannual manufacturing target profits are met while the annual and multiannual manufacturing target costs are a predetermined stake and not a result of the improvements already made.

The economics of the service sector has recently attracted a large attention. At a macroeconomic level, the discussion has been focused on the issues concerning the relationship between the expansion of the service industry and the potential for a stable and sustained growth. Slow productivity growth, due to the largely non tradable nature of the output, lack of competition due either to regulations or to barriers to entry are among the "bads" sometimes associated with a "service led" growth. On the other hand new working places are created in the service industries at a rate much higher than in the industrial ones. Is a lower rate of technological change and the continuing of inflationary tensions the price to pay for a sustained expansion of employment in the service sector? These are in a nutshell the questions that led CElS (Centre for International Studies on Economic Growth - University of Rome "Tor Vergata") to organize the International Seminar on "The Service Sector: Productivity and Growth" held in Rome in May 1993, whose revised proceedings are published in this volume. The economists and academicians invited to the conference have faced the issues mentioned above from different perspectives, but they concentrated especially on the problems relative to growth and productivity.

Dieses Fachbuch beschreibt in umfassender Weise Technologie, Anwendung und Einflusse von Bindemitteln bei der Holzwerkstoffherstellung. Besonderer Wert wird auf das Zusammenspiel und die gegenseitigen Beeinflussungen der drei Hauptparameter Holz, Bindemittel und Herstellungsbedingungen gelegt; diese drei Parameter haben entscheidenden Einfluss auf die Qualitat der produzierten Holzwerkstoffe. Die Schwerpunkte des Buches sind:
- Fragen der Zusammensetzung, Analyse, Eigenschaften und Anwendung der verschiedenen Bindemittel sowie ihres Einflusses auf die Qualitat der damit hergestellten Holzwerkstoffe.
- Technologische Grundlagen der Holzwerkstoffherstellung.
- Grundlagen der Verleimung und der Eigenschaften von Leimfugen.
- Technologisch/technische Grundlagen der Holzwerkstoffe.
- Prufung und Eigenschaften von Holzwerkstoffen. Durch zahlreiche Abbildungen und ubersichtliche Tabellen wird eine besonders hohe Informationsdichte erzielt."

Using the field of material culture as its methodological departure point, this Palgrave Pivot explains the strategic advantages that brands can set in place when their executives are fully in command of how to move from strategy to tactics. Specifically, it studies the brands, their products and signature experiences as well as their relationship with the consumer in an attempt to define the greater powers that have pushed fashion labels in and out of fashion. It focuses on case analysis of specific luxury fashion brands and attempts to link those to the greater context of material culture while also elaborating on theoretical discussions. Bridging theory and practice, this book explores the relationship between creative strategy and cultural intelligence.

Why does Namibia’s economy look the way it does today? Was the reliance on raw materials for exports and on the service sector for employment an inevitability? And for what reasons has the manufacturing sector – the vehicle for economic development for many now-high income countries throughout the 19th and 20th centuries – seen its growth held back?

With these questions in mind, this book offers an extensive analysis of industrial development and economic change in Namibia since 1900, exploring their causes, trajectory, vicissitudes, context, and politics. Its focus is particularly on the motivations behind the economic decisions of the state, arguing that power relations – both internationally and domestically – have held firm a status quo that has resisted efforts towards profound economic change.

This work is the first in-depth economic study covering both the colonial and independence eras of Namibia’s history and provides the first history of the country’s manufacturing sector

With more emphasis being placed on the cost and quality of new products and on reducing the lead time to develop them, attention is turning to the increasingly important topic of design for manufacturability (DFM). This involves the collaboration among research and development, manufacturing, and other company functions and is aimed at accelerating the new product development process from product conception to market introduction. A company can create a competitive advantage for itself by managing the process and its related organizational dynamics effectively. This book includes chapters by experts who focus on the development of strategic capabilities, such as the systematic development and introduction of new technologies into products and processes, as well as the use of appropriate tools and techniques to facilitate communication and problem-solving between design and manufacturing. Other topics covered include learning from experience; the social, political, and cultural contexts within which key players interact; and the degree to which management of information and development of an effective structure are critical to new product development success. The information-intensive nature of the product development process is demonstrated throughout the book. The final chapter contains a model that links the role of information in the development of products to a company's capability to organize, process, and learn from that information.