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.

For decades the crown jewels of Japan's postwar manufacturing industry, motorcycles remain one of Japan's top exports. Japan's Motorcycle Wars assesses the historical development and societal impact of the motorcycle industry, from the influence of motor sports on vehicle sales in the early 1900s to the postwar developments that led to the massive wave of motorization sweeping the Asia-Pacific region today. Jeffrey Alexander brings a wealth of information to light, providing English translations of transcripts, industry publications, and company histories that have until now been available only in Japanese. By exploring the industry as a whole, he reveals that Japan's motorcycle industry was characterized not by communitarian success but by misplaced loyalties, technical disasters, and brutal competition.

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.

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.

Consolidation activities such as mergers and acquisitions (M&As) have been one of the major strategies adopted by Indian firms to withstand global competition. M&As experienced a substantial increase in value and volume during the post-liberalization era, facilitated by the presence of foreign subsidiaries in the Indian market as well as competitive pressure on domestic firms. The increased foreign investment through M&As brought new dimensions to the fore such as the implications on technological performance, efficiency, and more importantly, competition in the Indian market. The Globalisation of Indian Business: Cross Border Mergers and Acquisitions in Indian Manufacturing provides an in-depth analysis of these issues, specifically aiming to understand whether the M&As strategies helped the firms to achieve their desired objectives in terms of improvement in technology, efficiency and market power in the context of the increase of M&As in India, using appropriate statistical and econometric techniques. The book is of additional importance in the context of the recently implemented Competition Act, replacing the thirty year old MRTP Act in India. The new Act aims to maintain competition and protect consumers' interests without harming that of the producers'. Based on the analysis, broadly, the study cautions the regulators to rethink the efficiency defence argument and become more vigilant on the creation of monopolies. On the other side, it suggests firms should reconsider their post-merger integration strategy since consolidation has not led to a sustainable increase in market share of the surviving firms.

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.

Presenting findings from research into Sweden's leading multinationals this book focuses on engineering companies operating in global industries such as pharmaceutical, aerospace, packing systems and automotive. It explores research and practice within the area of HRM focusing on project-based organizations.

This book, first published in 2000, examines how a group of manufacturers of metal products - 'everything from buttonhooks to battleships' - in America's third biggest city helped each other to meet the challenges of organized labour (and sometimes an interventionist state) in the half-century between the 'second industrial revolution' and the Second World War. After thirty years of success, the employers were finally overwhelmed by a resurgent labour movement backed by New Deal politicians and administrators. Their story offers the broadest and most detailed account available of the industrial relations problems and policies of small and mid-sized firms in this period. This book analyses labour issues by means of a careful local case study, but its conclusions about the interplay of labour, organized capital, law and the state in determining the fate of workers' rights and employers' interests have broad relevance to the history and politics of twentieth-century industrial relations.

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.

Machine tools are vital to our industrial, metal-using society. This book is the first history of the British machine-tool industry during an important period of its development, a time when it played a crucial part in the transformation of the British economy. The author discusses the structure of the industry, its performance in international trade, and, through an analysis of the voluminous records of one firm, its efficiency and productivity. This discussion is placed within the wider context of current controversies about the behaviour of the British economy during the 'Great Depression' of the later nineteenth century, and its conclusions do not support pessimistic views of the performance of British industry. The book is also intended as a contribution to the explanation of the process of technological change, a problem of increasing interest to economists and economic historians.

The Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance defines safety as the maintenance of peace of mind. Without peace of mind, or the serenity brought about by a safe working environment, employees will be unwilling and even unable to focus their energies on production improvement. Thus, it can be said that all improvement begins with safety.
Winner of a 2013 Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award
A how-to manual on the proper integration of safety and environmental sustainability with Lean implementations, Lean Sustainability: Creating Safe, Enduring, and Profitable Operations provides a proven recipe for achieving safety and sustainability excellence. This book is the result of the author's two decades of experience implementing Lean; Safety, Health, and Environmental (SHE); and sustainability processes in the chemical, food, and consumer products industries. It unveils valuable lessons learned and little-known tips for eliminating waste and increasing process efficiency-while reducing safety incidents and the overall impact on the environment.
The text illustrates how to use the SHE Pillar as a gateway to continuous improvement, regardless of the improvement methodology you use. Bolstered with proven methodologies and real-world advice, it introduces novel approaches for achieving safety and sustainability excellence, including:

• Autonomous Safety-supplying employees with the knowledge, skills, and motivation to work safely
• Triple Zero-the achievement of zero accidents, zero environmental incidents, and zero losses
• Green Value Stream Mapping-the application of Value Stream Mapping to environmental and sustainability issues

Although there are many books on Lean, sustainability, and SHE, few explain how to integrate these dynamic tools. Walking you through this process, this book supplies the tools to create a synergy that will boost efficiencies across all segments of your business. Follow its advice and you'll be on your way to making your organization and employees Lean, green, and serene.

Das Buch stellt die Entwicklung und Erprobung umweltvertraglicher Schmierstoffe und kohlenstoffbasierter Beschichtungen vor. Am Beispiel einer Werkzeugmaschine untersucht der Autor die tribologischen Systeme, also die Systeme, in denen Reibung und Verschleiss massgeblich auftreten. Die Erkenntnisse werden in Form von Prozessketten verknupft und die Neuentwicklungen unter realitatsnahen Bedingungen gepruft. Das Projekt wurde durch die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft gefordert und erforscht neben den Grundlagen auch die industrielle Umsetzung."

First published in 1975, this book investigates the various pre-capitalist modes of production briefly indicated in the works of Marx and Engels, and gives an examination of the conditions of the transition from one mode of production to another. The fundamental concepts used in these investigations, including those of mode of production, of necessary labour and surpass labour, of politics and state, are derived from Capital and from other works of Marxist theory. The primary aim of the analysis is to raise the conceptualisation of pre-capitalist modes of production and of transition to a more rigorous level. This book will appear controversial to both Marxists and non-Marxists alike.

Almost all developing countries have implemented major economic reforms over the past two decades, but there is no consensus either on how this impacts on manufacturing or on how policy could be adapted to support manufacturing. On the one hand there is a widely held view that protectionism is dead and trade liberalisation is the only direction. On the other hand there is an increasing perception that governments have a role in supporting manufacturing.This book considers the impact of economic reforms on manufacturing performance and explores policy options for promoting manufacturing. Using country-specific case studies spanning Africa, South Asia, South East Asia and Latin America, the authors examine the evidence for and against both trade liberalisation and government support policy. Economic Policy and Manufacturing Performance in Developing Countries will prove an invaluable source of reference to all scholars of development economics and trade policy.

This book was born from curiosity. To begin with, it was the curiosity of an economist who studied in the 60's in an environment which has subsequently developed from national into global economics. Who has to recognize that politicians, scholars and large segments of society oblivious to supranational authorities and e- nomic globalization forces continue to labour under the notion that they are still fully autonomous and sovereign when shaping national economic policy. And pretend as though their own national state were still the "m- ter in its own house" that despite unbridled market economics could c- tinue to dictate to the economy and companies how to live and in which "rooms." All that has become fiction. The laws of globalization diminish the - noeuvring space for shaping national economic policy. Even if many folks today don't want to hear it: The issue is no longer achieving what is soc- politically desirable for the own society but rather the optimal adaptation of society and social benefits to the politically practicable.

The concrete tools manufacturing enterprises need to thrive in today's global environment

For a manufacturing enterprise to succeed in this current volatile economic environment, a revolution is needed in restructuring its three main components: product design, manufacturing, and business model. "The Global Manufacturing Revolution" is the first book to focus on these issues. Based on the author's long-standing course work at the University of Michigan, this unique volume proposes new technologies and new business strategies that can increase an enterprise's speed of responsiveness to volatile markets, as well as enhance the integration of its own engineering and business.

Introduced here are innovations to the entire manufacturing culture:

An original approach to the analysis of manufacturing paradigms

Suggested methods for developing creativity in product design

A quantitative analysis of manufacturing system configurations

A new manufacturing "reconfigurable" paradigm, in which the speed of responsiveness is the prime business goal

An original approach to using information technology for workforce empowerment

The book also offers analysis and original models of previous manufacturing paradigms' technical and business dimensions--including mass production and mass customization--in order to fully explain the current revolution in global manufacturing enterprises. In addition, 200 original illustrations and pictures help to clarify the topics.

Globalization is creating both opportunities and challenges for companies that manufacture durable goods. The tools, theories, and case studies in this volume will be invaluable to engineers pursuing leadership careers in the manufacturing industry, as well as to leaders of global enterprises and business students who are motivated to lead manufacturing enterprises and ensure their growth.

The fashion industry is a multibillion-dollar global industry with a variety of organizational structures and a multitude of challenges. Such scope triggered the recent rise in management programs in the U.S. and Europe aiming to produce and train young managers to meet such global and diverse challenges. Managing Fashion covers the fashion business with a twist - a management twist. Its goal is to tackle the topics from a fashion manager perspective referencing relevant management concepts and theories, thus offering a deeper and more practical dimension to the issues addressed. It offers a balanced mix of fashion and management, theory and application, as well as creating an opportunity for analysis and critical thinking. Discussions throughout the book are supported by specially developed case studies and relevant examples taken from the fashion industry. It is an opportunity to expose the fashion student or reader, as well as aspiring fashion managers, to a more practical approach to fashion theories and issues. Managing Fashion will serve as a core text for Fashion Studies, Fashion Entrepreneurship, and Fashion Merchandising majors as well as for special business degrees and management certificates targeting the fashion industry.

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.

The rapid takeoff of the continent-sized national economies and the increasing expense of extraction have led to strong tensions in petrol prices and a race towards alternative driving systems. This book analyses the emergence of a second automobile revolution through the trajectories of automobile firms since the nineties.

This book brings together and analyzes the role that emotion plays in the way companies connect with customers, develop new products, improve their strategic positioning, and increase their brand recognition.

Car manufacturing epitomizes modern industry, yet the overall perspective has been lost in speculation and self-promotion. Based on six years of research, this book is the first in years to reassess the industry. The result is a paradigm that quantifies the fundamental economies of scale and firm organizational structure.

Using a heterodox perspective, this book discusses the real possibilities of Argentina, Brazil and Mexico ever achieving economic development through industrialization. Through their discussion of the three most industrialized countries of Latin America, the contributors compare trajectories and critically analyze the transformations, challenges and development prospects of the sector at the beginning of the 21st Century. Focusing on the historical evolution of each country's industrial sector, as well as their productivity, structural transformation, and degree of external dependence and international integration, this book will appeal to those researching the political economy, economic history, industrial organization and economic development in Latin America.

A unique and comprehensive source of information, this book is the only international publication providing economists, planners, policymakers and business people with worldwide statistics on current performance and trends in the manufacturing sector. The yearbook is designed to facilitate international comparisons relating to manufacturing activity and industrial development and performance. It provides data which can be used to analyse patterns of growth and related long term trends, structural change and industrial performance in individual industries. Statistics on employment patterns, wages, consumption and gross output and other key indicators are also presented.

Thinking: A Guide to Systems Engineering Problem-Solving focuses upon articulating ways of thinking in today's world of systems and systems engineering. It also explores how the old masters made the advances they made, hundreds of years ago. Taken together, these considerations represent new ways of problem solving and new pathways to answers for modern times. Special areas of interest include types of intelligence, attributes of superior thinkers, systems architecting, corporate standouts, barriers to thinking, and innovative companies and universities. This book provides an overview of more than a dozen ways of thinking, to include: Inductive Thinking, Deductive Thinking, Reductionist Thinking, Out-of-the-Box Thinking, Systems Thinking, Design Thinking, Disruptive Thinking, Lateral Thinking, Critical Thinking, Fast and Slow Thinking, and Breakthrough Thinking. With these thinking skills, the reader is better able to tackle and solve new and varied types of problems. Features Proposes new approaches to problem solving for the systems engineer Compares as well as contrasts various types of Systems Thinking Articulates thinking attributes of the great masters as well as selected modern systems engineers Offers chapter by chapter thinking exercises for consideration and testing Suggests a "top dozen" for today's systems engineers