In companies that produce goods and services, productivity and efficiency improvements are a constant challenge. This book reviews the differences between productivity and efficiency. It proposes a new method and makes available a computational tool for implementation that contributes to facilitating the use of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The book presents a discussion about productivity and efficiency, illustrating the potentials of use and conceptual differences. It covers the concepts and techniques for analysis of productivity and efficiency, analyzing critical benefits and limitations, explains in detail how to use DEA for analysis, provides innovative methods for using DEA, offers a free online computer tool with a direction guide, shows real empirical applications, and covers other techniques that can be used to complement the analysis performed. The book is for professionals, managers, consultants, students working and taking courses in productive systems of goods and services. Ancillary materials include a free online computer tool to operationalize the concepts and methods proposed in the book, a guide on how to use the method and the software developed for the DEA application. Solutions manual, instructor's manual, PowerPoint slides, and figure slides also will be available upon qualified adoption.

Digital technology is simultaneously friend and foe: highly disruptive, yet it cannot be ignored. Companies that fail to make use of it put themselves in the line of fire for disintermediation or even eradication. But digital technology is also the biggest opportunity to reposition incumbent product-making businesses by thinking about how they conceive, make, distribute and support the next generation of goods in the marketplace.

Reinventing the Product looks at the ways traditional products are transforming into smart connected products and ecosystem platforms at a rate much faster than most organizations think. Eric Schaeffer and David Sovie show how this reinvention is made possible: by AI and digital technologies, such as IoT sensors, blockchain, advanced analytics, cloud and edge computing. They show how to deliver truly intelligent, and potentially even autonomous, products with the more personalized and compelling experiences that today's users, consumers and enterprises expect.

Reinventing the Product makes a stringent case for companies to rethink their product strategy, their innovation and engineering processes, and the entire culture to build the future generations of successful 'living products'. Featuring case studies from global organizations such as Faurecia, Signify, Symmons and Haier and interviews with thought leaders and business executives from top companies including Amazon, ABB, Tesla, Samsung and Google, this book provides practical advice for product-making companies as they embark on, or accelerate, their digitization journey.

Too many U.S. cities and towns have been focused on a model of economic development that relies on recruiting one big company (such as Amazon), a single industry (usually in technology), or pursuing other narrow or short-term fixes that are inequitable and unsustainable. Some cities and towns were changing, even before the historic retail collapse brought on by COVID-19. They started to shift to a new economic model that works with the community to invest in place in an inclusive and thoughtful way, with short-term wins that build momentum for long-term growth. A secret ingredient to this successful model is small-scale manufacturing. In Recast Your City: How to Save Your Downtown with Small-Scale Manufacturing, community development expert Ilana Preuss explains how local leaders can revitalise their downtowns or neighbourhood main streets by bringing in and supporting small-scale manufacturing. Small-scale manufacturing businesses help create thriving places, with local business ownership opportunities and well-paying jobs that other business types can’t fulfil. Preuss draws from her experience working with local governments, large and small and illuminates her recommendations with real-world examples. She details her five-step method for recasting your city using small-scale manufacturing: (1) light the spark (assess what you can build on and establish goals); (2) find and connect (get out of your comfort zone and find connectors outside of your usual circles); (3) interview (talk to people and build trust); (4) analyse (look for patterns and gaps as well as what has not been said); and (5) act (identify short-term actions to help build long-term change). This work is difficult and sometimes uncomfortable, but necessary and critical for success. Preuss supports and inspires change by drawing from her work in cities from Knoxville, Tennessee, to Columbia, Missouri, to Fremont, California. In Recast Your City, Preuss shows how communities across the country can build strong local businesses through small-scale manufacturing, reinvest in their downtowns, and create inclusive economic opportunity. Preuss provides tools that local leaders in government, business, and real estate as well as entrepreneurs and advocates in every community can use.

For those of advanced tastes, the Modern Movement was a welcome corrective to the debased aesthetics of the commercial world. The products of light industry were as untutored in the 1920s and 30s as massed housing and both took scant interest in the idealist thinking that sought to harness architecture and design to social progress. Robert Best, one of Britain’s leading industrialists in this period, shared the goal of better mass education but was troubled by Modernism’s promoters, for reasons that they found hard to understand. If the few knew better than the many, and had an obligation to elevate them whether they liked it or not, where did this leave the democratic principles that our liberal society prided itself on? Best felt that the campaign to popularise Functionalist design took propaganda into territory that had uncomfortable political overtones. In this extraordinary memoir, written in the early 1950s but never previously published, Best explored his concern about the sense of noblesse oblige that lay behind such bodies as the Council of Industrial Design, set up in 1944 ostensibly to raise the saleability and quality of British manufacturing but also, in his view, to brainwash the public into denying what it liked in favour of more cultivated but untested alternatives.

The story of the company that was founded by the inventor of the snowmobile

In 1942, Joseph-Armand Bombardier invented the snowmobile and founded his company to manufacture them. From its humble beginnings as an entrepreneurial company in rural Quebec, led by an enterprising inventor, Bombardier Inc. has emerged as a global leader in the transportation industry. This book tells the fascinating tale of this remarkably well managed company that has enjoyed spectacular growth in its chosen markets through strong leadership and management strategy, succession planning, strategic diversification, and turnaround and acquisition artistry.The fascinating story of the world's largest rail manufacturer for both railway and subwayReveals why Bombardier Inc. is a multi-faceted global company yet nobody knows their name Written by Larry MacDonald the author of Nortel Network

"The Bombardier Story" shows how invention and entrepreneurship, management and leadership, smooth succession planning, and turnaround and acquisition built this global powerhouse.

The scale of China's innovation ambitions inspires worldwide commentary, much of it poorly informed. Focusing on electricity, telecommunication and semiconductors, this book offers a richly detailed account of China's innovation efforts. Massive application of human, policy and financial resources shows great promise, but institutional obstacles, conflicting objectives, ill-advised policies and Soviet-era legacies inject inefficiencies, resulting in a complex mosaic of success and failure in both technical and commercial dimensions. State Grid leads the world in high-voltage power transmission, while domestic semiconductors lag behind the international frontier. Electricity and telecom providers record impressive technical advances, but overinvestment and inefficient operation contribute to high costs and prices. Nuclear power combines technical excellence with commercial weakness. Cost reduction rather than new technology underpins commercial success in solar materials. The book's granular studies look beyond specific technologies to incorporate the policy matrix, regulatory structures and global developments into the appraisal of China's innovation achievements.

This book focuses on the changing gender patterns of work in a global retail environment associated with the rise of contemporary retail and global sourcing. This has affected the working lives of hundreds of millions of workers in high-, middle- and low-income countries. The growth of contemporary retail has been driven by the commercialised production of many goods previously produced unpaid by women within the home. Sourcing is now largely undertaken through global value chains in low- or middle-income economies, using a 'cheap' feminised labour force to produce low-price goods. As women have been drawn into the labour force, households are increasingly dependent on the purchase of food and consumer goods, blurring the boundaries between paid and unpaid work. This book examines how gendered patterns of work have changed and explores the extent to which global retail opens up new channels to leverage more gender-equitable gains in sourcing countries.

Made on the Isle of Wight is a pictorial celebration of the immense contribution to the aviation, automotive and marine industries that this tiny island has given, from the first hovercraft to boats that held the world water speed record and even the only all-British rocket and satellite into space. With a focus on invention, innovation and record-breaking, local author David L. Williams explores the many products of the island's industry, along with designers and engineers, and the workforce that created these fascinating inventions.

First published in 1926, as the second edition of a 1924 original, this book provides an outline of Roman economic life during the first two centuries of the Empire. Each chapter focuses on a different section of the Roman sphere of influence, including trade routes to China and India, the goods native to various areas, and the means by which they communicated and traded with Rome. Charlesworth uses a wide range of ancient sources, from poetry to Vitruvius and the Bible, to illuminate this crucial aspect of Roman civilisation. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in ancient trade and the history of ancient economics.

Denmark is set to achieve 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030. Iceland has topped the gender equality rankings for a decade and counting. South Korea’s average life expectancy will soon reach ninety. How have these places achieved such remarkable outcomes? And how can we apply those lessons to our own communities? The future we want is already here - it's just not evenly distributed. By bringing together for the first time tried and tested solutions to society's most pressing problems, from violence to inequality, Andrew Wear shows that the world we want to live in is already within reach. Solved is a much-needed dose of optimism in an atmosphere of doom and gloom. Informative, accessible and revelatory, it is a celebration of the power of human ingenuity to make the future brighter for everyone.

Master the art of vibration monitoring of induction motors with this unique guide to on-line condition assessment and fault diagnosis, building on the author's fifty years of investigative expertise. It includes: *Robust techniques for diagnosing of a wide range of common faults, including shaft misalignment and/or soft foot, rolling element bearing faults, sleeve bearing faults, magnetic and vibrational issues, resonance in vertical motor drives, and vibration and acoustic noise from inverters. *Detailed technical coverage of thirty real-world industrial case studies, from initial vibration spectrum analysis through to fault diagnosis and final strip-down. *An introduction to real-world vibration spectrum analysis for fault diagnosis, and practical guidelines to reduce bearing failure through effective grease management. This definitive book is essential reading for industrial end-users, engineers, and technicians working in motor design, manufacturing, and condition monitoring. It will also be of interest to researchers and graduate students working on condition monitoring.

Previous wage studies of the period before World War I found that real wages remained stable from 1890 to 1914 despite the continued growth of the economy. This study indicates that this conclusion was based on faulty statistics. Using new estimates of money wages and a new cost-of-living index, Mr. Rees shows that real wages rose considerably in this period, although less than in later years. His findings will require revision of the prevailing viewpoint. Originally published in 1961. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

This book presents the current causes and effects of implementing sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) as well as green supply chain management (GSCM) strategies in the automotive industry. The reader is provided a detailed scientific review on SSCM and GSCM and presented the advantages of sustainable development concepts as well as factors causing the implementation of SSCM such as buyers' behavior, governmental regulations, and competitiveness. The book then analyses the current situation of SSCM development, particularly in the automotive industry. It shows challenges, barriers, successes, and benefits that automotive companies obtain from implementing GSCM. Through case studies on leading German car manufacturers VW, BMW, and Daimler, the necessary activities of these companies to implement green development in the entire supply chain, including green supplier selection, green materials, green transportation, and reverse logistics, are defined. Moreover, a benchmark with companies from Asian markets such as Toyota from Japan and Geely from China is performed.

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.

"Plastics End Use Applications" is a SpringerBrief designed to keep professionals in the plastics industry abreast of key technical developments, business strategies and marketing initiatives in plastics and competitive materials that impact sales and usage. It is concisely focused on the five major competitive material areas-plastic, metal, paper and wood, rubber, and glass and ceramic-and how they interact in the twenty major plastic end-use market segments. For the global plastics professional, this book offers a way to enhance plastics technical and marketing insights. "Plastics End Use Applications" is of most value to manufacturing engineers, research and development professionals and general researchers interested in plastics and materials science.

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.

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.

Fort Dunlop, in the Erdington district of Birmingham, was the original tyre factory and main office of Dunlop Rubber which for many years was the jewel in the crown of the Dunlop empire. 'The Fort', as it was affectionately known locally, was built in 1916 and by 1954 the entire factory area employed 10,000 workers. At one time it was one of the largest factories in the world and employed a significant proportion of the local population, often whole families worked there. Gradually foreign imports led to Fort Dunlop's demise, large scale tyre production ceased and the factory finally closed in 2014 with production moved to Germany and France. This book, compiled by a former employee, is a look back at the history of Fort Dunlop through the recollections and memories of many other members of its workforce. What emerges is a very family orientated company which played a huge part in the lives of many people who worked there or lived nearby. The building itself still remains as an iconic landmark and reminder of 'The Fort' in its heyday.

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.

This handbook focuses on two sides of the lean production debate that rarely interact. On the one hand, management and industrial engineering scholars have presented a positive view of lean production as the epitome of efficiency and quality. On the other hand, sociology, industrial relations, and labor relations scholars focus on work speedups, management by stress, trade union positions, and self-exploitation in lean teams. The editors of this volume understand the merits of both views and present them accordingly, bridging the gaps among five disciplines and presenting the best of each perspective. Chapters by internationally acclaimed authors examine the positive, negative and neutral possible effects of lean, providing a global view of lean production while adjusting lean to the cultural and political contexts of different nation-states. As the first multi-lens view of lean production from academic and consultant perspectives, this volume charts a way forward in the world of work and management in our global economy.