Speaks directly and exclusively to an unserved group of new engineers joining their first professional technical or engineering organization Provides a basic foundation to understanding the engineering organization and covering the first critical steps to learning how to operate within it Shares the key academic framework supporting the basic foundation as a prerequisite to truly understanding the organization’s dynamics Through numerous case studies the book presents actual experiential guidance in dealing with engineering organizations from the new hire’s point of view Offers a method on how to extend these insights listed in the book and turn them into a valuable personal model, valid throughout the engineer’s career

Having a team that knows how to adapt and innovate quickly can make all the difference in these challenging and competitive times -- for your organization and you personally as a leader. Leaders as coaches are crucial for a true learning organization, and high-performance teams need and want their leader to coach -- not tell. But not just any kind of coaching! Coaching that is enabling and inspiring because it increases adaptiveness and creativity -- with each individual and the whole team -- so they achieve important goals together. That's what the Coaching Kata helps leaders to learn. Take a fresh look at this five-phase, dual-purpose coaching model, become the leader you always wanted to be, and your team needs you to be. This business novel will transform the way you see and lead your team.

Top of the Line Fishing Collectibles covers many facets of sport fishing paraphernalia including lures, decoys, winter ice fishing equipment, reels, and related folk art from some of the country's greatest sporting collections. With over 350 color photographs, plus vintage photographs, Donna Tonelli has compiled an impressive selection of quality collectibles. Full descriptions and a value guide makes this book a great resource of information for antique dealers, tackle collectors, and folk art collectors.

Research in cognitive science over the last 30 years shows much of what we know about culture in the business world is based on myth, wishful thinking, outdated science, or is just plain wrong. This is why culture-shaping and change programs in organizations often amount to little more than sloganeering with minimal impact on the lived experience of employees. This book bridges the gap between the latest research on cognitive science and culture, providing a valuable guide for change leaders, CEOs, and practitioners on how to sustainably work with and change this important resource. It answers many of the major questions that have plagued culture work, such as: Why so many CEOs and management consultants preach culture change when so few culture interventions actually succeed Why CEOs persist in believing "culture starts at the top" when virtually no research in anthropology supports that claim Why most culture shaping approaches have no answer for how to affect culture in global companies Why culture doesn't cause us to do anything, yet we persist in believing that somehow it does Why so many culture-shaping projects focus on corporate values despite the fact modern science shows why changing personal values is exceedingly difficult What we are learning about culture from the last 30 years of cognitive science gives us the foundation for far more impactful and sustainable interventions than have been possible to date. This book explains why, showing how everyday business practices well beyond HR are key to culture change. Why? Because the brain's synaptic plasticity can only be altered through new sustained and widespread organizational habits and routines. This groundbreaking, practical guide will show you finally how to realize the full power of culture as a transformational, empowering, and competitive resource.

Currently, change is the new normal. As change grows, so does risk. But how will leaders understand the risk if they don't measure it? In short, they won't. The reality is that ignorance is never bliss. What leaders and their organizations don't know will eventually impact them and their customers. Thus, situational awareness, forethought, and preparation are now key competencies for leaders to survive in high-risk environments. In this book, readers will learn the basics of leadership time management, the disruptability quotient, the leadership "canary" and why it's just as important to leaders as it was to coal miners, and the slippery slope of change management (do we improve, change, or model the current state?), signals of leadership maturity and false positives, mastering the art of organizational knowledge, the pearls, and pitfalls of leadership rebranding, and the risk of non-utilized talent. Why aren't current leaders required to undergo "storm proofing" from an operational perspective? As many of us experienced in various academic programs, the main foci are technical skills in management, organizational theory, data analysis, and many of the traditional leadership training courses. But, what happens when a leadership storm appears such as an unprecedented pandemic or supply chain crisis, or talent gaps where workers are not available to complete the basic services humanity relies on daily? Most leaders were not and are not prepared for today's storms. The result is reactive leadership, higher-than-expected risk propositions, and disruptive transformations that force leaders from their perches to find the next best role their skillsets will buy. This book is for leaders and professionals who are currently, or will be leading teams, divisions, and organizations. Its purpose is to provide practical guidance on how leaders can "stormproof" their portfolios. Thus, they will be able to survive, thrive in, and outlast high-risk leadership storms that will overwhelm their less-prepared peers.

Currently, change is the new normal. As change grows, so does risk. But how will leaders understand the risk if they don't measure it? In short, they won't. The reality is that ignorance is never bliss. What leaders and their organizations don't know will eventually impact them and their customers. Thus, situational awareness, forethought, and preparation are now key competencies for leaders to survive in high-risk environments. In this book, readers will learn the basics of leadership time management, the disruptability quotient, the leadership "canary" and why it's just as important to leaders as it was to coal miners, and the slippery slope of change management (do we improve, change, or model the current state?), signals of leadership maturity and false positives, mastering the art of organizational knowledge, the pearls, and pitfalls of leadership rebranding, and the risk of non-utilized talent. Why aren't current leaders required to undergo "storm proofing" from an operational perspective? As many of us experienced in various academic programs, the main foci are technical skills in management, organizational theory, data analysis, and many of the traditional leadership training courses. But, what happens when a leadership storm appears such as an unprecedented pandemic or supply chain crisis, or talent gaps where workers are not available to complete the basic services humanity relies on daily? Most leaders were not and are not prepared for today's storms. The result is reactive leadership, higher-than-expected risk propositions, and disruptive transformations that force leaders from their perches to find the next best role their skillsets will buy. This book is for leaders and professionals who are currently, or will be leading teams, divisions, and organizations. Its purpose is to provide practical guidance on how leaders can "stormproof" their portfolios. Thus, they will be able to survive, thrive in, and outlast high-risk leadership storms that will overwhelm their less-prepared peers.

The purpose of this book is to introduce the concept of Transformational Coaching and to educate professional business coaches or mangers-as-coaches in their organizations on the influential and relevant elements of Transformational Coaching for Effective Leadership designed for coaching individuals, teams, businesses or applying such elements in any levels of Organization Development intervention, either toward individuals, teams, groups, departments, or the organization itself. Given the power and long-lasting influence of transformational coaching, it also could be beneficial to professionals in fields of Human Resources Development (HRD), Workplace Learning and Performance (WLP), Human Performance Enhancement (HPE) and overall, in the domain of Workforce Education and Development (WFED). This book will start by reviewing the background and presence of Transformational Coaching in businesses and organizations, along with the general concepts, perceptions, and understanding of coaching. This book will examine the uses of Transformational Coaching in management and leadership development, human resources development for talent development and retention, and for developing managerial coaching skills and competencies. Additionally, this book will review the presence and use of Transformational Coaching concepts, theories, and practices, including transformational learning for HR and HRD professionals to influence the workforce's attitude, behavior, and productivity. This book: * Builds individuals' self-awareness, self-realization, and self-confidence. * Offers personal and professional development. * Teaches the concept of transformational learning and its use in transformational coaching. * Teaches rituals, skills, and strategies for individuals and teams to increase their productivity. * Offers an approach to building healthy and strong relationships with oneself and others. * Includes change management strategies for redirecting poor job performance. * Helps readers implement effective transformational coaching practices by offering many tools such as forms, checklists, and worksheets.

Product design is becoming increasingly challenging as product complexity increases dramatically with the advent of autonomous control and the need to achieve zero emissions. Companies continue to have poor product launches with significant numbers of recall campaigns and high after-sales warranties. It is important that potential product failures are identified and fixed during the design of a product. Failure modes found late after the design has matured are normally easy to find with some being identified by the customer but are often difficult and expensive to fix since modifying one part will often have a knock-on effect on other parts causing other problems. Discovering failure modes early in the design process is often difficult requiring rigorous and comprehensive analysis but once found such failure modes are usually easy and cheap to fix. This book presents an approach to product design based on Failure Mode Avoidance that utilizes a series of strongly interrelated engineering tools and interpersonal skills that can be used to discover failure modes early in the design process. The tools can be used across engineering disciplines. Despite engineering being largely a team activity, it is often the case that little attention is paid to the team process after the team membership has been identified, with membership normally being based on technical expertise. In addition to technical expertise, an effective engineering team requires individual engineers to work together efficiently. Good leadership is also required with the leader able to both manage change and encourage individual team members to work to the best of their ability. The book interweaves technical skills, team skills, and team leadership in a way that reflects their real-life interrelationship. The book tells the fictional story of a small engineering team and its leader as they implement the skills introduced in the book and follows their experiences reflecting individual difficulties, enthusiasm, humor, and skepticism in applying the methodologies and tools for the first time. In addition, the story tells of team members' interactions with their management and peers within a company that, having been very successful, finds itself in financial difficulties. It promotes constructivist learning through the reader empathizing with the characters in the book. These characters ask questions that are typical of those that learners will ask about the subject matter. Learning reinforcement is also integrated into the storyline as a natural and unobtrusive feature. The book is intended to be read like a novel from cover to cover with a storyline that motivates the reader to read on. While including in-depth technical examples the book is not intended as a seminal text on Failure Mode Avoidance or team skills but is intended to give the reader an understanding such that they are motivated to learn more. Having read the book, it can be treated more typically as a textbook by returning to some of the technical detail or looking to further reading such as that identified in the book.

Materials and manufacturing techniques are a few of the vital processes in production industries. Most of the materials processing and manufacturing techniques currently used in industries are a major cause of environmental pollution and are hence unsustainable. This book provides in-depth knowledge about challenges faced during the processing of advanced materials and discusses possible ways to achieve sustainability in manufacturing. This book: Covers advances in cryogenic machining, optimization, and economical and energy assessment of machining; Provides case studies and numerical design with analysis using computational fluid dynamics of minimum quantity lubrication mist droplets; Reviews metalworking fluids, laser micro-texturing, materials and manufacturing in sustainability, biofuels additives, nano-materials, and additive manufacturing of waste plastic; Explores the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning-based manufacturing techniques; and Covers the latest challenges and future trends in sustainable manufacturing. Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing Technologies is primarily written for senior undergraduate and graduate students, as well as researchers in mechanical, manufacturing, industrial, and production engineering, and material science.

Survival and thriving in today's business environment require companies to continuously strive for operational excellence at all levels of the organization. Simply working to maintain existing operations is not an adequate or sustainable business strategy, especially when competing in a global market. To remain relevant, companies must adopt a process control and continuous improvement mentality as an integral part of their daily work activities. These two operational disciplines form the foundation and stepping stones for manufacturing excellence. Processes must be stable, capable, and controlled as a prerequisite for sustainable improvement. Sustainable improvements must be strategic, continuous, and focused on process optimization. Modern-day manufacturing is rapidly changing in the face of technological, geopolitical, social, and environmental developments. These challenges are altering the way we think and act to transform raw materials into finished goods. Meeting these challenges requires particular attention to how we develop and engage people and apply technology for long-term sustainability and competitive advantage. This book takes you on a journey to explore the fundamental elements, management practices, improvement methods, and future direction of shop floor management. Part 1 of this five-part manuscript considers workplace culture, organizational structure, operational discipline, and employee accountability as the foundation for a robust manufacturing system. Part 2 studies the impact of process standardization, data analytics, information sharing, communication, and people on daily shop floor management. Once the management system has been adequately described, Part 3 concentrates on its effective execution, monitoring, and control with a deep look into the people, methods, machines, materials, and environment that make it possible. Like every good manufacturing text, efficiency and productivity are key topics. That's why Part 4 explores various methods, tools, and techniques associated with product and process development, productivity improvement, agile methods, shop floor optimization, and manufacturing excellence. The final section, Part 5, shifts focus to emerging technologies, engaging the reader to contemplate technology's impact on the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry.

The demand and supply chain planning process for manufacturers, distributors, and retailers has evolved over the years. It has gone from a disjointed, unconnected, slow, inaccurate, fairly manual set of processes to an integrated, timely process enabled by the use and coordination of highly trained people, lean, agile processes, and cutting-edge technology. To make this set of processes work effectively, one has to fully understand and appreciate that there is an "art and science" aspect to the process which can take years of education and experience to fully understand. Essentially, this book will offer the reader a chance to fully understand the interconnected set of processes in a "best-practice" application. Furthermore, examples and cases will be used to illustrate its practical application in today's complex global supply chain. In addition, readers will understand and be able to apply and articulate the concepts, tools, and techniques used in the efficient supply of goods and services in today's changing global economy. It will help them to learn how businesses, through their supply chain, work both internally and with their trading partners - both upstream and downstream - to build strong relationships and integrate demand and supply planning activities across the supply chain to deliver customer value efficiently and effectively. They will learn about the tools and technologies enabling integration, and the critical drivers and key metrics of supply chain performance.

Currently, the challenge for manufacturing organizations is how to achieve their expected profit by continuously improving productivity or reducing costs. Manufacturing organizations have been using different improvement approaches to achieving cost reduction and productivity improvement for years by eliminating various losses and waste structures, such as excess inventory, excessive workforce, excessive capacity, excessive utility consumption, and so on. But is the problem solved? Unfortunately, no! Often manufacturing companies focus on maximizing the flow and meeting customer needs but forget their real aim - to make a profit for their stakeholders. Too many organizations meet customer expectations by seeking to continuously synchronize the flow to market demand but forget to check that they are doing it profitably enough to ensure business continuity and prosperity. When the financial results show that they are not so profitable, it is already too late. Moreover, the strategic direction of systematic improvements according to the sales trend - depending on the current degree of production capacity utilization and its dynamic effects on cost structures - is deficient in many manufacturing companies. So, would the failure of strategic and profitable systematic improvements be an option? Of course not! If the ultimate goal of the organization is to create target profit for stakeholders, then the behavior and strategic systematic improvements must be directed to those scenarios, strategies, tasks, problems, and "production levers" that are best based on creating the target profit. That's what Strategic Kaizen thinking does - the simultaneous and consistent achievement of systematic operational and financial improvements in a strategic and operational manner. It achieves both synchronous operations at market demand by fulfilling takt time and profitable operations in accordance with profit demand by fulfilling takt profit. In short, the Strategic Kaizen mission is striving for the fulfillment of the ideal state of operations called synchronous profitable operations. In this book, the author, while presenting in detail the seven processes of Strategic Kaizen methodology, exposes the answer to historically incomplete thinking of productivity improvements for target profitability. The uniqueness of the book is reinforced by the detailed presentation of the successful application of the Strategic Kaizen thinking over the years in two multinational manufacturing organizations operating in highly competitive markets, addressing the synchronous profitable operations for both the sales increase scenario and the sales decrease scenario. Moreover, it presents examples of the practical application of the "white-collar" Strategic Kaizen. Essentially, by adopting the Strategic Kaizen methodology presented in detail in this book to consistently achieve the ideal state of a manufacturing organization, organizations will enter a new paradigm of thinking of strategic improvements - Strategic Kaizen thinking - to meet annual and multiannual target profits in a unique and effective way that operates according to its own strategic and operational management system.

-- Only book written addressing the role of a Lean CFO. -- Explains how a Lean Management System integrated with a Lean Business Strategy drives financial success. -- In clear concise terms explains how & why Lean makes money for companies. -- Gives readers the logical reasons why a Lean Management System must replace a Management Accounting System. -- Answers the question "why do we need a Lean Management System?"

This book comprises a set of stories about being an engineer for many decades and the lessons the author learned from research and practice. These lessons focus on people and organizations, often enabled by technology. The settings range from airplanes, power plants, and communication networks to ecosystems that enable education, healthcare, and transportation. All of these settings are laced with behavioral and social phenomena that need to be understood and influenced. The author's work in these domains has often led to the question: "Well, why does it work like that?" He invariably sought to understand the bigger picture to find the sources of requirements, constraints, norms, and values. He wanted to understand what could be changed, albeit often with much effort to overcome resistance. He found that higher levels of an ecosystem often provide the resources and dictate the constraints imposed on lower levels. These prescriptions are not just commands. They also reflect values and cultural norms. Thus, the answers to the question were not just technical and economic. Often, the answers reflected eons of social and political priorities. The endeavors related in the book frequently involved addressing emerging realities rather than just the status quo. This book is an ongoing discovery of these bigger pictures. The stories and the lessons related in this book provide useful perspectives on change. The understanding of people and organizations that emerges from these lessons can help to enable transformative change. Fundamental change is an intensely human-centric endeavor, not just for the people and organizations aspiring to change, but also for the people helping them. You will meet many of these people in this book as the stories unfold. The genesis of this book originated in a decision made early in the author's career. He had developed a habit of asking at the end of each day, "What did I really accomplish today?" This was sometimes frustrating as he was not sure the day had yielded any significant accomplishments. One day it dawned on him that this was the wrong question - He needed to ask, "What did I learn today?" It is always possible to learn, most recently about public health and climate change. In planning this book, the author first thought in terms of accomplishments such as projects conducted, systems built, and articles and books published. He could not imagine this being interesting to readers. Then, it struck him - It is much more interesting to report on what he learned about people and organizations, including how he helped them accomplish their goals. This is a book of stories about how these lessons emerged. In planning this book, the author first thought in terms of accomplishments such as projects conducted, systems built, and articles and books published. He could not imagine this being interesting to readers. Then, it struck him - It is much more interesting to report on what he learned about people and organizations, including how he helped them accomplish their goals. This is a book of stories about how these lessons emerged.

Kindness and leadership aren't often synonymous. Ask someone to describe "good leadership" to you and you will hear many adjectives used: authentic, bold, challenging, charismatic, decisive, empowering, fearless, goal-oriented, humble, inspiring, original, passionate, role-model, strategic and transparent, to name of a few. And though there are many more that come to mind, kindness isn't one of them. And here's the problem with that. Leaders lead. And the way a leader leads - how they do what they do - influences those they lead. From the president of the country, to the president of a company, from middle managers, right down to front-line supervisors, what a leader models - how they think, speak and act - influences the people they lead. Leaders who think, speak and act unkindly give legitimacy and permission to those they lead to think, speak, and act in exactly the same unkind ways. Today, in a world where a leaders' words and actions travel quickly through social media channels such as Twitter, their influence - unkind or kind - is amplified through repeated views and sharing. In an increasingly fragmented, polarized and divided world, we need leaders who will bring people together not divide them. Leaders who value and model cooperation and collaboration over competition. And who model ways to think kindly, speak kindly and act kindly. We need kindness to become synonymous with good leadership. So that when someone is asked to describe the traits of a good leader, kindness will be the first word that comes to mind. Essentially, the purpose of this book is to teach leaders how to lead with kindness so they can influence the people they lead to create kinder workplaces, organizations and the world. Each chapter contains a mixture of theory, case studies and reflections from leaders and the people they influence. As well, the book follows the fictional stories of Kay'La Janson and Kevin Landrell, as they become leaders in a failing organization that is ultimately turned around through kind leadership. Between chapters there are a series of practical exercises based on concepts presented in the previous chapter with space to record outcomes and reflections on the practice process. This book gives you a deep theoretical understanding of the importance of leading with kindness and also provides practical exercises for you to use to turn theory into practice. Because "change means doing things differently," and because we only really "learn by doing" to create kinder organizations, kinder communities and a kinder world, leaders must be able to begin practicing kindness right away. By the time you finish the book, you will feel confident in your ability to lead with kindness and also to address organizational problems at work, at home and in the community, with kindness.

This book presents what you need to know to really implement continuous improvement in companies or other organizations. In addition to all the support needed for this to make sense, the importance of the right direction to guide it is unveiled. The reader will find in this book the origins of continuous improvement and all the framing that justifies and demystifies it in the aspects that characterize the socio-technical nature of organizations. This work also explores the need for effective coexistence between technical aspects and behavioral and cultural aspects, so that continuous improvement and excellence are achieved in organizations. Topics discussed in the book include: The origins of continuous improvement The main operational excellence models The invisible side of organizations The visible side of organizations Decoding continuous improvement The maturity levels of continuous improvement Some models and tips for the implementation of continuous improvement Main tools associated to excellence in organizations This book was written with the aim of helping engineering students in courses related to operations management to develop skills in this area, as well as businessmen with curiosity about this subject, production directors, people responsible for continuous improvement and all professionals working in companies or other organizations with responsibility for their performance and their future.

To effectively adapt and thrive in today's business world, organizations need to implement effective organizational development (OD) interventions to improve performance and effectiveness at the individual, group, and organizational levels. OD interventions involve people, trust, support, shared power, conflict resolution, and stakeholders' participation, just to name a few. OD interventions usually have broader scope and can affect the whole organization. OD practitioners or change agents must have a solid understanding of different OD interventions to select the most appropriate one to fulfill the client's needs. There is limited precise information or research about how to design OD interventions or how they can be expected to interact with organizational conditions to achieve specific results. This book offers OD practitioners and change agents a step-by-step approach to implementing OD interventions and includes example cases, practical tools, and guidelines for different OD interventions. It is noteworthy that roughly 65% of organizational change projects fail. One reason for the failure is that the changes are not effectively implemented, and this book focuses on how to successfully implement organizational changes. Designed for use by OD practitioners, management, and human resources professionals, this book provides readers with OD basic principles, practices, and skills by featuring illustrative case studies and useful tools. This book shows how OD professionals can actually get work done and what the step-by-step OD effort should be. This book looks at how to choose and implement a range of interventions at different levels. Unlike other books currently available on the market, this book goes beyond individual, group, and organizational levels of OD interventions, and addresses broader OD intervention efforts at industry and community levels, too. Essentially, this book provides a practical guide for OD interventions. Each chapter provides practical information about general OD interventions, supplies best practice examples and case studies, summarizes the results of best practices, provides at least one case scenario, and offers at least one relevant tool for practitioners.

Sandra "Johnsie" Bryan has amassed a collection of Barbie*r dolls and her friends that will amaze and delight the casual reader. She sets them up in authentic scenes representing all aspects of this glamorous doll's adventures, from her annual celebrations to her world travels and from her many dazzling careers to her fantasy homes. This book will take readers back to a time when being grown-up was a make-believe pastime and Barbie*r doll spurred young imaginations. Is it any wonder that she's still so popular? New Barbie*r dolls are a huge marketing success and vintage dolls have skyrocketed in value as sought-after collectibles. This book of photos is a wonderful visit with an old friend that will bring back great memories for everyone who ever owned a Barbie*r doll or knew someone who did. Barbie*r & *c 1998 Mattel, used under license, but not otherwise affiliated with Mattel.

Lean is about building and improving stable and predictable systems and processes to deliver to customers high-quality products/services on time by engaging everyone in the organization. Combined with this, organizations need to create an environment of respect for people and continuous learning. It's all about people. People create the product or service, drive innovation, and create systems and processes, and with leadership buy-in and accountability to ensure sustainment with this philosophy, employees will be committed to the organization as they learn and grow personally and professionally. Lean is a term that describes a way of thinking about and managing companies as an enterprise. Becoming Lean requires the following: the continual pursuit to identify and eliminate waste; the establishment of efficient flow of both information and process; and an unwavering top-level commitment. The concept of continuous improvement applies to any process in any industry. Based on the contents of The Lean Practitioners Field Book, the purpose of this series is to show, in detail, how any process can be improved utilizing a combination of tasks and people tools and introduces the BASICS Lean (R) concept. The books are designed for all levels of Lean practitioners and introduces proven tools for analysis and implementation that go beyond the traditional point kaizen event. Each book can be used as a stand-alone volume or used in combination with other titles based on specific needs. Each book is chock-full of case studies and stories from the authors' own experiences in training organizations that have started or are continuing their Lean journey of continuous improvement. Contents include valuable lessons learned and each chapter concludes with questions pertaining to the focus of the chapter. Numerous photographs enrich and illustrate specific tools used in Lean methodology. Suggesting Solutions: Brainstorming Creative Ideas to Maximize Productivity explores the process block diagram tool, how to do a Lean layout and Lean master layout and how to create standard work and visual management systems. The goal of this book is to introduce the balance of the tools and how to proceed once the analysis is completed. There are many pieces to a Lean implementation and all of them are interconnected. This book walks through the relationships and how the data presented can be leveraged to prepare for the implementation. It also provides suggest solutions for improvements and making recommendations to management to secure their buy-in and approval.

The old cliche states that not every manager is a leader, but the more important part of that sentiment is that to be a good manager, one has to be a good leader. This perception is because good managers do more than manage. They have to lead by inspiration, they have to lead by example, and they have to lead through the best times for their organizations as well as the absolute worst times. A Systematic Guide to Leadership Selection Using Total Quality Management Techniques identifies the application gap and presents a methodology based on Total Quality Management (TQM) to support the guidance of a process to select leadership (at any level of the organization). A modification to the House of Quality and a product of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is presented and discussed as the core of a leader selection process. Two case studies are used to reinforce the concepts and applications. Finally, the book introduces some experiments for leadership development using virtual worlds and ends with a note for the future using the metaverse and digital twins for leadership. The book is intended for professionals and executives wanting to learn more about leader selection, engineering and business students, directors of human resources, and researchers in the field of leadership.

This interesting book offers an analysis of man-made catastrophes and asks why they continue to occur. 87 catastrophes or near-catastrophes, including high profile cases such as the Bhopal gas disaster, Grenfell Tower, Shoreham Air Show crash, Brumadinho dam collapse and Fukushima Daiichi, are described together with the reasons why they occurred and why over 50 different safety management approaches and techniques failed to prevent them. Featuring 63 eye opening stories from the author's own personal experience and over 200 pitfalls in safety management approaches, this title is illustrated by 24 hypothetical cases in which the reader is asked to consider the approach they would take. Safety management techniques discussed include operating practices, personnel selection and emergency response. Safety management approaches including safety governance in organisations, along with the role of government and local authorities using the instruments of the law are extensively discussed. The work concludes with imaginative and creative ways forward with the aim to make considerable progress and to potentially eliminate man-made catastrophes for good. This title will be an ideal read for safety managers and engineers, community leaders in civic duties or labour union roles and professionals tasked with stopping and mitigating the impacts of man-made catastrophes, along with non-technical readers who are curious and concerned.

Written in a novel format, this book addresses the challenge of changing a "sick" culture. Some organizations wake up one day and realize they have become something they never intended. Their employees run scared. There is no innovation, only blind obedience. There are warlords within the ranks of management, and they fight over turf without considering the best interests of customers, their employees, or their organization as a whole. At the Charleston, SC, branch of Copper-Bottom Insurance, the wakeup call comes when an employee files a lawsuit against the company and its leaders. The Charleston division Vice President, Jack Simmons, is put on probation and given an ultimatum: "Change the culture!" Jack understands the "or be fired" implication all too well. He scrambles to find help and runs into an old friend, Don Spears, from Friedman Electronics. With Don's help, Jack begins the journey that will heal his organization. In the course of their first visit, Don and his Director of Continuous Improvement, Tim Stark, help Jack to make an important discovery: Copper-Bottom's executives are not showing their people respect. Don and Tim point to the following observations as proof. Copper-Bottom leaders are Using top-down, "command-and-control" leadership behaviors rather than recognizing their people as Subject Matter Experts and listening to them Issuing instructions to their people rather than observing then improving performance through coaching Keeping employees in the dark as to the impact their work has on the organization's mission Unaware of the obstacles in their people's paths; hence, never using the authority of their positions to remove those obstacles Staying in their offices, aloof to the difficulties their subordinates face As Don and Tim see it, Copper-Bottom's problems stem from the way its leaders lead. After the executive who precipitated the lawsuit is let go, the Friedman team begins the process of teaching Copper-Bottom's executives that a healthy culture begins at the leadership level. Don, Friedman's General Manager, states that cultures change when their leaders change. In short, leaders need to initiate the changes in the culture by first demonstrating the desired behavior. So begins the process of reeducating Copper-Bottom's leaders in the difference between managing and leading. In short order, Tim begins to work with Jack's leadership team while Don takes Jack to Friedman's Oakland facility. There Jack learns To first concentrate on surrounding himself with the right people The importance of top-down metrics to which leaders first hold themselves accountable Cascading their metrics (KPIs) down through their organization and using a dialog about them as a way of developing relationships of respect Although a long way from complete, by the end of Jack's six-month probation, Copper-Bottom has made significant strides and is well on its way to changing its culture. Jack will learn that he is not the only one to appreciate the new developments.

Changing world market conditions have forced manufacturers to apply new architectures and technologies for the design and control of manufacturing systems. Distributed Manufacturing: Paradigm, Concepts, Solutions and Examples outlines the current requirements of manufacturing systems and addresses the architectures, methodologies, and technologies developed within European research activities in response to these requirements.

Distributed Manufacturing: Paradigm, Concepts, Solutions and Examples will be of interest to researchers and developers in all fields involving industrial control systems, as well as to decision-makers within industry and government organizations. The reader will gain a detailed knowledge of the current research directions in industrial control, reaching a comprehensive understanding of current advances, their expected benefits and limitations, and the possible consequences for industrial businesses.

The key to effective leadership is being fit for the challenge. Leadership is a perpetual boxing match in many respects in which preparation, stamina and skill are required. Only the strongest survive. Every decision and tollgate along the career journey is laden with risk. Those leaders who harness risk to their advantage will land the knockout punch in every fight. The only question is how many leaders will be fit enough for the challenge? The purpose of this book is to provide insight on how risk impacts every aspect of leadership, including the mundane, routine and nonglamorous aspects of leadership. This is important because often the small things can easily turn into big disruptors. Moreover, the end goal is to equip leaders with a journey map and quick guide to win in high-risk environments. Change is the new normal and only constant in today's world. As change increases, so will risk and its subsequent impacts on humanity. This includes leaders, organizations and customers. No one is exempt. In this book, readers learn how to: Determine which career battles to fight and which ones to avoid Prepare to fight the unavoidable challenges along the career journey Leverage risk to choose the right leaders for the team Leverage risk to invest time wisely and avoid wasting it Leverage risk to predict, identify and resolve leadership burnout Risk assess leadership credentials so only those that produce a return are added to the portfolio Risk assess performance outcomes so the path ahead is smooth sailing instead of a rough ride Leverage risk so high performance is a reality instead of a pipe dream Leverage risk to find the right leadership sponsor