Success in solution business starts by accepting that solution" "business is a separate business model, not simply another product category or an extension of the existing product business. This book identifies the business model areas that firms need to focus on when transforming into solution business. It further organizes these areas into three sets of capabilities and practices: commercialization, industrialization and solution platforms. This is the first book to take a comprehensive view of success in solution business and its relevance therefore extends to all functions of firms wanting to become solution providers as well as to many managerial levels. The book will also help you self-assess how ready your organization is for success in solution business.

The ISO 9001 standard is brief and fairly straightforward, unlike a commonly held misconception. An ISO 9001-based quality management system has something to offer any organization regardless of size or type of industry, or even the kind of product or service an organization provides. The ISO 9001 Quality Procedures for Quality Management Systems comes with over 400 pages of practical documentation designed to help you comply with the latest version of the ISO 9001 standard. You don't need to start from scratch... it's already done for you

Publisher's Note: Products purchased from Third Party sellers are not guaranteed by the publisher for quality, authenticity, or access to any online entitlements included with the product. The definitive, fully up-to-date guide to continuous improvement in the workplace"An updated version of a classic book that shares a wealth of new healthcare examples and case studies from around the world. The methods in this book will help you improve quality and safety, reduce waiting times, and improve the long-term financial position of your organization. Highly recommended!" --Mark Graban, author of Lean Hospitals and coauthor of Healthcare Kaizen "Every business faces the iron triangle of quality, cost, and delivery. Conventional thinking claims you cannot have all three. Not only does Mr. Imai turn that thinking on its head, but he shows you exactly how to do it." -- Matthew E. May, author of The Elegant Solution and The Laws of Subtraction "Masaaki Imai has done it again. The second edition of his famous book not only describes all the tools necessary for any type of business to implement a lean strategy but also includes a large number of excellent case studies." -- Art Byrne, author of The Lean Turnaround Written by Masaaki Imai, pioneer of modern business operational excellence and founder of the Kaizen Institute, Gemba Kaizen, Second Edition is an in-depth revision of this renowned, bestselling work. The book reveals how to implement cost-effective, incremental improvements in your most critical business processes. Global case studies from a wide range of industries demonstrate how gemba kaizen has been successfully used to: Maximize capacity and reduce inventory at Unga Limited, one of Kenya's largest flour-milling operations Change the IT culture at Achmea, a large European insurance firm Exceed customer expectations at Walt Disney World in the United States Improve quality at Inoue Hospital in Japan Transform retail processes at Sonae MC, Portugal's largest employer Practice daily kaizen at Tork Ledervin, a weaving plant in Brazil Stamp out muda at Sunclipse, an industrial packaging distributor in the United States Manage quality improvement by total workforce involvement at Xuji Group Corporation, an electrical manufacturer in China Implement gemba kaizen at many other companies worldwide To thrive in today's competitive global economy, organizations need to operate more effectively and profitably than ever before. Developing problem solvers, increasing productivity, improving quality, and reducing waste are essential success factors. Proven strategies for achieving these goals are included in this pioneering guide. This comprehensive resource offers detailed coverage of important gemba kaizen topics, including: Quality, cost, and delivery in the gemba The five steps of workplace organization Identifying and eliminating muda--any non-value-adding activity Visual management Supervisors' roles in the lean workplace Gemba managers' roles and accountability in sustaining high performance Just-in-time and total flow management The CEO's role in leading a kaizen culture The methods presented in Gemba Kaizen, Second Edition reveal that when management focuses on implementing kaizen (incremental, continuous improvement) in the gemba (the worksite) unique opportunities can be discovered for increasing the success and profitability of any organization.

In two volumes, Planning Production and Inventories in the Extended Enterprise: A State of the Art Handbook examines production planning across the extended enterprise against a backdrop of important gaps between theory and practice. The early chapters describe the multifaceted nature of production planning problems and reveal many of the core complexities. The middle chapters describe recent research on theoretical techniques to manage these complexities. Accounts of production planning system currently in use in various industries are included in the later chapters. Throughout the two volumes there are suggestions on promising directions for future work focused on closing the gaps. Included in Volume 1 are papers on the Historical Foundations of Manufacturing Planning and Control; Advanced Planning and Scheduling Systems; Sustainable Product Development and Manufacturing; Uncertainty and Production Planning; Demand Forecasting; Production Capacity; Data in Production and Supply Chain Planning; Financial Uncertainty in SC Models; Field Based Research in Production Control; Collaborative SCM; Sequencing and Coordination in Outsourcing and Subcontracting Operations; Inventory Management; Pricing, Variety and Inventory Decisions for Substitutable Items; Perishable and Aging Inventories; Optimization Models of Production Planning Problems; Aggregate Modeling of Manufacturing Systems; Robust Stability Analysis of Decentralized Supply Chains; Simulation in Production Planning; and Simulation-Optimization in Support of Tactical and Strategic Enterprise Decisions. Included in Volume 2 are papers on Workload and Lead-Time Considerations under Uncertainty; Production Planning and Scheduling; Production Planning Effects on Dynamic Behavior of A Simple Supply Chain; Supply and Demand in Assemble-to-Order Supply Chains; Quantitative Risk Assessment in Supply Chains; A Practical Multi-Echelon Inventory Model with Semiconductor Application; Supplier Managed Inventory for Custom Items with Long Lead Times; Decentralized Supply Chain Formation; A Cooperative Game Approach to Procurement Network Formation; Flexible SC Contracts with Options; Build-to-Order Meets Global Sourcing for the Auto Industry; Practical Modeling in Automotive Production; Discrete Event Simulation Models; Diagnosing and Tuning a Statistical Forecasting System; Enterprise-Wide SC Planning in Semiconductor and Package Operations; Production Planning in Plastics; SC Execution Using Predictive Control; Production Scheduling in The Pharmaceutical Industry; Computerized Scheduling for Continuous Casting in Steelmaking; and Multi-Model Production Planning and Scheduling in an Industrial Environment.

This contributed volume contains the selected and reviewed papers of the 2nd Interdisciplinary Conference on Production, Logistics and Traffic (ICPLT) 2015, Dortmund, Germany. The topical focus lies on economic, ecological and societal issues related to commercial transport. The authors are international experts and the paper collection presents the state-of-the-art in the field, thus making this book a valuable read for both practitioners and researchers.

The twin impact of globalization and digitization is deeply affecting how technology and innovation are managed in firms. This contributed volume analyzes the changing dynamics in the interplay of technology, business and society and the resultant implications for innovation management at firm and policy levels. Leading experts connect global megatrends with open & user innovation, globalization of R&D, frugal innovation, sustainability and innovation ecosystems. The contributed volume is a Festschrift for Prof. Dr. Cornelius Herstatt to mark his 60th birthday.

This book provides an overview of important trends and developments in logistics and supply chain research, making them available to practitioners, while also serving as a point of reference for academicians. Operations and logistics are cornerstones of modern supply chains that in turn are essential for global business and economics. The composition, character and importance of supply chains and networks are rapidly changing, due to technological innovations such as Information and Communication Technologies, Sensors and Robotics, Internet of Things, and Additive Manufacturing, to name a few (often referred to as Industry 4.0). Societal developments such as environmental consciousness, urbanization or the optimal use of scarce resources are also impacting how supply chain networks are configured and operated. As a result, future supply chains will not just be assessed in terms of cost-effectiveness and speed, but also the need to satisfy agility, resilience and sustainability requirements. To face these challenges, an understanding of the basic as well as more advanced concepts and recent innovations is essential in building competitive and sustainable supply chains and, as part of that, logistics and operations. These span multiple disciplines and geographies, making them interdisciplinary and international. Therefore, this book contains contributions and views from a variety of experts from multiple countries, and combines management, engineering as well as basic information technology and social concepts. In particular, it aims to: provide a comprehensive guide for all relevant and major logistics, operations, and supply chain management topics in teaching and business practice address three levels of expertise, i.e., concepts and principles at a basic (undergraduate, BS) level, more advanced topics at a graduate level (MS), and finally recent (state-of-the-art) developments at a research level. In particular the latter serve to present a window on current and future (potential) logistics innovations in the different thematic fields for both researchers and top business practitioners integrate a textbook approach with matching case studies for effective teaching and learning discuss multiple international perspectives in order to represent adequately the true global nature of operations, logistics and supply chains.

This textbook is intended for an introductory graduate level on process control, taught in most engineering curricula. It focuses on the statistical techniques and methods of control and system optimization needed for the mathematical modeling, analysis, simulation, control and optimization of multivariable manufacturing processes. In four sections, it covers: Relevant mathematical methods, including random events, variables and processes, and their characteristics; estimation and confidence intervals; Bayes applications; correlation and regression analysis; statistical cluster analysis; and singular value decomposition for classification applications. Mathematical description of manufacturing processes, including static and dynamic models; model validation; confidence intervals for model parameters; principal component analysis; conventional and recursive least squares procedures; nonlinear least squares; and continuous-time, discrete-time, s-domain and Z-domain models. Control of manufacturing processes, including transfer function/transfer matrix models; state-variable models; methods of discrete-time classical control; state variable discrete-time control; state observers/estimators in control systems; methods of decoupling control; and methods of adaptive control. Methods and applications of system optimization, including unconstrained and constrained optimization; analytical and numerical optimization procedures; use of penalty functions; methods of linear programming; gradient methods; direct search methods; genetic optimization; methods and applications of dynamic programming; and applications to estimation, design, control, and planning. Each section of the book will include end-of-chapter exercises, and the book will be suitable for any systems, electrical, chemical, or industrial engineering program, as it focuses on the processes themselves, and not on the product being manufactured. Students will be able to obtain a mathematical model of any manufacturing process, to design a computer-based control system for a particular continuous manufacturing process, and be able to formulate an engineering problem in terms of optimization, as well as the ability to choose and apply the appropriate optimization technique.

Production development is about improving existing production systems and developing new ones. The production system should be developed in integration with the product, as a part of the overall product realization process, and not in sequence after the product has already been designed. Production Development: Design and Operation of Production Systems takes a holistic viewpoint on the production system and its design process during the whole system life cycle. A working procedure demonstrating how to design and realize the production system is presented, together with a number of related production development aspects.

Production Development: Design and Operation of Production Systems is illustrated with a large number of figures and industrial examples. The book can be used as a reference for teachers and students, or as a manual for professionals within the field of production.

This handbook surveys important stochastic problems and models in manufacturing system operations and their stochastic analysis. Using analytical models to design and control manufacturing systems and their operations entail critical stochastic performance analysis as well as integrated optimization models of these systems. Topics deal with the areas of facilities planning, transportation, and material handling systems, logistics and supply chain management, and integrated productivity and quality models covering: * Stochastic modeling and analysis of manufacturing systems * Design, analysis, and optimization of manufacturing systems * Facilities planning, transportation, and material handling systems analysis * Production planning, scheduling systems, management, and control * Analytical approaches to logistics and supply chain management * Integrated productivity and quality models, and their analysis * Literature surveys of issues relevant in manufacturing systems * Case studies of manufacturing system operations and analysis Today's manufacturing system operations are becoming increasingly complex. Advanced knowledge of best practices for treating these problems is not always well known. The purpose of the book is to create a foundation for the development of stochastic models and their analysis in manufacturing system operations. Given the handbook nature of the volume, introducing basic principles, concepts, and algorithms for treating these problems and their solutions is the main intent of this handbook. Readers unfamiliar with these research areas will be able to find a research foundation for studying these problems and systems.

Quality is becoming the most important competitive issue. The customer demands quality making it imperative to businesses to take it in serious consideration. It has become a matter of survival to provide a quality product. The concern with quality demands a) a better definition of the quality concept for each firm; b) a constant monitoring and planning of the quality standards and actions; and c) a continuous control of operations towards a quality objective. This is essentially the message and the content of this book: That quality needs to be defined contingent on the specific activities of the firm; that quality needs to be constantly monitored through a specific planning and recording system and finally, that quality is essentially the result of strong control activities. Belkaoui reviews the various approaches to the specification of the quality concept, the type of recording systems appropriate for its monitoring and the detailed control procedures needed to achieve it.

The book should be very helpful to executives involved in a total quality control program, management accountants involved in the control of quality and accounting students in managerial accounting courses.

The book is devoted to the problem of manufacturing scheduling, which is the efficient allocation of jobs (orders) over machines (resources) in a manufacturing facility. It offers a comprehensive and integrated perspective on the different aspects required to design and implement systems to efficiently and effectively support manufacturing scheduling decisions. Obtaining economic and reliable schedules constitutes the core of excellence in customer service and efficiency in manufacturing operations. Therefore, scheduling forms an area of vital importance for competition in manufacturing companies. However, only a fraction of scheduling research has been translated into practice, due to several reasons. First, the inherent complexity of scheduling has led to an excessively fragmented field in which different sub problems and issues are treated in an independent manner as goals themselves, therefore lacking a unifying view of the scheduling problem. Furthermore, mathematical brilliance and elegance has sometimes taken preference over practical, general purpose, hands-on approaches when dealing with these problems. Moreover, the paucity of research on implementation issues in scheduling has restricted translation of valuable research insights into industry. "Manufacturing Scheduling Systems: An Integrated View on Models, Methods and Tools" presents the different elements constituting a scheduling system, along with an analysis the manufacturing context in which the scheduling system is to be developed. Examples and case studies from real implementations of scheduling systems are presented in order to drive the presentation of the theoretical insights. The book is intended for an ample readership including industrial engineering/operations post-graduate students and researchers, business managers, and readers seeking an introduction to the field.

This monograph addresses several critical problems to the operations of shipping lines and ports, and provides algorithms and mathematical models for use by shipping lines and port authorities for decision support. One of these problems is the repositioning of container ships in a liner shipping network in order to adjust the network to seasonal shifts in demand or changes in the world economy. We provide the first problem description and mathematical model of repositioning and define the liner shipping fleet repositioning problem (LSFRP). The LSFRP is characterized by chains of interacting activities with a multi-commodity flow over paths defined by the activities chosen. We first model the problem without cargo flows with a variety of well-known optimization techniques, as well as using a novel method called linear temporal optimization planning that combines linear programming with partial-order planning in a branch-and-bound framework. We then model the LSFRP with cargo flows, using several different mathematical models as well as two heuristic approaches. We evaluate our techniques on a real-world dataset that includes a scenario from our industrial collaborator. We show that our approaches scale to the size of problems faced by industry, and are also able to improve the profit on the reference scenario by over US$14 million.

Behavioral Operations Management has been identified in the last years as one of the most promising emerging fields in Operations Management. "Behavioral Issues in Operations Management" explains and examines up-to-date research in this field, which works to analyze the impact of human behavior on the management of complex operating systems.

A collection of studies from leading scholars presents different methodologies and approaches, supported by real data and case studies. Issues such as building trust and strong cooperative relationships with suppliers, enhancing motivation and designing proper incentives for stimulating more effective decision maker behaviours are considered. The main decision-making processes affected by behavioral issues are also analyzed with a focus on new product development, logistics, and supply chain integration.

The broad coverage of methodologies and practical implications makes "Behavioral Issues in Operations Management" an ideal reference for both researchers developing new topics such as NK fitness landscapes and managers with an interest in behavioral management operations.

Development projects that span different disciplines and groups often face problems in establishing a shared understanding of the project's purpose, deliverables, and direction. Creating Shared Understanding in Product Development Teams: How to 'Build the Beginning' uses research-based cases from TC Electronic, The Red Cross, Daimler AG, and Copenhagen Living Lab to demonstrate one approach to this problem complex. It shows how prototyping specific physical artifacts can function as drivers and focal points for creating the much needed shared understanding. Encompassing both the participant's and the facilitator's point of view, Creating Shared Understanding in Product Development Teams: How to 'Build the Beginning' provides both practical examples and theoretical explanation for the process of creating shared understanding. This book provides a toolbox and a practical guide for planning, executing, and facilitating workshops. The result is a clear outline of how to facilitate the creation of physical artifacts that enables and stimulates communication between team members, users, and stakeholders in order to create shared understanding of projects

This contributed volume contains the selected and thoroughly reviewed research papers presented at the conference on logistics management LM2015 in Braunschweig, Germany. The conference of the special interest group in logistics of the German Academic Association for Business Research (VHB) was held in conjunction with the special interest group on production of the VHB. Thus, the papers reflect the current state-of-the-art in logistics and supply chain management while focusing especially on aspects of production logistics, i.e., facility layout, inventory management, line configuration, or flexible production.

"It is a book for manufacturing companies that are fighting desperately for survival and that will go to any length to improve their factories and overcome the obstacles to success. One could even call this book a bible for corporate survival."

Hiroyuki Hirano

Known as the JIT bible in Japan, JIT Implementation Manual The Complete Guide to Just-in-Time Manufacturing presents the genius of Hiroyuki Hirano, a top international consultant with vast experience throughout Asia and the West. Encyclopedic in scope, this six-volume practical reference provides unparalleled information on every aspect of JIT the waste-eliminating, market-oriented production system. This historic, yet timeless classic is just as crucial in today 's fast-changing global marketplace as when it was first published in Japan 20 years ago.

Volume 6: JIT Implementation Forms and Charts provides a comprehensive diagnostic tool for JIT operations and includes a wealth of checklists, memos, and essential forms for recognizing waste in operations and implementing the 5S s. It includes engineering forms for line-balancing, skills training, visual controls, changeover improvement, mistake-proofing, and standard operations. This indispensable resource also supplies a set of forms and charts useful when introducing and promoting JIT or lean to your plant and includes the JIT management forms that Hirano uses to implement "JIT Awareness Revolutions."

More than 40 PDF forms can be downloaded from the CRC Press website

Every company considering or implementing the ISO or QS series of quality standards knows how important documentation and auditing are when it comes to certification. Documenting and Auditing for ISO 9000 and QS-9000 provides a comprehensive explanation of the documentation and audit process from both a practical and a theoretical point if view and leads readers through a detailed approach to preparing documentation and conducting an audit for a quality system in any organization. Each of the chapters and appendices are totally independent of each other and can be used as needed. Examples from a variety of industries illustrate the applicability of the standards and requirements. The need for sound documentation and auditing in the implementation process cannot be underestimated. Documenting and Auditing for ISO 9000 and QS-9000 will facilitate that process and help ensure a smooth registration or certification.

Detailed and comprehensive, "Waste Management in the Oil Industry" deals with strategies required to manage wastes emanating from oil exploration, development, refining, storage, and distribution in an ecologically friendly manner. Drawing on his extensive experience in the environmental engineering industry and pollution control, Dr. Aloysius A. Aguwa takes an in-depth look at the dilemmas facing the oil industry today.

Dr. Aguwa discusses key strategies needed to effectively control and manage waste associated with the oil and gas industry. These strategies can be grouped into the following categories:

Input substitution Product reformulation Production process redesign/modernization Improved operation and maintenance of production Recovery/recycle Waste treatment Drawings, figures, and tables also help support Dr. Aguwa's research. Those responsible for implementing environmentally sound disposal activities in the oil industry will find "Waste Management in the Oil Industry" an invaluable resource.

This book presents firsthand insights into strategies and approaches for the commercial aerospace supply chain in response to the numerous changes that airlines, aircraft OEMs and their suppliers have experienced over the past few decades. In doing so, it investigates the entire product value chain. Accordingly, the chapters address the challenges of configuration and demand, and highlight the specificities of customization in the aviation industry. They analyze component manufacturing, share valuable insights into assembly and integration activities, and describe aftermarket business models. In order to ensure more varied and balanced coverage, the book includes contributions by researchers, suppliers, and experts and practitioners from consulting companies and the aircraft industry. Taken together, they provide a holistic perspective on the transformation drivers and the innovations that have either been implemented or will be adopted in the near future. The book introduces and describes new concepts and innovations such as 3D printing, E2E demand management, digital production, predictive maintenance and open innovation in general, supplementing them with sample industrial applications from the aviation sector.

The Multi-Agent Based Beam Search (MABBS) method systematically integrates four major requirements of manufacturing production - representation capability, solution quality, computation efficiency, and implementation difficulty - within a unified framework to deal with the many challenges of complex real-world production planning and scheduling problems. Multi-agent Based Beam Search for Real-time Production Scheduling and Control introduces this method, together with its software implementation and industrial applications. This book connects academic research with industrial practice, and develops a practical solution to production planning and scheduling problems. To simplify implementation, a reusable software platform is developed to build the MABBS method into a generic computation engine. This engine is integrated with a script language, called the Embedded Extensible Application Script Language (EXASL), to provide a flexible and straightforward approach to representing complex real-world problems. Adopting an in-depth yet engaging and clear approach, and avoiding confusing or complicated mathematics and formulas, this book presents simple heuristics and a user-friendly software platform for system modelling. The supporting industrial case studies provide key information for students, lecturers, and industry practitioners alike. Multi-agent Based Beam Search for Real-time Production Scheduling and Control offers insights into the complex nature of and a practical total solution to production planning and scheduling, and inspires further research and practice in this promising research area.

Load-Oriented Manufacturing Control is unique as it gives comprehensive and self-contained principles for the implementation of an appropriate production control technique of general applicability. It is based on the "funnel model," a new approach to scheduling and scheduling control which has an extensive monitoring and diagnosis system. Its most important system components include throughput diagrams, load-oriented order release, schedule-oriented capacity planning and control. The "funnel model" is getting increasing implementation in manufacturing companies. It is available in numerous variants and is especially significant for the job-shop and series production. Load-Oriented Manufacturing Control provides a large number of practical examples and is therefore relatively easy to understand. It offers direct implementation of this new important technique in manufacturing scheduling and control.

The development of a sustainable agricultural system is a critical concern for any nation in modern society. By implementing proper supply chain processes, available natural resources and food can be better utilized. Agri-Food Supply Chain Management: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice is a compendium of emerging perspectives on the development of an effective agricultural value chain and the optimization of supply chain management within the agriculture and food sectors. Highlighting theoretical frameworks, real-world applications, and future outlooks, this book is a primary reference source for professionals, students, practitioners, and managers actively involved in agricultural development.