In many businesses brands account for the majority of shareholder value. It is crucial to understand how the economy of brands works and can be exploited to create sustainable value. The purpose of this book is to develop and enhance the understanding of the brand as an economic asset, to make better business and investment decisions.

The financial results of any manufacturing company can be dramatically impacted by the repetitive decisions required to control a complex production network be it a network of machines in a factory; a network of factories in a company; or a network of companies in a supply chain. Decision Policies for Production Networks presents recent convergent research on developing policies for operating production networks including details of practical control and decision techniques which can be applied to improve the effectiveness and economic efficiency of production networks worldwide. Researchers and practitioners come together to explore a wide variety of approaches to a range of topics including:

WIP and equipment management policies,

Material release policies,

Machine, factory, and supply chain network policies for delivery in the face of supply and demand variability, and

Conflicts between complex production network models and their controlling policies.

Case studies and relevant mathematical techniques are included to support and explain techniques such as heuristics, global and hierarchical optimization, control theory and filtering approaches related to complex systems or traffic flows. Decision Policies for Production Networks acts as handbook for researchers and practitioners alike, providing findings and information which can be applied to develop methods and advance further research across production networks.
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How Can Reliability Analysis Impact Your Company's Bottom Line? While reliability investigations can be expensive, they can also add value to a product that far exceeds its cost. Affordable Reliability Engineering: Life-Cycle Cost Analysis for Sustainability & Logistical Support shows readers how to achieve the best cost for design development testing and evaluation and compare options for minimizing costs while keeping reliability above specifications. The text is based on the premise that all system sustainment costs result from part failure. It examines part failure in the design and sustainment of fielded parts and outlines a design criticality analysis procedure that reflects system design and sustainment. Achieve the Best Cost for Life-Cycle Sustainment Providing a framework for managers and engineers to develop and implement a reliability program for their organizations, the authors present the practicing professional with the tools needed to manage a system at a high reliability at the best cost. They introduce analytical methods that provide the methodology for integrating part reliability, failure, maintainability, and logistic math models. In addition, they include examples on how to run reliability simulations, highlight tools that are commercially available for such analysis, and explain the process required to ensure a design will meet specifications and minimize costs in the process. This text: Demonstrates how to use information gathered from reliability investigations Provides engineers and managers with an understanding of a reliability engineering program so that they can perform reliability analyses Seeks to resolve uncertainty and establish the value of reliability engineering Affordable Reliability Engineering: Life-Cycle Cost Analysis for Sustainability & Logistical Support focuses on reliability-centered maintenance and is an ideal resource for reliability engineers and managers. This text enables reliability professionals to determine the lowest life-cycle costs for part selection, design configuration options, and the implementation of maintenance practices, as well as spare parts strategies, and logistical resources.

Although world-class firms like GE and Motorola have relied on Six Sigma to build their performance cultures, these processes are all too often left out of human resources (HR) functions. This lack of Six Sigma principles is even more surprising because preventing errors and improving productivity are so critical to the people management processes of hiring, retention, appraisal, and development.From the history and evolution of the Total Quality movement to initiatives for introducing a Six Sigma continuous process improvement strategy in your HR department, Achieving HR Excellence through Six Sigma introduces a new way to envision your role within the organization. It explains how this powerful methodology works and supplies a roadmap to help you find and eliminate waste in your HR processes.Describing exactly what HR excellence means, the book outlines dozens of proven approaches as well as a hierarchy of the exact steps required to achieve it. It illustrates the Six Sigma methodology from the creation of a project to its successful completion. At each stage, it describes the specific tools currently available and provides examples of organizations that have used Six Sigma within HR to improve their organizations.The text presents proven approaches that can help you solve and even eliminate people management problems altogether. Filled with real-world examples, it demonstrates how to implement six sigma into the transformational side of your organization. It also includes a listing of additional resources to help you along your Six Sigma journey.Explaining how to build a new business model for your HR organization, the book supplies the new perspective and broad view you will need to discover and recommend game-changing alternatives to traditional HR approaches in your organization.

For a long time, quality has been one of industry's main preoccupations. It remains so today. There is some foundation for the statement that there is a 'quality crisis' in Europe, the methods traditionally used in our industries being unable to meet today's demands. Consequently it is essential to look for new directions in which to progress, taking account of the methods for achieving quality that have been developed in recent years. These methods impact on all parts of the industrial enterprise - marketing, manufacturing, research and development, after-sales services. All staff, administrative or technical, are involved. The present book describes the tools that can help anyone who is concerned with the concept of 'total quality'; it will also be a valuable educational aid for students reading for degrees or other qualifications in engineering. P. Lyonnet I General questions and concepts 1 INTRODUCTION: HOW CAN WE ACHIEVE TOTAL QUALITY? This book is concerned with the various techniques and methods of analysis that can be used to ensure total quality in a project. In this first chapter we show the costs that result from not achieving quality, so as to make clear how important a quality-assurance service is to any enterprise. We stress also the involvement of marketing, particularly in laying down specifications for reliability.

Steel is the foundational material of modern civilization and constitutes the core of industry, and yet, it is overproduced across the world. This supply glut is reducing margins and turning steel into a sunset industry. Steel consumes as much as four times the amount of raw materials as its produced volume, and the sheer bulk of the steel makes it costly to transport. Because of this, countries prefer to make their own rather than to source it across land and sea. The Indian steel industry has grown from being the tenth largest steel producer in the world in 1991 to emerging as the second largest, after China. This book aims to reveal, through data and the use of simple economic concepts, the mistakes that abound in the discourses surrounding the steel industry. Its main objective is to dispel the many myths that are perpetuated by policy makers and the industry in order to benefit a small coterie of large firms, and discusses how through such favours the Indian steel industry is set to lose out in terms of margins, products and growth in technology. It covers the unique role of the Indian state in the development of the broad base of steel production, and observes the change in the direction in policy, which reverses the economic equality of the past and promotes collusion among oligopolies leading to overexpansion in capacities. Economics of the Indian Steel Industry will be of interest to students of industrial economics and corporate strategy, as well as financial managers and policy makers.

Data envelopment analysis develops a set of nonparametric and semiparametric techniques for measuring economic efficiency among firms and nonprofit organizations. Over the past decade this technique has found most widespread applications in public sector organizations. However these applications have been mostly static. This monograph extends this static framework of efficiency analysis in several new directions. These include but are not limited to the following: (1) a dynamic view of the production and cost frontier, where capital inputs are treated differently from the current inputs, (2) a direct role of the technological progress and regress, which is so often stressed in total factor productivity discussion in modem growth theory in economics, (3) stochastic efficiency in a dynamic setting, where reliability improvement competes with technical efficiency, (4) flexible manufacturing systems, where flexibility of the production process and the economies of scope play an important role in efficiency analysis and (5) the role of economic factors such as externalities and input interdependences. Efficiency is viewed here in the framework of a general systems theory model. Such a view is intended to broaden the scope of applications of this promising new technique of data envelopment analysis. The monograph stresses the various applied aspects of the dynamic theory, so that it can be empirically implemented in different situations. As far as possible abstract mathematical treatments are avoided and emphasis placed on the statistical examples and empirical illustrations.

Analysis of Manufacturing Enterprises presents a unified and systematic treatment of manufacturing enterprises. These enterprises are networks of companies working in partnership. Such networks are a common occurrence in auto, grocery, apparel, computer and other industries; and competition is among enterprises rather than between individual companies. Thus, for these enterprises (global or local) to succeed, there is a need for systematically designing the enterprise-wide value delivery processes such as the order-to-delivery process, supply chain process, and new product development process. This calls for developing systematic analysis methodologies for evaluating the performance of value delivering processes. Analysis of Manufacturing Enterprises fills this vital need. The first part of the book focuses on foundations of manufacturing enterprises: the generic value delivery process, their performance measures and redesign to meet specifications on lead time and defect levels. The second part provides a clear and comprehensive discussion on new product development, order to delivery, and supply chain processes, which are core processes of a manufacturing enterprise. Analysis of Manufacturing Enterprises is an excellent resource for researchers and professionals in the field of manufacturing engineering.

In this book leading experts from all over the world, including George Box, Noriaki Kano, Yoshio Kondo, John Oakland and James Harrington, analyse and document various aspects of Total Quality Management. Contributions range from discussions of the principles, strategy, culture, leadership, education and benchmarking to world class experience and achieving excellence both in the manufacturing and service industries. With over 100 contributions this book is an invaluable resource for the total quality management journey. It will be of special interest to educationalists, academics, senior managers and directors, and quality practitioners from both the public and private sectors.

This volume describes how frontier efficiency methodologies such as Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and other techniques such as multi-criteria decision makingcan help service industries to improve their performance by providing a ranking of best-practice efficient service units and by identifying sources of inefficiency for each service unit. It explains how they can be used to determine potential improvement targets for each of the inefficient service units, to identify peers for each service organization and to provide a basis for continuous performance improvement. Presenting applications in a variety of industries, this book will be useful for the service management to improve service productivity, profitability, sustainability and quality and effectiveness of service deliveries. A free trial version of the World s leading Data Envelopment Analysis Software (PIM-DEA) is available for readers of this book. "

Innovative technologies provide opportunities for making manufacturing and logistics operations cleaner and more resource-efficient. New technologies focus on lifecycle engineering and lifecycle management. This book will be valuable to both academics and practitioners who wish to deepen their knowledge of technology management. The book will cover technical, organizational, financial and social issues connected to the implementation of more sustainable technologies.

"Portfolio Decision Analysis: Improved Methods for Resource Allocation" provides an extensive, up-to-date coverage of decision analytic methods which help firms and public organizations allocate resources to 'lumpy' investment opportunities while explicitly recognizing relevant financial and non-financial evaluation criteria and the presence of alternative investment opportunities. In particular, it discusses the evolution of these methods, presents new methodological advances and illustrates their use across several application domains.

The book offers a many-faceted treatment of portfolio decision analysis (PDA). Among other things, it (i) synthesizes the state-of-play in PDA, (ii) describes novel methodologies, (iii) fosters the deployment of these methodologies, and (iv) contributes to the strengthening of research on PDA. Portfolio problems are widely regarded as the single most important application context of decision analysis, and, with its extensive and unique coverage of these problems, this book is a much-needed addition to the literature. The book also presents innovative treatments of new methodological approaches and their uses in applications.

The intended audience consists of practitioners and researchers who wish to gain a good understanding of portfolio decision analysis and insights into how PDA methods can be leveraged in different application contexts. The book can also be employed in courses at the post-graduate level.

Historical research on firm-level innovation behavior results in the following main insight: firm-level decisions focusing on innovations are critical, difficult, and often result in failure to act. While acceptance is widespread among executives that firms must innovate radically as well as incrementally, success by firms mostly nurtures inertia and eventual failure rather than search and adoption of new superior technologies. What does it take to craft and maintain successful radical NPD programs? Managing Product Innovation (MPI) explains why both manufacturing and customer firms usually reject superior new technologies and how competitors new to the industry become successful (by focusing on previously unnoticed customers and offering higher performance with lower costs via the radically new technologies). MPI provides worthwhile answers on what specific actions executives in established and new firms can adopt to achieve successful radical NPD programs. Related to managing new NPD processes successfully and additional strategic marketing issues, the following few thoughts summarize the wisdom that Volume 13 elaborates upon:

Leverage interfirm relationships
Pay attention to products that can be co-created by interfirm networks
Think and act globally via personal contacts
Stay complex and be uncomfortable with success

Evaluate NPD performance using a life cycle perspective
Identify upstream as well as direct influences on NPD performance.

Building Total Quality is an essential reference to all those involved in the construction of a total quality organisation

During the past decade interest in quality management has greatly increased. One of the central elements of Total Quality Management is Statistical Process Control, more commonly known as SPC. This book describes the pitfalls and traps which businesses encounter when implementing and assuring SPC. Illustrations are given from practical experience in various companies. The following subjects are discussed: implementation of SPC, activity plan for achieving statistically controlled processes, statistical tools, and lastly, consolidation and improvement of the results. Also, an extensive checklist is provided with which a business can determine to what extent it has succeeded in the actual application of SPC. Audience: This volume is written for companies which are going to implement SPC, or which need a new impetus in order to get SPC properly off the ground. It will be of interest in particular to researchers whose work involves statistics and probability, production, operation and manufacturing management, industrial organisation and mathematical and quantitative methods. It will also appeal to specialists in engineering and management, for example in the electronic industry, discrete parts industry, process industry, automotive and aircraft industry and food industry.

Quality and process improvement are a major concern of business and industry the world over. A good indicator of the increasing interest in quality is the number of quality-related awards that have been instituted in various parts of the world in the past few years. To implement their quality improvement programmes, many organizations require simple guidelines that can be followed in practical terms. This book is designed to be such a guide. The book presents techniques through which quality and process improvement can be achieved in any business, service, or manufacturing organization. Above all, the book shows the steps to improving quality, increasing productivity, reducing product development costs, and meeting the challenges of competition.

The leading academic authorities contributing to this book have been involved in major studies carried out for international organisations, individual governments, and national trades' union organisations; in Vulnerable Workers they consider the growth of job insecurity, the prevalence of flexible or temporary work, and the emergence of precarious forms of self-employment. They look at the new market economies of post-communist Eastern Europe and China, where economic development may occur at the expense of workers' lives and health; 'misclassification' by employers of workers as 'contractors', denying them access to rights; and the plight of migrant, transient and 'invisible' workers. The impact of supply chain business strategies on the most vulnerable workers; and on the complex relationships between levels of job security and the presence of different kinds of risks are similarly assessed. The contributors also propose responses to the challenges they highlight. The role of employee representatives is examined, together with the potential to enhance worker capability through organisational change. New legislative approaches, and changes to traditional compensation and social security systems are considered. Academics and researchers, policy makers, regulators, trades unionists and occupational health professionals - and wise employers - will all find a use for this book.

Towards Intelligent Manufacturing Systems This book contains the selected articles from the third International Conference on lriformation Technology for Balanced Automation Systems in Manufacturing. A rapid evolution in a number of areas leading to Intelligent Manufacturing Systems has been observ@d in recent years. Significant efforts are being spent on this research area, namely in terms of international cooperative projects, like the IMS initiative, the USA NIIIP (National Industrial Information Infrastructure Protocols) project, or the European ESPRIT programme, and a growing number of conferences and workshops. The importance of the Information and Communication Technologies in the manufacturing area is weIl established today. The proper combination of these areas with the socio-organizational issues, supported by intelligent tools, is however, more difficult to achieve, and fully justifies the need for the BASYS conference and the publication of the series of books on Balanced Automation SyStems. The first book of this series focused on the topic of "Architectures and Design Methods," was published in 1995. Mahy of the fundamental aspects of manufacturing, and some preliminary results were presented in this book. Among others, the topics included: Modeling and design of FMS, Enterprise modeling and organization, Decision support systems in manufacturing, Anthropocentric systems, CAE/CAD/CAM integration, Scheduling systems, Extended enterprises, Multi agent system architecture, Balanced flexibility, Intelligent supervision systems, Shop-floor control, and Computer aided process planning."

While books on the medical applications of x-ray imaging exist, there is not one currently available that focuses on industrial applications. Full of color images that show clear spectrometry and rich with applications, X-Ray Imaging fills the need for a comprehensive work on modern industrial x-ray imaging. It reviews the fundamental science of x-ray imaging and addresses equipment and system configuration. Useful to a broad range of radiation imaging practitioners, the book looks at the rapid development and deployment of digital x-ray imaging system.

Implementing co-operative production networks is a major strategic target of many small- and medium-sized enterprises to secure and foster future competitiveness on the global market. Beginning with the strategic management and going down to the operational product development and operations execution, this book gives a detailed overview of the different key issues of setting up strategic production networks. Management concepts, the required information technology as well as best practices are introduced and discussed by leading researchers from Germany, Switzerland and China. The book aims at supporting managers responsible for setting up global or regional co-operative production networks as well as researchers and students working on this matter.

Der dritte Band der Worterbucher enthalt Produktionsprozesse und ihre Begriffe aus der Produktionstechnik wie Werkzeugmaschinen, Maschinen- und Fertigungssysteme, Maschinenelemente und -eigenschaften sowie unterschiedliche Arbeitsplatze. Weitere Themen sind die Fertigungssteuerung mit Maschinenrusten, Prozessmesstechnik und -uberwachung, Informationssysteme, CAD/CAM und Betriebsdatenerfassung sowie Produktionsplanung und Arbeitsvorbereitung, Materialfluss und Logistik, Lagerung, Handhabungs- und Fordermaschinen, Kostenrechnung und Qualitatssicherung.

Vol. III of the dictionary deals with the central concern of manufacturing engineering, i.e. manufacturing processes and the methods and mechanisms of controlling them. Thus, the volume is interesting for both production engineers and managers. It covers pure production technical terminology (machine tools, production systems, system configurations, machine peripherals, etc.) but also related subjects like organization, logistics and quality. Correspondingly, it also contains a broad range of terms and definitions, e.g., on process control and monitoring, production data acquisition, CAD/CAM, material flow systems including storage, transportation and handling as well as production planning and optimization, cost accounting and quality management.

Le volume III des dictionnaires traite des techniques de production et de leur commande et interesse donc a la fois les ingenieurs et les gestionnaires de la production. Sont decrits des entites liees aux techniques de production comme les machines-outils, les systemes de fabrication, les elements de machines et leurs proprietes, ainsi que les differents postes de travail. D autres concepts concernant la commande des fabrications avec leur preparation, la metrologie des procedes et leur surveillance, les systemes informatiques, les CAO/FAO et les enregistrements de donnees, ainsi que la planification de la production et les etudes de fabrication, le flux des materiaux et la logistique, le stockage, les machines de manutention et de transport, le calcul des couts et l assurance qualite."

Lean Manufacturing has proved to be one of the most successful and most powerful production business systems over the last decades. Its application enabled many companies to make a big leap towards better utilization of resources and thus provide better service to the customers through faster response, higher quality and lowered costs. Lean is often described as "eyes for flow and eyes for muda" philosophy. It simply means that value is created only when all the resources flow through the system. If the flow is stopped no value but only costs and time are added, which is muda (Jap. waste). Since the philosophy was born at the Toyota many solutions were tailored for the high volume environment. But in turbulent, fast-changing market environment and progressing globalization, customers tend to require more customization, lower volumes and higher variety at much less cost and of better quality. This calls for adaptation of existing lean techniques and exploration of the new waste-free solutions that go far beyond manufacturing. This book brings together the opinions of a number of leading academics and researchers from around the world responding to those emerging needs. They tried to find answer to the question how to move forward from "Spaghetti World" of supply, production, distribution, sales, administration, product development, logistics, accounting, etc. Through individual chapters in this book authors present their views, approaches, concepts and developed tools. The reader will learn the key issues currently being addressed in production management research and practice throughout the world.