Virtually every decision to produce, buy or sell is influenced by quality, yet until this book was first published in 1992, there had been very little attempt to produce a comprehensive and practical theory for this. Here, Peter Bowbrick brings together different traditions of quality analysis from economics, marketing economics and marketing itself to identify the limitations of the different traditions of quality economics and some approaches to its analysis. Beginning with a definition of the subject and the concepts involved, this comprehensive title will be of particular value to students of Economics, Marketing and Business Studies.

Technological change has been recognized as the major contributor to economic growth and has become one of the most important challenges to policy makers and managers. Many excellent books and papers have been written on the subject. Most of these deal with the macro or micro economic impact of technological change or the technological change process from invention and discovery to innovation, development, and final maturity as well as ultimate obsolescence of technology. This book is designed to present technological change as a decision process and explain the use of recently developed methods for the effective management of technological change. In particular, techniques for the effective choice among technological alternatives, timing of the introduction of new technology both in terms of its own status and that of the technology to be replaced if any, and the rate and method of introduction of new technology are presented. Management of technology is a complex decision process which is affected by both internal and external factors. The purpose of this book is to instruct the reader in effective technology deciSion making which involves the evaluation of the status of technology in use if any, the problem to be solved or output to be obtained, determination of environmental and internal constraints, and the competitive environment or market conditions which affect the technology decisions.

Over the last twenty years, there has been an increasing number of factors that have placed the manufacturing strategies of companies and countries in a global context. This book reviews and addresses the global manufacturing strategy area through research in the four major economic areas of the world: Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia. International Manufacturing Strategies: Context, Content and Change is the result of a single major research project undertaken in twenty countries, focusing on the manufacturing strategies and practices in each, and uses research data to focus on factors specific to industrial countries or regions and those which are common across the group of countries or the entire sample The core of this book is a set of chapters reviewing individual countries. Each country is reviewed in a format with an overall common approach: the socio-economic background; the distinctive results for that country from the research and the link between the two. Most will be illustrated by a small case study of a company. Following this is an integrating review of the findings from various countries, the different trajectories followed, and the impact on external variables and the socioeconomic context on those. The final part of the book is devoted to new ideas and developments in functional areas and in manufacturing strategy that have been developed from the analysis conducted during the research.

In his ground-breaking book, Reinventing Communication, Mark Phillips shows how even the most mature organization can fail to deliver successful projects - and worse, how this can lead to an organization's demise. With clear examples, Mark reveals the underlying principles at work and introduces a revolutionary new technique for harnessing the power of communication to ensure long term success. For organizations of all sizes, this book changes the way we think about management and leadership. Mark makes his case by looking at teams and individuals that set out to deliver ambitious achievements in complex and challenging environments. We meet the leadership team that built the F-18 Super Hornet fighter jet, one of the US Navy's most successful programs. We discover the untraditional approach to risk used in building a new terminal at London's Heathrow airport. We draw lessons on corporate survival from the cat and mouse fight against IED's in Afghanistan, and are introduced to a website where online video gamers solved a critical piece of the AIDS puzzle using their gaming prowess. Reinventing Communication is about creating the conditions for performance and attaining long term success. Whether a start-up, a global enterprise or a government agency, this book shows us how to deliver ambitious achievements by getting communication right. It is a book that no manager, leader or innovator should be without.

The unique and controversial companion volume to Daniel Seymour's On Q places Seymour's ideas and theories within the context of a call to action. In a series of realistic case-study lessons, he reveals how colleges and universities can dramatically improve their performance by drawing upon the concepts found in systems theory, quality management, and studies of organizational behavior. Seymour's goal is to overcome the current reactive mind-set and replace it with a proactive education environment where student success is the main objective. Once Upon a Campus can be put to use as an audit tool, as a guide for readers to identify problem areas in their institutions, and as a planning resource in evaluating and implementing overall performance improvement.

Most manufacturing systems are large, complex, and operate in an environment of uncertainty. It is common practice to manage such systems in a hierarchical fashion. This book articulates a new theory that shows that hierarchical decision making can in fact lead to a near optimization of system goals. The material in the book cuts across disciplines. It will appeal to graduate students and researchers in applied mathematics, operations management, operations research, and system and control theory.

In today's competitive environment, manufacturing and service companies are intensifying their customization processes. Customization means companies must meet the challenge of providing individualized products and services, without introducing high costs. Therefore, companies must address both customization and cost factors to gain a competitive advantage. While product customization is the manufacturing of products according to individual customer needs, it does not involve any focus on the cost perspective. Information and Management Systems for Product Customization will concentrate on both product customization and costs' efficiency, which is termed as mass customization. Moreover, mass customization with its multi-dimensions is the new business paradigm challenging today's manufacturing companies.

The management of production and service processes can be supported by microcomputer simulation models-effectively and inexpensively-if the techniques are presented in an understandable manner. Drs. Klafehn, Weinroth, and Boronico prove this and show how to do it-not only for the benefit of operations managers themselves, but for others with management responsibilities in a variety of businesses and industries. They will learn how important daily operations problems can be modeled on a microcomputer, gain understanding of overall simulation methodology, and learn the several forms of cost savings achievable through simulation. For teachers in business schools the book will also provide a link between general management and the management of engineering and R&D. The first chapter introduces the reader to the concepts and steps for undertaking a microcomputer simulation project. In addition, the benefits, drawbacks, and myths are reviewed in detail. Chapter two explores, in a conversational scenario, what is involved in taking a management operations problem involving a truck transfer depot from its point of inception to the formulation of a systems operation model, which in a later chapter is ultimately put into a computer simulation model and tested to, in a sense, come up with answers to the questions posed in the hypothetical conversation. Subsequent chapters in the book are oriented to a discussion of other operations management problems and the effort to seek insight and solutions through simulation modeling. A Just-in-Time manufacturing system is addressed, recognizing the push-pull concept as well as looking at the quality aspect. Attempting to determine the optimum levels for safety, stock, order points, and order quantity is investigated through computer simulation. These levels are predicated on balancing the costs associated with ordering and holding goods as well as the penalty costs of stocking out. Using a simulated environment enables the inclusion of the variability evidenced by the type of distribution. The remaining chapters also review alternative rules and what ifs as applied to machine configuration, facility location for a satellite EMS unit, and job shop operations. Each of the applications chapters provides a printout of the basic computer model, written in GPSS, that was then modified to investigate alternative scenarios.

The current marketplace is undergoing an accelerated pace of change that challenges corporations to innovate new techniques to respond rapidly to an ever-changing environment. At the center of this changing environment is a new generation of empowered buyers (customers) equipped with fast evolving technologies that allow them to buy from markets scattered across the globe. Empowering the customers has deprived organizations of what was once their right-to introduce new products slowly, at their own leisure. Organizations used to introduce new products every few years, and, for the most part, products offered limited functionalities and features. A low-priced quality product-irrespective of customer satisfaction-was a guaranteed ticket for success. New global economies and global markets changed business practices and focused on the customer as the major player in the economy. Organizations now fail or succeed based upon their ability to respond quickly to changing customer demands and to utilize new technological innovations. In such an environment, the advantage goes to the firm that can offer greater varieties of new products with higher performance and greater overall appeal. In order to compete in this fast-paced global market, organizations need to produce products that can be easily configured to offer distinctive capabilities compared to the competition. Furthermore, organizations need to develop new methods and techniques to react rapidly to required changes in products and market trends and to shorten the product development cycle, which will enable them to gain more economic competitiveness."

Scheduling, planning and packing are ubiquitous problems that can be found in a wide range of real-world settings. These problems transpire in a large variety of forms, and have enormous socio-economic impact. For many years, significant work has been devoted to automating the processes of scheduling, planning and packing using different kinds of methods. However, poor scaling and the lack of flexibility of many of the conventional methods coupled with the fact that most of the real-world problems across the application areas of scheduling, planning and packing nowadays tend to be of large scale, dynamic and full of complex dependencies have made it necessary to tackle them in unconventional ways.

This volume, "Natural Intelligence for Scheduling, Planning and Packing Problems," is a collection of numerous natural intelligence based approaches for solving various kinds of scheduling, planning and packing problems. It comprises 12 chapters which present many methods that draw inspiration from nature, such as evolutionary algorithms, neural-fuzzy system, particle swarm algorithms, ant colony optimisation, extremal optimisation, raindrop optimisation, and so on. Problems addressed by these chapters include freight transportation, job shop scheduling, flowshop scheduling, electrical load forecasting, vehicle routing, two-dimensional strip packing, network configuration and forest planning, among others. Along with solving these problems, the contributing authors present a lively discussion of the various aspects of the nature-inspired algorithms utilised, providing very useful and important new insights into the research areas.

Most successful organizations recognize Maintenance Parts and Procurement as a critical success factor to Asset Management Excellence and their fundamental supply chain value proposition. This book works as a guide to all the stakeholders that influence the success of their Maintenance Parts Operation and their enterprise's bottom line. Maintenance Parts Management Excellence: A Holistic Anatomy defines the Maintenance Parts Managements role in Asset Management Excellence and expands on the importance of the Parts Inventory Planner role in an organization. It discusses how to create a unique Maintenance Parts Management Strategy for an organization and offers insights on the multiple strategies needed to create and maintain a Maintenance Parts inventory policy. The book also provides an organized overall approach to creating Maintenance Parts Management Excellence in an enterprise. Executives with an organization responsible for the construction, management, and disposal of all assets classes (plant, equipment, IT assets), consultants responsible for assignments associated with optimizing life cycle decisions for clients, maintenance, and reliability professionals within an organization, will benefit from this professional plus book. Upper-level undergraduate engineering students, as well as graduate students of management who focus on operations management and engineering graduate students addressing issues of maintenance and reliability engineering, may also be interested in this book.

Operations Research began as a field with the mathematical scheduling of a massive projecta "logistically supplying Europe with military equipment and goods during the 2nd World War. Today project scheduling research continues to grow in the variety of its theoretical models, in its magnitude, and in its application. As the world becomes more interrelated and complex, the wider its research is applied to an increasing number of project scheduling problems.

The book surveys the current state-of-the-art in this realm of operations research with chapters written by the respective leading experts on each topic. It will cover the range of the key models in the field, including deterministic, probabilistic, single- and multi-mode, single- and multi-objective, and a general model on discrete-continuous resources. Recent solution algorithms are systematically examined. The book summarizes the current developments and theoretical achievements in the field. These new developments include project uncertainty and grid resource management.

PERSPECTIVES IN MODERN PROJECT SCHEDULING systematically presents this dynamically developing area in three parts. Part I discusses new models of the project management process that are being developed. They include an alternative to the well-known PERT technique, consideration of disturbances during the project realization, introduction of new constraints like due dates or setup times, as well as a general discussion on classification of resources.

Part II outlines and evaluates the new algorithms that have been developed to solve the strongly NP-hard resource constrained project scheduling efficiently with acceptable accuracy. New lowerbounds for the RCPSP are proposed, followed by smart justification technique and a series of Metaheuristics. Finally, a neural network approach is introduced.

Part III is devoted to new areas of applications of the project management models and the algorithms a" for example, pharmaceutical research, grid computing, factory pick-up of new cars, batch scheduling in process industries and make-to-order (project driven) manufacturing a" that have been developed to solve project scheduling problems in these application areas.

The book will be of interest to academics and students in project management and scheduling in Business Schools, Operations Research/Management Science, Computer Science & Engineering, Systems Analysis, and Applied Mathematics. In addition, decision makers, consultants and practitioners in industry, government and service organizations will also be interested in this book.

Pulling aside the curtain of 'Big Data' buzz, this book introduces C-suite and other non-technical senior leaders to the essentials of obtaining and maintaining accurate, reliable data, especially for decision-making purposes. Bad data begets bad decisions, and an understanding of data fundamentals - how data is generated, organized, stored, evaluated, and maintained - has never been more important when solving problems such as the pandemic-related supply chain crisis. This book addresses the data-related challenges that businesses face, answering questions such as: What are the characteristics of high-quality data? How do you get from bad data to good data? What procedures and practices ensure high-quality data? How do you know whether your data supports the decisions you need to make? This clear and valuable resource will appeal to C-suite executives and top-line managers across industries, as well as business analysts at all career stages and data analytics students.

In the fall of 1992 a conference honoring Elwood S. Buffa was held at the Anderson Graduate School of Management of the University of California, Los Angeles. This book is a collection of the work presented at that conference. The scholars who gathered to honor El are the prominent researchers in the field of Operations Management. Their collective work published in this book represents the richness of the field and provides the reader with valuable insights into its important issues and problems. While any grouping of the articles by these distinguished scholars will be arbitrary, I have organized the book in four sections. In the first section the articles dealing with the strategic issues in Operations Management are compiled. The articles deal with continuous improvement, quality, services, supply chain management, and creating value through operations. The articles that explore the interface of Operations Management with other functional areas, e.g. engineering and marketing, are grouped in the second section. The third section of the book contains articles that attempt to model some important planning problems that arise in the management of production and operations. Some of the papers in this section provide state of the art reviews of selected topic areas. Finally, the fourth section contains articles that deal with future directions for Operations Management. The authors offer several insights into the future evolution of the field. The book begins with the keynote address given by El Buffa at the start of the conference on November 2, 1991.

In this book methods from Operations Research and Game Theory are used to determine companies' profit-maximizing strategies related to pricing and (cooperative) advertising. It considers different supply chain structures as well as various distributions of power, making it possible to analyze both inter-echelon and intra-echelon dependencies between the companies' decisions. Additionally, an approach based on fuzzy set theory is presented in order to compensate for incomplete or missing data on market characteristics. Vertical cooperative advertising is an essential element of partnerships between manufacturers and retailers, allowing manufacturers to financially support their retailers' advertising efforts so as to increase sales for the entire supply chain. Given that such programs not only make up a considerable part of many companies' advertising budgets, but are also a controversial subject in many business relations, their correct design is of particular importance.

Why do some corporate superstars collapse dramatically, while others survive and prosper over many decades? Is the fall primarily caused by 'technical factors', such as poor products and pricing, financial management or market choices, by self-aggrandisement, or perhaps by poor leadership attributes and capabilities? Greg Park argues that ultimately organisational survival and optimal performance over the long term is dependent upon collaborative wisdom. Within the dominant coalition of a successful community or corporation there is an inherited, pervasive, commonly and collectively held dominant logic, comprising leadership principles, perspectives and priorities, based upon universal values which are understood and accepted as satisfying the requirements and aspirations of each stakeholder. This collaborative wisdom ensures cohesive and consistent behaviour across and within every function of a complex, fast-moving organization. Its practical application is reflected in the daily operational decisions of leaders within the organisation, be they divisional, departmental heads or supervisors. Without collaborative wisdom organisational collapse is the inevitable result, primarily through the disintegration of belief, confidence, motivation, cohesion, advocacy and energy within and between key stakeholder groups. Collaborative Wisdom examines the nature and criticality of wisdom as a leadership attribute, how effective operational leadership is not just about knowledge and experience, but more fundamentally about a cognitive mental process which considers and consistently applies fundamental values, principles, perspectives and priorities in an analytical and affective manner. This ensures effective operational leadership and optimal organisational performance over the long term, informed by experience, instinct, intuition, but also by insight, judgment and ultimately, wisdom.

For professionals who need to design, implement or manage a quality software program, this volume identifies ten major components that make up a solid program in line with ISO 9001 quality management precepts. This second edition is expanded by over 20 per cent, with updated references, text revisions and new chapters on software safety and software risk management. It seeks to provide the starting points for a standardized documentation system, and better understanding of the individual program components and how they integrate to form the whole system.

This book explores some aspects of the interface between technology, competitiveness and the role of multinational enterprises in the world economy. This group of essays stresses the role of asset creation and usage, rather than reliance on natural factor endowments as a basis for national competitiveness and examines the role of multinational enterprises as vehicles for technological transfer, and the efficient co-ordination of economic activity across national boundaries.

Licensing, Selling and Finance in the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Industries is an assessment of the turbulent state of pharmaceutical and biotechnology markets as we enter the second decade of the 21st Century. At the same time, the book offers a cautionary evaluation of the future financing of innovation in terms of what's gone wrong and how to succeed in the future. Martin Austin explores the challenge that the pharmaceutical (and related) industries face in terms of balancing short term, cost containment and expenditure control in areas such as internal research and development; whilst embracing in-licensing and the acquisition of innovative therapies to counteract their impending portfolio weaknesses in the mid to longer term. The first part of the book provides an engaging and convincing perspective on the context in which the industry currently finds itself; the second part is a pragmatic guide to commercialising your intellectual property; including how to recognise and value what you have as well as the new ways of working that you will need to adopt when negotiating, collaborating and contracting in partnership and alliance with others. Commentators have described in great detail the cocktail of commercial, clinical and social issues that threaten to overwhelm the pharmaceutical industry; Martin Austin's book offers a very distinctive perspective on these issues and their solution.

SUPPLY CHAIN ANALYSIS: A Handbook on the Interaction of Information, System, and Optimization is a carefully developed work focused on the analysis of supply chain interaction issues in emerging markets and industry sectors. It is a leading-edge handbook that will emphasize where little work has been done and where the rubber meets the road the supply chain process, information, and systems integration. These are pertinent issues facing practitioners and researchers in today 's business environment. This is a gap-bridging handbook that analyzes interaction issues from both the research and practitioner sides. The result is a volume that examines and provides practical solutions on interaction issues while being firmly grounded in research principles. Some of the topical areas the Handbook examines are: The issue of supply chain design, from the perspective of foreign cosmetic companies in China; The issue of supply chain coordination among the grocery manufacturers. Most notably, the opportunity for strategic, multi-lateral collaboration through a shared distribution network; The impact of online secondary markets on the operational issues of a supply chain; The critical importance of risk and disruption in supply chain; and the huge issue of integrating demand and supply, hence the need to synchronize the supply chain with the demand chain.

This book introduces the fundamental principles of understanding business requirements to apply enterprise resource planning (ERP) in order to meet business needs. The book also helps readers understand the usage of ERP for monitoring and controlling business processes, while providing practical oriented solutions to the design and implementation of ERP. Using the provided framework, a business can decide to provide more value at lower cost which increases its competitive advantage. This should be an ideal reference for executives, researchers and consultants in project management of ERP. ERP can be considered to be an integrated package of business process. The scope of ERP determines the extent of automation of business process. For example if ERP covers Human Resource (HR) and finance business processes only, then business process related HR and finance are automated. Typically business process that are automated in HR and finance employee entry and exist process, allocation of employee ID, payroll, processing , income tax planning and actual deduction etc. There is seamless flow of employee data and information is available at an effectively faster rate to take appropriate decision. As custom demand increases, there is a need to meet the changing scenario with speed and efficiency. While there is a need to increase productivity, there is also a need to reduce cost of operation. The repetitive business processes can be handled effectively by automating them and freeing human resources for meeting other uncertainties. These automations not only should be done for each department, but also should cut across different departments. Thus there is a need for automating business processes at enterprise level. This enterprise level automation started with MRP, then MRP II, ERP and then finally open source ERP have taken centre stage. Out of the standard products available in the market, an organization can chose an ERP product for implementation, depending on the features available and the total cost of ownership (TCO). This comparison helps an organization to choose the product that best suits the needs for the organization. Enterprise Resource Planning: Fundamentals of Design and Implementation highlights these concepts while discusses different good practices to design and implement ERP.

This is the first book that summarizes the 20-year history of service innovation research and combines it with the future need to adopt a systems view in the field of service research. The book emphasizes that the most urgent issues of today's economies - the development of welfare and sustainability - cannot be solved with innovations in individual service offerings only, and that innovations of service systems are increasingly needed. Various theoretical approaches and perspectives from different disciplines are included, providing a comprehensive view of the current understanding of the nature of service innovation. The book illustrates the achievements of two research traditions, one based on the general innovation theory and the other based on the service marketing theory. Service innovation is considered from the points of view of drivers, processes, practices, and outcomes. The interrelations between actors and systems are analyzed, and the nature of innovation as a new way to co-create value is highlighted. The book promotes the view that users are an important source of innovative ideas and that openness is an important success factor in innovation processes. In addition to the general nature and management of service innovation, some specific topics are included, exemplified by innovations in public services and in knowledge-intensive business services. This volume is highly recommended to readers who seek a state-of-the-art overview of the area of service innovation and its linkages to systems research.