Environmental quality management is seen as a competitive strategy that could help a firm improve its bottom line. It is argued that being environmentally correct is good business that can provide competitive advantage to the firm in the long term and help it to survive and remain in business. To achieve environmental quality, top management must take the lead and refocus its objectives by redefining its customers. Rather than a focus only on direct customers who are consumers of the product, emphasis should be on the stakeholders of the environment since they can potentially influence the cost of doing business.

The book starts by tracing the relationship between technology and the environment. Clearly, the quality of life we enjoy today is, to a large extent, a result of technological advances. However, environmental pollution is a byproduct of such advances and has contributed in declining the quality of life. Sustainable development is increasingly seen as a way of both maintaining technological advances and environmental quality. However, many have argued against sustainable development without looking at its long-term goals and its potential of helping a business improve its bottom line and competitiveness. Clearly, there is a need for strategic planning in order to remain competitive through environmental quality planning. A corporate environmental quality model is, therefore, needed. Environmental quality management can also benefit from developments in the total quality management area. A great deal of attention is focused on how this could be achieved by adopting tools from total quality management, establishing environmental quality award programs, and conducting environmental quality assessment. The book concludes by focusing on the needs to conserve the earth's limited natural resources and discussing some of the major environmental laws in the United States designed to protect the environment.

Quantitative models and computer-based tools are essential for making decisions in today's business environment. These tools are of particular importance in the rapidly growing area of supply chain management. This volume is a unified effort to provide a systematic summary of the large variety of new issues being considered, the new set of models being developed, the new techniques for analysis, and the computational methods that have become available recently. The volume's objective is to provide a self-contained, sophisticated research summary - a snapshot at this point of time - in the area of Quantitative Models for Supply Chain Management. While there are some multi-disciplinary aspects of supply chain management not covered here, the Editors and their contributors have captured many important developments in this rapidly expanding field. The 26 chapters can be divided into six categories. Basic Concepts and Technical Material (Chapters 1-6). The chapters in this category focus on introducing basic concepts, providing mathematical background and validating algorithmic tools to solve operational problems in supply chains. Supply Contracts (Chapters 7-10). In this category, the primary focus is on design and evaluation of supply contracts between independent agents in the supply chain. Value of Information (Chapters 11-13). The chapters in this category explicitly model the effect of information on decision-making and on supply chain performance. Managing Product Variety (Chapters 16-19). The chapters in this category analyze the effects of product variety and the different strategies to manage it. International Operations (Chapters 20-22). The three chapters in this category provide an overview of research in the emerging area of International Operations. Conceptual Issues and New Challenges (Chapters 23-27). These chapters outline a variety of frameworks that can be explored and used in future research efforts. This volume can serve as a graduate text, as a reference for researchers and as a guide for further development of this field.

The world is witnessing an increasingly dangerous combination of social, economic and environmental factors which are accelerating an ever growing emergence of novel viruses resulting in new epidemics. A must-have for facing the consequential pandemic threat, Robert A. Clark's new book reveals what you should do to mitigate the risk, and limit the damage, while designing contingency measures to address a pandemic crisis. The book builds on the themes introduced in his 2016 title Business Continuity and the Pandemic Threat - Potentially the biggest survival challenge facing organisations, by focusing specifically on the COVID-19 pandemic. Business Continuity and the Pandemic Threat - Learning from COVID-19 while preparing for the next pandemicCOVID-19 has shown organisations that the threat of a pandemic needs to be taken seriously, emphasising the importance of preparing a business continuity plan and a pandemic plan in response to the crisis. Clark's book focuses on how an organisation can create a new or update an existing pandemic response plan. He highlights the similarities in managing different types of crisis whether it is a pandemic, or other threats such as cyber attacks, floods, fires, civil disturbances, terrorism etc. The book looks at several case studies, reviewing how different industries have been impacted by the pandemic, with the author also reflecting on his own personal experience during this crisis. It also discusses the ways the virus has affected our economy and daily routines, and the psychological impact. The book further provides useful free resources that offer additional guidance/information. Explore how: Your organisation can create and validate a pandemic response plan; To manage your organisation when faced with a pandemic threat; Lockdown has impacted our mental health, economies and working culture; Organisations from varied industries have adapted in response to the pandemic; To search for new opportunities that pandemics can present by both changes to working practises and diversification; and Information technology helped many organisations to continue functioning during lockdowns. "Bob's book, Business Continuity and the Pandemic Threat does a spectacular job filling a gaping void in the pandemic preparedness and response literature. It should be required reading for every CEO concerned with keeping their business in business and every corporate risk manager, regardless of the type of business. He's written with an engaging, rare combination of hard-nosed business survival strategy and insightful human stories of pandemic experiences." Dr Jonathan Quick MD MPH, global health leader with expertise in pandemic and epidemic threats Understand the corporate, psychological and societal impact of a pandemic threat and how to prepare for and mitigate its effects with this book - order your copy today!

• Describes machine learning in plain language to a non-technical audience • Explains how to manage machine learning projects to deliver value • Highlights important considerations when deploying machine learning systems in organisations

Covering the principles and techniques you need to successfully manage an engineering or technical project from start to finish, Project Management, Planning and Control is an established and widely recommended project management handbook. Building on its clear and detailed coverage of planning, scheduling and control, this eighth edition includes new case studies from industries including petrochemical and construction, as well as updates throughout to account for changes and best practice in governance and adjudication. It also now includes expanded coverage of AI, Big Data and sustainability. Ideal for those studying for Project Management Professional (PMP) qualifications, Project Management, Planning and Control is aligned with the latest Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) for both the Project Management Institute (PMI) and the Association of Project Management (APM) and includes questions and answers to help you test your understanding.

3 While all of these explanations seem to have merit, there is one dominant reason why the percentage of GDP and employment dedicated to services has continued to increase: low productivity. According to Baumol's cost disease hypothesis (Baumol, Blackman, and Wolff 1991), the growth in services is actually an illusion. The fact is that service-sector productivity is improving slower than that of manufacturing and thus, it seems as if we are consuming more services in nominal terms. However, in real terms, we are consuming slightly less services. That is, the increase in the service sector is caused by low productivity relative to manufacturing. The implication of Baumol's cost disease is the following. Assuming historical productivity increases for manufacturing, agriCUlture, education and health care, Baumol (1992) shows that the U. S. can triple its output in all sectors within 50 years. However, due to the higher productivity level for manufacturing and agriculture, it will take substantially more employment in services to achieve this increase in output. To put this argument in perspective, simply roll back the clock 100 years or so and replace the words manufacturing with agriculture, and services with manufacturing. The phenomenal growth in agricultural productivity versus manufacturing caused the employment levels in agriculture in the U. S. to decrease rapidly while producing a truly unbelievable amount of food. It is the low productivity of services that is the real culprit in its growth of GDP and employment share.

"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

The field of operations management is increasingly recognized as being crucial to the success of a company. The premise of this book is that learning specific analytical techniques can provide a deeper understanding of the problems in operations management than merely reading about these problems. The book is concise while still providing a broad discussion of the issues and details to learn these valuable tools.

Each problem area is introduced with an overview of the issues that must be addressed and the array of tools available to analyze them. Next, detailed examples are presented. Through these examples, the ramifications of the various approaches and the tradeoffs that must be considered when choosing one approach over another are explored. The book is a valuable resource for researchers, students, and business practitioners.

Operations management is a set of disciplines that transform raw materials, labor and capital into finished goods and services. These various disciplines are discussed for an intended audience of executives and operations managers who desire to be updated on the current curriculum in business schools. The book emphasizes why Japan has ascended to its dominant position in global commerce largely at the expense of U.S. manufacturers. The intent is to learn lessons from Japanese achievements that can be applied to make U.S. manufacturers more competitive in the global market. Trends in operations management are augmented with new software tools (Evolver and RISKOptimizer) which can solve previously unsolvable problems in scheduling and other operational matters.

Additional material provides a fuller discussion on certain key managerial issues and problem solving. This readable and informative book examines the various disciplines that managers must integrate into their jobs and key workplace practices that enhance a company's competitiveness in the global marketplace.

This is the Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Management Science and Engineering Management (ICMSEM) held from July 25 to 27, 2014 at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal and organized by International Society of Management Science and Engineering Management (ISMSEM), Sichuan University (Chengdu, China) and Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Lisbon, Portugal). The goals of the conference are to foster international research collaborations in Management Science and Engineering Management as well as to provide a forum to present current findings. A total number of 138 papers from 14 countries are selected for the proceedings by the conference scientific committee through rigorous referee review. The selected papers in the second volume are focused on Computing and Engineering Management covering areas of Computing Methodology, Project Management, Industrial Engineering and Information Technology.

Der Sammelband vereinigt Beitrage von uber 50 Autorinnen und Autoren aus Wirtschaftswissenschaft, Informatik und Mathematik zu aktuellen und grund--legenden Problemen und Losungsansatzen der intelligenten Entscheidungs--unterstutzung in Unternehmen und erscheint zum 65. Geburtstag von Hermann Gehring, Professor fur Wirtschaftsinformatik an der FernUniversitat in Hagen.

This book explores, in a systematic way, both conventional and unconventional material shaping processes with various modes of hybridization in relation to theory, modelling and industrial potential. The demand for high productivity and high accuracy in manufacturing is continuously increasing, based on improvement and optimization strategies. Hybridization of manufacturing processes will play a crucial role and will be of a key importance in achieving environmental and economical sustainability. Structured in three parts, Hybrid Manufacturing Processes summarizes the state-of-the art hybrid manufacturing processes based on available literature sources and production reports. The book begins by providing information on the physical fundamentals of the removal and non-removal processes in macro-, micro and nanoscales. It then follows with an overview of the possible ways of hybridization and the effects on the enhancement of process performance, before concluding with a summary of production outputs related to surface integrity, specifically with respect to difficult-to-machine materials. Considering the applications of different sources of hybridization including mechanical, thermal and chemical interactions or their combinations, this book will be of interest to a range of researchers and practicing engineers within the field of manufacturing.

First textbook in the literature to treat sustainability as a powerful concept to create optimal workplace experiences FM is a growth area and this book pushes the boundaries to teach sustainability in a new way Most other textbooks dedicated to this topic focus on describing specific best practices or case studies, that is simply not enough to take the next step in truly integrating sustainability in the facility management industry. This book seeks to do that.

Hardbound. This is the fifth volume in the series Advances in the Management of Organizational Quality. Like the previous four volumes, it is designed to highlight quality-related issues and to facilitate bringing quality into the mainstream of organizational effectiveness. The current volume spans a broad range of topics from an investigation of how customers make quality-related judgments to quality practices in health care. As with previous volumes, this volume also attempts to broaden the concept of quality.

Improving the quality of products and manufacturing processes at low cost is an economic and technological challenge to industrial engineers and managers alike. In today's business world, the implementation of experimental design techniques often falls short of the mark due to a lack of statistical knowledge on the part of engineers and managers in their analyses of manufacturing process quality problems. This timely book aims to fill this gap in the statistical knowledge required by engineers to solve manufacturing quality problems by using Taguchi experimental design methodology. The book increases awareness of strategic methodology through real-life case studies, providing valuable information for both academics and professionals with no prior knowledge of the theory of probability and statistics. Experimental Quality: Provides a unique framework to help engineers and managers address quality problems and use strategic design methodology. Offers detailed case studies illustrating the implementation of experimental design theory. Is easily accessible without prior knowledge or understanding of probability and statistics. This book provides an excellent resource for both academic and industrial environments, and will prove invaluable to practising industrial engineers, quality engineers and engineering managers from all disciplines.

Choosing the right location for a business can assure its success, and avoid costly problems. Location, Location, Location examines this foundational aspect of business profitability, and outlines the principles and procedures necessary to identify an optimal site. This practical book offers advice on how to invest wisely on real estate to minimize risks, and maximize returns. This concise guide by Marcel De Meirleir, a leading site consultant with over fifty years of professional practice, explains how to measure the positive and negative attributes of a site. Its useful and accessible format includes anecdotes, cases studies, and tools for evaluating and selecting sites for different kinds of facilities like headquarters, warehouses, call centers, among others. Other topics in Location, Location, Location include: Analysis of critical and intangible factors Taxes and tax incentives Industrial location and ecology Location feasibility studies The BERI rating Infrastructure Costs analysis, and much more! Location, Location, Location is an authoritative and valuable resource for business owners, decision makers, and consultants who wish to find, expand, or relocate their facilities. This comprehensive volume also provides strategies for regional government officials seeking to attract investments in their area.

Purchasers of manufactured goods demand assurance that the purchased product will perform satisfactorily over its expected life. Warranties play a vitally important role in providing this assurance, in two ways. Firstly, warranty terms can provide a promise of protection in the event of a product failure. Secondly, effective warranty service can assure customer satisfaction in the event of a warranty claim. Successful use of both of these requires proper warranty management.

The authors of Warranty Management and Product Manufacture have developed "Stage-3" warranty management, that views warranties from a strategic perspective, beginning with a warranty strategy that is linked to technical and commercial planning from the very start of the product development process.

The aim of warranty management is to achieve the overall business objectives by focussing on both product performance assurance as well as ensuring customer satisfaction, the ultimate goal of warranty management. Warranty Management and Product Manufacture provides guidelines for achieving this goal.

Written by two of the worlda (TM)s leading experts in warranty management, this monograph details the most up-to-date thinking in this key area of product manufacture. It will be an invaluable guide for managers in product development, production and marketing as well as graduate students in business and operations management and industrial engineering.

These proceedings contain research papers presented at the 5th International Conference on Dynamics in Logistics, held in Bremen, Germany, February 2016. The conference is concerned with dynamic aspects of logistic processes and networks. The spectrum of topics reaches from modeling, planning and control of processes over supply chain management and maritime logistics to innovative technologies and robotic applications for cyber-physical production and logistic systems. The growing dynamic confronts the area of logistics with completely new challenges: it must become possible to describe, identify and analyze the process changes. Moreover, logistic processes and networks must be redevised to be rapidly and flexibly adaptable to continuously changing conditions. The book primarily addresses researchers and practitioners from the field of industrial engineering and logistics, but it may also be beneficial for graduate students.

The only pocket guide to the UK building regulations on the market Succinct, portable, reliable guide to UK Building regulations Essential for anyone involved in building works or renovations in the UK

Decision making at the enterprise level often encompass not only production operations and product R&D, but other strategic functions such as financial planning and marketing. With the aim of maximizing growth and a firm's value, companies often focus on co-ordinating these functional components as well as traditional hierarchical decision levels. Understanding this interplay can enhance enterprise capabilities of adaptation and response to uncertainties arising from internal processes as well as the external environment. This book presents concepts, methods, tools and solutions based on mathematical programming, which provides the quantitative support needed for integrated decision-making and ultimately for improving the allocation of overall corporate resources (e.g., materials, cash and personnel). Through a systems perspective, the integrated planning of the supply chain also promotes activities of reuse, reduction and recycling for achieving more sustainable environmental impacts of production/distribution networks. Thus, this book presents, for the first time, a unique integrated vision of the Enterprise Supply Chain Planning and provides a comprehensive account of the state of the art models, methods and tools available to address the above mentioned features of the modern supply chain. It offers a comprehensive review of the associated literature of supply chain management and then systematically builds on this knowledge base to develop the mathematical models representing each of the core functional units and decision levels of the corporation and shows how they can be integrated into a holistic decision problem formulation. Abundant illustrations and tables help maximize reader insights into the problems discussed with several case studies and industry application also examined. This book is intended as a textbook for academics (PhD, MSc), researchers and industry decision-makers, who are involved in the design, retrofit and evaluation of alternative scenarios for the improvement of the supply chain.

Poor quality of data and information can have a harmful impact on decision-making and therefore on the overall effectiveness of an enterprise. Incorrect and misleading information associated with an enterprise's production and service provision jeopardize both customer relationships and customer satisfaction, and ultimately have a negative effect on revenue. ""Challenges of Managing Information Quality in Service Organizations"" presents cases and applications of information quality in various industrial service sectors, and presents twelve chapters organized into four sections: information quality application in healthcare industry, information quality application in banking, real estate and postal industries, information quality application for database management services, and information quality application for research and development. ""Challenges of Managing Information Quality in Service Organizations"" provides insight and support for academic professionals as well as for practitioners concerned with the management of information.

The young investigator with an idea has to negotiate many institutional, federal, and industrial challenges in order to get a product to market. Nowhere is described the steps in the development of new drugs, diagnos tics, or devices; the person with an idea has nowhere to turn for information and details. The young investigator may understand the elements of basic and clinical research, but ordinarily has no insight into novel ways of finding research funding or how to explore to find the funding opportunities that are available. The young investigator has little knowledge of the mecha nisms to bring an idea through the developmental phases to the market. There are other players in this complex endeavor with whom he or she has no contact, including those from industry, the Food and Drug Administration, and the legal community. Exposure to the philosophy of product develop ment and to procedural information would be useful to the scientific com munity, as would contact with those who have successfully taken an idea to a finished product. A first attempt to do this was the symposium on Idea to Product: The Process, sponsored by Serono Symposia USA and held No vember 17 to 20, 1994, in Washington, D.C. This book comprises the pro ceedings of that meeting. The editors are indebted to the many contributors to this volume, and we are especially grateful to Serono Symposia USA and to Leslie Nies and her staff for their expertise in organizing the symposium."

This study fills a gap in standardization literature. It is the first academic analysis of national standardization organizations. These organizations exist in every country and may be private or governmental organizations. The first national standardization th organizations were founded in the early decades of the 20 century and were aimed at rationalizing industrial production. Their mode of operation reflects the sense of co operation at the national level and - in the telecommunications and electrotechnical field - at the intemationallevel as well. Now, however, the scene has changed, with companies operating internationally. Standards for products, processes, and services are crucial factors in determining success or failure on a fiercely competitive market, especially when functional compatibility is a prerequisite, as is the case in computer and telecommunications technologies. As a consequence, rather homogeneous needs of participants in standardization have given way to conflicting interests. This prompts a discussion about the traditional role of national standardization organizations. They increasingly depend on their exclusive links to the international standardization organizations ISO and IEC, and, in the case of Europe, the regional organizations CEN and CENELEC. In many cases, formal standardization organizations are not the obvious bodies for developing standards to meet business needs. Is this inevitable or could they improve performance and regain their market share? Henk de Vries answers this question against the background of current developments in standardization at the international, European, and national levels."