The rapid pace of technological innovation and the effects of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) revolution have resulted in dramatic changes on a global scale, from the empowerment of the individual to the spawning of global markets. From the business perspective, the widespread deployment of Information Technology (IT) has resulted in many organisational changes and the development and use of new management and business processes. An important challenge for today's manufacturing organisations is to be able to anticipate the impact of investments in new (frequently IT-based) manufacturing technologies and programmes. Ideally, management needs to be able to identify and articulate the many ways in which investment decisions influence their organisation - in terms of performance across a range of measures. Furthermore, in today's manufacturing environment, it is increasingly necessary that a close relationship exists between manufacturing decision making and corporate business strategy, so that manufacturing decisions complement and are fully aligned with the organisation's strategic objectives.
Strategic Decision Making in Modern Manufacturing introduces and explains the AMBIT (Advanced Manufacturing Business ImplemenTation) approach, which has been developed to bridge the gap between strategic management considerations and the operational effects of technology investment decisions on the manufacturing organisation, so that the likely impact of new manufacturing technology and/or programme implementations can be evaluated, anticipated and accurately predicted. The AMBIT approach focuses specifically on the non-financial aspects of such investment decisions andoffers an approach that allows a manager, or more frequently a management team, to understand the impacts of a new technology or a new programme on the manufacturing organisation in terms of manufacturing performance.
The prediction of future trends and patterns is a very imprecise and ambiguous activity at the best of times. Yet despite such ambiguity, managers need to be forward looking. They need appropriate tools and approaches to help them anticipate the future. Thus, whilst the pages of organisational history may be filled with anecdotes about organisations that failed to "predict" the future, it is the challenge of today's organisations to evade such a fate. The AMBIT approach delineated in this book has been specifically developed to anticipate the future by analysing the impact of managerial decisions.

This book develops innovative techniques from operational research and management science for the design and implementation of a reconfigurable manufacturing system (RMS), and subsequently analyzes and assesses their performance. A reconfigurable manufacturing system (RMS) is a paradigm that can address many of the challenges posed by the modern market. Accordingly, substantial research is now being conducted on RMS, focusing on various levels of decision-making (strategic, tactical and operational). However, as a relatively new research area, there are still only very few books and articles available on reconfigurable manufacturing system design and management. In addition to filling that gap, this book provides a forum for investigating, exchanging ideas on, and disseminating the latest advances in the broad area of RMS applications in today's industry. Gathering contributions by experts from academia, industry and policy-making, it represents an essential contribution to the existing literature on manufacturing and logistics in general and industry 4.0 in particular.

The business, commercial and public-sector world has changed dramatically since John Oakland wrote the first edition of Statistical Process Control - a practical guide in the mid-eighties. Then people were rediscovering statistical methods of 'quality control' and the book responded to an often desperate need to find out about the techniques and use them on data. Pressure over time from organizations supplying directly to the consumer, typically in the automotive and high technology sectors, forced those in charge of the supplying production and service operations to think more about preventing problems than how to find and fix them. Subsequent editions retained the 'took kit' approach of the first but included some of the 'philosophy' behind the techniques and their use. The theme which runs throughout the 7th edition is still processes - that require understanding, have variation, must be properly controlled, have a capability, and need improvement - the five sections of this new edition. SPC never has been and never will be simply a 'took kit' and in this book the authors provide, not only the instructional guide for the tools, but communicate the management practices which have become so vital to success in organizations throughout the world. The book is supported by the authors' extensive and latest consulting work within thousands of organisations worldwide. Fully updated to include real-life case studies, new research based on client work from an array of industries, and integration with the latest computer methods and Minitab software, the book also retains its valued textbook quality through clear learning objectives and end of chapter discussion questions. It can still serve as a textbook for both student and practicing engineers, scientists, technologists, managers and for anyone wishing to understand or implement modern statistical process control techniques.

Compiling strategies from more than 30 years of experience, this book provides numerous case studies that illustrate the implementation of noise control applications, as well as solutions to common dilemmas encountered in noise reduction processes. It offers methods for predicting the noise generation level of common systems such as fans, motors, compressors, and cooling towers, selecting the appropriate equipment to monitor sound properties, assessing the severity of environmental noise, modifying the sources, transmission paths, and receivers of sound, estimating sound pressure levels, designing mufflers, silencers, barriers, and enclosures, and isolating machine vibration.

Managers trying to do a better job have plenty flavors of the month to choose from: total quality management, continuous improvement, empowerment, teamwork-the list is endless.

Everyone is searching for a magic bullet to improve productivity; however, they would have greater success in relying on the core principles of effective management, identified more than fifty years ago.

Scholars over the years have presented the principles from different viewpoints and with different terminology, but it boils down to this: Employees want to be masters of their own fate and to have a real sense of ownership. When provided with an organizational climate that allows this, employees are able to use their own intrinsic motivation to improve productivity and maintain high quality and good service.

Good managers know that people are the only sustainable competitive advantage. They require practical guidance and tools, not flavors of the month, to support employees in realizing their full potential. Create and sustain a productive workplace from the moment you hire an employee with Core Management Principles.

This book explains supply chain management (SCM) using the strategy-structure-process-performance (SSPP) framework. Utilizing this well-known framework of contingency theory in the areas of strategic management and organizational design, SCM is firmly positioned among management theories. The author specifically proposes a theoretical foundation of SCM that will be relevant to such areas as operations management, logistics management, purchasing management, and marketing. Both the static and dynamic sides of SCM are reported. On the static side, supply chain strategies are divided into three patterns: efficiency-oriented, responsiveness-oriented, and the hybrid efficiency- and responsiveness-oriented pattern. For each strategy, suitable internal and external supply chain structures and processes are proposed. On the dynamic side, the big issue is to overcome performance trade-offs. Based on theories of organizational change, process change, and dynamic capabilities, the book presents a model of supply chain process change. On structure, the focus is on the role of an SCM steering department. Illustrative cases are included from such diverse industries as automobiles (Toyota and Nissan ), personal computers (Fujitsu), office equipment (Ricoh), air-conditioning (Daikin), tobacco (Japan Tobacco), chemicals and cosmetics (Kao), and casual fashion (Fast Retailing and Inditex).The strategy and organization of SCM is systematically presented on the basis of the SSPP framework. In particular, the relationships among three management elements-strategy, structure, and process-can be identified in an SCM context. From many of the cases contained in this volume, there emerges an understanding of how to analyze the success and failure factors of SCM using the SSPP framework. In addition, the reader sees not only the static side SCM such as process operation but also its dynamic side such as process innovation and process improvement.

The aim of this book is to present quantitative and qualitative aspects of logistics operations supporting recycling and reuse. In individual chapters, the authors address various issues related to reverse network configuration and the organization of collection, transportation, warehousing and reprocessing activities. Moreover a number of best practice examples from different countries and industries are provided. This book will be a valuable resource for both academics and practitioners who want to deepen their knowledge of logistics operations and management for recycling and reuse.

Building on the foundations of the first edition, this comprehensive textbook remains a vital tool for postgraduate students seeking to understand the principles of service operations management, and for undergraduate students specializing in hospitality, tourism and public sector management. With services accounting for 70 percent of employment and growth in our economy, this textbook explains what is needed to ensure the most efficient and effective service operations are delivered. Covering not-for-profit agencies, charities, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and utilities alongside finance, healthcare and commercial companies, this guide explores the essentials of service operations management with its innovative approach to delivering customers' imperatives in services. Written in a clear and accessible manner this updated second edition: takes an increased international perspective on service operations is updated to reflect the most significant changes in service operations management, and to provide enhanced coverage of areas touched on in the first edition includes new and updated international case studies in each chapter, ideal for use in the classroom, reflecting the increased globalisation of service operations, with internationalising updates to include content suitable for a global audience covers mobile technology and presents the author's own research embracing big data analytics and neurolinguistics in building customer service systems expands coverage of process-reengineering and service flows, business process assessments, and developing economies.

ISO 9001 is known throughout the world as the gold standard for quality process improvement, but quality assurances experts are also discovering the power of CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration). This text explores how these two models can be used together to improve process quality by quantum leaps. It shows how organizations can streamline their quality process improvement programmes by capitalizing on the similarities both models share while minimizing their differences. The authors demonstrate that organizations can save valuable resources and money as they improve quality by moving towards both ISO 9001:2000 and CMMI compliance certification.

As companies and organizations continue to grow economically, it has become pertinent to also implement business and management practices that help relieve environmental and social stressors created by manufacturing processes. Strategic Management of Sustainable Manufacturing Operations features an inclusive overview of various management practices that contribute to the sustainability efforts of an organization. Highlighting successful techniques being implemented and utilized by different companies, this publication is an essential reference source for researchers, academics, consultants, policy makers, and practitioners interested in sustainable performance measurement, supply chain design, and operations management.

Business Processes: Operational Solutions for SAP Implementation deals with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems implementation, and also business operations/processes and information systems to support business operations/processes. There are a large number of books treating ERP implementation, operations management and information systems separately, but books dedicated to all three topics applied to practical issues of ERP implementation are scarce. However, teaching ERP merely as software does not work. Uniting these three topics in one book allows the reader to avoid the problems of teaching separate fields and then connecting them in one complex solution, providing the opportunity to better educate students.

"Corporate and investor needs for profits are being met with painful cost cutting and a blind adoption of outsourcing. Our organizations look for successes and advantages onshore, offshore and, in fact, "anyshore." We struggle for change, success, and sustainability, but we persistently underestimate and misalign the resources, skills, and efforts needed. The changes based in the fundamentals of realignments and innovations have been lost, and as a result, so has our collective ability to sustain the initiatives. We've lost our innovative abilities.

"Innovative Relevance" is not just about increases in productivity, loss of domestic jobs, cultural differences, cash flow, and most recently the certification of our financial statements. It also addresses the focused utilization of multiple disciplines that are seldom practiced today--ethics, integrity, passion, and consistency.

"Innovative Relevance" represents the pragmatic prescription for globalized workforces and operations. It creates the sustainable, repeatable, and measurable roadmap for change. Without relevance, many an approach or set of facts will suffice."

This book provides a consistent and holistic managerial approach to product management and presents a practical and comprehensive methodology (roles, processes, tasks, and deliverables) that covers all aspects of product management. It helps students of product management, product management practitioners, product management organizations, and corporations understand the value, theory, and implementation of product management. It outlines a practical approach to clarify role definitions, identify responsibilities, define processes and deliverables, and improve the ability to communicate with stakeholders. The book details the fundamentals of the Blackblot Product Manager's Toolkit (R) (PMTK) product management methodology, a globally adopted best practice.

This book addresses Integrated Design Engineering (IDE), which represents a further development of Integrated Product Development (IPD) into an interdisciplinary model for both a human-centred and holistic product development. The book covers the systematic use of integrated, interdisciplinary, holistic and computer-aided strategies, methods and tools for the development of products and services, taking into account the entire product lifecycle. Being applicable to various kinds of products (manufactured, software, services, etc.), it helps readers to approach product development in a synthesised and integrated way. The book explains the basic principles of IDE and its practical application. IDE's usefulness has been demonstrated in case studies on actual industrial projects carried out by all book authors. A neutral methodology is supplied that allows the reader to choose the appropriate working practices and performance assessment techniques to develop their product quickly and efficiently. Given its manifold topics, the book offers a valuable reference guide for students in engineering, industrial design, economics and computer science, product developers and managers in industry, as well as industrial engineers and technicians.

How can we engage in a market relationship when the quality of the goods we want to acquire is unknown, invisible, or uncertain? For market exchange to be possible, purchasers and suppliers of goods must be able to assess the quality of a product in relation to other products. Only by recognizing qualities and perceiving quality differences can purchasers make non-random choices, and price differences between goods be justified. "Quality" is not a natural given, but the outcome of a social process in which products become seen as possessing certain traits, and occupying a specific position in relation to other products in the product space. While we normally take the quality of goods for granted, quality at a closer look is the outcome of a highly complex process of construction involving producers, consumers, and market intermediaries engaged in judgment, evaluation, categorization, and measurement. The authors in this volume investigate the processes through which the quality of goods is established. They also investigate how product qualities are contested and how they change over time. The empirical cases discussed cover a broad range of markets in which quality is especially difficult to assess. The cases include: halal food, funeral markets, wine, labor, school choice, financial products, antiques, and counterfeit goods. The book contributes to the sociology of markets. At the same time it connects to the larger issue of the constitution of social order through cognitive processes of classification.

In this book we have introduced the basics of the federal budget process, provided an historical background on the foundation and development of the budget process, indicated how defense spending may be measured and how it impacts the economy, described and analyzed how Planning, Programming, Budgeting and Execution System (PPBES) operates and should function to produce the annual defense budget proposal to Congress, analyzed the role of Congress in debating and deciding on defense appropriations and the politics of the budgetary process including the use of supplemental appropriations to fund national defense, analyzed budget execution dynamics, identified the principal participants in the defense budget process in the Pentagon and military commands, assessed federal and Department of Defense (DoD) financial management and business process challenges and issues, and described the processes used to resource acquisition of defense war fighting assets, including reforms in acquisition and linkages between PPBES and the defense acquisition process.

This book introduces the main concepts of manufacturing systems and presents several evaluation approaches for these systems' evaluation. The relevant macroergonomics methods are summarized and the theoretical framework for Macroergonomic Compatibility construct is explained. This book presents a Macroergonomic Compatibility Model which proposes an instrument in the form of a Macroergonomic. The authors introduce a methodology to obtain a novel Macroergonomic Compatibility Index that enables manufacturing companies to assess and follow their progress on the implementation of macroergonomics practices.

This book provides an overview of cleaner production, including how regulations have evolved, and presents a broad perspective on how it is being developed. Presenting several practical examples and applications of modern clean production technologies, it provides readers with ideas on how to extend these practices to other industry sectors in order to contribute to a better environment in the future. The authors start from the initial concepts of how to implement new cleaner production systems, before collecting recent developments in the area and demonstrating practical ways in which the latest knowledge can be applied. It motivates readers to develop new ideas on how to improve manufacturing systems to save energy and generate less waste, and discusses strategies on how to save, reuse and adapt materials, as well as techniques to reduce the waste and pollution produced. This book serves as a reference resource for industrial management engineers and researchers, and is also of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students looking for insights into cleaner production in industry.

Arogyaswamy and Simmons combine the technique of value analysis and the concept of the value chain to build a perspective on value that is at once comprehensive and practical. They provide a methodology for formulating value-based strategy as well as a system for managing the value-directed organization. The management system proposed is based upon the high value Just-in-Time (JIT) and Total Quality Control (TQC) principles successfully deployed by numerous Japanese (and more recently American) firms. In a sense, this book brings together the American and Japanese streams of value creation.

Essentially, the authors argue that accepting, and indeed increasing, interdependencies within activities (design, operations, marketing) is imperative in order not only to create value but also to build the value-creating organization. Effective integration among activities is the second key ingredient, while involvement by deemphasizing power-based relationships--by providing knowledge and information, as well as the opportunity and the desire to use both--is the third requirement, and one that makes the process of value creation self-sustaining. The authors discuss the cultural traits most conducive to value enhancement and specifically tackle the ingraining process. The measurement of improvements both in value-as received and in the process of value delivery itself is extensively discussed. Numerous practical value indicators to assess progress in value creation are proposed. Being a judicious how-to, why-to amalgam, the book will appeal equally to executives and managers seeking to install value as a guide to action, as well as to graduate and advance undergraduate students seeking the rationale underlying value management.

This book examines current and emerging challenges in manufacturing related to the ideal of developing production processes with variability and agility on one level of the system, combined with structures ensuring stability and robustness on another level; close to what by other scholars has been discussed in terms of continuous innovation. However, this ideal has proven to be difficult to achieve in practice, and there is a need for enhanced and more sophisticated theoretical models dealing with the complexity surrounding organizational conditions to foster incremental as well as radical change in production systems, and, at the same time to ensure stability over time. As a theoretical frame of reference, a perspective on change where conflicting demands and conflicting activities, e.g., exploration and exploitation, are seen as intertwined and interdependent, is used throughout the book. The ideal from this perspective is to make use of such conflicting forces and to develop the change dynamics by keeping them in the same social system, not to structurally separate them in different departments or different initiatives. The main purpose of the book is to address an increased need for quality improvement through innovation and disruptive change in production. Traditional theories and managerial models of production systems are developed with a focus on stability and improvement. There is a need for enhanced models to reach an ability to develop new future production systems. The goal of the book is to provide nuances and new perspectives giving more realistic models of the production system to be able to increase the change potentiality of the organization and thus the long-term competiveness. Learning and organizational perspectives are in focus as enablers to increase the understanding of a production system as such. Long-term competitiveness through adaptability and the potential for radical improvement is of importance throughout the book. The use of dualities and the concept of ambidextrous organizations as a frame of understanding is the innovative strength for this area.

Having achieved production quality, aggressive foreign firms are cleverly shifting emphasis to total quality marketing, which is a dynamic market-driven concept that goes beyond the currently popular total quality management approach. It centers on customer satisfaction as a way to achieve solutions to business problems. It is a market-driven idea that stresses customer satisfaction as crucial to the success of a business in a highly competitive modern business world. The concept is an enhanced version of the marketing mix--the familiar 4-P paradigm in marketing. Thus, by incorporating quality into their product, price, promotion, and distribution strategy, firms can regain market shares; and can prevent further erosion of market shares to aggressive foreign competitors from Japan, Germany, and the Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs). By not focusing on markets, firms risk losing their businesses to aggressive foreign firms.

The book is targeted to business executives, scholars, researchers, policy makers of business and government, foreign firms, and the general public. The book has eight chapters. The first chapter presents the problem of loss of market shares. Chapter two evaluates imports to identify major competitors and what they export to U.S. Chapter three focuses on the SWOT Analysis, which evaluates the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of U.S. vs. foreign firms. Chapter four unravels the market share mystique. The following chapters introduce Total Quality Marketing, explain how Total Quality Marketing is currently carried out in some firms and show the integration of quality into marketing through company examples. The last chapter provides a concluding commentary by looking into the future.