It has been almost 20 years since the Institute of Medicine released the seminal report titled, Crossing the Quality Chasm. In it, the IoM identified six domains of care quality (safe, timely, effective, efficient, equitable, and patient-centric) and noted a huge gap between the current state and the desired state. Although this report received a great deal of attention, sadly there has been little progress in these areas. In the U.S., healthcare still has huge disparities, is inefficient, and is fragmented with delays in care that are often unsafe. Most U.S. citizens are expected to suffer from a diagnostic error sometime during their lifetime, not receive a large fraction of recommended care, and pay for one of the most expensive systems in the world. Much has been written about quality improvement over the years but many prominent quality and safety experts. Yet progress has been slow. Some have called on the healthcare professions to look outside of healthcare to other industries using examples in nuclear power and airlines for safety, the hotel and entertainment industry for a 'customer' focus, and the automotive industry, particularly Toyota for efficiency (Lean). This book by Dr. Oppenheim on lean healthcare systems engineering (LHSE) is a fresh approach that brings forth concepts that systems engineers have used in huge national defense projects. What's unique in this book is that these powerful system engineering tools are modified to be able to address smaller sized healthcare problems that still involve similar problems in fragmentation and poor communication and coordination. This book is an invaluable reference for a new powerful process named Lean Healthcare Systems Engineering (LHSE) for managing workflow and care improvement projects in all clinical environments. The book applies to ambulatory clinics and hospitals of all types including operating rooms, emergency departments, and ancillary departments, clinical and imaging laboratories, pharmacies, and population health. The book presents a generic rigorous but not mathematical step-by-step process of integrated healthcare, systems engineering and Lean. The book also contains the first major product created with the LHSE process, namely tabularized summaries of representative projects in healthcare delivery applications, called Lean Enablers for Healthcare Projects. Each full-page enabler table lists the challenges and wastes, powerful improvement goals, risks, and expected benefits, and some useful descriptions of the healthcare system of interest. The book provides user-friendly solutions to major problems in healthcare delivery operations in all clinical environments, addressing fragmentation, wastes, wrong incentives, ad-hoc and stove-piped management, lack of optimized processes, hierarchy gradient, lack of systems thinking, "blaming and shaming culture", burnout of providers and many others.

It has been almost 20 years since the Institute of Medicine released the seminal report titled, Crossing the Quality Chasm. In it, the IoM identified six domains of care quality (safe, timely, effective, efficient, equitable, and patient-centric) and noted a huge gap between the current state and the desired state. Although this report received a great deal of attention, sadly there has been little progress in these areas. In the U.S., healthcare still has huge disparities, is inefficient, and is fragmented with delays in care that are often unsafe. Most U.S. citizens are expected to suffer from a diagnostic error sometime during their lifetime, not receive a large fraction of recommended care, and pay for one of the most expensive systems in the world. Much has been written about quality improvement over the years but many prominent quality and safety experts. Yet progress has been slow. Some have called on the healthcare professions to look outside of healthcare to other industries using examples in nuclear power and airlines for safety, the hotel and entertainment industry for a 'customer' focus, and the automotive industry, particularly Toyota for efficiency (Lean). This book by Dr. Oppenheim on lean healthcare systems engineering (LHSE) is a fresh approach that brings forth concepts that systems engineers have used in huge national defense projects. What's unique in this book is that these powerful system engineering tools are modified to be able to address smaller sized healthcare problems that still involve similar problems in fragmentation and poor communication and coordination. This book is an invaluable reference for a new powerful process named Lean Healthcare Systems Engineering (LHSE) for managing workflow and care improvement projects in all clinical environments. The book applies to ambulatory clinics and hospitals of all types including operating rooms, emergency departments, and ancillary departments, clinical and imaging laboratories, pharmacies, and population health. The book presents a generic rigorous but not mathematical step-by-step process of integrated healthcare, systems engineering and Lean. The book also contains the first major product created with the LHSE process, namely tabularized summaries of representative projects in healthcare delivery applications, called Lean Enablers for Healthcare Projects. Each full-page enabler table lists the challenges and wastes, powerful improvement goals, risks, and expected benefits, and some useful descriptions of the healthcare system of interest. The book provides user-friendly solutions to major problems in healthcare delivery operations in all clinical environments, addressing fragmentation, wastes, wrong incentives, ad-hoc and stove-piped management, lack of optimized processes, hierarchy gradient, lack of systems thinking, "blaming and shaming culture", burnout of providers and many others.

For me and other tech people, leaders, and members of remote teams, we will be awakened by all the fantastic hands-on hints, best practices, and guiding principles based on solid ground that Hubbert provides in Inspiring Remote Tech Teams. We will be better prepared and better equipped to both contribute and lead efficiently in the digital economies that shape the future of our world. - Thomas DiGiacomo, President of Engineering and Innovation at SUSE Inspiring Remote Tech Teams is a trail map to building effective teams and organizations-now, as world health dictates remote work, and in the future, as global talent pools contribute to our digital economy. Humans are wired to be social, and world events require social distancing from our office community. The absence of "community" triggers primitive brain responses. These instinctual responses of survival, social belonging, and the power of story all profoundly surface during our reaction as we adjust to remote work. This trail map for team leaders improves team execution despite physical separation. The book covers simple neuroscience as it applies to our "separation." It is a hands-on guide to maintaining and improving teamwork while working remotely. It is also a hands-on guide at the intersection of teams + remote + laymen's neuroscience to create a positive sense of enthusiasm, engagement, and contribution, even when working apart. Remote teams, now and for the future, are the pathway to using global talent effectively. This book examines the combination of the "hard skills" of tech team project management and the "soft skills" of healthy distributed teams: remote offices, sales offices, partners, suppliers, customers, and teams engaging global talent pools. Practical examples and best practices offer hands-on methods to use neuroscience to help teams be their best, to improve collaboration, and to deliver consistent team results.

Project Management for Engineers, as the title suggests, is a direct attempt at addressing the ever-increasing and specific needs for better project management of engineering students, practicing engineers and managers in the industry. It aims not only to present the principles and techniques of Project Management, but also to discuss project management standards, processes and requirements, such as PMBOK, IEEE and PRINCE.Each chapter begins with the basics of the theme being developed at a level understandable to an undergraduate, before more complex topics are introduced at the end of each section that are suitable for graduate students. For the practicing professionals or managers in the industry, the book also provides many real illustrations of practical application of the principles of Project Management.Through a realistic blend of theory and practical examples, as well as an integration of the engineering technical issues with business issues, this book seeks to remove the veil of mystery that has shrouded the profession from its very beginning.

Speed, social change, historical inheritance and cultural gaps are key factors which have significant impact on global collaboration and global sourcing. The author explains how working in virtual teams in a global, multicultural environment requires a significant amount of organizational and behavioral change of people and organizations. Understanding cultural differences in working styles is important for successful global project management. Major theories of international management, company internationalization, cultural dimensions and distances will be discussed to develop cross-cultural competencies and conflict management styles for international project managers. They will understand modern theories and methods of international management and will be able to apply these to practical project management problems. They understand the benefits and challenges of international cooperation and know how to identify modes of cooperation that are relevant to the needs of international teams.

Assisting organizations in improving their project management processes, the Project Management Maturity Model defines the industry standard for measuring project management maturity and agile and adaptive capabilities. Project Management Maturity Model, Fourth Edition provides a roadmap showing organizations how to move to higher levels of organizational behavior, improving project success and organizational performance. It's a comprehensive tool for enhancing project management practices, covering areas critical to organizational improvement, such as the project management office, management oversight, and professional development. It also provides methods for optimizing project management processes and suggestions for deploying the model as a strategic tool in improving business outcomes. New material in each chapter also outlines good practices for implementing adaptive an agile processes. The book also includes the Project Portfolio Management Maturity Model, which covers best practices for determining portfolio maturity, setting short-term priorities, implementing benefits realization management, improving portfolio management processes and tracking progress. The author, J. Kent Crawford, CEO of PM Solutions, describes the basics of project management maturity, including the benefits of assessing maturity, and presents a comprehensive framework for improving organization's processes. Chapters are based on the ten project management knowledge areas specified in the Project Management Institute's standard, the PMBOK (R) Guide. This edition provides new and revised materials based on the PMBOK (R) Guide including a fresh focus on agile and adaptive methods, benefits realization, and organizational change management. Organizations can use this book to: Determine the maturity of your organization's project management processes Gauge readiness for agile transformation Map out a logical path to improve your organization's processes Set priorities for short-term process improvement Track and visualize improvements in project management over time Learn to translate process maturity into business results After an objective assessment, an organization can set its goals for increasing the capability of its processes and develop a plan for reaching those goals. This book is ideal for anyone involved with improving the capability of an organization's project and portfolio management processes.

The aim of this book is to provide a single source of information to support continuing professional development (CPD) in the built environment sector. The book offers a comprehensive introduction to the concept of CPD and provides robust guidance on the methods and benefits of identifying, planning, monitoring, actioning, and recording CPD activities. It brings together theories, standards, professional and industry requirements, and contemporary arguments around individual personal and professional development. Practical techniques and real-life best practice examples outlined from within and outside of the industry empower the reader to take control of their own built environment-related development, whilst also providing information on how to develop fellow staff members. The contents covered in this book align with the requirements of numerous professional bodies, such as the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), and the Chartered Institute of Builders (CIOB). The chapters are supported by case studies, templates, practical advice, and guidance. The book is designed to help all current and future built environment professionals manage their own CPD as well as managing the CPD of others. This includes helping undergraduate and postgraduate students complete CPD requirements for modules as part of a wide range of built environment university degree courses and current built environment professionals of all levels and disciplines who wish to enhance their careers through personal and professional development, whether due to professional body requirements or by taking control of identifying and achieving their own educational needs.

Business Agility is an approach that gives the right business flexibility and fast decision-making in a volatile environment, providing a great capacity for innovation, adaptation and change. Businesses everywhere are trying to 'get business agile' - but it's not easy to adapt to becoming this adaptive. How can conventional organisations succeed in this transformation? In this book, project and change management expert Peter Taylor walks you through the change process step by step, providing a tried and tested transformation roadmap: benefits are outlined, solutions to common challenges offered, and tried and tested methods and tools provided. He guides you towards a decentralised management style that offers more successful decision making through collaboration. By reducing processes, adjusting the governance and believing in 'the power of the people' to deliver simple success in a time of complex demand, the guidance in this book will help any manager get Business Agile.

This book will change the way you think about problems. It focuses on creating solutions to all sorts of complex problems by taking a practical, problem-solving approach. It discusses not only what needs to be done, but it also provides guidance and examples of how to do it. The book applies systems thinking to systems engineering and introduces several innovative concepts such as direct and indirect stakeholders and the Nine-System Model, which provides the context for the activities performed in the project, along with a framework for successful stakeholder management. A list of the figures and tables in this book is available at https://www.crcpress.com/9781138387935. FEATURES * Treats systems engineering as a problem-solving methodology * Describes what tools systems engineers use and how they use them in each state of the system lifecycle * Discusses the perennial problem of poor requirements, defines the grammar and structure of a requirement, and provides a template for a good imperative construction statement and the requirements for writing requirements * Provides examples of bad and questionable requirements and explains the reasons why they are bad and questionable * Introduces new concepts such as direct and indirect stakeholders and the Shmemp! * Includes the Nine-System Model and other unique tools for systems engineering

This book applies systems thinking to treat project management in a systemic and systematic manner from a problem-solving perspective. Considering the project as a system, the book discusses traditional project planning and organizing, as well as some neglected aspects of the project, namely how to prevent cost and schedule escalation, how to deal with change, recognize problems in time to prevent project failure and what to do when things go wrong during the implementation states of a project. This book provides you with a better understanding of the systems approach to problem-solving and project management that will enable you to be more successful at managing projects. Features Treats projects as systems Presents project management as a problem-solving paradigm Discusses how to incorporate prevention into planning and how to show the value Describes what to do and how to cope with unanticipated problems that arise during the project implementation state Introduces new tools and techniques

This book defines, develops, and examines the foundations of the APQP (Advanced Product Quality Planning) methodology. It explains in detail the five phases, and it relates its significance to national, international, and customer specific standards. It also includes additional information on the PPAP (Production Part Approval Process), Risk, Warranty, GD&T (Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing), and the role of leadership as they apply to the continual improvement process of any organization. Features Defines and explains the five stages of APQP in detail Identifies and zeroes in on the critical steps of the APQP methodology Covers the issue of risk as it is defined in the ISO 9001, IATF 16949, the pending VDA, and the OEM requirements Presents the role of leadership and management in the APQP methodology Summarizes all of the change requirements of the IATF standard

Systems Thinker's Toolbox: Tools for Managing Complexity provides more than 100 tools based on systems thinking and beyond. Each tool is described, and when necessary, examples are provided of how each of them can be used. Some of the simplest tools can be combined into more complex tools. The tools may be things such as lists, causal loops, and templates, as well as processes and methodologies. Key Features Provides an explanation of the two views of systems thinking; systemic and systematic thinking, and then shows how to perform each of them in a complimentary manner Presents a set of thinking tools that can be used to apply systems thinking to solving problems in project management, engineering, systems engineering, new product development, and business Describes the tools from simple such as lists, and goes on to more complex such as Categorized Requirements in Process (CRIP) charts, and then onto the processes Introduces new tools that have been tested with positive feedback Discusses a set of communication tools that can improve project reviews and communicating innovative ideas

This book presents a set of tools that will aid in deciding whether a project should go ahead, be improved, or abandoned altogether by pinpointing its vulnerabilities. It offers a review of project feasibility analysis, and more critically, psychodynamic aspects that are often neglected, including how stakeholders interact. It provides a complement to the common techniques used for analyzing technical, financial, and marketing feasibility. The goal is to identify "hidden truths" and eliminate those gray areas that jeopardize the success of a given project. The focus is on uncovering points of vulnerabilities in four key aspects of a project: People, Power, Processes, and Plan.

This book is a must-have resource for those engineering professionals seeking out best practice in engineering leadership and innovation. It is underpinned by years of applied experience in engineering settings, and is designed to develop and prepare engineers as leaders to accept the technical and managerial challenges that they will face as professionals At a time when engineering and innovation in technology is of importance on so many fronts, this text encourages engineers and technical professionals to become effective, socially conscious leaders and innovators. The text and course material is designed to create an environment of interactive, high-engagement learning that will produce lifelong skills. Some of the many benefits of this book include: Accompanying notes, instructor's manual, sample syllabi for qualifying textbook adoption; A complementary website with a wealth of ancillary resources; Case studies in STEM contexts; An international approach, underpinned by years of experience in US settings; Practical advice on how to distinguish yourself as an engineering leader; A solid grounding in ethics and professional responsibility. Drawing together best practice in engineering leadership education, and current research in the field, this book is an essential read for those wishing to develop expertise in engineering leadership. Current professionals in the field, educators as well as students of engineering wishing to excel, will all be particularly interested readers.

Graduate research is a complicated process, which many undergraduate students aspire to undertake. The complexity of the process can lead to failures for even the most brilliant students. Success at the graduate research level requires not only a high level of intellectual ability but also a high level of project management skills. Unfortunately, many graduate students have trouble planning and implementing their research. Project Management for Research: A Guide for Graduate Students reflects the needs of today's graduate students. All graduate students need mentoring and management guidance that has little to do with their actual classroom performance. Graduate students do a better job with their research programs if a self-paced guide is available to them. This book provides such a guide. It covers topics ranging from how to select an appropriate research problem to how to schedule and execute research tasks. The authors take a project management approach to planning and implementing graduate research in any discipline. They use a conversational tone to address the individual graduate student. This book helps graduate students and advisors answer most of the basic questions of conducting and presenting graduate research, thereby alleviating frustration on the part of both student and advisor. It presents specific guidelines and examples throughout the text along with more detailed examples in reader-friendly appendices at the end. By being more organized and prepared to handle basic research management functions, graduate students, along with their advisors, will have more time for actual intellectual mentoring and knowledge transfer, resulting in a more rewarding research experience.

Winner of the IIE Book of the Month for June 2012 A project can be simple or complex. In each case, proven project management processes must be followed. In all cases of project management implementation, control must be exercised in order to assure that project objectives are achieved. Statistical Techniques for Project Control seamlessly integrates qualitative and quantitative tools and techniques for project control. It fills the void that exists in the application of statistical techniques to project control. The book begins by defining the fundamentals of project management then explores how to temper quantitative analysis with qualitative human judgment that makes project control nebulous but also offers opportunities to innovate and be creative in achieving control. The authors then discuss the three factors (time, budget, and performance) that form the basis of the operating characteristics of a project that also help determine the basis for project control. They then focus on computational network techniques for project schedule (time) control. Although designed as a practical guide for project management professionals, the book also appeals to students, researchers, and instructors.

The highly competitive and globalized software market is creating pressure on software companies. Given the current boundary conditions, it is critical to continuously increase time-to-market and reduce development costs. In parallel, driven by private life experiences with mobile computing devices, the World Wide Web and software-based services, peoples general expectations with regards to software are growing. They expect software that is simple and joyful to use. In the light of the changes that have taken place in recent years, software companies need to fundamentally reconsider the way they develop and deliver software to their customers.

This book introduces fundamentals, trends and best practices in the software industry from a threefold perspective which equally takes into account design, management, and development of software. It demonstrates how cross-functional integration can be leveraged by software companies to successfully build software for people. Professionals from business and academia give an overview on state-of-the-art knowledge and report on key insights from their real-life experience. They provide guidance and hands-on recommendation on how to create winning products. This combined perspective fosters the transfer of knowledge between research and practice and offers a high practical value for both sides.

The book targets both, practitioners and academics looking for successfully building software in the future. It is directed at Managing Directors of software companies, Software Project Managers, Product Managers and Designers, Software Developers as well as academics and students in the area of Software and Information Systems Engineering, Human Computer Interaction (HCI), and Innovation Management. "

This book is an introductory text on building measurement and estimating for simple buildings in Hong Kong, based on the Hong Kong Standard Method of Measurement of Building Works 4th Edition Revised 2018 (HKSMM4 Rev 2018). It provides a toolkit for students and surveying technicians who are new to the subject. This second edition updates the contents in line with the HKSMM4 Rev 2018 and incorporates the latest industry developments such as BIM. The main text is divided into five parts following the development of a typical project. Part 1, Building the project team, introduces the team setup for a typical project. Part 2, Deciding the procurement strategy, explains the various procurement decisions to be made by an employer before any cost estimating and measurement work takes place. Part 3, Preparing for tender, covers the tendering methods, tender documentation and approximate estimating techniques used by Quantity Surveyors. Part 4, Measuring quantities, introduces measurement principles and HKSMM4 Rev 2018, followed by a detailed review of the measurement methods for each major trade, with worked examples. Part 5, Estimating unit rates, explores the basic techniques for unit rate preparation. The book contains worked examples from real Hong Kong building projects, self-assessment questions, reminders and points of note. It is essential reading for Hong Kong construction and surveying students, international Quantity Surveyors working in the local area and those wanting international examples of Quantity Surveryors practice.

This book is quite simply about contract administration using the JCT contracts. The key features of the new and updated edition continue to be its brevity, readability and relevance to everyday practice. It provides a succinct guide written from the point of view of a construction practitioner, rather than a lawyer, to the traditional form of contract with bills of quantities SBC/Q2016, the design and build form DB2016 and the minor works form MWD2016. The book broadly follows the sequence of producing a building from the initial decision to build through to completion. Chapters cover: Procurement and tendering Payments, scheduling, progress and claims Contract termination and insolvency Indemnity and insurance Supply chain problems, defects and subcontracting issues Quality, dealing with disputes and adjudication How to administer contracts for BIM-compliant projects JCT contracts are administered by a variety of professionals including project managers, architects, engineers, quantity surveyors and construction managers. It is individuals in these groups, whether experienced practitioner or student, who will benefit most from this clear, concise and highly relevant book.

This is a comprehensive book on infrastructure development and construction management. It is written keeping in mind the curricula of construction management programmes in India and abroad. It covers infrastructure development, the construction industry in India, financial analysis of the real estate industry in India, economic analysis of projects, tendering and bidding, contracts and contract management, FIDIC conditions of contract, construction disputes and claims, arbitration, conciliation and dispute resolution, international construction project exports and identifying, analysing and managing construction project risk. Thus, this book covers most of the construction management activities that are carried out at different stages of a construction project. This is an essential book for students of construction management, construction professionals, academicians and researchers.

The fast-changing evolutionary process of global Higher Education systems systematically poses new challenges related to the appearance of innovative elements that lead academic governing bodies to question current managerial structures and methods. Due to this, theory and practice have gathered multiple contributions and experiences to support and further develop this evolutionary pathway during the past decades. Global competitiveness, economic and social growth are driven worldwide by knowledge and innovation. In this context, Higher Education Institutions play a crucial role as they primarily contribute to knowledge transfer and development and, as a result, foster regional development, employment, and economic wealth. The relevance of this role leads Universities to explore alternative solutions for managing their performance according to a sustainable perspective. This book draws on this flourishing debate on Higher Education policy and management and investigates an innovative systemic perspective to design and implement sustainable performance management systems for academic institutions. The conditions for the success of Universities, the critical issues underlying the creation of academic value, the dynamic complexity characterizing academic governance settings, the pluralistic audience of stakeholders and related expectations, the causal interplays between organizational performance variables, represent some of the central themes around which this work is developed. More specifically, the book suggests and discusses the adoption of a Dynamic Performance Management approach to frame the inherent organizational complexity of Higher Education Institutions, thus supporting a strategic learning perspective to design and implement relevant performance measures. This approach originates from the combination between conventional performance management and System Dynamics modeling. Many research and practice contributions prove that this methodological combination can boost the understanding and interpretation of value creation processes by identifying and exploring the causal connections amongst strategic resource allocation and consumption, corresponding performance drivers, emerging outputs, and outcomes. To test the effectiveness of this approach in University settings, a wide range of examples is offered in each book chapter. This allows readers to explore the advantages, limitations, and practical implications of adopting Dynamic Performance Management in Higher Education Institutions, as well as guide academic decision-makers towards a more robust approach to design and implement strategic management mechanisms in Universities.

In an increasingly globalised built environment industry, achieving higher levels of integration across organisational and software boundaries can lead to improved economic, social and environmental outcomes. This book is the direct result of a collaborative global network of industry and academic researchers spread across nine countries as part of CIB's (International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction) Task Group 90 (TG90) Information Integration in Construction (IICON). The book provides a broad view of some of the opportunities and challenges brought by integrating information across organisational and system boundaries in the built environment industry. Chapters cover a large range of topics and are separated into three sections: resources, processes and added value. They provide a much-needed international perspective on a current global evolution in the industry and present leading original research and valuable lessons for researchers, industry practitioners, government clients and policy makers across the industry. Key features include: a broad range of topics that are not covered elsewhere in the literature; contributions from a diverse group of industry research leaders from across the globe; exemplar case studies providing real-world examples of where information integration has been a key factor for success or lack thereof has been at the root cause of failure; an analysis of future priority areas for research and development investment as well as their strategic implications for public and private decision-makers; the book will deliver innovation in best practice methodology for information sharing across disciplines and between the design, construction and asset management sectors.

This fully revised and updated edition of Construction Contracts: Questions and Answers includes 300 questions and incorporates 42 new judicial decisions, the JCT 2016 updates and the RIBA Building Contracts and Professional Services Contracts 2018 updates. Construction professionals of all kinds frequently need legal advice that is straightforward as well as authoritative and legally rigorous. Building on the success of previous editions, David Chappell continues to provide answers to real-world FAQs from his experience as consultant and Specialist Advisor to the RIBA. Questions range in content from extensions of time, liquidated damages and loss and/or expense to issues of practical completion, defects, valuation, certificates and payment, architects' instructions, adjudication and fees. Every question included has been asked of David Chappell during his career and his answers are authoritative but written as briefly and simply as possible. Legal language is avoided but legal cases are given to enable anyone interested to read more deeply into the reasoning behind the answers. This is not only a useful reference for architects, project managers, quantity surveyors and lawyers, but also a useful student resource to stimulate interesting discussions about real-world construction contract issues.

Organizations regularly assume that the culture, values, dynamic and organization of their temporary project organizations are merely a smaller version of the original parent. Given that project organizations are made up of people and teams drawn, in most cases, from outside and inside the parent, these assumptions are nonsensical. But they do explain why the HR function finds it difficult to adapt to the project environment. Martina Huemann's research in Human Resource Management in the Project-Oriented Organization, offers insight into an approach that is designed to align HR to the needs of the project organization, in terms of management structure, reward, recruitment and performance systems. The text analyses how the modern HR organization stacks up alongside the temporary organization that is the project, to identify the HR constraints and needs of the project organisation and offer a model of project-oriented HRM. Professor Huemann had a deep interest in how and why change processes come into existence and how to design and enable them. In her book she endeavors to bridge theory and practice, strategy and operations.

This book presents some twenty case studies, showing how companies in different industry sectors and of different sizes make advances in Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). Like the author's previous volumes, this book provides a valuable resource for those wishing to learn about PLM and how to implement and apply it in their companies. Helping readers to * learn about implementing and benefiting from PLM; * learn about good PLM solutions and best practice; * improve their planning and decision-making abilities; * benefit from the lessons learned by the companies featured in the case studies; * proceed faster and further with PLM the book presents effective PLM solutions and best practices. At the same time, the case studies included demonstrate how different companies implement and benefit from PLM. Each case study is addressed in a separate chapter and details a different situation, enabling readers to put themselves in the situation and think through different actions and decisions. A valuable resource for PLM team managers and employees in engineering and manufacturing companies, the book is also of interest to researchers and students in industrial engineering fields.