"He who stops getting better has stopped being good. " Hans Schneider, General Manager of the Siemens Amberg Electronics Factory, Industrial Excellence Award overall winner 2007 There is a general perception that inflexible labor markets and high labor costs are contributing to a massive displacement of manufacturing jobs and investment from Western Europe to Eastern Europe and Asia. The debate in Western Europe is highly charged, but sometimes ill-informed. It is true that some low-skilled jobs are moving into low labor cost countries. On the other hand, many more highly skilled jobs are actually being created in the highly developed countries. The total impact on Western economies is much more complicated, and there is some evidence of important benefits. In this book, we showcase examples of excellent industrial management that has managed to create substantial job growth in manufacturing. This book is based on 14 years' observation of the Industrial Excellence Award (IEA) in Germany and France, the first ten years of which we summarized in our previous book, Industrial Excellence (Springer 2003), and on an additional five years of obser- tion between 2002 and 2007. We have seen that management's first and noble responsibility to society is to achieve competitiveness. Competitive organizations create growth and jobs, even in Western Europe. Competitiveness requires clearly articulated strategic positioning, together with excellent execution, and mobili- tion of all employees to apply their abilities and to pull in one direction.

This book showcases how the latest and most advanced types of analytical modeling and empirical analysis can help to create value in the global supply chain. Focusing on practical relevance, it shares valuable management insights and addresses key issues in operations management (OM), demonstrating how past research has led to various practices and impacts, while also exploring the aspirations of the latest research. It presents current research on various topics such as global supply chain design, service supply chains, product design, responsible supply chains, performance and incentives in operations, data analytics in health services, new business models in the digital age, and new digital technology advances such as blockchain. In addition, it presents practical case studies on the aforementioned topics. Beyond the value of its contents, the book is intended as a tribute to Professor Morris Cohen, who has been a major contributor to advancing the research frontier in operations management and a driving force in shaping the field. Given its scope, the book will appeal to a wide readership, from researchers and PhD students to practitioners and consultants.

This textbook presents a coherent and robust structure for integrated risk management in the context of operations and finance. It explains how the operations-finance interface jointly optimizes material and financial flows under intricate risk exposures. The book covers financial flexibility, operational hedging, enterprise risk management (ERM), supply chain risk management (SCRM), integrated risk management (IRM), supply chain finance (SCF), and financial management of supply chain strategies. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches - including conceptualization, theory building, analytical modeling, and empirical research - are used to assess the value creation by integrating operations and finance. "This book provides a comprehensive description of the interactions between finance and operations and of how managers can best make decisions in recognition of these effects." John R. Birge, University of Chicago"Supply chain finance is an emerging area where innovations can unlock great values to complement the advances in information and physical flows of supply chain." Hau L. Lee, Stanford University"This book provides an excellent overview of supply chain finance and its most recent advances." Jan A. Van Mieghem, Northwestern University"This book is indispensable for advanced students as well as practitioners when looking for a pedagogical sound and scientific rigorous approach to Supply Chain Finance." Ralf W. Seifert, IMD/EPFL"The book advances our knowledge on the interface between operations and finance and provides managerial guidelines for effective risk management in the supply chain." Xiande Zhao, CEIBS

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to blockchain and distributed ledger technology. Intended as an applied guide for hands-on practitioners, the book includes detailed examples and in-depth explanations of how to build and run a blockchain from scratch. Through its conceptual background and hands-on exercises, this book allows students, teachers and crypto enthusiasts to launch their first blockchain while assuming prior knowledge of the underlying technology. How do I build a blockchain? How do I mint a cryptocurrency? How do I write a smart contract? How do I launch an initial coin offering (ICO)? These are some of questions this book answers. Starting by outlining the beginnings and development of early cryptocurrencies, it provides the conceptual foundations required to engineer secure software that interacts with both public and private ledgers. The topics covered include consensus algorithms, mining and decentralization, and many more. "This is a one-of-a-kind book on Blockchain technology. The authors achieved the perfect balance between the breadth of topics and the depth of technical discussion. But the real gem is the set of carefully curated hands-on exercises that guide the reader through the process of building a Blockchain right from Chapter 1." Volodymyr Babich, Professor of Operations and Information Management, McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University "An excellent introduction of DLT technology for a non-technical audience. The book is replete with examples and exercises, which greatly facilitate the learning of the underlying processes of blockchain technology for all, from students to entrepreneurs." Serguei Netessine, Dhirubhai Ambani Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania "Whether you want to start from scratch or deepen your blockchain knowledge about the latest developments, this book is an essential reference. Through clear explanations and practical code examples, the authors take you on a progressive journey to discover the technology foundations and build your own blockchain. From an operations perspective, you can learn the principles behind the distributed ledger technology relevant for transitioning towards blockchain-enabled supply chains. Reading this book, you'll get inspired, be able to assess the applicability of blockchain to supply chain operations, and learn from best practices recognized in real-world examples." Ralf W. Seifert, Professor of Technology and Operations Management at EPFL and Professor of Operations Management at IMD

What does excellent manufacturing management mean? Management texts to date have emphasized that it is, above methods such as SPC or TQM, a matter of "intangibles" and "culture". This book takes the myth out of management excellence; it can be learned and practiced: 1. Manage the four core processes, strategy formulation and deployment, product innovation, process development, and the supply chain, and 2. Pay attention to the seven dimensions of management quality, direction setting, integration, delegation, communication, participation, measurement, and employee development. Thus, we argue that an excellent manufacturing manager can move to a plant in a different industry and become, after an appropriate time to learn its specific technologies, an excellent manufacturing manager there as well. This book explains management quality and demonstrates how it is implemented, with nine plant tours through world-class factories from different industries.

What does "excellent manufacturing management" mean? Management texts to date have emphasized that it is, above methods such as SPC or TQM, a matter of "intangibles" and "culture." This book takes the myth out of management excellence; it can be learned and practiced. First, manage the three core processes, strategy deployment, product and process development, and the supply chain. And secondly, pay attention to the dimension of management quality, direction setting, integration and delegation, communication, participation, measurement, and employee development. This book explains management quality and demonstrates how it is implemented, with ten plant tours through world-class factories from different industries.

"He who stops getting better has stopped being good. " Hans Schneider, General Manager of the Siemens Amberg Electronics Factory, Industrial Excellence Award overall winner 2007 There is a general perception that inflexible labor markets and high labor costs are contributing to a massive displacement of manufacturing jobs and investment from Western Europe to Eastern Europe and Asia. The debate in Western Europe is highly charged, but sometimes ill-informed. It is true that some low-skilled jobs are moving into low labor cost countries. On the other hand, many more highly skilled jobs are actually being created in the highly developed countries. The total impact on Western economies is much more complicated, and there is some evidence of important benefits. In this book, we showcase examples of excellent industrial management that has managed to create substantial job growth in manufacturing. This book is based on 14 years' observation of the Industrial Excellence Award (IEA) in Germany and France, the first ten years of which we summarized in our previous book, Industrial Excellence (Springer 2003), and on an additional five years of obser- tion between 2002 and 2007. We have seen that management's first and noble responsibility to society is to achieve competitiveness. Competitive organizations create growth and jobs, even in Western Europe. Competitiveness requires clearly articulated strategic positioning, together with excellent execution, and mobili- tion of all employees to apply their abilities and to pull in one direction.

Das Buch beschreibt Fallbeispiele exzellenter Industrieunternehmen, die auf dem Weltmarkt wachsen und Arbeitsplatze in Westeuropa schaffen. Die Beispiele zeigen, wie Managementmethoden diese Unternehmen befahigen, ihre Strategie klar zu definieren und umzusetzen. Es gelingt ihnen - trotz hoher Arbeitskosten und regulatorischer Hemmnisse - eine konkurrenzstarke Position fur sich innerhalb Europas zu schaffen. Allen Unternehmen ist gemein, dass sie ihre Mitarbeiter fordern und mit definierten Methoden hinter einer klaren Strategie vereinen."

This book describes how the implementation of variable rate launching in the context of a mixed-model assembly line with unlimited customization flexibility promotes customer-centric production. Variable rate launching (VRL) - as opposed to fixed rate launching (FRL) - eliminates idle time and utility work in mixed-model assembly lines. Even in the context of limitless customization, which runs the risk of concentrated peak workloads and possible longer assembly lines, a variable takt proves to be more economical than a fixed takt. On the technical side, a fixed takt requires both a healthy balance of process times and optimal scheduling to create feasible production schedules, as using average takt does not allow workers enough time to complete their tasks for more complex products. Because the variable takt relies on similar process times for a given product across the entire line for one product, and all products are given exactly the time they need for assembly, optimal series-sequencing and regular task rescheduling can be eliminated. This book is intended as a reference guide for experienced executives in manufacturing and academics teaching operational effectiveness for customer-centric production, and makes extensive references to AGCO Fendt's modern tractor line in Marktoberdorf, Germany. The book also offers application case studies from companies in related industries such as automotive, electronics, and machine tools. The book's key message is that variation should not be universally eliminated from manufacturing. As such, the book represents a counterpoint to the philosophy advocated by the Toyota Production System.

This textbook presents a coherent and robust structure for integrated risk management in the context of operations and finance. It explains how the operations-finance interface jointly optimizes material and financial flows under intricate risk exposures. The book covers financial flexibility, operational hedging, enterprise risk management (ERM), supply chain risk management (SCRM), integrated risk management (IRM), supply chain finance (SCF), and financial management of supply chain strategies. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches - including conceptualization, theory building, analytical modeling, and empirical research - are used to assess the value creation by integrating operations and finance. "This book provides a comprehensive description of the interactions between finance and operations and of how managers can best make decisions in recognition of these effects." John R. Birge, University of Chicago"Supply chain finance is an emerging area where innovations can unlock great values to complement the advances in information and physical flows of supply chain." Hau L. Lee, Stanford University"This book provides an excellent overview of supply chain finance and its most recent advances." Jan A. Van Mieghem, Northwestern University"This book is indispensable for advanced students as well as practitioners when looking for a pedagogical sound and scientific rigorous approach to Supply Chain Finance." Ralf W. Seifert, IMD/EPFL"The book advances our knowledge on the interface between operations and finance and provides managerial guidelines for effective risk management in the supply chain." Xiande Zhao, CEIBS

This book focuses on top-down and bottom-up antecedents for employee engagement. It combines Operations Management (OM) with elements from Human Resource Management (HRM) and Organizational Behavior (OB) to answer the overarching question: "How is operations strategy formation influenced by the individual employee?" Dedicated chapters investigate key research questions, closing the integration gap between OM and HRM/OB. The book develops and statistically analyzes an operations strategy opportunity-motivation-ability framework. In addition, it examines how basic need fulfillment and organizational fairness relate to job satisfaction and performance. By doing so, the book helps readers to better understand employees' preferences and enables operations managers to foster strategy-supportive behavior and job satisfaction more effectively in their workforces.

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to blockchain and distributed ledger technology. Intended as an applied guide for hands-on practitioners, the book includes detailed examples and in-depth explanations of how to build and run a blockchain from scratch. Through its conceptual background and hands-on exercises, this book allows students, teachers and crypto enthusiasts to launch their first blockchain while assuming prior knowledge of the underlying technology. How do I build a blockchain? How do I mint a cryptocurrency? How do I write a smart contract? How do I launch an initial coin offering (ICO)? These are some of questions this book answers. Starting by outlining the beginnings and development of early cryptocurrencies, it provides the conceptual foundations required to engineer secure software that interacts with both public and private ledgers. The topics covered include consensus algorithms, mining and decentralization, and many more. "This is a one-of-a-kind book on Blockchain technology. The authors achieved the perfect balance between the breadth of topics and the depth of technical discussion. But the real gem is the set of carefully curated hands-on exercises that guide the reader through the process of building a Blockchain right from Chapter 1." Volodymyr Babich, Professor of Operations and Information Management, McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University "An excellent introduction of DLT technology for a non-technical audience. The book is replete with examples and exercises, which greatly facilitate the learning of the underlying processes of blockchain technology for all, from students to entrepreneurs." Serguei Netessine, Dhirubhai Ambani Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania "Whether you want to start from scratch or deepen your blockchain knowledge about the latest developments, this book is an essential reference. Through clear explanations and practical code examples, the authors take you on a progressive journey to discover the technology foundations and build your own blockchain. From an operations perspective, you can learn the principles behind the distributed ledger technology relevant for transitioning towards blockchain-enabled supply chains. Reading this book, you'll get inspired, be able to assess the applicability of blockchain to supply chain operations, and learn from best practices recognized in real-world examples." Ralf W. Seifert, Professor of Technology and Operations Management at EPFL and Professor of Operations Management at IMD

Dieses Buch bietet eine umfassende Einfuhrung in die Blockchain- und Distributed-Ledger-Technologie. Es ist ein Leitfaden fur Praktiker und enthalt detaillierte Beispiele und Erklarungen, wie sich eine Blockchain von Grund auf neu aufbauen und betreiben lasst. Durch seinen konzeptionellen Hintergrund und praktische UEbungen ermoeglicht dieses Buch Studenten, Lehrern und Krypto-Enthusiasten, ihre erste Blockkette zu starten, wobei Vorkenntnisse der zugrunde liegenden Technologie vorausgesetzt werden. Wie baue ich eine Blockchain auf? Wie prage ich eine Kryptowahrung? Wie schreibe ich einen Smart Contract? Wie starte ich ein Initial Coin Offering (ICO)? Dies sind einige der Fragen, die dieses Buch beantwortet. Ausgehend von den Anfangen und der Entwicklung fruher Kryptowahrungen werden die konzeptionellen Grundlagen fur die Entwicklung sicherer Software beschrieben. Die Themen umfassen u. a. Konsens-Algorithmen, Mining und Dezentralisierung. "Dies ist ein einzigartiges Buch uber die Blockchain-Technologie. Die Autoren haben die perfekte Balance zwischen Breite der Themen und Tiefe der technischen Diskussion gefunden. Aber das wahre Juwel ist die Sammlung sorgfaltig kuratierter praktischer UEbungen, die den Leser schon ab Kapitel 1 durch den Prozess des Aufbaus einer Blockchain fuhren." Volodymyr Babich, Professor fur Betriebs- und Informationsmanagement, McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University "Eine ausgezeichnete Einfuhrung in die DLT-Technologie fur ein nicht-technisches Publikum. Das Buch ist vollgepackt mit Beispielen und UEbungen, die das Erlernen der zugrunde liegenden Prozesse der Blockchain-Technologie fur alle, vom Studenten bis zum Unternehmer, erheblich erleichtern." Serguei Netessine, Dhirubhai Ambani Professor fur Innovation und Entrepreneurship, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania