Suchergebnisse

AN INTERIM STATE SUBSIDY FOR BUS SERVICE ENDED THE "CONNECTICUT BUS CRISIS" OF 1972-73 BUT FAILED TO RESOLVE MANY QUESTIONS ABOUT TEH NATURE OF ANY FUTURE SUBSIDY AND THE CEASONS BEHIND THE APPARENT NEED FOR SUBSIDY FUNDS. THE AUTHOR FINDS THAT SUBSIDY AND A RELAXATION OF REGULATORY CONSTRAINST ARE APPROPRIATE POLICIES TO PURSUE IF BUS TRANSIT IS TO BE CONTINUED.

"All kinds of processes - those that make things or deliver services or operate companies - can be made more productive, and society's continued well-being requires it. This book is for all those with a stake in improving how companies run. It introduces the concept of 'swift, even flow' and explains how that concept stands behind popular business tools such as 'lean' principles and Six Sigma. More than that, it shows how swift, even flow can lead to deep, strategic insights and fresh ideas. The book uses many examples, both contemporary and historic, and 16 case studies from all sorts of business situations to demonstrate how swift, even flow can be applied. Services and manufacturing, supply chains and individual operations, product development and outsourcing, strategy and tactics, hourly workers and top level executives - all benefit from this fundamental re-thinking of what it takes to become productive"--

ABSTRACTAs new media proliferate, professors need to be particularly attentive to the ways by which students learn—in and out of the classroom—and how scarce classroom time can be organized. This article argues that professors' comparative advantage lies as an exemplar of discipline‐based thinking. Effective training in how to think about problems (the essence of any discipline) demands that professors embrace the classroom as theater, where business drama and the story it tells can capture the hearts and minds of the student participants. The article talks through a case as theater.

ABSTRACTThe records of superior performance of selected service firms over many years suggest that they may be more productive than others. This article uses the Theory of Swift, Even Flow to explain why that might be true. In the process, this article improves Schmenner's 1986 service process matrix. The redefinition of the axes of this matrix and of the resulting diagonal leads to enhanced understanding of productivity for service operations and helps to explain how some leading service companies have been able to sustain their competitive positions for decades.

For the plant manager there are many suggested remedies for
increased plant productivity. Detailed survey data from 555 factories,
principally in the US, Europe and Korea, are used to examine the factors
that contribute to productivity. Regression analysis is employed with
five distinct measures of productivity and productivity gain and the
results indicate a number of key variables are responsible. Many
similarities are reported across the three samples analysed, but three
factors stand out: improved flow of materials; investment in new
technology; and human resource initiatives.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explain why the historical integration of manufacturing with service was quickly seen as advantageous in some circumstances, but not so in others.Design/methodology/approachThe paper reviews the history of manufacturing companies in the USA during the last half of the nineteenth century, categorizes them, and ties them to theory.FindingsThe bundling of manufactured goods to downstream‐available services was led by companies with new products but with no great manufacturing strengths, as a way to establish barriers to entry. Companies with significant manufacturing capabilities were not as quick or as complete in their integration of manufacturing and service.Originality/valueThis paper shows that servitization has antecedents that go back 150 years.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to document the extent to which the relative performance of plants varies over an extended period of time, with some plants performing persistently well and sister plants performing persistently poorly. It examines why this phenomenon occurs.Design/methodology/approachIt does so through interviews and surveys of senior manufacturing executives who oversee multiple plants.FindingsThe interview and survey results are consistent with one another and point to the importance of the "mentality" of a plant's management and workforce: how they think about the factory and its operations. The nature of that mentality is explored.Originality/valueThis paper captures what the "grey hairs" of manufacturing think of factory performance and how to pursue it.

PurposeTo provide an update on a paper published in 1987 in IJOPM.Design/methodology/approachProvides an assessment and update of "An agenda for research on the flexibility of manufacturing processes".FindingsGerwin's seminal work added welcome rigor to a concept, manufacturing flexibility, which had gained prominence during the previous decade. Finds that many of Gerwin's insights have stood the test of time. A number of things have changed since that time, but others have remained much as they were. Machines have become more capable and computer‐based controls have improved machine and process flexibility, but the character of that flexibility has remained very much the same.Originality/valueRevisits Gerwin's conceptualization of manufacturing process flexibility and subsequent progress in understanding it.

Using a two‐round Delphi process among 92 manufacturing managers from
around the world, assesses the appropriateness of a variety of
performance measures. The Delphi process used a survey technique that
was pioneered by Dixon, Nanni, and Vollmann to highlight gaps (high
perceived importance to the company but low weight in the performance
measurement system) and false alarms (low perceived importance to the
company but high weight in the performance measurement system). Direct
cost reduction, machine efficiency, and labour efficiency are almost
universally seen as false alarms. On the other hand, new product
introduction, customer satisfaction, and employee involvement are
frequently revealed to be gaps, although with less consistency.
Cross‐industry comparisons are a distinctive feature of this research.

ABSTRACTOrder picking, the assembly of a customer's order from items in storage, is an essential link in the supply chain and is the major cost component of warehousing. The critical issue is to simultaneously reduce the cost and increase the speed of the order picking activity. This study departs from the limited prior research that focused on either routing of workers or storage of warehoused items. The main objectives are to (1) evaluate various routing heuristics versus an optimal routine in a volume‐based storage environment, (2) propose several methods of implementing volume‐based storage, and (3) examine the interaction of the routing and storage policies under different operating conditions of pick list size and demand skewness. The experimental results show statistically significant differences in the mean route distance for the routing policies, storage policies, and their interactions. Further testing indicates that the choice of certain routing and storage policies in combination can result in increased picking efficiency.