This book describes a vision of manufacturing in the twenty-first century that maximizes efficiencies and improvements by exploiting the full power of information and provides a research agenda for information technology and manufacturing that is necessary for success in achieving such a vision. Research on information technology to support product and process design, shop-floor operations, and flexible manufacturing is described. Roles for virtual manufacturing and the information infrastructure are also addressed. A final chapter is devoted to nontechnical research issues.
Production and manufacturing management since the 1980s has absorbed in rapid succession several new production management concepts: manufacturing strategy, focused factory, just-in-time manufacturing, concurrent engineering, total quality management, supply chain management, flexible manufacturing systems, lean production, mass customization, and more. With the increasing globalization of manufacturing, the field will continue to expand. This encyclopedia's audience includes anyone concerned with manufacturing techniques, methods, and manufacturing decisions.
The Future of Chinese Manufacturing: Employment and Labour Challenges gives context and analysis on employment and labor issues in contemporary China, specifically relating to manufacturing industries. With one fifth of the world's workforce, China has taken advantage of its cheap labor to serve as the world's factory, achieving stunning growth for two decades. This book covers the appreciation of RMB, constant increases in minimum wage, shortages of skilled workers in China's labor-intensive manufacturing sector, and the fact that many large multinational corporations (MNCs) must cut costs, and are thus shifting their main production bases to other developing countries. Under such a tough situation, and coupled with the global economic slowdown, manufacturing employment in China confronts severe labor-related challenges, such as high turnover rates, recruitment difficulties for workers, and a series of high profile labor strikes and publicity concerning working conditions. - Integrates human capital and cultural theories - Analyzes looming labor unrest and related workforce issues in China through a unique context-specific lens - Explores the roles that Chinese institutions and culture play in resolving problems related to these issues
Freer Trade, Sustainability, and the Primary Production Sector in the Southern European Union is the first full-scale academic work to cap ture the primary production sector policy aspects of trade liberaliza tion and sustainability with a detailed focus on a typical southern EU country, Greece. Many efforts were pooled together in making this book. In May 1996 the Department of Economics of the University of Crete organ ized an international conference on European Agriculture in the light of the recent WTO agreement and the need for sustainable develop ment. The conference was sponsored by the European Commission (DG XII, contract no ENV4-CT-96-6514), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC, contract no L320263049), the Hellenic Ministries for Agriculture and for the Environment, and the University of Crete. While summarizing the conclusions of the conference, sev eral speakers felt that the issues relating to the Southern EU would de serve separate coverage. The conference directors judged that cover age of the issues for a single Southern EU country might have an ad vantage, regarding detail, over a cross country analysis which would certainly be welcome at a later stage. Responding to this call, the University of Crete generously reallo cated all of its infra-structural costs covered by DG XII, ESRC, and the other sponsors above, in the form of a new grant to host a follow-up conference aiming to explore the issues for Greece.
This interdisciplinary volume provides a critical and multi-disciplinary review of current manufacturing processes, practices, and policies, and broadens our understanding of production and innovation in the world economy. Chapters highlight how firms
Manufacturing Engineering Education includes original and unpublished chapters that develop the applications of the manufacturing engineering education field. Chapters convey innovative research ideas that have a prodigious significance in the life of academics, engineers, researchers and professionals involved with manufacturing engineering. Today, the interest in this subject is shown in many prominent global institutes and universities, and the robust momentum of manufacturing has helped the U.S. economy continue to grow throughout 2014. This book covers manufacturing engineering education, with a special emphasis on curriculum development, and didactic aspects. - Includes original and unpublished chapters that develop the applications of the manufacturing engineering education principle - Applies manufacturing engineering education to curriculum development - Offers research ideas that can be applied to the work of academics, engineers, researchers and professionals
How to rethink innovation and revitalize America's declining manufacturing sector by encouraging advanced manufacturing, bringing innovative technologies into the production process. The United States lost almost one-third of its manufacturing jobs between 2000 and 2010. As higher-paying manufacturing jobs are replaced by lower-paying service jobs, income inequality has been approaching third world levels. In particular, between 1990 and 2013, the median income of men without high school diplomas fell by an astonishing 20% between 1990 and 2013, and that of men with high school diplomas or some college fell by a painful 13%. Innovation has been left largely to software and IT startups, and increasingly U.S. firms operate on a system of “innovate here/produce there,” leaving the manufacturing sector behind. In this book, William Bonvillian and Peter Singer explore how to rethink innovation and revitalize America's declining manufacturing sector. They argue that advanced manufacturing, which employs such innovative technologies as 3-D printing, advanced material, photonics, and robotics in the production process, is the key. Bonvillian and Singer discuss transformative new production paradigms that could drive up efficiency and drive down costs, describe the new processes and business models that must accompany them, and explore alternative funding methods for startups that must manufacture. They examine the varied attitudes of mainstream economics toward manufacturing, the post-Great Recession policy focus on advanced manufacturing, and lessons from the new advanced manufacturing institutes. They consider the problem of “startup scaleup,” possible new models for training workers, and the role of manufacturing in addressing “secular stagnation” in innovation, growth, the middle classes, productivity rates, and related investment. As recent political turmoil shows, the stakes could not be higher.
Manufacturing’s central role in global innovation Companies compete on the decisions they make. For years—even decades—in response to intensifying global competition, companies decided to outsource their manufacturing operations in order to reduce costs. But we are now seeing the alarming long-term effect of those choices: in many cases, once manufacturing capabilities go away, so does much of the ability to innovate and compete. Manufacturing, it turns out, really matters in an innovation-driven economy. In Producing Prosperity, Harvard Business School professors Gary Pisano and Willy Shih show the disastrous consequences of years of poor sourcing decisions and underinvestment in manufacturing capabilities. They reveal how today’s undervalued manufacturing operations often hold the seeds of tomorrow’s innovative new products, arguing that companies must reinvest in new product and process development in the US industrial sector. Only by reviving this “industrial commons” can the world’s largest economy build the expertise and manufacturing muscle to regain competitive advantage. America needs a manufacturing renaissance—for restoring itself, and for the global economy as a whole. This will require major changes. Pisano and Shih show how company-level choices are key to the sustained success of industries and economies, and they provide business leaders with a framework for understanding the links between manufacturing and innovation that will enable them to make better outsourcing decisions. They also detail how government must change its support of basic and applied scientific research, and promote collaboration between business and academia. For executives, policymakers, academics, and innovators alike, Producing Prosperity provides the clearest and most compelling account yet of how the American economy lost its competitive edge—and how to get it back.
The growth of manufacturing industries is one of the key sectors in helping to mitigate global recessions. Productivity Growth in the Manufacturing Sector thoroughly discusses issues and potential remedies of this sector for a range of international countries.
