Large-scale, complex systems like the health sector or transport are achallenge to manage; traditional strategic approaches often fail due to thediversity of different stakeholders and the lack of a cohesive strategy languagethat all within it can understand. What is needed in such systemsis a new, fresh, scalable, “open source” framework: one that is “editable”by those at all levels within the organisation.This book provides practitioners an...

Organisations continue to struggle with their strategies; even when they have a strategy development process, their plans rarely have the impact that was intended. Too many of their people don't know about the strategy, don't understand it or can't translate it into what it means for their role. Validating Strategies addresses the taxonomy, syntax and semantics of strategies; in other words: what does the strategy say, how does it relate to other plans, what are the causalities between the...

Updated to account for ISO 55000, Benchmarking Best Practices for Maintenance, Reliability and Asset Management, Third Edition, now includes an overview of this seminal and long-awaited standard and identifies the specific points where ISO 55000 will impact maintenance and reliability. New graphics to enhance the text’s main points have been added throughout.As with past editions, the third edition provides a logical, step-by-step methodology that will enable any company t...

Significantly extended from the first edition and published in response to the new international standard ISO55000, this book on physical asset management (2nd Ed.) presents a systematic approach to the management of physical assets from concept to disposal. It introduces the general principles of physical asset management and covers all stages of the asset management process, including initial business appraisal, identification of fixed asset needs, capability gap analysis, financial eval...

This book is one of the first fully-fledged studies to examine the next world-class industrial leaders emerging from China and India; exploring the domestic and international factors that have led to their rise, and comparing their experiences with other East Asian late-comers such as Japan.

Much has been made of the post-war Japanese economic miracle. However, the origins of this spectacular success and its effect on the region can actually be traced back to an earlier period of Asian history. In Japanese Industrialization and the Asian Economy the authors examine the factors which contributed to the period of major industrialization

Contract manufacturing is growing rapidly worldwide and this is creating a need for innovative manufacturing information systems that can effectively integrate process design and costing data in order to allow 'what if' scenario assessments to be done rapidly. Manufacturing Process Design and Costing details the development of such an information system with a focus on the data schema and user interface design. The software facilitates integration of part manufacture, assembly planning and...

The book is divided into three parts.Part I. The Rising economy of “one” gives an overview of what is changing in the social system of production, it refers to the weakening role of central planning and the rising power of individuation in the value creation chain.Part II. Lean Enterprise in theory refers to the principles of lean thinking, the transfer of lean philosophy from East to West and discusses the necessary adaptation to the Weste...

There is more than a touch of 'The Emperor's New Clothes' in the way many organizations approach project management and the consequences are all too clear: project methodology inappropriately applied; little or no consideration of complexity or ambiguity; alienation of the stakeholders and a statistically poor record of performance for major business or infrastructure projects. Charles Smith's groundbreaking book Making Sense of Project Realities offers convincing explanations as to why pr...

Volume 24 of Advances in Industrial and Labor Relations (AILR) contains eight papers highlighting important aspects of the employment relationship. The papers deal with such themes as shifts in workplace voice, justice, negotiation and conflict resolution in contemporary workplaces. Consistent with previous AILR volumes, the papers in Volume 24 reflect a variety of quantitative and qualitative research methods, including case studies, survey, interviews, historiography, theory building, an...

Traditional microeconomic theory has much to offer a manager. It suggests ways to increase profits by setting prices and packaging services, using advertising to increase demand and shows how internet auction sites like eBay affect competition and profitability. By using game theory to present and solve a manager’s decision-making problems and by focusing on the strategic nature of these problems, this text makes microeconomic theory much more intuitive and relevant for the business studen...

The internationalization of research and technology is one key component of the globalization of trade and business, with potentially major impacts on patterns of economic development and public policies worldwide. Although certain aspects of this internationalization trend are well documented, and some effects can be quantified, the overall processes are extremely complex and the outcomes are highly uncertain. The existence of the phenomenon is generally accepted, but its importance and t...