The basic tasks of a business are straight‐forward – getting and keeping customers and making profits, both set within the context of the short and long term. Explicit in these is not only a need for marketing and manufacturing to work well in themselves but to work well together. Companies,...

A sample of 63 Danish companies is divided into four strategic groups. Each group represents a distinct manufacturing strategy. These strategic groups are then used to investigate relationships with the implementation of bundles of manufacturing practices such as JIT and TQM, and with...

Describes an integrative microcomputer‐based exercise, ITEC, used in teaching manufacturing strategy and manufacturing planning and control courses. The exercise allows students the opportunity to gain actual experience in making strategic decisions in manufacturing and in managing the flow of...

Presents a framework to determine manufacturing planning and control system requirements that reflect differences in manufacturing strategy and process technology in a business. Manufacturing planning and control systems represent a critical part of the manufacturing infrastructure and support...

Reports a new method for preparing a product structure analysis to improve the effectiveness of the master scheduling function for products that are manufactured on an assemble‐to‐order basis. This methodology for conducting product structure analysis uses relational database management...

In the column Notes About Authors in Management Science's October 1975 issue, Vithala R. Rao's biographic paragraph was inadvertantly substituted for that of Vittal Rao. The correct paragraph follows.

This paper has two purposes: (1) to propose a new way of conceptualizing job-shop-like manufacturing systems and (2) to suggest how this conceptualization might be applied in the development of planning and control procedures. The concept of "work flow structure" is developed and methods for...

Author's Reply to Graves' Note on the Paper (Berry, W. L., V. Rao. 1975. Critical ratio scheduling: an experimental analysis. Management Sci. 22 (2, October) 192-201).

The Bayesian algorithm presented in this paper provides a generalized procedure for determining the minimum cost sample size (n*) and acceptance number (c*) for single sample attribute acceptance plans. The algorithm is applicable to a broad range of acceptance sampling problems, assuming only...

This paper is concerned with the problem of maintaining open order due dates in job shops that plan and schedule their operations using Material Requirements Planning (MRP) methodology. Two different techniques for dealing with open order due date changes are analyzed using customer service...