This paper is concerned with cost-oriented assembly line balancing. This problem occurs especially in the final assembly of automotives, consumer durables or personal computers, where production is still very labour- intensive, and where the wage rates depend on the requirements and...

After a characterization of the cost-oriented assembly line balancing problem it will be shown that by loading the stations maximally the cost-oriented optimum can be missed. Instead of loading the stations maximally the criterion two-stations-rule a has to be used. For generating optimal...

The present paper develops a basic framework for evaluating and optimizing profits in a business operation. In developing a business we are often faced with an infinity of choices ranging from what products or services to sell and what customers to target to how to structure and manage the...

This paper is focused on the solution quality and computing time requirements of heuristic methods for cost-oriented assembly line balancing. It is based on a recent paper (Amen, International Journal of Production Economics 68 (2000), which describes in detail the solution process of existent...

The purpose of this article is to outline the core principles of Integrative Improvement (II) in comparison with current development approaches, describe key features of II and briefly comment on II in relation to the Sustainable Livelihoods (SL) approach of the United Kingdom Department for...

Sustained competitive advantage depends heavily on the ability of organisations to internalise the benefits of innovative activities. While the vital importance of innovation in today’s competitive climate has been widely proclaimed, our understanding of innovative behaviour in service...

The identification is made of those conditions by which it is possible to generate synergy or mutually enforcing relations between economic development and environment conservation with the perspective of a systems entropy flow limits. Monetary and fiscal policies are the framework of structural...

Il paper propone un'integrazione metodologica tra la teoria Williamsoniana dei costi di trnasazione e la Resource-based View nello studio delle problematiche relative alla governance nelle reti esterne di imprese, che porti all'utilizzo di una metodologia di ricerca bifronte; dopo un'introduzione...

One of the best known features of the Italian entrepreneurial system is undoubtedly the industrial district, a network of small and medium size enterprises; the object of this survey is to study the integration between the strategic network, identified by the relationship between the companies...

The costs and benefits of harmonization of international accounting and disclosure practices by firms is an important policy issue. This paper investigates the extent to which voluntary disclosure practices by Japanese firms have converged since the collapse of Japan’s financial ‘bubble’...