An engineering approach to the traveling salesman problem is a method which is intuitively "reasonable" to the non-mathematician. It consists of a sequence of operations which (1) develops good starting circuits, (2) improves these circuits, (3) extracts sufficient information from the improved...

Investigates what approaches to quality lead to best quality and financial performance across different regions of the world. Reports a survey of 977 firms in Asia/South Pacific, Europe, and North America. Fifty-two items that suggest how a firm might improve quality were factor analysed and...

This paper addresses the importance of goal setting in the operations function. The importance of goal setting and its possible role in the implementation and operation of production systems is considered with particular emphasis on Material Requirements Planning (MRP). It has been argued that...