3D printing has been widely identified as an emerging disruptive technology. In this study we investigate how this technology could enable the circular economy by disrupting the existing materials value chain. Specifically we ask whether this novel technology could be used to locally manufacture...

Outsourcing initiatives are key to firm efforts to focus on core competencies, alter engrained practices and attain significant cost reductions in non-core processes. Extensive thought goes into the selection of outsourcing service providers, with the aim of enlisting vendors that have the...

This is the Fifth Edition of what has become a standard bestselling text on the tools, systems, and principles of Lean Manufacturing and Lean Operations. The Lean Toolbox covers Lean Philosophy, The Science of Lean, Improvement, Change, Strategy, Flow, Mapping, Scheduling, Layout, Quality,...

The motivation for this book came out of a shared belief that what passed as 'theory' in operations management (OM) was all too often inadequate. In one respect, OM scholars were bending over backwards to make theories from other fields fit our research problems. In another, questionable...

Crisis, Resilience and Survival charts the evolution of the global automotive industry, revealing the pressures and challenges facing firms in this huge but turbulent realm of business. Long-term overcapacity and swings of the economic cycle mean that many car companies are in financially...

As the auto industry moves into its second century, it suffers from low margins and a sclerotic value chain that cannot evolve with customer desires. Inventories of many weeks pile up on dealer lots and at distribution centers around the world while executives applaud marginal improvements in...

Growing the UK auto supply chain is seen as an issue of the highest priority by the Automotive Council. This ‘sourcing roadmap’ provides an overview of current and prospective sourcing patterns in the UK automotive industry. It serves as the empirical grounding for determining and...

The Automotive Council last year published a ‘sourcing roadmap’ (http://www.automotivecouncil.co.uk) to provide an overview of current and prospective sourcing patterns in the UK automotive industry. The aim was to serve as the empirical basis for determining and prioritising activities by...

The report was commissioned by the NAIGT Steering Group to provide an empirical basis of the UK’s competitive status and the key challenges the industry faces. More specifically, the remit of this report was to inform the work of the NAIGT with regards to (a), the contribution of the UK...