Details the findings of a search for manufacturing “strategic groups” in the engineering industry, that is a set of firms competing within an industry on the basis of similar combinations of business scope and resource commitments. The research methodology used was to adopt stockturns...

Flexible manufacturing can be understood and managed even by non‐technological senior management provided they are involved in agreeing market parameters, technological flexibility needs, and quality, cost and delivery performances, and ensure that detailed lower level decisions on operational...

Service organisations do not always manage those items which affect customer satisfaction to the same level as manufacturing organisations, which indicates a possible mismatch between what customers think they are buying and what service organisations seem to be providing. Efficiency is...

The learning effect is well established in the repetitive performance of industrial tasks and it is essential that production management be aware of the potential for improved performance (measured by dynamic gain) and the rate at which this may be achieved/measured by the time constraint....

A simulation model conceived from the causal and interactive behaviour of various inter‐related activities is described, its aim being to aid study of the problems of the procurement‐production‐distribution system of a manufacturing company engaged in the multi‐stage production of many...

There are some 30 Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS) currently being installed and assimilated in Britain. A pilot study involving Anderson‐Strathclyde plc, a precision engineering company, Cessna Fluid Power Limited, Cummins Engines Limited, and Lucas Electrical Limited shows that these...