Industrial Engineering articles from May 1994

Industrial Engineering archives from May 1994

$20 million targeted to train U.S. manufacturers.
May 1, 1994... The Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), Dearborn, Mich., in cooperation with the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), has been awarded a grant to cover one-half of a $20 million project designed to electronically deliver...

Overhauling corporate culture to improve productivity.
May 1, 1994... Fear of the unknown is the biggest detriment to employee motivation. One of the most intensely debated concepts in business today is change in the corporate culture. Proponents suggest this process, which involves a rethinking and reworking of...

Tapping the groove in human productivity.
May 1, 1994... An incentive plan that pays employees for quantity and disregards product quality can easily become self-defeating. Self-interest is undeniably the driving force behind all human behavior. Yet, how do managers in the screw machine industry...

Non-profit agencies: unlikely proving ground for fast-track corporate managers.
May 1, 1994... Carefully selected volunteer experience is a new fast-track for high-potential managers. Corporations interested in accelerating the education of their most promising managers would do well to look beyond the nation's business schools into an...

Three practical stages in organizational performance improvement.
May 1, 1994... While applying a specific change process to numerous companies over a five-year period, several common stages were observed. The management model was made up of specific management behaviors having statistical relationships to business results,...

Implementing radical change: the right stuff.
May 1, 1994... Over the years, U.S. manufacturing companies lost substantial market share in many industries. Stiff foreign and domestic competition drove executives to seek solutions. MRP had its heyday, then it was JIT, CIM, TQM and time-based competition....

A baker's dozen purchasing tips for pedestrian hand pallet trucks. (includes related articles on available products and wheels)
May 1, 1994... Hand pallet trucks no longer are considered expendable commodity items to be purchased as needed at the lowest possible cost, then just thrown away when worn out. Alert purchasers are beginning to factor in the economics of hand pallet trucks,...

Mellon Trust reengineers workflow management system for 401(k) plan. (Mellon Bank Corp Master Trust Services; 401(k) retirement plan)
May 1, 1994... Fraught with change, the defined-contribution business presents opportunities only for those financial institutions that can meet the challenge of radically escalated customer expectations. Once satisfied with cyclical valuation and the attendant...

Working beyond traditional paradigms through teamwork. (Kendall-Futuro Co)
May 1, 1994... Buzz words such as total quality management, just-in-time (JIT), customer satisfaction and employee involvement are familiar throughout most manufacturing companies. One company blended all of these philosophies into its own unique management...

A spreadsheet-based prototype enterprise system. (Video Copy Services Inc project)
May 1, 1994... Enterprise systems, which link by computer several functional organizations within a firm, are becoming sources of competitive advantage as companies seek to coordinate cross-functional decisions. A well-implemented enterprise system provides the...

Selecting an outplacement provider. (dismissed employee assistance)
May 1, 1994... Selecting an outplacement company traditionally has been the function of the human resources manager. Lately, a different trend has developed. The employee, not the employer, is making the final selection of his/her service provider. The human...

The manager prototype - firefighter, visionary or both?
May 1, 1994... Question eternal -- what makes the perfect manager? With the growing awareness of the need for a change in the science that has long dictated management practices, the aforementioned question surfaces repeatedly. Ask any worker beneath a manager...