Industrial Management articles from January 1995

Industrial Management archives from January 1995

Changing the process of production. (Production Strategies)
January 1, 1995... When is it desirable to change the process of production? Over ninety percent of the time, a review of this question will give a rather dull answer, something like, "The current production process is the most appropriate." Sometimes an...

Controlling manufacturing costs. (Incentive Programs)
January 1, 1995... American workers have moderated their pay and benefit requests these days, which is a good sign. And they seem more optimistic than ever, according to two current surveys. Inflation in medical and other benefit costs have moderated somewhat,...

Literacy and its effects on job design. (Human Factors )
January 1, 1995... A recent report, the Adult Literacy Survey, 1993, stated 90 million Americans over the age of 18 are functionally illiterate. This represents approximately 47 percent of the adult population during the first eight months of 1992 when the survey...

Benchmarking for environmental excellence. (Benchmarking)
January 1, 1995... American corporations are facing constantly changing competitive challenges. Low cost was the competitive challenge of the 1960s. Flexibility, the ability to respond to changing customer demands and specifications, became the strategic weapon of...

Sharpening your competitive edge with information systems. (Information Systems)
January 1, 1995... In the race against the competition to satisfy customer demand, the spoils of victory will go to the manufacturer that most effectively accesses, processes and utilizes information. Why is information so critical? Because it is the last great...

Choosing a technological forecasting method. (Forecasting)
January 1, 1995... Many technological forecasting methods have been reported in literature, and they have been applied widely. As forecasting results are typically influenced by the forecasting method used, it is important to determine the forecasting method that...

Preventive maintenance: stand alone manufacturing compared with cellular manufacturing. (Maintenance)
January 1, 1995... In the production environment three components are necessary to produce a product. These components are: manpower, healthy, knowledgeable, and well trained personnel; raw material, material at the right place, at the right time, and at the right...

The ABC's of business ethics: definitions, philosophies and implementation. (Ethics in the Workplace)
January 1, 1995... What is ethics? Ethics is concerned with moral obligation, responsibility, and social justice. The word ethics comes from the Greek words "ethikos" and "ethos," meaning custom or usage. As employed by Aristotle, the term included the idea of...

Integrating customer service strategy with existing business systems. (Customer Service)
January 1, 1995... Is improving customer service a strategy to increase profit margin or market share in your industry? If so, do your business procedures and computer systems support this strategy? Does the investment to upgrade the existing computer systems with...

What ever happened to the idea of lead times? (Manufacturing)
January 1, 1995... If you are going to "lead" in anything, you must have time - and this is particularly true with engineering or manufacturing. There must be time for basic creative work, time to review, seek consensus and explore the important "what ifs." Far...