Industrial Management articles from March 1992

Industrial Management archives from March 1992

Designing for maintenance.
March 1, 1992... The other day I noticed that a headlight had burnt out in my Mazda pickup. While I am not the most mechanically inclined person around, I was pretty confident I could change a light bulb without any difficulties. I was wrong. Armed with a...

Tips on working in a developing country and an Asian culture.
March 1, 1992... With many U.S. companies owning production plants in foreign countries, and others planning to do so in a now-global economy, what does it take to run a metal fabricating plant overseas, especially in a developing country and an Asian culture?...

Private investment needs in developing countries.
March 1, 1992... The breathtaking pace of recent global events -- German reunification, the liberation of Eastern Europe, the Gulf War -- continues to unfold. Although these events have significantly reduced political tensions between the major powers, they...

Issues raised by the challenges of foreign market pricing.
March 1, 1992... In ever-increasing numbers, American companies have been establishing manufacturing facilities abroad. Sometimes the output from overseas facilities is imported back into the U.S. More often, however, these foreign sites serve local or...

A manufacturing process with a different flavor: JIT and the ice cream industry. (just-in-time inventory systems)
March 1, 1992... During the last several years, the industrial world has shown meant interest in the Japanese management philosophy called Just In Time (JIT). This system has been successfully applied in Japan in mass-production industries. In the U.S., many...

Engineering education in the United Kingdom and continental Europe.
March 1, 1992... Engineering education assumes different aspects in different countries and this makes it very difficult to compare foreign qualifications. The complexity and diversity of the European education systems are such that, after attempting to...

Maintenance... the business opportunity of the 1990s.
March 1, 1992... Maintenance is a growing business concern for American industry. With maintenance productivity languishing in the 45 to 55 percent range, some U.S. companies will spend more on their maintenance budget this year than they will earn in net...

Architecture and process: the role of integrated systems in concurrent engineering introduction.
March 1, 1992... The last decade of the twentieth century will be critical for business enterprises driven by engineering. Companies are being compelled by unprecedented economic, social and technological change to improve cost and efficiency throughout the...

Our damaged economy: blame incompetence and bad ethics.
March 1, 1992... During the last 15 years, business literature has published hundreds of articles listing factors that have hurt the U.S. economy. They include: short-term outlook; low savings rate; poor quality of goods and services; excessive overheads;...

Effective organizational culture is key to a company's long-term success.
March 1, 1992... Organizational culture is the shared values or common perceptions that are held by each member of an organization. This may be a small team, an operating department, plant site or a large multinational organization. A value system has evolved...

Time-based competition: challenges for industrial purchasing.
March 1, 1992... Practitioners are well aware of the potential benefits achieved from the proper implementation of the principles of Just-In-Time (JIT) philosophy. The utilization of JIT has been credited with such improvements as decreased inventories,...