Industrial Management articles from September 1992

Industrial Management archives from September 1992

Manufacturing discipline: improving productivity with low capital investment. (Strategies for Competitiveness)
September 1, 1992... Mention improving competitiveness to most manufacturers and they wince, automatically thinking of expensive new equipment (i.e. robots, computer controlled production machines) along with labor's opposition to new technology, and the challenge of...

How to lead, manage and follow. (effective management) (Leadership Skills)
September 1, 1992... Big money is lost or wasted working on the effects of a problem. It is the attempt to clear up the stink of the river down stream from where the city discharges its waste into the stream; the process is politically acceptable but practically...

Work modeling techniques to bridge "management gap" in team-based organizations. (Team-Based Operations)
September 1, 1992... In the 1990s, companies will be faced with the tremendous challenges of rapidly changing customer needs and technology. Global competition is increasing and customers are demanding more product variety, faster delivery and greater quality than...

Using quality circles to develop an action plan required for leading organizations. (Total Quality Management)
September 1, 1992... Total Quality Management (TQM) as an umbrella for cultural change in business stresses employee participation as a major tenet. Empowering workers to make decisions leading to increased quality and productivity represents a stronghold for the TQM...

Focusing on real issues: revamping ho-hum meetings. (Meeting Processes)
September 1, 1992... Getting teams of people focused, aligned, and committed to specific action on crucial issues is the essence of today's management style. Yet, all too often, the planning process is allowed to go on forever, Plans never jell, the team loses...

Taking steps to achieve world-class manufacturing and overcome the competition. (Market Strategies)
September 1, 1992... Use time-based competition as one of your most powerful strategic weapons! Drive down the time it takes to develop and deliver new products, dramatically reduce inventory and manufacturing time, slash the cost of quality and win back market...

Successful implementation of management techniques. (Elements of Success)
September 1, 1992... A number of management techniques best known by their acronyms have become popular during recent years, including CE, CIM, JIT, MRP and TQM. When successfully implemented, these improvement initiatives have common elements that help explain their...

Delegate: why we should, why we don't and how we can. (Management Skills)
September 1, 1992... The subject of the following comments has problems, and if this person does not change, he is going to continue having them in the future. Guaranteed. "My manager needs to stick with delegated responsibilities -- versus interfere or reverse....

Helping: the basis of managerial supervision. (Employee Motivation)
September 1, 1992... The topics of supervision and helping behavior are evolving and converging. Effective managerial supervision is defined as providing expertise, support, reinforcement, direction and/or the necessary resources for subordinates to achieve their...

What if... a tale of problematic primary subcontractors. (Systems Support)
September 1, 1992... "All right, what else can go wrong?" We were in a weekly planning session at Williams Industries discussing two current construction projects that had been undertaken by the firm. The first was an expansion of an existing plant site, which was...

The art of war and the art of management. (Management Strategy)
September 1, 1992... According to many historians, Sun Tzu wrote his classic essay, The Art of War, sometime during the period between 500 B.C. and 200 B.C. Since that time, his text has been translated into Japanese, French, English, Russian and Spanish, to mention...

A new foundation in business culture: managerial coaching. (Management Practices)
September 1, 1992... It is clear that American business culture is in the middle of a change. We are rethinking our managerial practices and redesigning our firms. The "traditional" is being replaced and something "new" is emerging. Change is the order of the day....

Samsung uses Theory Z to become a living organization. (Samsung Group) (Management Techniques)
September 1, 1992... Quite a few American firms have decided to experiment with Japanese management techniques and have had senior executives make several trips to Japanese plants in order to embody the Theory Z philosophy. But, it may actually be just as logical to...

Why can't stupid keep it simple? (American Management )
September 1, 1992... Hardly a week goes by without another revelation of how America is faltering in the competitive world market place. First, it was steel and TVs, then, autos and apparel. Now, even an American bastion like electronics is falling. The reasons are...