Central economic planning is often associated with failed state socialism, and modern capitalism celebrated as its antithesis. This book shows that central planning is not always, or even primarily, a state enterprise, and that the giant industrial corporations that dominated the American economy through the twentieth century were, first and foremost, unprecedented examples of successful, consensual central planning at a very large scale.

For a continuously growing company that has to be ready and aware of market trends to implement its products and adapt them to the needs of increasingly demanding customers, it is no longer enough to have and pursue excellent technical and technological departments, quality products, to have at its disposal an effective and efficient sales network with qualified aggressive personnel and to invest in research. Today, fulfilling contract goals while keeping the customer satisfied and staying within the company’s budgetary requirements requires more and more ef- cient project management. As it has been ascertained that design success depends on the ability of knowing how to correctly and effectively monitor all management activities, a successful, efficient collaboration has been set up with the University of Udine and Prof. Tonchia in order to support research based on the best practice applicable to complex corporations. Describing management’s experience in this book shows the validity of the University/Corporation combination because it allows universities to get closer to industry, and the type of management used at Danieli & C. can be conveyed outside its specific field.

In today's extremely competitive manufacturing market, effective production planning and scheduling processes are critical to streamlining production and increasing profits. Success in these areas means increased efficiency, capacity utilization, and reduced time required to complete jobs. From the initial stages of plant location and capacity dete

Impoverished, indebted, and underdeveloped at the close of World War II, Romania underwent dramatic changes as part of its transition to a centrally planned economy. As with the Soviet experience, it pursued a policy of “primitive socialist accumulation” whereby the state appropriated agricultural surplus and restricted workers’ consumption in support of industrial growth. Focusing on the daily operations of planning in the ethnically mixed city of Cluj from 1945 to 1955, this book argues that socialist accumulation was deeply contradictory: it not only inherited some of the classical tensions of capital accumulation, but also generated its own, which derived from the multivocal nature of the state socialist worker as a creator of value, as living labour, and as a subject of emancipatory politics.

This book discusses national development planning in the context of a globalized world economy. National economic development planning, the process of defining strategic economic objectives for a country and designing policies and institutional frameworks to attain them, was popular in many countries in the 1960s and 1970s. Over time it lost its appeal. More recently, with globalization accelerating and economic competition increasing, it is making a comeback in different countries under different forms. National planning in this new era is different than the earlier quantitative planning approaches. It employs different tools, such as strategic visions and action plans, revived forms of physical infrastructure planning, industrial policy, and cluster policy. Built on the research of international scholars with firsthand knowledge of the countries in question, this volume presents and evaluates current national planning strategies and policy worldwide. It will be of interest to both academicians who study and teach globalization and development as well as policy makers who may use it as a reference as they contemplate their own strategies.

First published in 1976, Industrial Location and Planning in the United Kingdom investigates in detail the nature of the changes taking place in the location of manufacturing industry since the 1950s and the reasons for them, including the effects of government regional policy and of factors such as market accessibility, labour availability and cost, transport facilities and personal residential preferences by industrialists and workers. The book brings together a wide range of published and unpublished material in discussing and evaluating explanations for regional and local manufacturing growth or decline. Government regional policy and planning is singled out for special attention, in terms of the impact of Development Area grants, of local planning controls, and of the town programmes. Manufacturing movement to new locations and the implications of government regional policies for industrial efficiency are examined in detail, together with the reasons for locational change in key but controversial industries such as steel, motor vehicles and electronics. This book will be of interest to students of urban planning, manufacturing, and development as well as city planners.

This book, a survey of current practices in both planning and computer aids, is largely confined to space projections, block and detailed layout planning, material flow analysis, plan and elevation drawings—the core activities of most facilities planners.

The role of industrial planning in trade is one of the most important areas of dispute between Mexico and the United States. The official U.S. stance stresses the dominance of the marketplace, while official Mexican industrial policy demands a large and active government role. Although the United States espouses free trade in theory, in practice it

First published in 1976, Industrial Location and Planning in the United Kingdom investigates in detail the nature of the changes taking place in the location of manufacturing industry since the 1950s and the reasons for them, including the effects of government regional policy and of factors such as market accessibility, labour availability and cost, transport facilities and personal residential preferences by industrialists and workers. The book brings together a wide range of published and unpublished material in discussing and evaluating explanations for regional and local manufacturing growth or decline. Government regional policy and planning is singled out for special attention, in terms of the impact of Development Area grants, of local planning controls, and of the town programmes. Manufacturing movement to new locations and the implications of government regional policies for industrial efficiency are examined in detail, together with the reasons for locational change in key but controversial industries such as steel, motor vehicles and electronics. This book will be of interest to students of urban planning, manufacturing, and development as well as city planners.