U.S. manufacturing is today in a critical period. As a consequence of new global competitors, changes in technologies, and significant shifts in national priorities, our manufacturing base has shrunk alarmingly and thousands of manufacturing jobs have been lost. To address this problem, a unique team was formed called the Manufacturing Vision Group, which included members from five major companies (Chaparral Steel, DEC, Ford Motor Company, Hewlett-Packard, and Eastman Kodak) and four major universities (Harvard, MIT, Purdue, and Stanford). In The Perpetual Enterprise Machine, this group argues that the manufacturer that can initiate successful projects--leading to new products and processes--will be the one that prospers in the years ahead. They reveal how to launch a successful project and how projects can be mechanisms for growth and learning for the firm. The Perpetual Enterprise Machine outlines seven critical elements that outstanding development projects have in common, principles that can be powerful engines of success for the manufacturer facing the challenges of today's fiercely competitive environment. Successful firms are able to use their Core Capabilities across functions, to bring together disciplines and personnel crucial to the success of the program. They have a Guiding Vision, shared by all members of the project team, that helps coordinate the actions of workers with different skills and priorities. They Push the Performance Envelope, striving to make the improvements needed to cope with a rapidly changing competitive environment. They have Leadership, someone who can navigate uncertain terrain, who sees the project's essential elements and how they fit together. They instill the team with a sense of Ownership and Commitment, linking their personal success, status, and esteem to accomplishing project goals. They use Prototyping to learn rapidly and reduce mistakes. And they Integrate within Projects, approaching individual tasks in terms of a system-wide solution. Throughout the book, the authors illustrate these seven principles with real life case histories. We see the story behind Kodak's development of the FunSaver camera (done on a unique CAD/CAM system that greatly helped integration and shortened the lead time from design to production); Ford's 1991 Crown Victoria, the first project launched under their Concept-to-Customer system; Chaparral Steel's development of the world's first horizontal steel caster; and Hewlett-Packard's wildly successful DeskJet printer. The Perpetual Enterprise Machine delivers the insights of some of the top minds from industry and academia on one of the primary concerns of American business--how to revitalize our manufacturing industries. Visionary--yet engaging and immediately accessible--it gives managers the opportunity to profit from the trials and triumphs of five major corporations, and helps them shape the kinds of projects that will thrive and prosper in the years ahead.

The must-read summary of H. Bowen, K. Clark, C. Holloway and S. Wheelwright's book: "The Perpetual Enterprise Machine: Seven Keys to Corporate Renewal through Successful Product and Process Development". This complete summary of the ideas from H. Bowen, K. Clark, C. Holloway and S. Wheelwright's book "The Perpetual Enterprise Machine" shows how the development of new products, new manufacturing processes and new services are the lifeblood of any dynamic and growing business. Only the companies that are continuously reinventing themselves by developing new products will survive and prosper in the years ahead. In their book, the authors present seven keys to successful development projects. This summary will teach you how to launch successful projects that could lead to growth, using real-life case studies to demonstrate just how effective they can be. Added-value of this summary: • Save time • Understand key concepts • Expand your knowledge To learn more, read "The Perpetual Enterprise Machine" and discover the key to successful project management and business development.

Illustrated with real projects--successes and failures--undertaken by DEC, Ford, Hewlett-Packard, Eastman Kodak, and Chaparral, this insightful book details seven critical elements that manufacturing projects must have to succeed in product and process development. 51 line drawings.

In their groundbreaking book Revolutionizing Product Development, Steven C. Wheelwright and Kim B. Clark demonstrated how project leaders for product development could apply new innovations to bring products to market at breakneck speed. Now, in their new work, they address the general manager's role in leading product development efforts -- at the functional, unit, group, and corporate levels. Up to now, senior managers have merely approved or rejected proposals at the beginning of a project and rushed in at the end to resolve problems. This traditional approach to product development no longer works, the authors contend. A fundamental shift in the role of senior management is taking place: the entire spectrum of new product development is now the responsibility of the general manager -- from pre-project planning to completion. Wheelwright and Clark draw on their combined consulting experience and numerous examples -- such as Kodak, Honda, Hewlett-Packard, and Gillette -- to explain how this new role can be successfully executed in today's competitive arena. The authors show how the margin for error in new product development has become razor thin. Pre-project planning, they show, takes the guesswork out of development so that projects run smoothly from start to finish. Second, they describe how to choose a set of projects that match a company's specific strategic objectives, resources, and "organizational horsepower" -- enabling the development of consistently successful products and capabilities over time. Finally, they reveal how to create a plan for action: how to determine project sequence, what measurements and incentives are crucial, and, most important, how to capture project learning and integrate it back into the ongoing stream of product development. Wheelwright and Clark conclude that the opportunity for rapid, significant development lies in managerial leadership of pre-project planning and commitment to improvement at every step of the product's life cycle. They provide managers with the tools needed to master these processes, making this book necessary reading for every manager who wants the upper hand in bringing timely, efficient, high-quality new products to market.

Here is the American corporation from every angle - its postwar history, its relation to the law, its financing, its impact on technological innovation, its role as employer and as political force, and much more. The contributors - all of whom are recognized experts in their fields - not only tackle many of the same key areas that the contributors to Mason's classic study looked at, but they also illuminate issues that have only arisen in recent years.

When we look at a program or a project, to identify its size in terms of 'large', it would be advisable to consider a few factors that determine the size i.e., effort, uncertainty and complexity involved in delivering the outcome. This book is intended to provide the required lateral thinking in this field of management excellence.

Due to growing concern about the competitiveness of industry in the international marketplace and the efficiency ofgovernment enterprises, widespread initiatives are currently underway to enhance thecompetitive posture offirms and to streamline government operations. Nearly all enterprises are engaged in assessing ways in which their productivity, product quality and operations can be improved. These efforts canbe described as Business Process Engineering (BPE). BPE had its roots in industry under differing titIes: Process Improvement, Process Simplification, Process Innovation, Reengineering, etc. It has matured to be an important ingredient of successful enterprises in the private and public sectors. After extensive exploitation by industrial and governmental practitioners and consultants, it is attracting increasing attention from academics in the fields of engineering and business. However, even with all of this attention in the popular literature, serious scholarly literature on BPE is in short supply. TItis is somewhat surprising, especially since so many large international organizations have attempted BPE projectswith varied success.

Russell and Taylor's Operations and Supply Chain Management, 10th Edition is designed to teach students understand how to create value and competitive advantage along the supply chain in a rapidly changing global environment. Beyond providing a solid foundation, this course covers increasingly important OM topics of sustainability, corporate social responsibility, global trade policies, securing the supply chain, and risk and resilience. Most importantly, Operations Management, Tenth Edition makes the quantitative topics easy for students to understand and the mathematical applications less intimidating. Appropriate for all business students, this course takes a balanced approach to the foundational understanding of both qualitative and quantitative operations management processes.

When the pharmaceuticals giant Merck reports promising results for a potential "blockbuster" drug, the story makes the evening news. Now, at a time when new product development has become critical to success in so many industries, The Development Factory proves that process innovation - not just product innovation - can be the key to competitive edge. In this multiyear study of pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms, Gary Pisano explores the dynamics of superior product and process development in a highly competitive industry that lives and dies by its R&D and depends heavily on rapid time to market. His work reveals that behind the success of many new product introductions lies the development of novel process technologies that provide lower costs, higher quality, and increased flexibility. Pisano challenges the widely held product-process life cycle view of competition, which suggests that industries tend to emphasize either product innovation or process innovation. He also questions the notion that there is a conflict between pursuit of product innovation and pursuit of lower costs, arguing that product development and process development capabilities are complementary. Extending the lessons to a wide variety of manufacturing industries, The Development Factory will guide companies toward unlocking the potential of process development and understanding the patterns of organizational behavior and managerial actions that help create and implement new capabilities over time.