This book deals with World Class Operations Management (WCOM), detailing its principles, methods and organisation, and the results that this approach can bring about. Utilising real-world case studies illustrated by companies that have adopted this model (interviews with Saint-Gobain, L’Oréal, Tetra Pak, Bemis, and Bel Executives), it describes common patterns drawn from decades of hands-on experience, so as to present a theoretical approach together with the concrete application of its principles. WCOM, adopted by several multinational companies, is one of the more innovative management practises, as it integrates the best Continuous Improvement approaches (Lean, Total Productive Management, World Class Manufacturing) as well as the most innovative approaches in human dynamics like Change Leadership, Performance Behavior, Shingo Model, to name a few. Every book’s chapter has been authored by an expert in these different fields, thus revealing the synergy among the different practices, which is one of the distinguishing and successful aspects of WCOM Maximising reader insights into the successful implementation of such an approach, and explaining not only its potentialities, but also its implementation dynamics, the critical points and the ways it can be integrated into different situations, this book is also about how to create a culture of excellence that is sustainable over a long period of time and delivers consistent (or ever-improving) results.

In the fall of 1992 a conference honoring Elwood S. Buffa was held at the Anderson Graduate School of Management of the University of California, Los Angeles. This book is a collection of the work presented at that conference. The scholars who gathered to honor El are the prominent researchers in the field of Operations Management. Their collective work published in this book represents the richness of the field and provides the reader with valuable insights into its important issues and problems. While any grouping of the articles by these distinguished scholars will be arbitrary, I have organized the book in four sections. In the first section the articles dealing with the strategic issues in Operations Management are compiled. The articles deal with continuous improvement, quality, services, supply chain management, and creating value through operations. The articles that explore the interface of Operations Management with other functional areas, e.g. engineering and marketing, are grouped in the second section. The third section of the book contains articles that attempt to model some important planning problems that arise in the management of production and operations. Some of the papers in this section provide state of the art reviews of selected topic areas. Finally, the fourth section contains articles that deal with future directions for Operations Management. The authors offer several insights into the future evolution of the field. The book begins with the keynote address given by El Buffa at the start of the conference on November 2, 1991.

From the discovery of entirely new kinds of galaxies to a window into cosmic ‘prehistory’, Bothwell shows us the Universe as we’ve never seen it before – literally. Since the dawn of our species, people all over the world have gazed in awe at the night sky. But for all the beauty and wonder of the stars, when we look with just our eyes we are seeing and appreciating only a tiny fraction of the Universe. What does the cosmos have in store for us beyond the phenomena we can see, from black holes to supernovas? How different does the invisible Universe look from the home we thought we knew? Dr Matt Bothwell takes us on a journey through the full spectrum of light and beyond, revealing what we have learned about the mysteries of the Universe. This book is a guide to the ninety-nine per cent of cosmic reality we can’t see – the Universe that is hidden, right in front of our eyes. It is also the endpoint of a scientific detective story thousands of years in the telling. It is a tour through our Invisible Universe.

Generate faster, better results—using less capital and fewer resources! Toyota, Alcoa, Pratt & Whitney, and the U.S. Navy's Nuclear Power Program operate in vastly different worlds, but they have one thing in common. Each of these organizations generates constant, almost automatic operational self-improvements at rates faster, durations longer, and breadths wider than any of its competitors. Excellence in operational management is the single element separating industry leaders from all others. The High-Velocity Edge is a blueprint for fueling innovation and improvement at both the management and process level in your own company. It’s not magic, it’s not luck. It’s something that that can be taught, cultivated, practiced, and effectively applied to an organization. Spears explains how to: Build a system of “dynamic discovery” that reveals operational problems and weaknesses Attack and solve problems at the time and in the place where they occur, converting weaknesses into strengths Disseminate knowledge gained from solving local problems throughout the company as a whole Create managers invested in the process of continual innovation Apply the lessons of The High-Velocity Edge, and you will enjoy profitability, quality, efficiency, reliability, and agility unmatched by any of your rivals.

"This work was first published by Oxford University Press in 2005 as Why Geography Matters: Three Challenges Facing America."

With the COVID-19 pandemic, many business leaders question the need for strategy and the value of strategic planning and management in today’s environment. This book will demonstrate that our approach to strategy development and implementation needs to change to be able to help organizations change. The proposed new approach in this book can provide insights and perspectives to keep strategy relevant by "Putting Strategy in Action" through developing a "Making the Future Happen Today" way of thinking and living. Many strategy books focus on the perspective of large multinational corporations that have the capacity and capabilities to develop and implement a strategy using very structured methodologies and tools. This book will add a new dimension by focusing on the use of Strategy-as-Practice (SaP), intuition, and serendipity as important complements that can be used by large corporations as well as small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurs to develop and implement winning strategies. This is an important dimension to support the strategic decision-making process that is frequently undermined in traditional strategic planning and management-focused books. The author theorizes that developing into a Strategy Savvy professional is about embracing two of the most important concepts in strategy development—Proactivity and Sustainability. This book addresses the opportunities and threats presented by VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity) and how we can capitalize on those opportunities to create unprecedented growth opportunities in Society 5.0 that is shaping new economies, such as the Digital Economy, the Experience Economy, the Sharing Economy, the GIG Economy, the Purpose Economy and the Circular Economy. The author also proposes a new approach to strategy development and implementation that mixes formal planning with practice and intuition that is helped by serendipity. He presents a strategy that is driven by four propellers—insights, culture, operations, and digitization—to ensure arrival at a better future.

Lean and Six Sigma initiatives are designed to enable sustained improvements in your company or organization's efficiency and competitiveness. As with other improvement strategies they are dependent on two things, effective management and your ability to automate or digitize elements of your business process. Lean and Digitize provides you with a convincing picture of each of these elements (process improvement, digitization and the management of both) to help you eliminate waste, improve process and service, and better align your information and communications technology with your strategic objectives. Bernardo Nicoletti analyses and reviews the development of automation and telecommunications systems in the context of quality management and process improvement. He uses case examples to illustrate organizational and management approaches to implementation. These, along with his practical guidance, will help you make sense of the complexity, benefits and interrelations between these different elements. The text shows you on the one hand, how to integrate information and communication systems into your process improvement projects and, on the other, how to align information and communication projects with your quality strategy. Without a holistic approach to technology and quality improvement, your initiatives run the risk of being misdirected or simply running out of steam. Changes of this kind will never be easy but at least if you follow the advice in Lean and Digitize you will significantly increase your chances of success.

This book focuses on strategic and operational human resources, giving the reader the core curriculum of subjects usually presented in an MBA program specialized in organizational behaviour and human resource management. The topics covered can be applied to a variety of real world business situations. This book aims to contribute to the growth and development of individuals in a competitive and global economy, by covering the latest developments in the field of human resources management. Innovative practices and theories as well as the current policies and practices of HRM are described in this book.

Can a renowned mathematician successfully outwit the stock market? Not when his biggest investment is WorldCom. In A Mathematician Plays the Stock Market , best-selling author John Allen Paulos employs his trademark stories, vignettes, paradoxes, and puzzles to address every thinking reader's curiosity about the market -- Is it efficient? Is it random? Is there anything to technical analysis, fundamental analysis, and other supposedly time-tested methods of picking stocks? How can one quantify risk? What are the most common scams? Are there any approaches to investing that truly outperform the major indexes? But Paulos's tour through the irrational exuberance of market mathematics doesn't end there. An unrequited (and financially disastrous) love affair with WorldCom leads Paulos to question some cherished ideas of personal finance. He explains why "data mining" is a self-fulfilling belief, why "momentum investing" is nothing more than herd behavior with a lot of mathematical jargon added, why the ever-popular Elliot Wave Theory cannot be correct, and why you should take Warren Buffet's "fundamental analysis" with a grain of salt. Like Burton Malkiel's A Random Walk Down Wall Street , this clever and illuminating book is for anyone, investor or not, who follows the markets -- or knows someone who does.

The purpose of this book is to demonstrate how a Training-Within-Industry (TWI) Job-Program could reduce human factor-related harm in construction. The construction industry has a significant impact on issues relating to the health, safety, and well-being (HSW) of people in the workforce. It is important to acknowledge that workers' behaviour influences the safety management system (SMS) of construction projects either negatively or positively and that it is important for a management team to identify relevant behaviours and take appropriate action to solve problems. In most cases, accidents happen because of the results of human failure in the form of errors, violations and system failures. Human failure causes accidents and site management needs to reduce hazards that might cause such errors, violations and system failures on worksites. The chapters in the book address factors causing human failure on construction sites, how to mitigate errors and violations through SMS and ‘learning by doing’ and improving practice of using safety instructors on sites. The book closes with insights from a TWI-informed human failure reduction framework. This book provides valuable insights into safety management in a construction site context that can be applied to other areas. It is essential reading for safety managers, construction managers, researchers, and advanced students.