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Presents a special methodological approach to the study of stress and strain at work, in order to reduce excessive workload by allowing extra time for the operation. In the study three methods were used: activity sampling; job analysis and evaluation; and measurement of workplace conditions. Also, a method was used which gives criteria and grades for research and evaluation of stresses at the workplace. These are physical stress (dynamical and statical); thermal; visual; noise stress; stress caused by contact with aerosols; gases; vapours; stress caused by monotony. They are measured as ecological, physiological and comfort indexes. It is clear that stress factors enable the evaluation of most physical work. The application scope for our model of defining the ergonomic coefficient was the clothing industry. The defined ergonomic coefficient represents a smaller addition to standard time than the strain and the environmental coefficients used at present.

Simulation has been gaining in acceptance as a tool which enables industrial and manufacturing engineers to perform extensive analysis of the problems they face on a daily basis. Analyses the productivity of a system of four flexible machining centres with regard to the transport of workpieces. Three types of transport were studied: automated inductively guided vehicle, automated rail‐guided vehicle and automated conveyor system. The simulation study has shown that the highest productivity of the system is achieved when using automatic conveyor belts as a transport means.

There has been an increasing call from academics specialising in operations management to integrate different strategic management perspectives into operations strategy research. Recently some pieces of operations strategy research have used the resource‐based view. It is often suggested that the incorporation of resource‐based view ideas into the field of operations strategy is a search for a new paradigm, yet the ever‐increasing literature suffers from a lack of empirical research. Moreover, operations strategy research from the evolutionary perspective, using longitudinal field data, is almost completely neglected. This paper attempts to make two contributions. The first is to stimulate debate about the incorporation of resource‐based view and dynamic capabilities within operations strategy research. The second is to present a model based on in‐depth field research where the dynamics of the capability accumulation process is explored.

The resource‐based view (RBV) and the dynamic‐capabilities approach (DCA) have emerged as two important frameworks in strategic management that seek to explain why firms are different. In recent years operations management scholars have sought to integrate both RBV and DCA within the field's epistemological orientation to provide normative frameworks for practising managers. This paper argues that the structure of resources and capabilities are such that they present impediments to normative prescriptions. Using ideas from complex systems it argues that any framework for thinking about resource accumulation and capability development must take account of uncertainty and knowledge imperfections in the system. The paper contends that the real options framework is an appropriate heuristic for managing the process of capability development and a case study of a manufacturing operation is used to illustrate our ideas.