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Despite US government policymakers′ hopes for a return to US predominance in the marketplace, manufacturers face the fact that the Japanese manufacturing superiority is largely due to better quality, cost‐effective operations, and rapid response to customers. A few explanations for the US disadvantage have been preferred (such as higher wages, unionisation, lack of lifetime employment, lack of automation, lack of existence of economies of scale and the dynamic effect of the learning curve), but all have been refuted. The researchers believe the explanation lies in the lack of emphasis on two strategies in manufacturing dominance: first, integrating quality control techniques into all operating disciplines, including design, production, and logistics; second, efficient utilisation of manufacturing resources including equipment, material, personnel, and time. This article examines the role of these two strategies in regaining US manufacturing dominance and reports the advantages obtained by nine manufacturing organisations implementing them.

The purpose of this study is to identify the challenges, the benefits, the risks and the motives of petroleum companies in the Persian Gulf toward outsourcing strategy. While the petroleum companies are faced with massive costs of operation that stem from the aging infrastructure, human capital deficit, inefficient fragmented business processes and lack of access to new technologies, outsourcing strategy toward cost savings and the overt and covert resistance of management and employees are significant barriers for creation of continuous process.

Based on the review of existing literature, the industry ' s archives and in-depth personal interviews with senior executives of the national oil and gas companies in five Gulf countries and seven global outsourcing companies and 87 survey responses, this study develops a methodological framework which substantiates or refutes the hypotheses based on the objectives: industry challenges are the driving forces behind outsourcing strategy; the potential risks of cost savings of outsourcing outweigh the consequential loss in control over the product or service, companies ' safety and security of the region.

The findings indicate that the oil and gas exporters have mixed but broad positive view of outsourcing strategy. While outsourcing could provide savings across the entire supply chain, it also generates a distracting resistance due to the fear of unknown in a complex range of culture, infrastructures and sequential processes that requires resiliency for continuity of operations.

This study is the first of its kind in the Persian Gulf oil and gas industry investigating the implementation of outsourcing strategy. The result of this investigation reveals the compromise between the potential benefits in cost reduction and the security of petroleum supply. This study contributes to all who are in the industry or who are involved with it to share a clear assessment of the future.

Journals and industry publications are important in communication among production and operations‐management academics and practitioners. There have been calls for more cross‐disciplinary research and greater emphasis on applied benefit. Describes an attempt to identify relevant periodicals, together with their publication characteristics and readership exposure indices. The authors conclude that even if research agendas are changed to emphasize practitioner‐relevant research, that is of little benefit if the readership of academic journals remains low. It is suggested that other outlets, particularly those with high readership exposure, should be regarded as legitimate publication outlets for such research.

The implementation of the Japanese inventory control system, Kanban, in a production line, reduces Work‐in‐Process (WIP) inventory without affecting production or sales, though there is a point at which the reverse becomes true. The hypothesis that Kanban policy would reduce total WIP inventory without affecting production/sales at all was tested under two environmental conditions, cyclical demand and constant growth demand, by means of a simulated model, and also showed that under cyclical demand, frequent starts and stops in the line due to use of all the Kanban cards will produce eventual growth in all inventories, if not rectified. It is hoped that further research will develop a sufficently comprehensive model to facilitate the implementation of such a materials handling system.

Many firms control product quality using inspection systems, which add to costs. The implementation of Statistical Quality Control and Just‐in‐Time, together, can improve quality which eventually lowers costs. In this way two new dimensions are added to Feigenbaum's four dimension quality‐cost concept.

In recent years, many businesses have focused on three priorities: quality, cost and cycle time, in order to become world‐class companies. Despite the fact that many companies have been continuously improving product quality, lowering costs and reducing cycle times, their safety programmes have remained steady. A safety programme is as critical to achieving world‐class business status as quality, cost and time. Workplace injuries in the USA continue to occur at a rate of 8.5 per 100 full‐time workers per year. This phenomenon has a definite impact on product quality and cycle time, and can add millions of dollars to the annual costs of workers’ compensation programmes. For businesses to create an injury‐free workplace, it is necessary to develop strategies that move them towards world‐class safety performance. Proposes a strategic model that captures a transition to world‐class safety performance. The model was developed from the authors’ personal experiences, interviews with the safety, health, and environmental affairs manager of the Boeing Commercial Airplane Group, and documents obtained from Boeing and other companies.