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To begin this paper provocatively I will put forward the opinion that information work in any field is always largely empirical; information work in a technology cannot be anything else but empirical. It is impossible to organize an information service for a technology until the broad outline of the technology itself has been understood and assimilated. This being so, it is only possible to speak to any purpose on information work in a technology if, at each stage, some specific technology is used as a framework of reference; the only such framework known to the present author is that provided by the ceramic industry. It has been objected that the ceramic industry cannot provide a broad enough framework to give interest to an audience drawn from other industries; I hope to be able to show that this objection is not valid. To do so, the term ‘ceramics’ must first be defined.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the demography of the producers of ceramic wares as it affects the production and profitability of the venture. To identify and rank other factors affecting the sustenance of ceramic enterprises through the data collected from ceramic manufacturers in the study area.

The paper is a survey research. Data are collected from ceramic ware producers through structured questionnaires and open‐ended oral interview. The analysis involves the use of descriptive statistics in the discussion of the research variables.

The spatial distribution of the industries as well as the performance are determined by different factors. Gender lopsidedness is observed among ceramic wares producers. Time commitment to production by manufacturers is not good enough for profitability of the venture. The production and the management systems of small‐scale ceramic industries in South‐Western Nigeria are hindered by many other factors.

The analysis of the demography of the practicing ceramists helps to determine how factors like gender, geographical location, and education attainment have influenced small‐scale ceramic production. The knowledge of the severity of factors militating against ceramic production helps in bringing about strategies that can alleviate the problems.

The factors that are responsible for the waning state of small‐scale ceramic industries in South‐Western Nigeria are identified and ranked in terms of their severity; the paper offers possible solutions that could change the situation.

This paper, a case study, aims to illustrate the application of Six Sigma in a small-scale ceramic manufacturing industry. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the empirical application of DMAIC methodology to reduce failure rate at high voltage (HV) testing of one of the most critical products, insulator.

The case study is based on primary data collected from a real-life situation prevailing in the industry. The case study methodology adopted here is at one small-scale unit wherein the authors have applied DMAIC methodology and observed and recorded the improvement results, especially, reduction in failure rate at HV testing of insulator and, thus, increase in Sigma level.

The results found after implementation of the solutions are very significant. The rejection percentage has been reduced from 0.5 to 0.1 percent and consequently the Sigma level has been improved from 4.4 to 5.0.

This success story can be a guiding roadmap for other such industries to successfully implement Six Sigma to improve quality, productivity and profitability.

This case study will serve as one of the resource bases for the industries which have till not implemented Six Sigma and benefited from the same.

Improved quality and productivity leads to better economy. This case will help industries to serve the society with better economy with improved quality and productivity.

Though ceramic industries in India are having enormous potential for growth, majority of them, especially, small and medium industries are either not aware of or not implementing Six Sigma to reap its multidimensional benefits of improving quality, productivity and profitability. This study highlights the benefits reaped by small-scale ceramic manufacturing industry opening up the avenues for its application at other such organizations.

The review glances upon the colorants used for printing on ceramic substrates by ink jet technology and techniques, chemistry involved during the selection of the colorants.

The ink jet technology is an easy and a convenient technique, specially designed colorants are used for such applications with tailor made properties and features.

New developments in technology and chemistry of colorants to achieve successes in application studies of ceramic substrates.

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This review glances upon the history, development and practical approach of the current techniques with available dyes and pigments and the techniques involved during the synthesis and application.

The review paper provides information about the development of the inkjet technique on ceramics and available colorants with methods.

Marketing - value proposition and value delivery, switching cost, customer acquisition and retention, positioning, pricing, distribution and retailing, role of trust and transparency to build sustainable relationship in B2B context, and efficient service delivery.

Undergraduate and graduate students in marketing, business administration, strategy, retailing, B2B marketing, services marketing and general management courses. Also, it can be used for executive management/training programmes.

The case focuses on an existing scenario of a natural gas business in Gujarat, India, in order to provide understanding of marketing challenges, especially in the B2B context, faced by organisations in this evolving business environment. The case examines the strategies and policies implemented by the company and their impact on the customer. The case presents reactions and responses from the concerned customers. The case illustrates the criticalness of understanding customer expectations and designing and delivering customer centric strategies to sustain market leadership in an evolving and competitive market.

The case study enables the students to understand and analyse: the current business environment; the important factors impacting natural gas business; economic analysis of energy; opportunity and challenges for doing cleaner and greener business; role of cleaner fuel to reduce carbon footprint; and carbon credit impacting top line and bottom line of a customer. The case provides students the opportunity to understand and analyse the importance of switching costs to acquire a new customer; and devising and implementing marketing strategies to expand customer base and enter into new territories.

Teaching notes.

This case describes how eight entrepreneurs discover different opportunities for new businesses to exploit a single technological invention. The case focuses on the process of entrepreneurial discovery and its implications for the creation of new firms. Many of the teaching materials on entrepreneurship assume that entrepreneurs have already discovered an opportunity. While these materials provide useful information about the process of creating new enterprises, they miss the crucial first step in the entrepreneurial process: identifying an opportunity. The case illustrates the theoretical concept of the role of information in the discovery of entrepreneurial opportunities. It can be used in a class on entrepreneurship or management of technology.

Risk management has emerged as a critical issue in operating a supply chain effectively in the presence of uncertainties that result from unexpected variations. Assessing and managing supply chain risks are receiving significant attention from practitioners and academics. At present, the ceramic industry in Bangladesh is growing. Thus, managers in the industry need to properly assess supply chain risks for mitigation purposes. This study aims to identify and analyze various supply chain risks occurring in a ceramic factory in Bangladesh.

A model is proposed based on a fuzzy technique for order preference using similarity to an ideal solution (fuzzy-TOPSIS) for evaluating supply chain risks. For this, 20 supply chain risk factors were identified through an extensive literature review and while consulting with experts from the ceramic factories. Fuzzy-TOPSIS contributed to the analysis and assessment of those risks.

The results of this research indicate that among the identified 20 supply chain risks, lack of operational quality, lack of material quality and damage to inventory were the major risks for the ceramic sector in Bangladesh.

The impact of supply chain risks was not shown in this study and the risks were considered independent. Therefore, research can be continued to address these two factors.

The outcome of this research is expected to assist industrial managers and practitioners in the ceramic sector in taking proactive action to minimize supply chain risks. A sensitivity analysis was performed to determine the relative stability of the risks.

This study uses survey data to analyze and evaluate the major supply chain risks related to the ceramic sector. An original methodology is provided for identifying and evaluating the major supply chain risks in the ceramic sector of Bangladesh.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the competitiveness of the Brazilian ceramic tile industry using a conceptual model that the authors developed which integrates two contemporary approaches: industrial districts and the resource‐based view.

A quantitative study was carried out, using a survey with firm CEOs.

The results indicate that companies present in industrial districts have greater access to the strategic resources they share, such as knowledge transfer, access to information, and collective reputation. This fact results in higher levels of competitiveness, from the resource‐based view, since companies outside the district do not have the same resources available to them.

Idiosyncratic characteristics of the industry can limit our results. For further discussion, we suggest studies with other industries and local players and the positive effect of the social capital.

One contribution from our work is linking the resource‐based view to industrial district dynamics, which can help to develop local industrial policies.

The purpose of this paper is to present an approach to incorporating mobility into continuous manufacturing following the advent of Industry 4.0 (I4.0).

The investigation is based on a year-long canonical action research into a paper-manufacturing company implementing core I4.0 technologies.

The findings show how to: classify manufacturing mobility strategy based on the dimensions of team, task and control; design business processes enabled by mobile cyber–physical resources; involve different stakeholders in modeling mobility; and create a comprehensive guide to assist in implementing the mobile digitalization required by I4.0.

Despite the complexity, richness and depth of the insights obtained in this research for mobility management in process industries, this inquiry was conducted in a single organization.

As the fourth industrial revolution encourages decentralization and increased interaction between humans and machines, this paper presents a model to capture the mobility potential in manufacturing. The tools proposed in this research can be used to steer investments in industry transformations that fuse the physical and digital worlds, overcoming mobility constraints.

Theoretically, this paper expands the concept of manufacturing mobility in I4.0. In practice, it proposes a participative roadmap to assist technology management in increasingly decentralized environments, identifying the intertwined network of cyber–physical actors, processes and services.