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The well‐known maxim “different products, different requirements” is, of course, derived from practical experience. This article seeks to establish whether this maxim also has significance when viewed from the perspective of physical distribution. In particular, it will consider what this significance is with reference to physical distribution strategy, production allocation and stock allocation policy. At the same time it will seek to establish which product characteristics can significantly shape this policy.

Non-gated residential communities (NGR) are now becoming significant in Jordan resulting in an increase in low and medium-income areas. This study aims to investigate the sense of community at residential level within NGR by testing the characteristics presented in the first and largest non-gated community in Jordan (Al-Sharq project).

Such characteristics were identified via literary reviews and visual data collected through site visits, observation and photographs of the project's physical settings. This formed the basis of a questionnaire/survey that was distributed to the residents. This research depends on the mixed-method approach (qualitative and quantitative) to achieve the research objectives. The quantitative method involved the use of a questionnaire/survey, while the qualitative method undertook a comparative process using some statistical methods for the main characteristics. The results were analysed by using descriptive statistics, comprising frequency and factor analyses.

The study concludes with a framework consisting of suggestions and recommendations to remove the main constraints on improving the quality of life for the non-gated residential community.

The outcome of this study will influence the decisions made by the parties involved in urban development in Jordan when designing residential neighborhoods.

The significance of this paper is that while the majority of studies have been on the evaluation of gated communities in developing countries, there have only been a limited of studies specifically examining the experience of residents in those environments. Therefore, this paper contributes and adds to the existing knowledge in the development of non-gated communities in a developing country.

Examines the tenth published year of the ITCRR. Runs the whole gamut of textile innovation, research and testing, some of which investigates hitherto untouched aspects. Subjects discussed include cotton fabric processing, asbestos substitutes, textile adjuncts to cardiovascular surgery, wet textile processes, hand evaluation, nanotechnology, thermoplastic composites, robotic ironing, protective clothing (agricultural and industrial), ecological aspects of fibre properties – to name but a few! There would appear to be no limit to the future potential for textile applications.

This study aims to investigate the characteristics of the physical work environment that are known and used in practice to promote creativity for innovative start-up workplaces. The first part of the study identified these characteristics from a content and visual analysis, and examined the current state of implementation of these characteristics in the work environments of innovative start-up companies. The second part of the study examined criticalness and practicality of these characteristics in the workplace with a group of experts in the workplace design, evaluation and management.

A content and visual analysis for written and visual images was conducted to identify a comprehensive list of characteristics of the physical work environment critical to creativity of the workplace. With the seven characteristics identified, an instrument was developed and interviews were conducted to assess the physical work environments of 22 innovative start-up companies in Michigan. Following up the interviews, an expert group was formed with 26 professionals including architects, interior designers, facility managers and CEOs. A survey was conducted with them to understand the significance and implementation issues among the seven characteristics.

The most frequently incorporated characteristics in the innovative start-up companies in Michigan were spaces for idea generation, technology interface for collaboration and spaces for a short mental break or social hangout. The three most important physical work environmental characteristics for companies to produce creative, innovative ideas and products/services for growth and market competitiveness were balanced layout, technology interface for collaboration and spaces for idea generation.

The study provides a comprehensive framework to evaluate creative workplace regarding the physical environment. It also offers insights on the work environments of the innovative start-up companies for increased creativity and innovation performance in the workplace.

This paper examines a user categorisation of documents related to a particular literary work. Fifty study participants completed an unconstrained sorting task of documents related to Charles Dickens’ A Christmas carol. After they had finished the sorting task, participants wrote descriptions of the attributes they used to create each group. Content analysis of these descriptions revealed categories of attributes used for grouping. Participants used physical format, audience, content description, pictorial elements, usage, and language most frequently for grouping. Many of the attributes participants used for grouping already exist in bibliographic records and may be used to cluster records related to works automatically in online catalogue displays. The attributes used by people in classifying or grouping documents related to a work may be used to guide the design of summary online catalogue work displays.

Although lean popularity is rapidly growing, its implementation is far from problem-free and companies may experience difficulties in sustaining long-term success. On this premises, the purpose of this paper is to understand to what extent human factors, affected by the implementation of both hard (defined as technical and analytical tools) and soft (concerning people and relations) lean practices, play a key role in achieving long-term superior performance.

The analysis of the relationships between lean practices implementation, human factors and operational performance is carried out in a single exploratory case study. A retrospective approach is adopted to trace the changes of human and operational performance before, during and after the introduction of lean management (LM) implementation. In particular, a mixed method concurrent design merging results of a qualitative analysis with data collected from a survey is selected to provide a more realistic benefit in the exploration of the proposed research questions.

The results show a short-term direct relationship between the implementation of lean practices (hard and soft) and physical work environment and job characteristics, directly connected to operational outcome. In the long term, operational performance is influenced by employee behaviour outcome and conditioned by physical work environment and job characteristics with the mediating effect of individual characteristics.

The proposed model supports the building of a roadmap for LM implementation, taking into account the role of the human factors to achieve superior operational performance. Moreover, it helps managers to implement a monitoring system to check how social and technical components of a LM system evolve over time. Finally, it supports the definition of specific training programs, tailored for specific workers’ types.

This paper extends theory in LM, highlighting how hard and soft lean practices have to interact to enable a successful LM implementation.

In order to promote the development of modern manufacturing towards high-precision, high-quality intelligence and precision, this paper puts forward the concept of physical manufacturing and conducts a more in-depth theoretical discussion on its basic connotation and characteristics, based on which the application of physical manufacturing in cutting and autoclave curing molding of composite material is briefly introduced.

As a brand-new manufacturing concept, physical manufacturing determines the optimal process parameters according to multidisciplinary simulations, which emphasizes the physical characteristics about long life and high reliability of the processed products, and makes intelligent adjustment of process parameters according to the changes in the environment and equipment status during manufacturing.

The concept of physical manufacturing has pioneering significance for the basic research and development of advanced manufacturing technology, which helps to further improve production efficiency, reduce production costs and improve product quality.

The concept of physical manufacturing was first proposed, which emphasizes the analysis, reasoning, perception, and deduction during the manufacturing process, to achieve high-quality processing of products.

This paper examines residential satisfaction in welfare housing facilities exclusively built for low-income single-mother households in South Korea. The main objective is to identify predictors from among various domains such as sociodemographic and psychological characteristics of residents, as well as objective and subjective characteristics of their residential environment.

A mixed-method field study evaluates data obtained via structured questionnaires administered to 233 low-income single mothers in 23 residential welfare facilities across South Korea, supplemented by facility observations and interviews with housing staff from 16 facilities.

Residential satisfaction was found to be a multidimensional construct predicted by a number of variables, with psychological characteristics being dominant. Significant predictors were also identified among physical and sociospatial environmental characteristics, such as plan type, management and service and personal space.

The results of this study highlight the significance of the human aspects of management and the sociospatial quality of housing unit spaces to provide a sense of protection and privacy for the residents, which emphasizes the importance of management, design and policy improvements to increase satisfaction in welfare facility residents.

Currently, data for special housing conditions of female-headed households in unstable housing affordability are relatively few and outdated. A critical examination of the physical and sociospatial quality of short-term subsidized public housing for low-income single-mother households in South Korea expands the current knowledge in this field to various sociodemographic and cultural contexts.

This study aims to investigate the moderating effects of brick-and-mortar (BM) store characteristics and customer satisfaction on the relationship between ship-to-store (STS) retailing and BM store performance in an emerging economy. The purpose is to explore how BM store characteristics and customer satisfaction influence online buying behaviour when customers visit the stores to pick up their products.

This study collected secondary longitudinal data from 615 BM stores from one of Brazil's largest retailers and performed a panel-data regression analysis using the following moderating variables: customer satisfaction with BM stores, BM store's size, convenience and inventory transparency.

Customer satisfaction with BM stores moderates the effect of STS transactions on the revenue per store. Results also show that BM store's convenience, size and inventory transparency moderate STS online customers' impact on BM store cross-sales.

The STS strategy can increase online and BM store performance. Some BM store characteristics and customer satisfaction influence online customers to buy more products when they visit BM stores to pick up their products, providing a more complex model for the relationship between STS strategy and BM store performance.

Companies in emerging economies can use the BM store more strategically in combination with the STS strategy to increase overall retailer performance. By managing some BM store characteristics, managers can improve retail sales.

This study demonstrates how new moderating factors expand the understanding of the relationship between online and physical retailing in emerging economies. Also, the panel data regression results control for extraneous variables and provide more robust evidence of the relationships observed.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the experience design phenomenon in the cultural sector. Specifically, it purports to articulate a set of design characteristics that support the alignment between an organisation’s design intention (i.e. intended experience) and the actual experience of customers (i.e. realised experience).

A single case study approach is adopted to explore the phenomenon from both the provider and customer perspectives simultaneously. A range of qualitative data, including 42 interviews with managers and customers as well as voluminous documentary evidence, are collected. Provider and customer data are analysed independently using a rigorous inductive analytical process to generate experience design themes and to assess possible gaps between intended and realised experience.

The findings reveal the design characteristics of touchpoints and the overall customer journey, which constitute the core experience, as well as the design characteristics of the physical and social environment, which support the realisation of the core experience, in a cultural context.

Limitations include difficulties in generalising the findings from a single case and in claiming that the set of design characteristics identified is exhaustive.

The paper makes several recommendations that are useful and relevant for customer experience practitioners in the cultural sector.

The paper’s contribution is to provide novel empirical insights into the four experience design areas of touchpoints, journey, physical elements and social elements in an experience-centric cultural context. On that basis, a conceptual framework for experience design in the cultural context is proposed.