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This conference, in the series being run by the National Physical Laboratory to help the electronics assembly industry consider the problems of CFC phase‐out, was essentially an updated repeat of the event held on 30 April, which had been a complete, standing‐room‐only sell‐out. Surprisingly, this repeat performance also attracted a full house and the format used has proved to be the most popular of all the NPL non‐CFC options conferences.

This conference was the second in the National Physical Laboratory series focusing in turn on each of the non‐CFC options for de‐fluxing soldered electronics assemblies. The first conference was on Controlled Atmosphere Soldering and the third will be on New Solvents.

This paper reports on the findings of a study of the development of 63 new products in 36 electronics firms in Ireland. The firms range in size from fewer than ten to over 1,000 employees. They all operate in the electronics sector, developing and manufacturing a variety of products from completely integrated systems to discrete components. A series of questionnaires and interviews was used to collect historical life cycle data of new products. The results presented in this paper focus on the management of the product development process. The relationship between the development process and new product success or failure is examined. The differences between the management of product development in small and large firms are also explored. Small firms report a new product success rate comparable to that of larger firms, suggesting that the factors that are linked to the success of new products may be related to firm size.

Thirty‐six people attended this SMART Group Seminar at the Bowler Hat Hotel in Birkenhead, Merseyside, on 20 February 1990. The technical programme in the morning comprised five talks:

These days every important trend in business converges on the decision to relocate.

To investigate the role of business process redesign (BPR) in creating citizen‐centred e‐government.

It is argued in this paper that the evolutionary‐based development of BPR is better positioned to expand the use e‐commerce technology in the public sector. The Venkatraman model of IT‐enabled change is used in order to investigate the extent to which BPR was instrumental in the movement to e‐government in Ireland. A case study is presented detailing how the Irish Government's e‐government strategy was devised and implemented.

This paper details how 50 government authorities were co‐ordinated in an effort to provide a single point of access (portal) to government e‐services. However, as the infrastructure for the portal is to be developed around existing government structures, a full and complete process redesign is unlikely, as the existing authorities must remain in place.

To investigate the unique nature of processes within the public sector so that IS platforms can be developed that accommodate less efficient processes rather than platforms that require unobtainable process redesign.

The establishment of a specific government entity, whose sole purpose is to oversee and implement the e‐government strategy, has contributed greatly to the success achieved to date.

This paper fulfils an identified need for research in BPR in the implementation of e‐government and provides a valuable insight into the successful attainment of citizen‐centred e‐government in other jurisdictions.

INDUSTRIALLY the two ‘in’ words today seem to be participation and consensus, the first leading to the second. How these can become a reality in modern business was discussed recently by the London Region of the Institute of Work Study Practitioners.

The UK is a leader in the implementation of surface mount technology, and SMARTEX '91 sponsored by the SMART Group is one of only a few shows organised worldwide which is dedicated solely to this field. Perhaps it was not surprising then that this year's three‐day event proved a great success.