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An extensive search has shown that no business process reengineering (BPR) method specifically addresses the issue of selecting business processes for reengineering based on the processes’ impact on the firm’s strategic objectives. Focusing on strategic business units (SBUs) within the electronics and electrical components industry, the research reported in this paper develops a generic set of SBU business processes which is used, in conjunction with an existing set of generic strategic objectives, to create a decision model that assesses the performance and improvement potential of each business process with respect to the SBU’s collective strategic objectives. The decision model, which contains both deterministic and stochastic elements, is based upon the concepts of decision tree analysis and influence diagramming. Validation of both the set of business processes and the decision support system has been conducted through field studies at electronics and electrical components companies. The results from these studies have been very promising.

Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Term. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.

Chester Street, Aston, Birmingham, 6. The ‘Donald’ Patent Barrel Lifter Truck and Stand, the three‐in‐one appliance. Barrels up to 7 cwts. lifted and transported by one man. ‘Donald’ Patent Barrel Lifter Stands for Oil Stores.

In order to allow flexibility in the enforcement of the tax law, the language used is often intentionally vague and ambiguous. This enables the government to implement the intent of the lawmakers in administering that law. However, interpreting these vague and ambiguous laws requires tax professionals to face planning situations that are complex and uncertain. Due to an increase in civil litigation, the importance of tax professionals making defensible decisions has been magnified in recent years. Carnes, et al. (1994) report that tax partners with Big‐Six accounting firms spend about 30 to 45 percent of their time resolving ambiguous tax questions. Therefore, tax professionals could benefit from models or systems (i.e., decision support systems, expert systems, artificial intelligence) that provide decision direction when facing ambiguous tax situations. One such area in which tax professionals must assist their clients is the determination of what levels of compensation are reasonable for owner‐employees of closely‐held corporations (Hagan, et al. 1995).

This paper aims to present a comprehensive review of the laser engineered net shaping (LENS) process in an attempt to provide the reader with a deep understanding of the controllable and fixed build parameters of metallic parts. The authors discuss the effect and interplay between process parameters, including: laser power, scan speed and powder feed rate. Further, the authors show the interplay between process parameters is pivotal in achieving the desired microstructure, macrostructure, geometrical accuracy and mechanical properties.

In this manuscript, the authors review current research examining the process inputs and their influences on the final product when manufacturing with the LENS process. The authors also discuss how these parameters relate to important build aspects such as melt-pool dimensions, the volume of porosity and geometry accuracy.

The authors conclude that studies have greatly enriched the understanding of the LENS build process, however, much studies remains to be done. Importantly, the authors reveal that to date there are a number of detailed theoretical models that predict the end properties of deposition, however, much more study is necessary to allow for reasonable prediction of the build process for standard industrial parts, based on the synchronistic behavior of the input parameters.

This paper intends to raise questions about the possible research areas that could potentially promote the effectiveness of this LENS technology.

This paper seeks to evaluate the arguments for and against the proposition that students in higher education are “customers” and should be treated as such.

A critical review of the relevant literature from the domains of total quality management and marketing.

The debate is polarised, with advocates regarding it as self‐evident that students are customers and should be treated as such, while critics regard it as self‐evident that the incursion of the “customer” concept into higher education degrades educational standards and damages educator/student relationships.

Researchers should investigate whether the adoption of the terminology, systems and processes of the “student‐as‐customer” leads to a degradation or improvement of the quality of education and level of service delivered to higher education students.

Ways are recommended in which the careful adoption of the term “customers” to refer to students could retain positive aspects – promoting the legitimate interests of students in the higher education system – while avoiding such potentially negative aspects as the problematic idea that “the customer is always right”.

The paper points towards a “middle way” by which educational policy‐makers and managers can obtain the benefits associated with a “customer orientation” while avoiding the difficulties associated with a simplistic interpretation of the customer concept.

It has often been said that a great part of the strength of Aslib lies in the fact that it brings together those whose experience has been gained in many widely differing fields but who have a common interest in the means by which information may be collected and disseminated to the greatest advantage. Lists of its members have, therefore, a more than ordinary value since they present, in miniature, a cross‐section of institutions and individuals who share this special interest.

The purpose of this research is to aim to develop a deeper understanding of the teaching qualities of effective lecturers that students desire and to uncover the constructs that underlie these desire expectations and reveal the underlying benefits for which students look.

A semi‐standardized qualitative technique called laddering was applied that allows researchers to reach deeper levels of reality and to reveal the reasons behind the reasons. The study was conducted amongst teacher education students at a large German University of Education and laddering questionnaires were handed out to 53 students enrolled in a business management course.

The exploratory study gave a valuable first insight into the desired qualities of lecturers. In particular, the study results indicate that students want lecturers to be knowledgeable, enthusiastic, approachable, and friendly. Students predominantly want to encounter valuable teaching experiences to be able to pass tests and to be prepared for their profession. This study also showed that students are mainly concerned about vocational aspects of their studies and are less interested in their subject.

Owing to the exploratory nature of the study and the scope and size of its sample, the results outlined are tentative in nature. As the study involved only a single group of university students from one university, the results cannot be generalized to the student population as a whole.

The study was the first to successfully apply the means‐end approach and the laddering technique to the issue of service quality in higher education. The study has, hopefully, opened up an area of research and methodology that could provide considerable further benefits for researchers interested in this topic.

This paper sets out to explore and detect underlying causes to increasing uncertainty and lack of transparency in the home maintenance sector. The study gives an account of owner‐occupiers' experience on the standards of work they encounter with small‐scale domestic traders. Part I, in a previous issue, focused on the consensus ranking of 13 building maintenance standards or attributes that owner‐occupiers expect from builders (Xbmas) while part II focuses on the contrast between expectations and the actual maintenance setbacks observed from builders (Obmas) and which are a source of displeasure among owner‐occupiers. The application of nonparametric statistical techniques enabled the study to detect consensus on what defines expectations and how these differ from observed standards. An understanding of this disparity could be essential information for existing builders, new entrants into the home maintenance sector and inform housing regeneration professionals and agencies involved in the architecture and management of schemes for small‐scale builders.

In his introductory remarks the Medical Officer briefly comments on the war in its relations to medical practice and public health. He reminds us that Japanese action, by depriving us of quinine, encouraged research for synthetic substitutes. Again, penicillin and D.D.T. were given attention that they, possibly, would not otherwise have had. Food standards, long urgently needed, have been established for many important foods. He further points out that “adequate finance and international scientific co‐operation” has aided atomic research. These remarks make an exceedingly appropriate introduction to what immediately follows. The Borough of Leigh has an area of 6,359 acres, that is ten square miles. The population is 45,317, or about 4,500 to the square mile. It lies in the centre of one of the greatest manufacturing districts in the world. This district includes Manchester, Liverpool, Bury, Wigan and other places whose names alone suggest intense industrial activity. Leigh, therefore, densely populated and taking an active part in this industrial activity, presents the special health problems that are always to be found in places where nature has been subordinated to the needs of industry. One of these problems, and by no means the least important one, is atmospheric pollution caused by the smoke of domestic fires and of factory fires. It is as old as any and it is still unsolved. It is but one of the many attempts that have been made in the past to better public or domestic hygiene. Weak or faulty administration or the lack of compulsory powers have enhanced difficulties, already considerable, when confronted with actively expressed popular prejudice, or worse still with the apathy of ignorance, or the opposition arising from vested interests. To enforce Acts of Parliament or regulations under such conditions was in some cases an almost impossible task. Thus the report states that the Manchester and Regional Smoke Abatement Committee is now functioning again—its work was suspended during the war. “It is a voluntary association of local authorities… and acts in an advisory capacity.” It seems that out of 91 local authorities—including two County Councils—sixty‐eight have joined or resumed their previous membership of the Regional Committee. Since only fifty‐three out of ninety‐one were pre‐war members the increase of membership from about 54 to 78 per cent. of the possible membership is taken to indicate that greater interest is being taken in the problem of smoke abatement. Just so. But why not the full possible membership? We can to a certain extent understand this if the powers of the Committee are merely advisory and they have to deal with some who have “urged that smoke means work, the inference being that the greater the degree of pollution the higher will be the level of employment.” Again, we arc told that the Manchester Corporation Bill proposes to create a smokeless zone in the centre of the city. The proposal to create such zones has been “criticised on the grounds that the area they comprise will still be subject to pollution from outside sources.” Of course they will! Who in the world doubts it? But we submit that a beginning should be made somewhere, somehow, and somewhen. A committee which can act only in an advisory capacity would have little influence on people who use perverted reasoning to justify conditions that the committee has been created to suppress. Some years ago, before the war brought everything to a standstill, the foul state of the Ribble, Mersey and associated streams engaged the attention of local authorities. It might, with as much reason, be urged that polluted streams were in like case. Hence fouled air and fouled streams are indications of and inseparable accidents of industrial success! The matter in some respects inclines slightly to the humorous side. Not so the following. The Medical Officer says “the high infant mortality and general death rates, together with the high incidence of respiratory diseases associated with atmospheric pollution of our industrial areas should be sufficient in themselves to dispel any attitude of complacency or apathy towards this problem.” We do not suggest Leigh is any better or any worse on the whole than any other industrial area in this respect. The old tag ex uno disce omnes seems to fit the case. The report calls attention to the following facts. That 70,000 tons of carbon black is discharged into London air every year, and its value is £40 a ton. That the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in their report of 1945 on atmospheric pollution in Leicester point out that pollution from our industrial areas spreads all over England. That twice as much smoke is made from domestic fires than from industrial fires. That in burning coal in an ordinary grate only about one‐fifth of the coal is used to supply heat and that half a hundredweight per ton of coal used goes up the chimney as smoke. All this waste can be expressed with a fair approach to accuracy in terms of weight and monetary units. The Meteorological Office and later the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research have issued annual reports for the past twenty‐five years on this matter and Health Authorities and Public Analysts have done much the same thing. This scientific co‐operation has led to a great accumution of exact knowledge, and “all that is required for success is the application of this knowledge.” And this knowledge has not been adequately applied. Material waste and damage by smoke‐polluted air can be assessed in ordinary units. Waste of and damage to life cannot be so estimated. Mind and body suffer. Ill health, weakened physical powers, and resulting mental distress and impaired efficiency can, we suppose, only be duly appreciated by members of the medical profession whose duties bring them into personal touch with the patients. Vital statistics and bills of mortality but imperfectly reveal the truth. If atmospheric pollution had “impeded the war effort”—in the way in which that expression was usually taken to mean—adequate finance and scientific co‐operation would undoubtedly have been forthcoming, even perhaps to the extent of writing smoke abated for smoke abatement. Enemy action was sporadic and temporary. Smoke pollution has acted without haste but without rest for a hundred years and more. It is still acting as a persistent and contributory cause of ill‐health. At a time when enhanced national efficiency is declared to be an essential condition of national recovery and success this statement of responsible medical opinion should, like others of the same kind, receive practical and prompt consideration. However quickly the evil may be effectually dealt with, even if that were done to‐morrow, there still would be the time lag, and years must pass before the after effects have become eliminated. Nationalisation of all kinds is very much to the fore. “It would be wise,” says the Report, “to regard the problem as already calling for action on a national scale.” These it is suggested would include adequate supplies of standardised domestic and industrial equipment for burning smokeless fuels, and the revision of the powers of local authorities in whose hands the matter at present rests. While we are in full agreement with these suggested remedies the difficulties of applying them are obviously very great and the work of a generation if the authors of the fantastic objections already alluded to and possibly others of a like way of thinking have any real say in the matter.