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“The battle is won in the strategy room, not on the battlefield.” These words by Sun Tzu are certainly very important for the implementation of new technologies, such as solid freeform manufacturing (SFM). Experiences of strategies to incorporate these systems to the “manufacturing battlefield” will be discussed and suggestions given for the efficient use by employees. Looks, for example, at IPPD training strategy at McDonnell Douglas Aerospace and outlines the eight modules involved in their training. Focuses also on training in rapid prototyping outlining the various elements involved.

The use of rapid prototyping (RP) technologies is becoming increasingly popular due to the reduction of machinery prices. Consequently, more and more industries now have the opportunity to apply such processes to improve their product development cycles. The purpose of this paper is to present different decision‐making approaches to choose an adequate RP process.

Here, four decision approaches are applied to compare six processes regarding six criteria, using the input data from previous works. As a result, six decision methods are compared. Two different scenarios are constructed, where different important attributes are considered, simulating two different prototype applications.

It is demonstrated that not all methods result in the same RP ranking, however, most of them provide the same first option for a given scenario. The characteristics of the methods could be related to their influence on the evaluation, which serve as guidelines for the decision makers in order to reflect their exact opinion or requirements.

Owing to different ways of inputting information into the decision methods, some considerations are made in order to convert as close as possible the RP process attributes and scenario requirements into useful data for each method. In particular, the conversion of scenarios, i.e. the relative importance of the criteria, is somewhat challenging.

Although the fundamentals of the decision methods are presented here, one should be careful while comparing the RP process, because their attributes may vary enormously depending on the parameter process to build a part. Despite all the considerations and precautions to be observed, the selection of the RP process can be done in a simple way, dispensing with complex calculations.

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of theoretical considerations and experimental tests concerning microscaffold fabrication by selective laser melting (SLM). Also described are manufacturing technologies for regular lattice microstructure with the smallest possible pore sizes and fullest possible order of geometric accuracy retained. Process parameters of SLM greatly affect the properties of the fabricated structures not only in regards to their material characteristics but also in their geometric representation accuracy.

The paper discusses technological relationships between different laser micrometallurgy strategies and the accuracy of the manufactured microstructures.

With technological possibilities evaluated, regular porous structure was created composed of cubic pores with cylindrical struts as their boundaries. Strut diameters are up to 180 μm, and the distance between neighboring strut axes was reduced to 600 μm, which gives a hollow channels clearance of approximately 420 μm.

Presented results show possibilities of manufacturing small high-strength lattice microstructures by SLM using Ti-6Al-7Nb titanium alloy powders for tissue engineering.

The following bibliography focuses mainly on programs which can run on IBM microcomputers and compatibles under the operating system PC DOS/MS DOS, and which can be used in online information and documentation work. They fall into the following categories:

During the interwar period, the Netherlands experienced a phase of rapid industrialization and mechanization and saw the introduction of many new labor-saving techniques on the shop floor. This process, which went under the name “rationalization of production,” caused great concern in the labor movement and sparked an intensive debate over the existence and extent of technological (or permanent) unemployment. Although the problem of technological unemployment was denied by the mainstream economists of the day, the problem was addressed by left-wing, mathematically trained economists such as Theo van der Waerden and Jan Tinbergen. They sought for rigorous “scientific” arguments that would convince policymakers, colleagues, and the public of socialist employment policies.

This chapter shows that van der Waerden and Tinbergen used ever-increasing formal methods to face the issue of rationalization, which became politically relevant and controversial in the specific context of the interwar period. Their new scientific tools gave them esteem and influence. In their role as advisers to the government, they gained influence and were able to recommend policies that were in accordance with their political beliefs.

This paper aims to introduce eristic decision-making in entrepreneurship. A decision is eristically made when it utilizes eristics, which are action-triggering short-cuts that draw on hedonic urges (e.g. sensation-seeking). Unlike heuristics, eristic decision-making is not intendedly rational as eristics lead to decision-making without calculating or even considering the consequences of actions. Eristics are adaptive when uncertainty is extreme. Completely novel strategies, nascent venturing, corporate venturing for radical innovation and adapting to shocks (e.g. pandemic) are typically subject to extreme uncertainties.

In light of the relevant debates in entrepreneurship, psychology and decision sciences, the paper builds new conceptual links to establish its theoretical claims through secondary research.

The paper posits that people adapt to extreme uncertainty by using eristic reasoning rather than heuristic reasoning. Heuristic reasoning allows boundedly rational decision-makers to use qualitative cues to estimate the consequences of actions and to make reasoned decisions. By contrast, eristic reasoning ignores realistic calculations and considerations about the future consequences of actions and produces decisions guided by hedonic urges.

Current entrepreneurial research on uncertainty usually focuses on moderate levels of uncertainty where heuristics and other intendedly rational decision-making approaches pay off. By contrast, this paper focuses on extreme uncertainty where eristics are adaptive. While not intendedly rational, the adaptiveness of eristic reasoning offers theoretically and psychologically grounded new explanations about action under extreme uncertainty.

Competition for resources appears to be increasing at a time of political, security (including energy, food and climate) and economic change; leading to potential collapse. The purpose of this conceptual paper is to examine the impact of policies exercised at the macro level on methods and processes applied at the micro level through, for example, performance management. It looks at the impact at the micro level on the macro and upon industry, innovation and the generation of productive wealth. It contrasts the techno‐socio application of Lean with the socio‐techno dynamics of agility as impacted by the info‐techno‐socio and emerging socio‐info‐techno systems.

From collaborative doctoral level research and an extensive literature review – integrating the three cultures (the natural sciences, the social sciences and the humanities) – macro/global and local/micro cross level thematic complex systems models were identified and modelled across their connecting political, security and economic ecologies. Connecting models were designed considering “trust” and “risk” as applied to socio, techno and info‐techno systems. These systems were then considered in terms of lean and agility and their impact “in the extreme” and “over time” on complex political, security economic models.

Lean in the extreme can lead to vertical polarisation; causing conditions for competition leading to hyper‐competition.

Complex models are considered and explained by historical reference and story‐telling so as to enable access across different disciplines and to explain and potentially inspire researchers, managers, consultants and workers to consider alternative less competitive and more agile, collaborative and adaptive futures.

Elie Halévy essentially expressed the view recorded by James Mill in his anonymously written ‘On the Nature, Measures, and Causes of Value’⁷ that the first chapter of the Critical Dissertation relating to the nature of value ‘contains not an assertion, who which, as far as ideas politico-economical are concerned, Mr. Ricardo would not have assented; it contains, not indeed, as far as such ideas are concerned, an assertion which is not implied in the propositions which Mr. Ricardo has put forth. It is a criticism on some of Mr. Ricardo's forms of expression…’ ([J. Mill], 1826a, p. 157). The justification for the Ricardian reaction is clear enough, as I shall now show.⁸