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Plasma arc cutting (PAC) is extensively applicable for cutting the materials in faster speed with better accuracy in different manufacturing industries. The cutting of sailhard steel plate plays a great challenge in plasma arc cutting process.

In this investigation, a special abrasion-resistant steel known as sailhard of 20 mm thickness plate has been cut by PAC machine. Cutting current, stand-off distance, cutting speed and gas pressure were selected as cutting parameters. The corresponding responses focused for this study are material removal rate, kerf and chamfer. L30 orthogonal array based on a central composite design (CCD) of response surface methodology (RSM) was used to design the run of the experiment. For predicting and modeling of optimal cutting conditions, a hybrid approach of desirability function-based response surface methodology (DRSM) was acquainted.

The result of this study determines that desirability index (DI) was affected significantly with the machining parameter as well as their interaction. A confirmation test was carried out to analyze the degree of effectiveness of DRSM technique.

In PAC, the selection of process parameters and effect of that parameter on the output responses is of greater value because of the selection of best cutting condition.

Japan puts the emphasis on assembly, while growth is not what it used to be. John Hartley reports.

Automated assembly is moving to smaller and more flexible systems and components, offering greater ability for redeployment and adaptability to device assembly as small as micro electromechanical systems.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the requirement that non-profit organizations recognize unconditional promises to give as assets and revenues in the year promises are received as mandated by Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) No. 116.

Using the adoption of SFAS No. 116 and financial information reported on Internal Revenue Service Form 990, the study examines the requirement that non-profit organizations recognize unconditional promises to give as assets and revenues in the year promises are received. Combining insights derived from a model developed by Dechow, Kothari and Watts (1998) with the rationale applied by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) in mandating recognition treatment, it adopts the view that information about promises to give is relevant if it useful in assessing probable future cash inflows. The study also employs relative tests of predictive ability to assess competing specifications.

The study finds that recognizing unconditional promises to give as assets and as revenues in the year received improves predictions of next period’s cash inflows. It also finds that accrual-based contribution revenue consistently provides information content that is incremental to cash-based contribution revenue.

This paper has implications for several other lines of research as well. First, an ancillary concern expressed by many organizations in the non-profit sector was that the recognition of multi-year promises to give would adversely affect trends in long-term giving. In this regard, another promising line of inquiry would be to empirically test the Standard’s impact on the time-series properties of contributions and short- and long-term giving trends. Second, future research might consider conducting tests after partitioning by NTEE/NAICS classification, as well as substituting or supplementing the SOI data with financial statement data. Third, future research might consider applying the approach used in this study to other industries or groups for which market prices are not readily ascertainable. Data constraints, including the calculation of cash flow information indirectly from the balance sheet, impose limitations on this study.

This study documents that by recognizing unconditional promises to give as assets and revenues in the period received, donors, creditors and other users gain useful information about probable future cash inflows – a fundamental element of the accrual process and one of several important factors used to evaluate an organization’s ability to sustain future operations. This information is valuable to stakeholders and practitioners who rely on this information to make informed decisions. It is also helpful to standard setters in establishing guidelines that improve the usefulness of financial reporting for non-profits.

The paper contributes to existing literature by operationalizing, in a non-profit setting, a model that describes the relationship among revenues, accruals and cash flows. It fills a gap in the accrual literature regarding the relevance of non-profit revenue accruals. The study is the first to employ a relative information content approach to assess non-profit standards, which provides useful input to policy makers and end users. It affirms that many of the key conventions and elements embodied in the FASB Concepts Statements apply to non-profits as well, which heretofore has not been studied extensively. The results are also consistent with Accounting Standards Update 958, Not-for-Profit Entities, which requires that non-profits provide users with information about liquidity, including how they manage liquid resources needed to meet cash requirements for general expenditures within one year of the date of the statement of financial position.

Adopting an agentic positioning, we question and compare competing logics hybridization within French hospitals and universities facing major reforms inspired by new public management. In addition to the resulting forms of hybridization exposed in the literature (accepted or refused), we observe four additional modes: instrumentalized, uncomfortable, reformulated, and suffered. They all reveal the varied manner with which each professional faces reform. However, we develop a new argument: the ways professionals hybridize (or do not) their prevailing logic depends on an overarching mode of hybridization that characterizes the way their organization deals with reform. We identify two contrasting modes: overarching strategic logics hybridization and overarching enforced logics hybridization. They give insight into how actors decouple structure from practices. We contribute to the literature on logics hybridization by first analyzing the role of specific actors who act as either a translator-actor or a closure-actor to respectively facilitate appropriation of the reforms or to protect professionals against the growing dominance of the new logic introduced by the law; and secondly by discussing importance of articulating higher and lower organizational levels all involved in hybridization.

A new manufacturing plant has been installed in Solihull, UK, to manufacture the new Range Rover sports utility vehicle. An important aspect of the £80 million investment at the site is a body‐in‐white assembly shop containing 123 robots, many of which are employed in multi‐tasking roles.

A new application for the industrial robot has emerged, inspection, with two players emerging, Stäubli and Amatec Robotics of the Kuka Roboter Group. Both companies’ systems and their competing benefits are discussed. Until this new development, car bodies were inspected on‐line with arrays of laser sensors fixed in position over the production line. Using a robot to manipulate the same type of sensor gives more flexibility in the areas of the car to be measured and also reduces the number of sensors needed. It emerges that virtually all of the applications to date are to be found in European car plants, and some of these are described.

While evidence of the existence of gender‐based inequality in employment outcomes such as career grade and pay, abounds, theoretical disputes over the explanation for this phenomenon remain unresolved. Broadly, writers are divided over those who believe that unequal employment outcomes for women are the result of their individual choice (for example see Becker, 1975 and 1985; Lord, 1979; Hakim, 1991, 1993 and 1996), and those who believe this to be the result of the constraints placed on women (for example see Davies and Rosser, 1986;Curran, 1985and 1988; Collinson et.al., 1990; Vogler, 1994).

CMB Industrial Packaging has just published a 16‐page colour guide to help UK firms understand how the UN Recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods will affect their business. CMB is currently the only UK source for a competing range of UN Certified 5 litre oblong cans, plus 20 and 25 litre drums.