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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between integrative technologies and the corporation's ability to remain or gain a competitive advantage in today's fast‐paced global economy.

The authors' professional experience, extensive literature review, and personal communications on the subject provided the foundation for this research.

The global business environment requires corporations to use a variety of information and communications technologies in order to coordinate and control all activities in its global operations. In order to be competitive, firms are implementing new technologies such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), ERP II, and radio frequency identification to reduce the cost of doing business by improving operational efficiencies, establish better relationship with their business partners, as well as effectiveness by quickly responding to changes in the marketplace. Challenges and benefits of implementing these technologies by both manufacturing and service organizations are explored and examined in this paper.

Low‐cost and differentiation strategies require corporations to integrate information and communications technologies to streamline processes both within the firm and between business associates. A considerable amount of time and capital is required for acquisition and implementation of the new technology but the return on the investment is significant in the long run. Top management participation, change in management, and employee training are critical success factors in successful utilization of technology.

The paper provides useful information with regards to the importance of technology in sustaining or gaining a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

In this paper, we present a planning and control framework for manufacture‐to‐order environments that enables and supports agile‐based discrete parts manufacturing. The characteristic elements of our framework are that it is decentralized, logistics and business oriented, and that it recognizes that more detailed and more reliable data become available as orders advance through the different manufacturing stages and departments. Furthermore, it is a generic framework in that it applies to any discrete parts manufacturer, ranging from an engineer‐to‐order to an assemble‐to‐order company. We also point out the necessity of an organizational structure that supports and reinforces the framework. Particularly, we discuss the adoption and implementation of the new framework by creating multi‐disciplinary teams and structural and operational supporting groups to strengthen the organization for agile manufacturing.

“Turf Wars” between corporate management information systems (MIS) and corporate manufacturing threaten the success of computer integrated manufacturing (CIM). Co‐operation between MIS and manufacturing is essential in the planning, design and implementation of cross‐functional information systems, and it is information systems that are the biggest source of CIM failure. Takes the position that both MIS and manufacturing have been slow to recognize their contrasting corporate cultures and to deal with resolving the conflict between the two groups. In order to understand the conflict between MIS and manufacturing better, identifies the technical and organizational differences. From this, identifies seven “points of conflict” specific to identifying CIM implementation that are the focal point of the “turf wars”. Presents a framework for resolving the MIS/manufacturing conflict, based on prior research in organizational diversity. The goal is to resolve conflict by understanding and leveraging diversity, not by diminishing it. Proposes an empirical research agenda to test the framework. In conclusion, recommends collaborative research between the MIS and manufacturing communities to study the technical and organizational issues related to CIM.

The purpose of this paper is to present the model-driven decision support system (DSS) for small and medium manufacturing enterprises (SMMEs) that actively participates in collaborative activities and manages the planned obsolescence in production. In dealing with the complexity of such demand and supply scenario, the optimisation models are also developed to evaluate the performance of operations practices.

The model-driven DSS for SMMEs, which uses the optimisation models for managing and coordinating planned obsolescence, is developed to determine the optimal manufacturing plan and minimise operating costs. A case application with the planned obsolescence and production scenario is also provided to demonstrate the approach and practical insights of DSS.

Assessing planned obsolescence in production is a challenge for manufacturing managers. A DSS for SMMEs can enable the computerised support in decision making and understand the planned obsolescence scenarios. The causal relationship of different time-varying component obsolescence and availability in production are also examined, which may have an impact on the overall operating costs for producing manufactured products.

DSS can resolve and handle the complexity of production and planned obsolescence scenarios in manufacturing industry. The optimisation models used in the DSS excludes the variability in component wear-out life and technology cycle. In the future study, the optimisation models in DSS will be extended by taking into the uncertainty of different component wear-out life and technology cycle considerations.

This paper demonstrates the flexibility of DSS that facilitates the optimisation models for collaborative manufacturing in planned obsolescence and achieves cost effectiveness.

Introduction Consider a hi‐fi loudspeaker manufacturing company acquired on the brink of insolvency by an American multinational. The new owners discover with growing concern that the product range is obsolete, that manufacturing facilities are totally inadequate and that there is a complete absence of any real management substance or structure. They decide on the need to relocate urgently so as to provide continuity of supply at the very high — a market about to shrink at a rate unprecedented in its history.

Marketing‐manufacturing interface is becoming an increasingly important research area, as the firms unable to reduce inter‐departmental conflict find their global competitiveness compromised. Due to inevitable interaction of marketing and manufacturing with design engineering in conflict and resolution, there is a need to increase the scope of the research area of manufacturing‐marketing interface to include design (engineering) and establish appropriate interfaces between each pair of these domains. Some firms are practising concurrent engineering to minimise the conflict between design and manufacturing departments. Several interface variables can be used to resolve inter‐departmental conflict. A firm’s decision to pursue a particular interface requires commitment, investment and change in culture. What type of interface should a firm choose? This paper introduces a conceptual framework to resolve this dilemma. Specifically, the contribution of this paper is at least threefold. First, it characterises the possible conflicts that can arise due to interaction between the three functional areas – marketing, manufacturing, and design. Design is recognised as a separate function in its own right. Second, it identifies and describes possible variables that can be utilised as interfaces to resolve conflicts. Third, it establishes a methodology to develop a framework to assess inter‐departmental conflict and identify an optimal mix of interface variables to resolve all possible conflicts. The paper concludes with an actual case study involving a global marketing‐manufacturing company and provides an application of this framework and methodology.

Overview All organisations are, in one sense or another, involved in operations; an activity implying transformation or transfer. The major portion of the body of knowledge concerning operations relates to production in manufacturing industry but, increasingly, similar problems are to be found confronting managers in service industry. It is only in the last decade or so that new technology, involving, in particular, the computer, has encouraged an integrated view to be taken of the total business. This has led to greater recognition being given to the strategic potential of the operations function. In order to provide greater insight into operations a number of classifications have been proposed. One of these, which places operations into categories termed factory, job shop, mass service and professional service, is examined. The elements of operations management are introduced under the headings of product, plant, process, procedures and people.

Sound design, planning and monitoring is critical to the operational and financial success of today′s sophisticated manufacturing and non‐manufacturing systems. Owing to their increasing complexity, discrete‐event simulation is becoming the most acceptable tool to aid planning the design and management of production and operations. This growing acceptance has led to the development of many simulators. Two fundamental criteria enable assessment of the suitability of these simulations in complex environments. First, the sophistication of their modelling capability to handle a wide range of problematic situations and second, ease of use. These two considerations, however, tend to conflict; resulting in flexible simulators being difficult to use and vice versa. DSSL II is an advanced simulation methodology with a well defined and user‐friendly modelling strategy. It has been devised to offer a versatile approach in modelling today′s sophisticated systems and policies. Features incorporated include a schematic modelling concept to represent the operational logic of systems, a set of software modules and an associated logical structure. Using the logical structure, the modules are combined to transform the concept of the schematic model into a representative computer program. Using DSSL II, models of manufacturing and non‐manufacturing systems are constructed readily to provide accurate and trustworthy answers to essential “what‐if” questions posed by decision makers, to determine which out of several scenarios would be the most appropriate. The purpose of this paper is to present the concepts and techniques employed by DSSL II. A simple case study and an example of a real industrial application are given in order to demonstrate its features and potential.

In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.

This study proposes targeted modernization of the Department of Defense (DoD's) Joint Forces Ammunition Logistics information system by implementing the optimized innovative information technology open architecture design and integrating Radio Frequency Identification Device data technologies and real-time optimization and control mechanisms as the critical technology components of the solution. The innovative information technology, which pursues the focused logistics, will be deployed in 36 months at the estimated cost of $568 million in constant dollars. We estimate that the Systems, Applications, Products (SAP)-based enterprise integration solution that the Army currently pursues will cost another $1.5 billion through the year 2014; however, it is unlikely to deliver the intended technical capabilities.