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People with learning disabilities who present challenging behaviour are particularly vulnerable to physical abuse. It is argued that training in physical intervention could well be a critical variable in determining whether this abuse takes place. Recommendations designed to minimise the risks associated with physical intervention training are made.

People with challenging behaviour are commonly referred to the National Health Service for assistance and support. Good clinical practice would indicate that such interventions should be routinely monitored and evaluated in order to be maximally effective. Challenging behaviour has many impacts and, while monitoring frequency, duration and severity of behaviour is fundamental, equally key is attention to monitoring the impacts on the quality of life of the individual and those with whom they share their environments. Such outcomes are unlikely to be represented by one instrument, and a battery of measures currently holds most promise in relation to representation of what would be considered valid acceptable outcomes.

Automated warehouse equipment is often regarded as being inflexible, and yet its use continues to rise even though markets are becoming increasingly volatile. The purpose of this paper is to explore the reasons for, and nature of, warehouse automation implementations in order to further this understanding.

The research is based on semi‐structured interviews with some of the key stakeholders in automation projects. This is followed by a survey questionnaire to widen the findings.

The research indicates that the main reason for automation is to accommodate growth, with cost reduction and service improvement also being important. The implementation process tends to be complex and lengthy, although most projects are controlled within the planned budget and timescale. There is, however, a real risk of disruption and service level failings during the operational start‐up of these projects, as well as some concerns about ongoing flexibility.

The findings provide a useful insight into these areas but further research is required to explore the key characteristics of successful implementations and to understand how warehouse automation can be designed to provide responsiveness to rapidly changing market conditions.

The findings have important implications as regards the need to incorporate scenario planning into the design process and to plan for the management of the ongoing operation.

There has been relatively little previous research into this important area, which involves a substantial proportion of the capital budget of many supply chains. The above findings are of value to academics and practitioners.

A major focus of modern day logistics is on achieving a higher level of responsiveness to marketplace demand, but with less inventory. Achieving the dual targets of lower cost and higher service has implications for every stage in the supply chain and in particular for distribution center operations. What is the extent to which organizations are adjusting their distribution center operations to match current supply chain concepts? Using a survey, roles that these facilities play are explored in order to determine the extent to which modern supply chain theory and distribution center operations are aligned.

Considers the renewed interest in industrial districts as a post‐Fordist form of spatial distribution of industry. Local agglomerations of industry in the form of small and medium‐sized firms have been proposed as a means of dealing effectively with changing patterns of demand; furthermore, they are seen as offering opportunities to workers of more satisfying employment. Contends that the positive aspects of industrial districts are often exaggerated and that the increased importance of small firms generally has, in many cases, been the outcome of regressive economic restructuring at the global level. Takes evidence from survey work in the East Midlands, and shows that small firms often occupy a weak position in the production chain and, as a consequence, are subject to asymmetrical power relationships. Makes policy recommendations which are designed to deal both with the problems faced by small firms in particular and by labour more generally.

The aim of this paper is to explore the role of inventory and warehousing within international supply chains and, from this, to develop an exploratory framework that assists understanding in the area.

The research is based on case studies of 13 supply chains in six companies, using pipeline mapping techniques, questionnaires, quantitative measures of lead times, and Likert scales to measure the perceptions of supply chain managers to risk.

The results indicate that, for these case study supply chains, the supplier lead times were far in excess of the customer lead times and that, with the exception of new product lines, demand therefore needed to be supplied from inventory. In addition, inventory was a common risk mitigation strategy against the possibility of random demand variability and transportation delays. Based on these findings, an exploratory framework was developed to integrate such factors as inventory reduction strategies, risk management and inventory control theory.

Further research is required to develop this exploratory framework in more detail so that it can help practitioners arrive at the most appropriate solutions. It is proposed that this is conducted initially in the fast moving consumer goods or retail sectors, so as to build on this research, and that this should include the upstream supply networks. Other types of industry sectors should then be explored.

It is intended that the exploratory framework put forward in this paper can form the basis for further research in the area and to develop useful tools for practitioners.

The literatures on inventory control theory and inventory reduction strategies have been largely separate to date. The findings of this paper lead to an exploratory framework to start to bring these areas together.

‘WHAT A novel arrangement. Is any reason given?’