Search results

Edmund Burke, the 18th century Irish orator said … ‘those who propose change should work hard to persuade a rational man that innovations or reforms would not end in damage or absurdity’.

Quality control circles, a Japanese management technique for improving quality, productivity, and worker morale, have been widely adopted in western industry. The apparent hope is that the circles are a key to competing with the Japanese. In this article QC circles are shown to resemble, and potentially overlap with, six other western work improvement programmes, most of which have had successful histories. Case observations offer limited evidence that plant configuration considerations should be foremost among the factors emphasised in an industrial work improvement programme and that western industry should not expect too much from quality control circles.

This paper provides a synthesis of world class manufacturing literature by identifying eight critical factors of world class status in a manufacturing environment. These factors can be used individually or collectively to assess a profile or organization‐wide world class manufacturing implementation practices. Researchers can use the critical factors to build theories and models that relate these factors to world class status and an organization's relative position to others in the same environment. Decision makers can isolate the critical factors that are necessary for world class implementation.

Since the first Volume of this Bibliography there has been an explosion of literature in all the main areas of business. The researcher and librarian have to be able to uncover specific articles devoted to certain topics. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume III, in addition to the annotated list of articles as the two previous volumes, contains further features to help the reader. Each entry within has been indexed according to the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus and thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid information retrieval. Each article has its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. The first Volume of the Bibliography covered seven journals published by MCB University Press. This Volume now indexes 25 journals, indicating the greater depth, coverage and expansion of the subject areas concerned.

Total quality management sharply modifies management itself. As teams and teamwork take root, leadership idolatry fades in importance. Teamsmanship requires breaking vertical and horizontal barriers that stand in the way of quick, high‐quality customer service. Management tools helpful in barrier‐busting include team‐building, cross‐training, job rotation, cross‐careering, project teams, and re‐engineering. While these tools are in wide use, companies often misapply or weakly apply them. Examples are given of how some companies use these tools in ways that effectively enhance teamsmanship. Teamsmanship also feeds on information, which must be widely shared. In most Western cultures, however, people tend jealously to guard their own knowledge and personally acquired information. Organizations must employ systematic devices that promote information sharing. Among the better known such devices are benchmarking and quality function deployment. Also useful, but less familiar, are common files and the “star system”. As applied by a small number of organizations, these techniques can become effective tools of teamsmanship.

This paper is a case history of the introduction of Just‐in‐Time (JIT) into a company in the electronic capital goods sector of the Scottish electronics industry. The case attempts to identify the company policies that led up to the introduction of JIT, the difficulties encountered and the benefits that the company has accrued in the short time since the introduction of JIT, with particular reference to the productivity/service trade‐offs. The company examined designs and manufactures complex, high technology, fairly high volume, short life‐cycle electronic products for international markets. Very high levels of quality and reliability are required by customers. Consideration is given to how the benefits that this company has accrued may be obtained by other companies both in the same environment and in other environments.

Discusses quality in all its various guises and expounds the theory that if there are untapped resources in the different areas amongst the various processes and types of worker, then an increase in quantity and productivity can ensue from these. It is the capability of people as much as anything which is important and higher quality performance from all activities therein which should then occur. Good financial management is also required to develop the capability of production and organization to provide consistently what is desired for basic success.

Traditional North American supplier‐manufacturer behaviour functions on a channel control model with a competitive bid posture dominating the relationship. The arrival of Japanese manufacturing subsidiaries in North America and Europe, however, is forcing suppliers to reconsider previous decision rides in dealing with manufacturers within a more cooperative mode because of the unique Japanese processes. The focus here is on comparing organisational buyer behaviour in North America and Japan. As North American firms become suppliers to the Japanese, knowledge of this behaviour becomes increasingly important. Implications are presented for understanding Japanese influences in the organisational buying process through utilising a generalised model from the marketing literature. In addition, a framework for examining the participation and coping behaviour of North American firms is presented.