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The aim of this paper is to develop a model to help service organizations to set the specification limits according to the customer expectations.

A review of relevant literature has been used to develop a new integrated model with ideas from the Kano model, SERVQUAL, Taguchi loss function, Importance Performance Analysis (IPA) and a new model, “the Trade‐Off Importance”. A survey was carried out with 18 external customers and internal stakeholders of the Service Division of Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery AB in Finspong, Sweden.

The model has demonstrated its robustness and credibility to set the specification limits. Additionally, it is a very powerful tool for service quality measurement and to set strategic directions.

First, articles published on this subject are few and there is no similar model in the literature to confirm or compare results. The proposed model must be further validated in future research. Second, this study is applied in a single service division, with a relatively small sample. Ideally, research should be conducted using multiple industries in order to ensure that the model is generalizable.

To the best of one's knowledge, this paper is the first attempt to create a road‐map to set the specification limits in services. Researchers should find that the proposed model fills the research gap. From a managerial standpoint the practical benefits in Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery AB suggest a new way of communicating to customers. The model will also improve the target setting in the Six Sigma projects.

The purpose of this paper is, first, to expose an integrated manufacturing performance measurement and meeting system implemented to focus the organization on value streams and, by doing it, to improve performance, and, second, to analyze the results obtained.

This paper is based on an exploratory case study carried out at Delphi Diesel Systems (DDS) plant in Sant Cugat (Spain).

The integrated manufacturing performance measurement and meeting system implemented by DDS Sant Cugat resulted in being very successful and appropriate to obtain the established objectives: focus the organization on value streams; and, by doing it, to improve performance, particularly the overall equipment effectiveness.

Considering the limited amount of research on the subject this kind of exploratory research is considered to be appropriate. The main limitation is that a single manufacturing plant was analyzed. Even though the characteristics of the plant and the problems addressed are common and, in consequence, it can be thought that the experience is replicable, further research should be conducted to verify it.

For the management community, this paper provides a new way of designing and using manufacturing performance measurement systems.

The presented case confirms previous works stating the importance of how performance measures and meetings are used and the need of involvement of the whole organization. The joint planning of the performance measures and the meeting system that has been presented had not previously been analyzed by the literature.

Avant‐propos sous les auspices de l'Institut international de Coopération intellectuelle, paraissait en 1934 le t. I, consacré à l'Europe, du Guide international des Archives. Le questionnaire envoyé à tous les États européens comportait sous les points 4 et 6 les questions suivantes: ‘Existe‐t‐il un guide général pour les diverses catégories d'Archives ou des guides particuliers pour l'une ou l'autre d'entre elles?’ et ‘Existe‐t‐il des catalogues imprimés, des publications tant officielles que privées, susceptibles de constituer un instrument complet de référence pour tout ou partie importante des fonds d'archives?’ Les réponses des divers pays à ces questions, malgré leur caractère très inégal, ont fait du Guide international un bon instrument d'information générale sur les Archives. Malheureusement les circonstances ont empêché la publication du volume consacré aux États non européens, tandis que le temps qui s'écoulait tendait à rendre périmés les renseignements fournis sur les Archives européennes.

This paper aims to provide a framework for building resilience to coastal hazards with reference to Asian nations at the local, intra-regional and inter-regional levels. This framework provides a roadmap that will enable higher education institutions in the region to play a significant role in educating and training new leaders for disaster risk reduction (DRR) and in working directly with local communities to implement plans.

Events such as the 2004 tsunami highlighted the transboundary nature of coastal hazard and the importance of regional cooperation. A framework for inter- and intra-regional cooperation was developed through focus groups organised with community participants in five Asian nations exposed to coastal risks: Sri Lanka, Maldives, Myanmar, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Different stakeholders assessed inter- and intra-regional cooperation at different levels as a means to provide a baseline scenario to develop a capacity-building roadmap for such cooperation. The discussions organised through structured face-to-face encounters considered cooperation at different scales: international, regional, national and local. The framework key areas were developed and included knowledge databases, data and resource sharing and exchange education programmes.

Multi-hazard early warning for more resilient coastal communities is increasingly complex in view of the discourse related to the wider economic and social environments. The research proposes a framework for inter- and intra-regional cooperation at different scales; from local to regional and to the inter-continental dimensions and even through a bottom-up approach, together with the experts’ and managing authorities’ top-down positions.