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The purpose of this paper is to present an efficient method for the numerical treatment of robust optimization problems with absolute reliability constraints.

Optimization with anti-optimization based on response surface techniques; polynomial chaos for approximation of the stochastic objective function.

The number of function calls is comparable to that of the corresponding deterministic problem. Thus, the method is well suited for complex technical systems. The performance of the method is demonstrated on an optimal design problem for turbochargers.

The highlights of this paper are: algorithms for robust and deterministic problems show comparable complexity; no derivatives required; good convergence properties because of special set up of optimization problem; application in complex industrial examples.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce parametered modeling technology for the civil aircraft engine fan blade, to design the fan blade rapidly and accurately.

The entire fan blade consists of three crucial parts: blade airfoil, tenon and airfoil root. Blade airfoil with a free surface feature is formed through the blade profiles from the hub to tip in the radial direction. The non‐uniform rational basis spline (NURBS) is utilized to describe the blade profile. The geometry model of fan blade tenon is generated by extruding the sketch of the tenon. And the fillet section is designed to achieve the smooth transition of the up surface and the bottom surface of the blade root. Furthermore, the fan blade of a typical commercial engine is redesigned by the above method.

The stress analysis of the fan blade shows that the fan blade model designed in this work is reasonable.

The parametered fan blade model is presented on the basics of feature‐based modeling technology.

Evidence of audit committee activity in the formative years of the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad indicates that control and reporting activity developed long before the existence of regulatory mandate or the external auditing function. This is the earliest example of such an organized and continuing activity in American business history. With no previous business experience to model this enterprise, the organizers of the corporation put in place an audit committee of directors as a control device to safeguard assets and ensure proper handling of cash receipts and disbursements. Research into primary materials establishes that the committee not only performed regular routine audits of the “treasurer’s report,” but also identified and addressed critical problems of control and payment weaknesses. The discovery of the function of value‐for‐money (VFM) auditing by a committee of directors establishes historical context for today’s audit process and audit committee. Because the B&O was such an important entity, it influenced other railroads; and the railroad industry, in turn, greatly influenced the development of modern American businesses during the Industrial Revolution.

This paper proposes a novel approach to impose the Neumann boundary condition for isogeometric analysis (IGA) of Euler–Bernoulli beam with 1-D formulation. The proposed method is for only IGA in which it is difficult to handle the Neumann boundary conditions. The control points of B-spline are equivalent to nodes in finite element method. With 1-D formulation, it is not possible to accommodate multiple degrees of freedom in IGA. This case arises in the analysis of beams. The paper aims to propose a way to work around this issue in a simple way.

Neumann boundary conditions, which are even-order derivatives (example: double derivative) of the primary variable, are inherently satisfied in the weak form. Boundary conditions with an odd number of derivatives (example: slope) are imposed with the introduction of a new penalty matrix.

The proposed method can impose a slope boundary condition for IGA of a beam using 1-D formulation.

From the literature, it can be observed that the beam is formulated in 1-D by considering it as either a rotation-free element or a 2-D formulation by considering shear strain along with the normal strain. The work represents 1-D formulation of a beam while considering the slope boundary condition, which is easy and effective to formulate, compared with the slope boundary conditions reported in previous works.

With the end of the cold war two major developments in the world have taken place. First, regional trade pacts and alliances have taken on added value as a mechanism for economic growth and prosperity (e.g., North America Free Trade Agreement, European Unity, etc.). Second, the patterns of competition on a worldwide basis are changing more rapidly than ever. Along with these developments, a new understanding of global leadership has emerged. Global leadership is no longer measured solely by military strength. Indeed, commitment to the military and defense industry may be a burden inconsistent with maintaining a nation's competitive position in the global marketplace. This study is designed to address the economic competitiveness of the U.S., Germany, and Japan and their leadership position in world markets.

This study develops an integrated theory about how Total Quality Management (TQM) based capabilities can be leveraged for Environmentally Responsible Manufacturing (ERM). It suggests that efforts should be coordinated to take advantage of the potential synergies between TQM and ERM. The means for capturing these synergies might be accomplished by using the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) framework. The MBNQA framework was adapted to address environmental issues and it was shown that the framework can be used as a basis for an integrative definition of ERM. This adaptation of the MBNQA framework suggests that there is an environmental version of the MBNQA framework and that quality principles can be seamlessly integrated into the practice of managing environmental issues. However, an empirical examination of the linkage between TQM and ERM remains untested. The findings of this study provide an important foundation for accomplishing this goal.

In 1987, the Harvard Business Review conducted a survey of its readers regarding the U.S. performance in the world markets. The study indicated that the U.S. had a deep‐seated problem of inadequate international competitiveness (Scott, 1987). More recently, Ernst & Young/American Quality Foundation undertook an International Quality Study which examined quality practices in Canada, Germany, Japan and the U.S. (See Bowles, 1992). The study revealed that 22 per cent of U.S. business always or almost always translate customer expectations into the design of new products and service. In Germany and Japan, the figure was 40 per cent and 58 per cent respectively. The results induced, Joshua Hammond, president of the American Quality Foundation, to state that “It is clear … that quality performance has a long way to go before it reaches parity with financial performance as a matter of primary importance to America's senior executives”. What makes the situation more complex and urgent is the fact that international competition has changed the structure of global markets and the rules of the business game. Furthermore, U.S. businesses no longer command the lead in the global marketplace and new international competitors are not only aggressive and competent, but appear to give priority to customer needs and expectations. For example, many Japanese companies view customer satisfaction as a way of building loyalty, thereby generating repeat sales. In contrast, U.S. executives have often aimed not at producing customer satisfaction, but at preventing customer dissatisfaction (Bowles, 1992). Similarly, the Fortune Global 500 List (Fortune 1995) showed that three countries accounted for the majority of the top 500 firms in the world; U.S. (151 firms), Japan (149 firms), and Germany (44 firms). Nevertheless, the list indicated that more Japanese companies have made it to the top ten (from three in 1993 to six in 1994), while the number of the U.S. firms stayed the same (three) in both years.

The concept of coopetition is founded on the complementarity‐based nature of this strategy. However, coopetition research has devoted relatively little attention to complementarity issues and their impact on coopetition results. By bridging the coopetition and economics of complementarities research fields, we develop a model representing a classical optimization problem in complementarities as applied to coopetition in order to evaluate potential risks deriving at an operational level from implementing a coopetition strategy. The model we develop is a situated one and is based on empirical data from a longitudinal case study of coopetition in the mineral water and soft drinks industry. The results highlight a potential risk of coopetition strategies – namely, thresholds effects – as well as the associated risks a wrong understanding of complementarities in a coopetition setting may entail.

Information Technology (IT) has ushered in not only large societal opportunities but also large uncertain ‐ ties and risks. Future developments, like ubiquitous networked embedded systems, are technologies society may face. Such technologies offer larger opportunities and uncertainties because of their ability to widely distribute power through their small, inexpensive, and ubiquitous characteristics. Many interpretations of how these technologies may develop have been postulated, ranging from the conservative Precautionary Principle, to uncontrolled development leading to “singularity.” With so much uncertainty and so many predictions about the benefits and consequences of these technologies, it is important to raise ethical questions, determine potential scenarios, and try to identify appropriate decision points and stakeholders. Rather than going along an unknown path, perhaps lessons could be learned from recently deployed technologies, such as nuclear technology, that were controversial but offered similarly large potential benefits and risks. The experience of nuclear technology development, with its various successes and failures, is recalled and compared with potential scenarios in the development of networked embedded systems

The purpose of this paper is to describe the volume and quality of information and communication channel use at various stages of the malt barley value chain (MBVC) in Ethiopia and to investigate how metrics of these variables influence the extent of integration of the chain.

The study is based on survey data collected from 320 farmers and 100 traders and interview responses compiled from 76 respondents. Descriptive statistics and ordered logistic regression were used for data analysis.

The descriptive statistics show a lower volume and poor quality of information is being shared at farmer-trader interface and that value chain integration (VCI) is weak at all studied interfaces. Results of ordered logistic regression show that information volume and quality positively influence VCI, whereas a positive relationship between channel use and VCI was found only at farm level interfaces. Evidences found suggested that inconsistent information systems, lack of information sharing plans, low level of members’ awareness about the value of information, and lack of trust to share information were factors that inhibited information sharing in the MBVC.

The study offers pioneering evidence of the relative role of information volume and quality and channel use as factors that influence the extent of integration of the value chain.