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This chapter develops a conceptual framework to help us position and understand the increasing importance of project-based innovation for industrial organization in the 21st century. It builds on and extends Joan Woodward's (1958 and 1965) pioneering research, which classifies industrial organizations according to the complexity of production technology and volume of output. We suggest that a radical revision of Woodward's framework is required to account for the extensive use of project-based organizations to gain competitive advantage through accelerated innovation and growth in new technologies and markets.

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.

The emergence of distributed manufacturing (DM) is examined as a new form of localised production, distinct from previous manifestations of multi-domestic and indigenous production.

Supply network (SN) configuration and infrastructural provisioning perspectives were used to examine the literature on established localised production models as well as DM. A multiple case study was then undertaken to describe and explore the DM model further. A maximum variation sampling procedure was used to select five exemplar cases.

Three main contributions emerge from this study. First, the research uniquely brings together two bodies of literature, namely SN configuration and infrastructure provisioning to explore the DM context. Second, the research applies these theoretical lenses to establish the distinctive nature of DM across seven dimensions of analysis. Third, emerging DM design rules are identified and compared with the more established models of localised production, drawing on both literature and DM case evidence.

This study provides a rich SN configuration and infrastructural provisioning view on DM leading to a set of design rules for DM adoption, thus supporting practitioners in their efforts to develop viable DM implementation plans.

The authors contribute to the intra- and inter-organisational requirements for the emerging DM context by providing new perspectives through the combined lenses of SN configuration and infrastructural provisioning approaches.

The aim of this study is to explore the information needs and behaviors of practicing theatre artists. Psychological research into creativity provides a framework for understanding both theatre artists' information‐seeking behavior and the role of information seeking and gathering in the creative process.

The exploratory study presents findings from an online questionnaire of 73 practicing theatre artists and qualitative data gathered from eight interviews with theatre professionals.

The study reveals that theatre artists seek information for six primary purposes: understanding a work's historical, cultural, and critical background; finding sources of inspiration; learning about contemporary or historical theatre productions, artists, and events; learning technical or process information; finding performance materials; and furthering career goals. Theatre artists view the information search process as being essential to their creative activities, and their first‐hand accounts of their artistic experiences illuminate the critical role that information seeking and gathering play in the creative process.

Some theatre professions, such as lighting or sound design, were represented in the questionnaire but were not represented in the interviews.

The study has practical implications for the delivery of library and internet theatre art collections and information services.

Few studies have examined the information‐seeking behavior of practicing theatre artists. The paper demonstrates that studies of artists can be used to understand the role of information seeking and gathering in the creative processes of people working in various subject domains.

The purpose of this paper is to explore activities, challenges, and suggest tactics for the design of industrial reconfigurable production systems that can easily adapt to changing market opportunities.

The paper synthesizes the empirical findings of seven case studies including 47 in-depth interviews at four manufacturing companies.

A conceptual production system design process and including activities that enables a long-term perspective considering reconfigurability is proposed. Additionally, critical challenges indicating that reconfigurable production system design is not a trivial issue but one that requires separate control and coordination are identified and tactics to overcome the challenges described.

The authors propose a process for designing reconfigurable production systems that are better suited to adjust to future needs. The knowledge of reconfigurability from the reconfigurable manufacturing system literature is applied in the general production system literature field. This study contributes to a clearer picture of managerial challenges that need to be dealt with when designing a reconfigurable production system.

By clarifying key activities facilitating a long-term perspective in the design process and highlighting challenges and tactics for improvement, the findings are particularly relevant to production engineers and plant managers interested in increasing the ability to adapt to future changes through reconfigurability and improve the efficiency of their production system design process.

Although reconfigurable production systems are critical for the success of manufacturing companies, the process of designing such systems is not clear. This paper stretches this by giving a comprehensive picture of the production system design process and the activities that need to be considered to meet these challenges.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how product knowledge is utilised by specialist independent grocery retailers (SIGRs) and how it can enhance competitive advantage for these firms.

A case study approach was deemed most appropriate to gain insight into an unexplored area of study. A total of 30 in‐depth interviews were conducted over a six‐month period supported by the collection of observation data and documentation. A purposive sampling method was adopted and the owner managers of the chosen retailers were interviewed as key informants for the study.

It was found that four main resources created the concept product strategy and ultimately explained the success of SIGRs. These relate to knowledge of how to provide a unique product; knowledge of identifying and sourcing from quality suppliers; knowledge of recipes, preparation and storage methods; and knowledge of how to merchandise products.

It is argued that if these specialist grocery firms can achieve sustained competitive advantage from building and exploiting product knowledge, so too can other independent retailers in the sector.

This paper provides empirical evidence and theoretical understanding of product knowledge as a competitive advantage for SIGRs, which is a neglected area of study in the retail literature.

While manufacturing digitalization is currently considered an important enabler of competitive advantage, its applicability across the industrial spectrum is unclear. This paper aims to investigate the relationship between the use of digital technologies and different production environments and company sizes. The focus is on three aspects of digitalization: shop floor digitalization, technologies for vertical and horizontal integration and organizational IT competence.

This study is based on data gathered from a survey questionnaire sent to 212 Norwegian manufacturing companies. To test the formulated hypotheses, the two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) method was used.

This study confirmed that large enterprises (LEs) have a significantly higher level of shop floor digitalization and organizational IT competence than small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Regarding the difference between production environments, no statistically significant difference in the implementation level of the investigated digitalization aspects could be found.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is one of the first studies to investigate differences in the adoption of digital technologies between different groups of production environments. This study also provides updated findings related to the relationship between digitalization and company size. The findings presented in this paper provide important insights into directing future research efforts to assist environments that are currently lagging behind in their digital transformation.

This study aims to set out to identify and evaluate potential obstacles to successfully implementing lean construction (LC) as a result.

Several indicators were recognized as major obstacles following an exhaustive assessment of the literature and a multicriteria decision analysis based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) of information obtained from a questionnaire survey that was directed to practitioners in the Indian construction industry.

The results of this AHP model suggest that “Managerial” and “Inadequate resources” categories with a priority weight of “0.361” and “0.309” have the highest levels of influence, respectively, while “Inadequate knowledge” and “just in time (JIT)” categories with a priority weight of “0.053” and “0.034” have the lowest levels of influence, respectively.

Construction companies can use the study’s findings as a guide to determine whether they are ready to embrace LC, learn more about the components needed for implementation or investigate any challenges that may arise. These businesses can then create plans to promote the adoption and application of the lean philosophy.

The Indian construction industry may see great success with LC management initiatives. LC concepts have been adopted by many nations, but during the past 20 years, there has only appeared to be a limited amount of lean implementation in the Indian construction industry. It seems that several structural and cultural barriers are preventing its effective implementation. Organizations will not be able to determine what improvement efforts are required, where these efforts should be directed or which initiatives could provide the best outcomes if they are unaware of the elements that influence the effective implementation of LC.

The design of PCBs is highly influenced by the components being mounted on them. Holes with diameters as small as, for example, 0·008 in. and aspect ratios of 10:1 will become standard. More complicated PCBs of higher value need enhanced security and uniformity in processing. An answer to these requirements is provided by UNIPLATE, a horizontal processor developed by Schering Electroplating. To secure hole wall treatment, this system uses floodbars for forcing the solution through the holes. Together with chemicals, tuned to this very application, very high quality PCBs can be accomplished.

There is a great deal of interest in ecosystem or natural capital accounting and in methods to estimate monetary valuations of ecosystems. This paper aims to explore methods that may assist agricultural (livestock grazing) enterprises to estimate the monetary value of the productive capacity of the ecosystems they use. Such estimations are expected to provide a more complete set of information about the performance of pastoral operations and may assist them to assure ecological and economic sustainability.

This paper applies five different methods for valuation of the productive ecosystems used in extensive agricultural (grazing) systems. The methods apply different approaches to valuation described in the United Nations System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) and Australian Accounting Standards (AASs). To do this, the paper uses financial information drawn from the long-term performance of an economically and environmentally sustainable pastoral enterprise.

SEEA- and AAS-compliant methods to measure the value in use of provisioning ecosystems are practical and useful. The estimations contribute to a reasonable range of fair values required by AASs and improve the availability of information that would be useful in improving the performance of the operation and compare it to reasonable alternate management strategies.

The SEEA is an international standard and AASs are closely aligned to the International Accounting Standards, so the methods described in this paper are likely to be generalisable to enterprises grazing low-rainfall rangelands in other countries. However, their ability to appropriately accommodate the extensive modifications to ecosystems caused by cultivation and fertilisation needs to be tested before they are applied to grazing operations in high-rainfall areas or other forms of agriculture such as cropping or horticulture.

The availability of standards-compliant methods for ecosystem valuation means that companies who wish to include ecosystems on a voluntary and informal basis as sub-classes of land in their general purpose financial reports may be able to do so. If these methods are SEEA-compliant, they could be combined with information about the ecosystem type, extent and condition to produce a set of national ecosystem accounts so that the contribution of ecosystems to the economy can be estimated.

Many of the enterprises that rely on extensive agricultural ecosystems are unable to generate sufficient financial returns to cover their obligations to owners and creditors. The ability to determine the monetary value of the annual inputs provided by the ecosystems may assist landowners and citizens to detect and avoid depletion of their economic and ecological resources.

This paper applies an explicit interpretation of AAS and draws from valuation methods recommended in the SEEA to demonstrate that current accounting standards (national and corporate) provide a strong foundation for the valuation of the ecosystems used as economically significant factors of production.