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In 1986 a comprehensive study into the state of the art in Computer Aided Production Management (CAPM) in UK industry commissioned by the ACME (Application of Computers to Manufacturing Engineering) directorate of the Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) revealed a number of deficiencies in existing CAPM systems and approaches. As a consequence of this report, a number of specific sectors were identified including the small company sector, large company sector, make to order sector and the electronics sector. This article outlines the results of the work of the research team engaged in developing a CAPM implementation methodology for the electronics sector, which was the largest of the ACME CAPM projects. The research team believe that the results are equally applicable for CAPM implementation in other manufacturing sectors.

The New Ways of Working (NWW) initiative was launched in 2004 to build a more flexible and skilled mental health workforce. This paper explores the journey through inpatient care under a new acute care team (ACT) model, piloted in Mersey Care NHS Trust as part of the redesign of services under the NWW. Fourteen service users were interviewed face‐to‐face, using an interview schedule of open‐ended questions administered by service user and carer interviewers. Service user perspectives on the admission process and inpatient care were reported as predominantly negative. Service user perspectives on the discharge process and aftercare were reported as predominantly positive. The need for clear and unambiguous care pathways, adequate information, good communication, and to have continuity of care and positive relationships with staff emerged as key themes.

The knowledge and experience users and professionals have gained in user involvement since the implementation of community care is leading to development of good practice models, covering strong user‐controlled organisations and redefinition of the professional role in enabling and valuing user expertise. Such user organisations use community development approaches and have a role to play in community care as development agencies and service providers. This model reflects a new social policy agenda and should be part of any initiatives to implement these policies.

This article aims to examine how users' involvement in value co-creation influences the development and orchestration of well-being ecosystems to help tackle complex societal challenges. This research contributes to the public management literature and answers recent calls to investigate novel public service governances by discussing users' involvement and value co-creation for novel well-being solutions.

The authors empirically explore this phenomenon through a case study of a complex ecosystem addressing increased well-being, focussing on the formative evaluation stage of a longitudinal evaluation of Sweden's first support centre for people affected by cancer. Following an abductive reasoning and action research approach, the authors critically discuss the potential of user involvement for the development of well-being ecosystems and outline preconditions for the success of such approaches.

The empirical results indicate that resource reconfiguration of multi-actor collaborations provides a platform for value co-creation, innovative health services and availability of resources. Common themes include the need for multi-actor collaborations to reconfigure heterogeneous resources; actors' adaptive change capabilities; the role of governance mechanisms to align the diverse well-being ecosystem components, and the engagement of essential actors.

Although using a longitudinal case study approach has revealed stimulating insights, additional data collection, multiple cases and quantitative studies are prompted. Also, the authors focus on one country but the characteristics of users' involvement for value co-creation in innovative well-being ecosystems might vary between countries.

The findings of this study demonstrate the value of cancer-affected individuals, with “lived experiences”, acting as sources for social innovation, and drivers of well-being ecosystem development. The findings also suggest that participating actors in the ecosystem should utilise wider knowledge and experience to tackle complex societal challenges associated with well-being.

Policymakers should encourage the formation of well-being ecosystems with diverse actors and resources that can help patients navigate health challenges. The findings especially show the potential of starting from the user's needs and life situation when the ambition is to integrate and innovate in fragmented systems.

The proposed model proposes that having a user-led focus on innovating new solutions can play an important role in the development of well-being ecosystems.

This monograph examines research needs in computer aided production management (CAPM). Recommendations for future research and its organisation are made. The monograph is based on an in‐depth study of current CAPM practice in a varied sample of 33 companies. The study conclusions confirm many existing beliefs. Many companies are paying inadequate attention to the necessary prerequisites for successful CAPM implementation. The prerequisites change as the extent of CAPM system integration increases. Organisational rather than implementation issues dominate as integration increases. The proposed research would bring together existing knowledge of best CAPM practice to form methodologies for the audit, design and implementation of CAPM systems. The aim is to reduce the time‐span of the learning curve required for successful CAPM integration. The methodologies need to be specific to particular industrial sectors.

In allocating scarce resources to a new information system (IS), a non‐trivial task becomes the determination of a best priority ranking of the IS’s intangible information requirements. Given a set of individual users’ rankings of the information requirements, illustrates, through a real‐world case study, a streamlined consensus priority ranking (SCPR) method based on a concept of minimizing the disagreement (distance) between individual rankings. Compared to a traditional weighted ranking method, the SCPR method is easy to understand, systematic and requires no weighting methodology. Thus, the SCPR method can help the system development team make efficient decisions when allocating resources for a new information system.

Co-production has received increasing attention from managers and researchers in public services. In the health care sector, co-production has become a by-word for the meaningful engagement of patients yet there is still a lack of knowledge around what works when co-producing services. The paper sets out a set of pragmatic principles which may guide anyone embarking on co-producing health care services, and provides an illustration of a co-produced Young People’s Health Research Group in England. We conclude by outlining some learning points which are useful when establishing co-production projects.

This special “Anbar Abstracts” issue of Industrial Management & Data Systems is split into six sections covering abstracts under the following headings: Manufacturing strategy and production; Business process management ; Research and development; Industrial design; Quality management; Information systems.

While the involvement of service users in mental health research has increased, a review of the literature suggests that this apparent increase in involvement does not necessarily coincide with service users having a ‘louder voice’ or greater control over service delivery.The purpose of this investigative study was to explore the barriers and support systems for service user‐led research within a local NHS trust. The study focused on an original research project that set out to be service user‐led by designing and piloting an evaluation tool to measure satisfaction with care planning across the trust. The paper describes a qualitative methodology that captured stakeholder's experiences of why the original project did not reach its intended conclusion. Interviews were conducted with a range of professionals and service users, alongside participant observations of steering group meetings. Data were analysed using a grounded theory approach that led to the identification of key lessons for those intending to involve service users in research in the future. The findings suggest that there are many support systems that can assist service user‐led research, but there are still too many barriers to implementing it effectively; in particular, processes surrounding ethical approval and the stigma attributed to such research by some professional staff.The lessons learned are presented to assist in the education and training of mental health service user researchers or professionals who are conducting research collaboratively with service user colleagues.

The purpose of this paper is to explore user leadership in peer support practice by reviewing existing evidence and models of delivery, investigating the recently developed term of “authentic” peer support and reflecting on challenges and opportunities for the future.

The paper presents and discusses views and evidence on peer support policy and practice, found in the current literature, grass roots peer support experts’ presentations and contributions to conferences, a national peer support network, key policy documents and the work of Together for Mental Wellbeing.

Peer support benefits are widely documented as is its history, rooted in user leadership. More recently, peer support is acknowledged in a number of key mental health policy documents as seen to be key in the response to current quality and cost agendas. There has been a simultaneous increase of “formal” peer support as practiced by large service providers and a gradual shift away from its “user led” origins. Against the background of the current economic climate and implications for mental health services, there seems to be a need to pause and reflect on current peer support practice and rethink the way forward.

This paper's emphasis on the authenticity of peer support covers new ground in relation to an important topical debate.