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The purpose of this paper is to build and provide a step-by-step methodology to develop a speed-to-market (STM) process model for a fashion garment that can quickly respond to the marketing situation and shorten the cycle time from receiving orders to deliver the finished product. The improved STM process model to contrast the “before” and “after” scenarios in order to induce potential benefits such as reducing production lead-time and keeping low inventory.

First, collected garment business management systems and garment manufacture operational process. Second, according to the point-line-plane-volume work improvement to list the garment industry up and down stream improvement projects and to reduce the supply chain lead-time. Third, establish the STM model and use information technology to redesign the garment industry supply chain process. Fourth, amend the STM model process. Fifth, compare the supply chain lead-time of finished STM process and normal process.

After the garment industry implements STM and supply chain re-engineering, the clothing design to sale process can be simplified and reduced time to market. The garment order to buyer lead-time is shortened from 104 to 42 days totally.

This research is a practical business re-engineering process and work improvement. The improvement STM model can half the cycle time from receiving orders to deliver the finished garment product.

This paper provides a process with a step-by-step methodology to develop a successful speed-to-market model for the fashion garment industry and it is able to serve as a reference model for other industrial supply chain management.

The purpose of this paper is to propose an innovative service model regarding the public library’s pilot project in Taiwan – Borrowing Books from Convenience Stores (BBCS). The proposed model presents a comprehensive evaluation of patrons to enhance readers’ intention to adopt this innovative library service.

A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the users of the public library and convenience stores in Taiwan. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.

The main findings of this study make both theoretical and practical contributions. First, this study explores the library’s extending service to convenience stores, and proposes an integrated BBCS model for the library’s innovative service. Second, the identification of influential factors, such as control influence, social interaction and perceived values of convenience, contributes to a marketing strategy for this innovative service offered by the library. Third, gender differences in some relationships of influential factors on BBCS use intention were identified.

Although many studies have investigated the adoption of self-service technology, this paper is the very first attempt to explore the use of the innovative library service in convenience stores. Based on several theories, an integrated model for users’ intention to use BBCS is proposed in this study. The authors also recommend various gender-specific strategies of BBCS service.

The self-service technology (SST) launched outside libraries has received great attention in Taiwan. This automatic book stop (ABS), FastBook, has raised some interesting issues regarding users’ behavior in the library context. The purpose of this paper is: first, to assess critical variables that contribute to users’ acceptance of SST in the library context; second, to propose an integrated SST acceptance model in terms of technological and individual factors; and third, to further examine the gender differences among all the theoretical relationships proposed in this research model.

Based on a sound theoretical foundation, the authors proposed a research model to investigate users’ intention to adopt FastBook, including both technological and individual factors. The survey methodology and structural equation modeling were used in this study.

The proposed model successfully accounted for about 92 percent of the total variance explained in attitude and 45 percent in behavioral intention (BI). Individuals’ attitudes toward FastBook had a significant impact on their usage intention. All three technological characteristics (perceived ease of use, usefulness, and reachability) and one individual trait (self-efficacy) were confirmed as critical determinants of attitude. Note that the effect of self-efficacy on attitude was much stronger for male than for female users.

The SST launched outside libraries has received great popularity and extended the library service to readers in Taiwan. This research connected actual users’ experience and the SST literature to provide a conceptual understanding of FastBook adopting process.

Modeling and analysis of dimensional variation propagation is a crucial support technology for variation reduction, product/process design evaluation and recognition of variation source. However, owing to the multi-deviation (i.e. part deviations and fixture deviations) and multi-interaction (i.e. part-to-part interaction, part-to-fixture interaction and station-to-station interaction) in assembly processes, it is difficult for designers to describe or understand the variation propagation (or accumulation) mechanism clearly. The purpose of this paper is to propose a variation propagation modeling and analysis (VPMA) method based on multiple constraints aiming at a single station.

Initially, part-to-part constraints (PPCs) and part-to-fixture constraints (PFCs) are applied for the multi-interaction of assembly, and multiple constraints graph (MCG) model is proposed for expressing PPCs, PFCs, parts, as well as the variation propagation relation among them. Then, locating points (LPs) are adopted for representing the deviations in constraints, and formulas for calculating the deviations of LPs are derived. On that basis, a linearized relation between LPs’ deviations and part’s locating deviations is derived. Finally, a wing box is presented to validate the proposed method, and the results indicate the methodology’s feasibility.

MCG is an effective tool for dimensional VPMA, which is shown as an example of this paper.

Functions of geometric constraints in dimensional variation propagation are revealed, and MCG is proposed to formulize dimensional variation propagation.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate of the effects of Mn nanoparticle addition on the wettability, microstructure and microhardness of SAC0307-xMn(np) (SAC: Sn–Ag–Cu; x = 0, 0.02, 0.05, 0.1 and 0.3 Wt.%) composite solders.

The SAC0307-xMn(np) composite solders were prepared by mechanically mixing different weight percentages of Mn nanopowders into the SAC0307 solder paste with rosin flux. In this study, the wettability of the solders was studied using contact angle and spread ratio methods. Afterward, the microstructure of the solders was investigated using scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray diffractometry. Moreover, the microhardness of the solders was studied.

The wetting process of SAC0307-xMn(np) composite solders was found to experience four stages. Adding a small amount of Mn nanoparticles (x = 0.05 Wt.%) could improve the wettability compared to Mn-free solder. Beyond this level, the wettability deteriorated. The addition of Mn nanoparticles significantly refined the size and spacing of Ag₃Sn grains in the solder matrix. When 0.1 Wt.% Mn nanoparticles was added, both the average size of the Ag₃Sn grains and the spacing between the Ag₃Sn grains decreased significantly and approached minimum values. Beyond this amount, the size and spacing between Ag₃Sn grains increased slightly but remained smaller than those in the Mn-free solder matrix. The refined Ag₃Sn grains increased the microhardness of the Mn-containing composite solders by 6-25 per cent, in good agreement with the prediction of the classic theory of dispersion strengthening.

The paper demonstrates that Mn nanoparticle addition could improve the SAC0307-xMn(np) solder wettability and reduce the grain size and spacing between Ag₃Sn grains. The enhancement of the solder microhardness shows good correlation with the microstructure.

This study examines the osteoconductive and healing capabilities of locally implanted synthetic hydroxyapatite (sHAp) derived from eggshells in the central incisor sockets of rats.

Toxicity experiments were conducted in vitro and in vivo, to testify the safety dosage of sHAp. Around 24 mature male Sprague–Dawley (SD) rats had their upper central incisors extracted. The rats were placed into three groups of eight rats each: Group 1: the sockets of extracted central incisors were left unfilled (control), Group 2: filled up with commercially available hydroxyapatite (HAp) and Group 3: implanted with sHAp locally retrieved from eggshells. After extraction, four rats from each group were sacrificed at 2nd and 4th weeks. Maxillary tissue sections were obtained and stained with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and Masson’s trichome (MT) staining. Anti-osteocalcin (OCN) and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) were used primary antibodies for immunohistochemistry (IHC) special labeling.

The results showed that the locally implanted sHAp was non-toxic and safe in cell lines (human osteoblast and fibroblast) and animals. Histological analysis of H&E, MT and IHC showed that the sockets treated with locally implanted sHAp from eggshells were filled with new bone tissue of comparable thickness to other groups.

This unique technique uses locally implanted eggshell-derived sHAp with osteoconductive characteristics. In an in vivo model, sHAps increased OCN and PCNA expression to improve bone repair.

The economic crisis that hit many Asian countries in 1997 has changed the face of Asian politics and business. It contributed to the downfall of many political leaders e.g. President Suharto of Indonesia and the collapse of many corporate giants. The collapse of the East‐Asian and South‐East Asian economies highlighted a crisis of political and corporate governance (International Monetary Fund staff report, 1998). Most of the literature on the crisis has prescribed greater accountability, openness, participation and transparency in political and corporate governance as the solution to the problems of political and corporate governance in Asian countries (International Monetary Fund Staff Report 1998; Economist, 1998). However as highlighted by Velayutham (1999a; b), the assumptions that underlie the dimensions of accountability are inconsistent with Asian values. It is argued that responsibility is discharged in Asian societies through different mechanisms, e.g., shame, purification and sacrifice, that is consistent with collective orientations within Asian societies. In this paper it is argued that Asian societies are facing a crisis of governance and responsibility, and this can be attributed to the lack of development of the moral emotion of guilt and the decline of shame in modern Asian societies. It is pointed out that while guilt was never an important feature of Asian societies, shame was the main moral emotion that contributed to good governance and responsible action in Asian societies. It is then argued that recent change in Asian societies such as the image of gossip in modern society, urbanization, residential mobility, cultural heterogeneity and the obsolescence of the concept of honor have contributed to the slow decline of the moral emotion of shame in Asian societies. The paper concludes with an appeal to the development of communitarianism and reintegration within Asian societies.

BY a happy consonance the Year Book of the Library Association for 1946 reached us as the Conference at Blackpool was beginning. It set a character to the Conference in that it contained a most admirably faithful portrait of the President. He was, without a shadow of doubt, the personality of the week. The flexible and earnest open features of the portrait are those of an unusual man, distinctive in thought, speech and act. This was reflected in an address which someone declared, with the warm acquiesence of his hearers, to be “a classic of librarianship.” Even if this prove to be an exaggeration, since prophecy is unwise and rarely fulfilled, that was the effect he produced, in words that began on a self‐excusing note and with a, to himself, unfair comparison of himself with his predecessors, became with increasing tempo a pæan of the joy so many of us share in librarianship, in spite of the sacrifices and slights that all librarians encounter, interwoven with the quoted or suggested results of a life‐time of reading.

We discuss the ‘gloomy’ side of firms’ embeddedness in networks of inter-firm partnerships. We propose a nested understanding of the effects of three levels of overembeddedness – environmental, inter-organizational and dyadic overembeddedness – on subsequent inter-firm partnership formation and argue for a joint examination of these three levels and their interactions over time. As a whole, increases in firms’ embeddedness will generate decreasing returns to the firms involved, prompting (i) the search for and attachment to novel partners and (ii) the dissolution of extant partnerships. On the flipside, overembeddedness thus sparks network evolution – by cueing firms to look beyond their embedded partnerships.