Acceptable risk—an overview

This paper offers an overview of the concept of acceptable risk. Variations in the definition of risk are addressed as well as criteria for measuring and evaluating risk. Risk acceptance depends on many factors, some of which are highlighted. The myth of zero risk is addressed with relevant examples such as dioxin and the U.S. space program. Practical applications of acceptable risk concepts are discussed, featuring the RISK MATRIX from system safety MIL-STD-882. Some sample guidelines and benchmarks are offered.     

Vibration monitoring—a programmed approach

Experience indicates that machinery vibration monitoring programs are most effective when planned in accordance with carefully established program goals and objectives. Methods are presented to determine the appropriate monitoring program for a given plant, key issues to address in program planning, and proven techniques for successfully implementing the program.     

Lomé 2 — little change likely

Foreign ministers from 57 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries met in Brussels, 24–26 May 1979, to negotiate a successor to the Lomé Convention. They came to the conference hoping for something more than just a renewal of the 5-year Convention. They were looking for a trade and aid deal that would make a bigger contribution to their development efforts.     

Generic competitive strategies—An analytical approach

The concept of generic strategies for gaining competitive advantage has received considerable attention recently in the business policy field. Two generic strategies usually mentioned are low cost position and highly differentiated position. This paper uses a game-theoretic model of oligopolistic competition to provide analytical support for these generic strategies, and, in places, to refine the conclusions drawn from previous research in this field. Another conclusion derived from the model is that a superior cost or differentiation position leads to a larger market share, which in turn leads to higher profitability.     

UK Carter committee report— far-reaching implications

As the second largest employer in the UK — second only to the government itself — and as an organization whose services are used by virtually every inhabitant of the UK, the Post Office (PO) periodically finds itself the subject of an anlytical review. The latest such review of the PO's activities, organizational structure and relationship to the public it serves is by most tokens the most far-reaching. This article analyses the findings relating to telecommunications of the Report of the Post Office Review Committee (‘Carter Committee’).     

Country—specific advantage and international cooperation

This paper tests the hypothesis that country-specific advantage embedded in firms of a particular nationality is a motivation for international interfirm cooperation. A sample of domestic and international cooperative relationships formed by Japanese firms in the commercialization of biotechnology is used to identify factors which differentiate domestic from foreign partners. The findings support our hypothesis that country-specific advantage is a significant variable in explaining differences between cooperative relationships with partners of different countries. The results of this study indicate that interfirm cooperation has implications for the international competitiveness of both firms and nations in high technology industries.     

CAD—The‘Taylorisation’of drawing office work?

CAD has been described as a'Trojan horse'through which drawing office work will be deskilled. This article rebuts the crude Tayloris-ation thesis which underlines such views and offers an alternative analysis of the effects of CAD .     

Case history studies in ICI Agricultural Division Research and Development Department 1968–1975

During the period 1968–1972 several projects which were initiated in Agricultural Division Research & Development Department were studied in some depth, the main objective being to try to establish the reasons for the successes and the failures. A set of six precepts (AGCAST criteria) likely to lead to success was derived from these studies. These precepts were then combined with six precepts resulting from the SAPPHO study of industrial innovation. From 1973 onwards the twelve precepts were applied; firstly to studies of finished projects, with a saving in the effort required, secondly to two ‘live’ projects which were examined so as to make suggestions for improving the management of these projects. Unfortunately, both projects were abandoned before the suggestions could be applied. Use has also been made of case studies and the AGCAST/ SAPPHO list in the design of an internal course for project managers. This is arguably the most valuable application of these studies.     

包装风格谈

包装装潢是艺术与科学的结合,涉及的知识面甚广.包装装潢又称之为"视觉传达设计",即运用视觉语言传达商品信息,沟通生产者、经销者与消费者之间的联系,达成商品销售,完成商品流通并继续再生产.当前世界各个地区、各个国家因经济文化不同,风土人情各异,商品包装的形式风格也各有千秋,如欧美风格、日本风格,以及中国的民族风格.     

Corporate management of productivity—An empirical study

The results are reported of a questionnaire survey of corporate managerial approaches to productivity. The sample comprised 146 large industrial companies, of which 96 were American, 25 British and 25 Japanese. Responses from the total sample were used to construct a managerial interpretation of productivity. A comparison was then conducted among the three national samples. Although productivity improvement was reported as being a matter of significant corporate concern in all three countries, greater priority was expressed by the British and Japanese than by the American managers. The British and American managerial approaches to productivity appear to be broadly similar, but with the exception that the British focus much more single-mindedly on labour productivity as the central issue. The Japanese responses convey a proactive, long-term approach to the management of productivity, with research and innovation being accorded to pre-eminent role. The implications of the findings are briefly discussed and directions for further research are suggested.     

Autocorrelation in queuing network-type production systems—Revisited

In managing production systems, a strong emphasis is placed on the reduction of variance in specific transformation processes (e.g. for quality control purposes) and on controlling the level of variability in general, as for instance with the Bullwhip effect. However, the possible disturbing interference from autocorrelation (variability dependence over time) in otherwise level stable event streams has received little attention. From the literature, it is known that autocorrelation in queuing systems can lead to a large deterioration in performance compared to an event independent scenario. Thus, either production managers are missing important aspects in production planning, or the ‘realistic’ autocorrelation patterns inherent in actual production setups are not like those considered in the literature. In this paper, relevant and ‘realistic’ types of autocorrelation schemes are characterized and their levels discussed. The paper puts previous works on the impact of autocorrelation in queuing networks in perspective for production systems.