ISSN:0033-6807    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9310.1990.tb00708.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1990

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Functional integration is a new trend in corporate organization. By changing the balance between functional differentiation and integration, functional integration gives up some supposed economies of scale and benefits from division of labour in order to increase the degree of interaction and task‐sharing between diverse functions. The aim is to achieve faster response to threats and opportunities in the persistent turbulent business environment of today. The exact location of the new functional boundaries and inter dependencies differs from industry to industry; in some cases external integration, say with customers or suppliers, may be justifiable. Advantage can be taken from new forms of organization such as flatter hierarchies, the building of interfunctional teams, and the adoption of new design and manufacturing control technologies.The paper gives examples of functional integration and discusses implications and problems generated by its adoption. Some of the implications may eventually induce radical rethinks on a whole range of presuppositions about corporate structure, relationships between the firm and its suppliers and customers, the role of management, industrial relations and the socio‐cultural impact of increasing reliance on automated information syst

ISSN:0033-6807    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9310.1990.tb00709.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1990

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The paper explains why the traditional relationship between design and manufacturing needs to be changed and what it should be replaced with. Traditionally, the relationship has been sequential. At the beginning of the innovation process design goes ahead alone, manufacturing's input being largely overlooked. Only after the design has been completed does manufacturing take over responsibility, and only then may it emerge that re‐design is necessary to make production feasible. The results can be high costs, late delivery and disappointing performance.The changes that have made this practice less supportable include shortened product lifecycles, Japanese competition, customers becoming increasingly quality‐conscious, need to deliver exactly on time, and minimization of inventories.Fortunately, new technologies such as CAD/CAM and FMS have come along that can help to rectify these deficiencies; how far they are taken up and effectively used depends on the sharp distinction between the functions being discarded and replaced by their substantial integration. Possibilities that each enterprise could explore include ensuring continuous communication and cooperation between the functions, joint problem solving, replacement of functional management by project management, supplier involvement, elimination of the status differential between design and manufacturing, design for manufacturability, and better understanding by the design function of the realities of the business world.The author warns that integration may not be a universal cure. In particular, he suggests that the innovations closely linked with scientific advances may need some degree of functional differentiation.Changes in the competitive environment require manufacturing organizations to change their view on the relationship between manufacturing and design, and on the way the interface between these two functions has to be managed. In this paper we will first describe the traditional view. Afterwards we will describe the environmental changes that make us question the effectiveness of this view. Finally in a third part we will describe the characteristics of the new appro

ISSN:0033-6807    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9310.1990.tb00710.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1990

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The author reviews the spectrum of computer‐integrated manufacturing (CIM) aids now available to speed up the development, manufacture and marketing of new products. To help firms to decide which aid is best suited to their needs the author presents a 2‐by‐2 typology of business environments, the dimensions being uncertainty and complexity. For each cell he derives a factor critical to achievement of competitive advantage, to which is matched a suitable form of CIM.The paper includes a survey of the characteristics and limitations of commercially available hardware and associated software, advice on the administration of the systems and the storage of information generated. The author concludes by defining the key to the successful use of CIM as ensuring its conscious integration into the business, which means having a clear understanding of what is involved in design and development, management awareness of and commitment to the potential usefulness of CIM, defining clear responsibilities for creating and owning data and planned introduction of a design and engineering information s

ISSN:0033-6807    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9310.1990.tb00711.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1990

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Shortening design cycle times, without increasing design costs or sacrificing quality has become an important management goal. In this paper, we will provide a short overview of the literature on shortening design cycle times. Building on this, we want to establish how manufacturing and the manufacturing/R&D interface can contribute to shorter development cycle times. The European Manufacturing Futures database will be used to test some of the literature findings on a sample of large European Manufacturers.

ISSN:0033-6807    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9310.1990.tb00712.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1990

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Joining technology is critical to manufacturing and fabrication industries, since it greatly influences the design, assembly and ultimate competitiveness of the product. In particular, adhesive bonding is now attracting strong interest from many industries. This trend is further strengthened by dramatic advances in new materials, many of which cannot be joined by conventional means.However, most industries are failing to exploit the opportunities offered by current adhesive technology, for a variety of reasons. CEST (the Centre for Exploitation of Science and Technology) has undertaken to examine these reasons, and to initiate a programme of actions which will lead to wider acceptance of adhesive joining within industry.We have selected a number of companies from a range of industries, which we believe can effectively drive the exploitation process. By working closely with these companies it has been possible to define a number of strategic projects, which will promote this exploitation process. Several projects consist of targeted research and development, to fill the ‘missing links’ of technology which have impeded exploitation to date.These coordinated actions will be initiated from the end of 1989. Typically, these projects will be collaborative, involving both industrial and university or polytechnic partners. The scopes of a number of such projects are described in detail, and their potential impacts on manufacturing processes are explai

ISSN:0033-6807    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9310.1990.tb00713.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1990

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The authors' aim is to examine the socioeconomic setting in which the modern technologies of synthetic fibre manufacture emerged. Their specially developed methodology consists in analysing the emergence at three hierarchical levels of analysis — at the ‘macro’ level, tracing the dominant line of development, the so‐called technological trajectory; at the ‘meso’ level, characterizing the industry environment (the main focus of the paper); and at the ‘micro’ level within which each company's development strategy is formulated and implemented.The paper contains a brief history of the development of the technology of synthetic fibre production. The long‐term macro trajectory, pursued by the participant firms in significantly different ways, was towards making a polyamide polymer by solution condensation and spinning it into fibres by existing technology, the aim of each firm being to produce its own high performance fibre selling into a premium market. The paper describes how a number of leading firms chose their particular routes to a marketable product. The motivations varied considerably depending, for example, on legal and patent factors, previous technological choices made by the firm, the need to defend an existing core business, and identification of an empty market niche.In spite of the general similarity of the outcomes of the technological development the authors hold that the industry is still far from standardization, a situation they explain in terms of a model of standardization put forward by Red

ISSN:0033-6807    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9310.1990.tb00714.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1990

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Technology analysis is a new field of knowledge aimed at creating a fuller understanding of the technological setting within which business operates. It provides a macro‐discipline and is specifically aimed at improving the effectiveness of management of technology. As such it is of direct relevance to R&D management.The essential tools of technology analysis constitute a set of analytical frameworks covering aspects such as: (i) a common approach to describing individual technological artefacts, (ii) a taxonomy of technologies, (iii) a classification of technological trends, (iv) a chart of technological limits, and (v) a socio‐technical preference profile.These frameworks help the R&D manager to dissect and debate typical R&D management problems such as: (i) selecting R&D projects, (ii) setting broad R&D objectives in the case of a given project and (iii) setting specific R&D goals to meet the said objectives. The frameworks also help the R&D manager to portray and present research achievements within a simple and intuitively appealing framew

ISSN:0033-6807    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9310.1990.tb00715.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1990

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The paper reports the actions taken by a large Swedish information technology business to repair defects in the production of system software. Typical problems were late delivery, poor maintainability, lack of documentation. The approach taken to remove the defects consisted in introducing into software production the time‐ and specification‐oriented culture of the factory.Software writing had usually been delegated to more or less autonomous individuals inside R&D, with the result that expertize was often unrecorded, residing in those individuals' brains, procedures were poorly documented, cross‐fertilization with other projects was minimal and lead times were long. The authors identify three reasons for this situation: management ignorance of how the design process operates; professional exclusiveness of design staff; reluctance of managers to exercise supervision over a design engineer's daily tasks.The solution was to differentiate and rationally define jobs within the design function, set up a flat managerial structure overseeing a group of integrated teams each consisting of a senior system designer plus a junior designer leading four semi‐skilled technicians, introduce a well‐defined work‐flow organization, make use of quality circles, install review procedures, undertake leadership and interpersonal skill training, and take measures to ensure effective communication in all directions.The new approach has partly been successfully operated for several years. The paper concludes with a discussion of some of the positive and negative lessons which have been learnt during the imp

ISSN:0033-6807    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9310.1990.tb00716.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1990

数据来源: WILEY