According to W. Edwards Deming, American companies require nothing less than a transformation of management style and of governmental relations with industry. In Out of the Crisis, originally published in 1982, Deming offers a theory of management based on his famous 14 Points for Management. Management's failure to plan for the future, he claims, brings about loss of market, which brings about loss of jobs. Management must be judged not only by the quarterly dividend, but by innovative plans to stay in business, protect investment, ensure future dividends, and provide more jobs through improved product and service. In simple, direct language, he explains the principles of management transformation and how to apply them.

Out of the Crisis

How has Japan become a major economic power, a world leader in the automotive and electronics industries? What is the secret of their success? The consensus has been that, though the Japanese are not particularly innovative, they are exceptionally skilful at imitation, at improving products that already exist. But now two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hiro Takeuchi, turn this conventional wisdom on its head: Japanese firms are successful, they contend, precisely because they are innovative, because they create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. Examining case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, 3M, GE, and the U.S. Marines, this book reveals how Japanese companies translate tacit to explicit knowledge and use it to produce new processes, products, and services.

The knowledge-creating company : how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation

Cause, conseguenze e strategie di mitigazione Proponiamo il primo di una serie di articoli in cui affronteremo l’attuale problema dei mutamenti climatici. Presentiamo il documento redatto, votato e pubblicato dall’Ipcc - Comitato intergovernativo sui cambiamenti climatici - che illustra la sintesi delle ricerche svolte su questo tema rilevante.

/pdf/climate-change-2007-the-physical-science-basis-1x93ttz9jt.pdf

Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis.

Freedom of design, mass customisation, waste minimisation and the ability to manufacture complex structures, as well as fast prototyping, are the main benefits of additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing. A comprehensive review of the main 3D printing methods, materials and their development in trending applications was carried out. In particular, the revolutionary applications of AM in biomedical, aerospace, buildings and protective structures were discussed. The current state of materials development, including metal alloys, polymer composites, ceramics and concrete, was presented. In addition, this paper discussed the main processing challenges with void formation, anisotropic behaviour, the limitation of computer design and layer-by-layer appearance. Overall, this paper gives an overview of 3D printing, including a survey on its benefits and drawbacks as a benchmark for future research and development.

Additive manufacturing (3D printing): A review of materials, methods, applications and challenges

Economic Control of Quality of Manufactured Product.

Research has revealed that factors such as scope changes, poor contract documentation, restricted access, unforeseen ground conditions and contractual ambiguities are contributors of disputes. While this is widely known, disputes still prevail over such issues. Before disputes can be avoided an understanding of the pathogens that contribute to their occurrence needs to be determined so that mechanisms can be put in place to prevent them from arising. To determine the pathogens contributing to disputes, a total of 41 indepth interviews were undertaken with industry practitioners who identified 58 examples of disputes in projects that they have been actively involved with. Analysis of the findings revealed that the pathogens of circumstance (arising from the environment), practice (arising from peoples’ deliberate practices) and task (arising from the nature of the task being performed) accounted for 87% of dispute occurrences. The environment associated with the use of traditional lump sum contracting was found to be associated with 72% of the disputes. The practice of deliberately not adhering to policies, and procedures, undertaking design reviews and distributing tentative design documents contributed to the problems arising. The task of failing to detect errors and misinterpreting contract terms and conditions contributed to disputation. It is suggested that organizations need to fundamentally re-examine their work processes, policies and procedures as well as behaviors if disputes are to be reduced in construction.

Peter E.D. Love

Papers

Prometheus unbound: Unravelling the underlying nature of disputes

Benchmarking public private partnership environments: East Asian comparisons

Quality Improvement through Builder Registration

Evaluating actors and factors associated with healthcare information systems

Building cost planning for the design team: Third edition