Many methodology sources suggest that a researcher should in advance frame the research project and make a choice among these options and should subsequently stick to his or her frame and choice. In this article a different, more natural, research trajectory design is presented which is labelled...

Focuses on critical issues related to variable cost drivers essential in establishing criteria or parameters to consider in the modification and/or design of production facilities. Key concepts and relationships influence the choice of alternative technologies and methods in the design,...

In this paper, the authors elaborate the notion of a hybrid factory: factories in which some production capacity is dedicated to process‐oriented manufacturing, and some is dedicated to product‐oriented manufacturing. We present the results of a field study of one such factory and, using it...

We show that if the analysis of the model of Lee and Tang used standard deviation rather than variance, some nonintuitive predictions of their analysis would be eliminated.

Products with high product variety are often made in a manufacturing process (or a supply chain) consisting of multiple stages, with products taking certain features or "personalities" at each stage. The product may start as a common single engine. As the product moves along manufacturing...

Reports on a study carried out on an injection moulding process to produce agitators for washing machines, following complaints from customers. The study revealed that there was a lot of variation in the product dimensions produced. Attempts to demonstrate how robust design methodology is...

Argues that it can be very difficult for someone coming to an organization, with the job of designing or modelling some or all of its processes, to know how to cut the mass of organizational activity up into component processes and to see how they are related; in other words, to determine the...