Little is known about the processes that make TQM effective. Why are some quality improvement projects more effective than others? We argue that TQM processes affect the way people create new knowledge, which in turn determines organizational effectiveness. We explore this by studying 62 quality...

In this paper the Discrete Lotsizing and Scheduling Problem (DLSP) is considered. DLSP relates to capacitated lotsizing as well as to job scheduling problems and is concerned with determining a feasible production schedule with minimal total costs in a single-stage manufacturing process. This...

Can a firm accelerate its learning curve if knowledge about the production function is incomplete? This article identifies a production line specifically set up to create technological knowledge about its production function through scientific experimentation (formal learning) as opposed to...

In this paper the Discrete Lotsizing and Scheduling Problem (DLSP) with setup times is considered. DLSP is the problem of determining the sequence and size of production batches for multiple items on a single machine. The objective is to find a minimal cost production schedule such that dynamic...

This exploratory research on a decade of Total Quality Management in one factory opens up the black box of the learning curve. Based on the organizational learning literature, we derive a quality learning curve that links different types of learning in quality improvement projects to the...

The profitability of remanufacturing systems for different cost, technology, and logistics structures has been extensively investigated in the literature. We provide an alternative and somewhat complementary approach that considers demand-related issues, such as the existence of green segments,...

The importance of remanufacturing used products into new ones has been widely recognized in the literature and in practice. In this paper, we address the problem of choosing the appropriate reverse channel structure for the collection of used products from customers. Specifically, we consider a...

Remanufacturing is a production strategy whose goal is to recover the residual value of used products. Used products can be remanufactured at a lower cost than the initial production cost, but consumers value remanufactured products less than new products. The choice of production technology...

Manufacturers and their distributors must cope with an increased flow of returned products from their customers. The value of commercial product returns, which we define as products returned for any reason within 90 days of sale, now exceeds $100 billion annually in the United States. Although...

We consider a monopolist expert offering a service with a "credence" characteristic. A credence service is one in which the customer cannot verify, even after a purchase, whether or not the amount of prescribed service was appropriate; examples include legal, medical, or consultancy services, and...