The record price development in commodity markets during the economic boom period lasting from early 2000 to mid 2008 highlighted a perceived scarcity particularly in metal markets that contrasted the preceding period beginning in the late 1970s of largely abundant availability and falling real...

Historical estimates of productivity growth in India's iron and steel sector vary from indicating an improvement to a decline in the sector's productivity. The variance may be traced to the time period of study, source of data for analysis, and type of indices and econometric specifications used...

This report summarizes the findings of the first phase of a study undertaken to define a role for the Advanced Industrial Concepts (AIC) Division of the Office of Industrial Technologies (OIT) in developing waste minimization technologies for the industrial sector. The report describes the...

The Office of Industrial Technologies (OIT) within the US DOE has recently initiated the Industrial Waste Reduction Program, which is designed to reduce industrial energy use and pollution by reducing the amount of waste materials generated. The Program's primary focus is to develop and...

This report summarizes the findings of the first phase of a study undertaken to define a role for the Advanced Industrial Concepts (AIC) Division of the Office of Industrial Technologies (OIT) in developing waste minimization technologies for the industrial sector. The report describes the...

This paper presents a methodology and results for assessing the impact of production and energy efficiency, environmental regulation, and abatement capital expenditure constraints (e.g. capital rationing) on the productivity of energy and pollution intensive sectors. Energy is treated like any...

Peter Drucker lectures about the knowledge worker. During his talk, he discusses: supply as the center of today’s corporation, the change in structure and character of the workforce, the main function of a job, work as portable and specialized, the importance of making oneself understood and...

Information gathered through self-assessment activities using business excellence models (BEMs), such as the EFQM or the Baldrige models, show the overall performance of organizations against several model criteria. This information is vital to managers and directors to support their decision...

Purpose – The “resource-based view” (RBV) of firms considers that major operational and organisational advantages are created in the internal environment of a firm. The implementation of lean manufacturing represents the potential for strategic advantage over competitors, especially in...

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to describe the impediments to information technology (IT) adoption and possible solutions in the context of business relationships by drawing on case studies conducted in both Australia and Finland in the heavy manufacturing sector....