Development and evaluation of setup strategies in printed circuit board assembly
The last decade has seen a rapid extension of electronic control devices for various types of technical products. In modern electronics manufacturing, highly automated assembly systems are used to mount the electronic components onto the printed circuit boards (PCBs). Maintaining high production flexibility in order to meet the desired product variety and, at the same time, achieving high utilization rates of the capital-intensive production equipment can only be achieved by applying highly sophisticated planning and control strategies for the operation of modern placement machines. Ihsan Onur Yilmaz develops a novel group setup strategy which integrates multiple problems of the PCB assembly, especially in a medium-variety production environment. At the core of his principle approach are the identification of similarities between different types of PCBs and the generation of PCB clusters upon which group setup strategies are based. The developed setup strategies are also innovative in the sense that they integrate the optimization of detailed machine operations. This integration has not been achieved in the classical approaches which primarily rely on statistical clustering techniques.
Designing Organizations : 21st Century Approaches
The design of organizations has been an ongoing concern of management theory and practice over the past several decades. Over this time, there has been little change in the fundamental theory, principles and concepts of Organization Design (OD). Recently organizational life has changed dramatically with the advent of: new communication systems, adaptive mechanisms, information technology, knowledge management systems, innovation processes and more. This book systemically examines these developments and their impact on OD with contributions from leading scholars in the area. Also featured in the book are the practical issues with implementing OD in organizations. The individual chapters are organized into five sections: (1) Putting Contingency Theory in its Place, (2) Focus on Individuals Who Make up the Organization, (3) Innovation Processes and Organization Design, (4) Adaptation and Technology, and (5) Design for Performance. Each chapter examines aspects of the book’s threefold theme: (1) core issues in organization design, (2) emerging theoretical perspectives in OD, and (3) new developments and directions in OD. A special feature of each chapter is: 1) implications for theory, and 2) implications for practice.
Designing Democracy : Ideas for Better Rules
While liberal democracies are the best systems of self-governance for societies, they rarely invoke great enthusiasm. On the one hand, democracies have been known to fail in achieving efficient or fair allocations. On the other hand, many citizens take the democratic system for granted as they have yet to experience an alternative. In this book the vision we propose is that the potential of democ racies has not yet been exhausted, and that optimal democracies are both the Utopia for societies and the aim that scientists should be committed to. We present a number of ideas for drawing up new rules to im prove the functioning of democracies. The book falls into two parts. The first part examines ways of combining incentive contracts with democratic elections. We suggest that a judicious combina tion of these two elements as a dual mechanism can alleviate a wide range of political failures, while at the same time adhering to the founding principles of democracies. The second part presents new rules for decision-making and agenda setting. Together with modern communication devices, these rules can sometimes transcend the limitations of liberal VI Preface democracies in achieving desirable outcomes. Examples of such rules include the flexible majority rule where the size of the ma jority required depends on the proposal, or the rule that only those belonging to the winning majority can be taxed.
Designing an All-Inclusive Democracy : Consensual Voting Procedures For Use in Parliaments, Councils and Committees
This book describes the voting procedures by which majority rule may be replaced by a more consensual system of governance. The book includes a foreword by Sir Michael Dummett and contributions by Elizabeth Meehan, Hannu Nurmi and Maurice Salles, among others.
Demographic Change in Germany : The Economic and Fiscal Consequences
Just as one might be inclined to thinkthat every thing about demographic change has been already said and heard, a new dimension opens up. In fact, this is what makes the topic so fascinating. There is nothing trivial any longer about children, families, age, and care. Europe is undergoing profound demo graphic change. Each generation of children is quantitatively smaller than that of their parents; the propor tion of children and adolescents among the population is becoming smaller and smaller, while that of the elde rlyi s growing inexorably. Fewer and fewer people are marrying; more and more marriages are failing. Manyar eas of our society are affected by this; just think about the challenges faced by the social security systems as a result of demographic ageing. Politi cians and society are forced to adju st todem ographic change. Many people in Europe are concerned about these changes and are looking to politicians and researchers for solutions. Predictions are never easy, especially not about the future.
Decision Making with the Analytic Network Process: Economic, Political, Social and Technological Applications with Benefits, Opportunities, Costs and Risks
A selection of applications of ANP to economic, social and political decisions, and also to technological design. The chapters comprise contributions of scholars, consultants and people concerned about the outcome of certain important decisions who applied the Analytic Network Process to determine the best outcome for each decision from among several potential outcomes.
Decentralised Government in an Integrating World: Quantitative Studies for OECD Countries
The book offers a comprehensive empirical analysis of the determinants of changes in the distribution of expenditure and revenue-raising powers among fiscal tiers in OECD countries. Using a new indicator of fiscal decentralisation which accounts for subnational decision-making autonomy, common decentralisation trends are investigated.
Database Marketing : Analyzing and Managing Customers
Database marketing is at the crossroads of technology, business strategy, and customer relationship management. Enabled by sophisticated information and communication systems, today’s organizations have the capacity to analyze customer data to inform and enhance every facet of the enterprise—from branding and promotion campaigns to supply chain management to employee training to new product development. Based on decades of collective research, teaching, and application in the field, the authors present the most comprehensive treatment to date of database marketing, integrating theory and practice. Presenting rigorous models, methodologies, and techniques (including data collection, field testing, and predictive modeling), and illustrating them through dozens of examples, the authors cover the full spectrum of principles and topics related to database marketing.
Data envelopment analysis : A comprehensive text with models, applications, references and DEA-Solver software
Data Envelopment Analysis: A Comprehensive Text with Models, Applications, References, And DEA-Solver Software, 2nd Edition is designed to provide a systematic introduction to DEA and its uses as a multifaceted tool for evaluating problems in a variety of contexts.
Customising Stakeholder Management Strategies: Concepts for Long-term Business Success
The third in the series on Stakeholder Management, this volume presents a wide array of case studies to demonstrate how Stakeholder Management strategies are customized specifically to companies' requirements to fulfill their long term business goals.
Customer Processes in Business-to-Business Service Transactions
Janine Frauendorf analyzes how customer processes can be used to optimize the overall service process. In this context, the service blueprint represents the key tool of the thesis – originally a tool for designing and optimizing the internal process of the service operator, it is now extended by the customer process side. Transaction cost theory, as the link between supplier process and customer process, on the one hand and the script construct from cognitive psychology on the other, provide the theoretical basis for the thesis. On the basis of empirical results, the author presents significant implications for services research and helpful suggestions for business practice.
Customer Loyalty in Third Party Logistics Relationships : Findings from Studies in Germany and the USA
These issues are addressed in the present book: First, a model of customer loyalty and its determinants is developed, which is then validated using empirical data from nearly 800 logistics managers in Germany and the USA. Effects of different relational factors on the customer loyalty model are identified and cultural differences between Germany and the USA are revealed.
Customer Integration in Industrial Innovation Projects
The development of product innovations is permanently challenged by the customers’ rapidly evolving demand for new products and technologies. New approaches for integrating customers into the product innovation process are required and have been exemplified in a software engineering context by Extreme Programming. Patricia Sandmeier demonstrates how a transfer of elements from Extreme Programming to the development practice of industrial products can improve customer integration activities and the innovativeness of the resulting new products. Based on an in-depth case study analysis of two industrial firms and two technical service firms she presents a conceptual model for the integration of customer contributions into the product innovation process. Finally, the author proposes a product innovation process based on discrete product development steps as well as a ‘customer-centered innovation cell’ enabling the development of truly innovative product solutions together with customers.
Crypto Wars : Faked Deaths, Missing Billions and Industry Disruption
Unveils the biggest scams and frauds that have shocked the world of cryptocurrency, from the disappearing Crypto Queen with OneCoin, to Bitconnect, the initial coin offering crash and Quadriga where the founder seems to have faked his own death to escape prosecution Contains exclusive interviews and commentaries from many of the key people who have been actively investigating the biggest crypto-scams, from the Metropolitan police, to insolvency practitioners, researchers, BBC journalists and tech geeks Goes beyond the sensationalist and concludes on the real potential for change and good that cryptocurrencies bring; from challenging the greedy practices of the banking and remittance industries, to reaching over 2.5 billion unbanked users, allowing for greater transparency and ethical behaviours
Crossroads of Entrepreneurship
Crossroads of Entrepreneurship presents works from scholars belonging to a number of different disciplines - business history, economics, sociology and management - and addresses a cross section of issues in the entrepreneurship field. Contributions are arranged in different sections, emphasizing dialogue across disciplines and paradigms, rather than boundaries between them. The first section of the work is a compilation of papers that trace the historical roots of study in entrepreneurship in different disciplinary domains, and highlight the fundamental issues addressed by past research. A second section gathers empirical studies adopting various methods and investigating different aspects of entrepreneurial action. The third section collects contributions investigating the development of entrepreneurship in different national settings. The work reveals a convergence of issues and interests, despite paradigmatic differences, and the potential benefits of more intense conversation across disciplines.
Cross-Business Synergies : A Typology of Cross-Business Synergies and a Mid-range Theory of Continuous Growth Synergy Realization
Sebastian Knoll investigates what cross-business synergies actually are and how they are realized successfully. In a first step, a theory-based typology of cross-business synergies is developed and two new types of synergies are conceptualized: (1) Growth synergies, i.e. profitable growth advantages from recombining complementary operative resources across businesses, and (2) corporate management synergies, i.e. performance advantages from leveraging corporate management capabilities across businesses. In a second step, the author focuses on growth synergies and inducts a framework for their continuous realization from a longitudinal in-depth single case study. He suggests that the successful realization of growth synergies is associated with a selective focus on specific growth opportunities, decentralized cross-business collaboration that motivates productive business unit self-interest, and a corporate management approach that guides and balances this self-interest in an evolutionary fashion.
Cross Regional Trade Agreements : Understanding Permeated Regionalism in East Asia
An unacknowledged key feature of East Asian FTA diplomacy is the region's active cross-regional preferential trading relations. In sharp contrast to the Americas and Europe, where cross-regional initiatives gained strength after the consolidation of regional trade integration, East Asian governments negotiate trade deals with partners outside of their region at an early stage in their FTA policies. The book asks three main questions: Are there regional factors in East Asia encouraging countries to explore cross-regionalism early on? What are the most important criteria behind the cross-regional partner selection? How do cross-regional FTSs (CRTAs) influence their intra-regional trade initiatives? Through detailed country case studies from China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia, we show the ways in which these governments seek to leverage their CRTAs in the pursuit of intra-regional trade integration objectives, a process that yields a much more permeated regionalism.
Critique de la valeur fondamentale = Critique of fundamental value
This work takes stock of the different conceptions of fundamental value in finance, the methods of its calculation and the ongoing debates in financial theory as in professional practices. The book reports on the alternatives offered by mathematical modeling.
Critical Success Factors of Offshore Software Develpment Projects : The Perspective of German-Speaking Companies
In an effort to cut costs and re-focus on their core competences, The author develops a model that comprises 29 critical success factors which are classified into four distinct groups: internal suitability, internal management, external suitability, and external management factors. With regard to the developed model, both the implementation of an online survey and the conduction of two in-depth case studies show that the external management factors are particularly relevant for the successful implementation of an offshore software development project and that the perception of the individual critical success factors greatly depends on the company perspective.
Critical Infrastructure : Reliability and Vulnerability
This text brings together differing geographic perspectives in modelling and analysis in order to highlight infrastructure weaknesses or plan for their protection.



















