This book introduces readers to additive technology and its application in different business sectors. It explores the fundamental impact additive has on technology, particularly on operations, innovation, supply chains, the environment and customer relations. Subsequently, on the basis of a broad survey of the best technology adopters, it offers advice on how to enhance business value by implementing the technology in different industrial and commercial environments. Additive manufacturing (AM) is a new area of manufacturing that has already brought about phenomenal changes to industry and business models. It affects nearly all aspects of the managerial and organizational thinking that was applied to conventional manufacturing. Currently, the technology is being adopted in manufacturing areas that involve high-value products with complex geometries, and small to medium production volumes. It boosts the productivity of new product development processes by slashing costs, reducing time and promoting creativity and innovativeness. Further, it shrinks supply chains by bringing firms closer to their customers. This unique book offers abundant empirical and practical evidence confirming the value of this new technology.

Based on a study of 16 sites that have recently implemented advanced manufacturing technology, concludes that while the technology itself will become widespread, the human resources practices used for its implementation will not be easily transferred. Manufacturers will need to spend more time and effort to develop the needed organisational and industrial relations capabilities.

Manufacturing systems, regardless of their size, have to work with scarce resources in dynamic environments. Effective Resource Management in Manufacturing Systems aims to provide methods for achieving effective resource allocation and to solve related problems that occur daily and often generate cost overruns. This book will be bought by postgraduate students of business, engineering and computer science as well as researchers in these fields. It will also be of interest to practitioners in manufacturing systems and operations managers in industry.

Takes into account the effective use of human factors issues in advanced manufacturing which would make the difference between the failure or success of industrial corporations. International authorities describe how to implement methods and techniques, applicable on a global basis, into manufacturing and process industries where change is being brought about as they move to concurrent engineering formats of operation.

In today's manufacturing environment, the integration of commercial, production, maintenance, and engineering functions is a common and crucial goal. In this timely volume, Richard G. Lamb presents a new standard within the enterprise and plant design management. Lamb shows readers how to advance the plant's role in enterprise business performance and leadership by most cost effectively achieving the mechanical availability necessary to perform in the face of current events, business cycles, and industry trends. Performance is from the designed and managed reliability and maintainability of its equipment.

How to rethink innovation and revitalize America's declining manufacturing sector by encouraging advanced manufacturing, bringing innovative technologies into the production process. The United States lost almost one-third of its manufacturing jobs between 2000 and 2010. As higher-paying manufacturing jobs are replaced by lower-paying service jobs, income inequality has been approaching third world levels. In particular, between 1990 and 2013, the median income of men without high school diplomas fell by an astonishing 20% between 1990 and 2013, and that of men with high school diplomas or some college fell by a painful 13%. Innovation has been left largely to software and IT startups, and increasingly U.S. firms operate on a system of “innovate here/produce there,” leaving the manufacturing sector behind. In this book, William Bonvillian and Peter Singer explore how to rethink innovation and revitalize America's declining manufacturing sector. They argue that advanced manufacturing, which employs such innovative technologies as 3-D printing, advanced material, photonics, and robotics in the production process, is the key. Bonvillian and Singer discuss transformative new production paradigms that could drive up efficiency and drive down costs, describe the new processes and business models that must accompany them, and explore alternative funding methods for startups that must manufacture. They examine the varied attitudes of mainstream economics toward manufacturing, the post-Great Recession policy focus on advanced manufacturing, and lessons from the new advanced manufacturing institutes. They consider the problem of “startup scaleup,” possible new models for training workers, and the role of manufacturing in addressing “secular stagnation” in innovation, growth, the middle classes, productivity rates, and related investment. As recent political turmoil shows, the stakes could not be higher.

"This book presents relevant theoretical frameworks and most recent research findings in this area, providing significant theories for research students and scholars to carry out their continuous research as well as practitioners who aim to improve upon their understanding of distributed production planning"--