A Perspective on Two Decades of Rapid Modeling It is an honor for me to be asked to write a foreword to the Proceedings of the 1st Rapid Modeling Conference. In 1987, when I coined the term “Rapid Modeling” to denote queuing modeling of manufacturing systems, I never imagined that two decades later there would be an international conference devoted to this topic! I am delighted to see that there will be around 40 presentations at the conference by leading researchers from aroundthe world, and about half of these presentationsare represented by written papers published in this book. I congratulate the conference organizers and program committee on the success of their efforts to hold the ?rst ever conference on Rapid Modeling. Attendees at this conferencemight?nd it interesting to learn about the history of the term Rapid Modeling in the context it is used here. During the fall of 1986 I was invited to a meeting at the Headquarters of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) in Dearborn, Michigan. By that time I had successfully demonstrated s- eral industry applications of queuing network models at leading manufacturers in the USA. Although in principle the use of queuing networks to model manufact- ing systems was well known in the OR/MS community and many papers had been published,the actual use of suchmodelsby manufacturingprofessionalswas almost nonexistent.

Rapid Modelling and Quick Response presents new research developments in the fields of rapid modelling and quick response linked with performance improvements (based on lead time reduction, etc., as well as financial performance measures). The papers and teaching cases in this book were presented at the second Rapid Modelling Conference: "Quick Response – Intersection of Theory and Practice". The main focus of this collection is the transfer of knowledge from theory to practice, providing the theoretical foundations for successful performance improvement. This conference volume challenges the traditional notions of rapid modelling, and offers valuable contributions to the scientific communities of operations management, production management, supply chain management, industrial engineering and operations research. Rapid Modelling and Quick Response will give the interested reader (researcher, as well as practitioner) a good overview of new developments in this field.

This compelling volume re-examines the topic of economic growth in Europe after the Second World War. The contributors approach the subject armed not only with new theoretical ideas, but also with the experience of the 1980s on which to draw. The analysis is based on both applied economics and on economic history. Thus, while the volume is greatly informed by insights from growth theory, emphasis is given to the presentation of chronological and institutional detail. The case study approach and the adoption of a longer-run perspective than is normal for economists allow new insights to be obtained. As well as including chapters that consider the experience of individual European countries, the book explores general European institutional arrangements and historical circumstances. The result is a genuinely comparative picture of post-war growth, with insights that do not emerge from standard cross-section regressions based on the post-1960 period.

A new edition of the bestselling industrial and systems engineering text, this book provides students, researchers, and practitioners with easy access to a wide range of industrial engineering tools and techniques in a concise format. It expands the breadth and depth of coverage, emphasizing new systems engineering tools, techniques, and models. New coverage includes control charts, engineering economy, health operational efficiency, healthcare systems, human systems integration, lean systems, logistics transportation, manufacturing systems, material handling systems, process view of work, queuing systems, reliability systems and tools, and six sigma techniques.

The papers collected in this volume were presented at a conference sponsored by the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs (formerly the Council on Religion and International Affairs). The conference, " In Search of an East Asian Development Model," was held at the Carnegie Council’s headquarters in New York in June 1985. The purpose was to discover if there is any such thing as an East Asian development model. Was it rooted in common cultural characteristics which arose only in Asia and therefore had no relevance elsewhere, or did the cultural and social characteristics thus revealed have transcendent features, applicable at all times and in all places? Was the recognition of general Asian economic success a post facto situation, an attempt at later rationalizations to fit a logic and inevitability into a process that essentially lurched along without any particular direction?

This two volume Handbook contains chapters on the main areas to which Post-Keynesians have made sustained and important contributions. These include theories of accumulation, distribution, pricing, money and finance, international trade and capital flows, the environment, methodological issues, criticism of mainstream economics and Post-Keynesian policies. The Introduction outlines what is in the two volumes, in the process placing Post-Keynesian procedures and contributions in appropriate contexts.

Competitiveness' Key Factor s: the organization's internal resources, its heterogeneous distribution and its difficulty to imitate them