This book presents a mathematical programming approach to the analysis of production frontiers and efficiency measurement. The authors construct a variety of production frontiers, and by measuring distances to them are able to develop a model of efficient producer behaviour and a taxonomy of possible types of departure from efficiency in various environments. Linear programming is used as an analytical and computational technique in order to accomplish this. The approach developed is then applied to modelling producer behaviour. By focusing on the empirical relevance of production frontiers and distances to them, and applying linear programming techniques to artificial data to illustrate the type of information they can generate, this book provides a unique study in applied production analysis. It will be of interest to scholars and students of economics and operations research, and analysts in business and government.

Collected here are 112 papers concerned with new directions in manufacturing systems, given at the 41st CIRP Conference on Manufacturing Systems. The high-quality material includes reports of work from both scientific and engineering standpoints.

Industrial Development in a Frontier Economy is pioneering microanalysis of 59 Argentinean corporations between 1890 and 1930 that explains Argentina's failure to develop an efficient manufacturing sector, even as countries in similar circumstances successfully modernized.

Among studies of efficiency that have been conducted over the past three decades, Efficiency in U.S. Manufacturing Industries is unmatched in the breadth and depth of its coverage.

Collected here are 112 papers concerned with all manner of new directions in manufacturing systems given at the 41st CIRP Conference on Manufacturing Systems. The high-quality material presented in this volume includes reports of work from both scientific and engineering standpoints and several invited and keynote papers addressing the current cutting edge and likely future trends in manufacturing systems. The book’s subjects include: (1) new trends in manufacturing systems design: sustainable design, ubiquitous manufacturing, emergent synthesis, service engineering, value creation, cost engineering, human and social aspects of manufacturing, etc.; (2) new applications for manufacturing systems – medical, life-science, optics, NEMS, etc.; (3) intelligent use of advanced methods and new materials – new manufacturing process technologies, high-hardness materials, bio-medical materials, etc.; (4) integration and control for new machines – compound machine tools, rapid prototyping, printing process integration, etc.

From the Foreword: "It was not long ago that a company which adopted robot systems was said to be going boldly where no man had gone before. This is no longer true. There is now a great deal of experience in robot technology; robots are no longer remarkable, but they and their associated technologies are still the key to the future of manufacturing. In this conference you will discover what difficulties were experienced, how development problems were solved, and, most importantly, what were the benefits gained. The object of this conference is to spread the knowledge of the latest robot manufacturing technology and to assist you and your company to apply this technology to your operations."