This newly revised edition helps today's manufacturing companies face the challenges of a global marketplace where every part of the operation must become more efficient to enhance the bottom line. Based on the results and conclusions of an applied research project of process manufacturing operations directed by the author, Bottom-Line Automation presents an overview of more than 30 years of industry trends, pointing out the strengths and pitfalls of each. The book also explains how manufacturers selected automation technology suppliers for state-of-the-art technological features in their systems rather than for the improvements the technology could offer the manufacturing operation. New topics in the book discuss the economic optimization of industrial assets. Key findings include the fact that returns on automation investments were rarely, if ever, calculated. In fact, accounting systems were not even capable of measuring the performance offered by process automation systems. The author explains a strategy for measuring and improving automation system performance for the ultimate goal -- the bottom line, and provides case studies of how such a strategy was implemented in three process manufacturing organizations. The author brings more than 30 years of industry experience, education, and research together in this unprecedented work.

The process manufacturing business has changed dramatically in recent years. Manufacturing companies now face the challenges of a global marketplace where every part of the operation, must become more efficient to enhance the bottom line. Based on the results and conclusions of an applied research project of process manufacturing operations directed by the author, Bottom-Line Automation presents an overview of over 30 years of industry trends, pointing out strength and pitfalls of each. The book explains how manufacturers selected automation technology suppliers for state-of-the-art technological features in their systems, rather than for the improvements the technology could offer the manufacturing operation. Key findings include the fact that returns are even capable of measuring the performance of process automation systems. The author explains a strategy for measuring and improving automation system performance for the ultimate goal: 'Bottom Line', and provides case studies of how such a strategy was implemented in three process manufacturing organizations. The author, Peter G. Martin, Ph.D., brings over 30 years of industry experience, education, and research, together in this unprecedented work.After joining the Foxboro Company in the 1970's, Dr. Martin worked in a variety of positions in training, engineering, product planning, marketing and strategic planning. He later became Vice President at Automation Research Corporation before returning in 1996 to the Foxboro Company (now part of Invensys Process Automation) where he currently serves as Vice President of Strategic Initiatives. Dr. Martin has B.A. and M.S. degrees in Mathematics, an M.A. degree in Administration and Management, and a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering.

This radical, provocative and inspiring book explores a tectonicshift at the very heart of business. A shift that?s making the oldbottom line of corporate profitability the servant of a new master:a new ?person-centric? bottom line of personal profitability orvalue ?in my life?. So what? No bottom line? No more profit? Of course not! Every organization must cover its costs. Everybusiness has to make a profit to survive. The authors of The NewGlobal Line remarkably show that the necessary requirements fordoing so are changing, and why this transformation ? containingimportant elements of both evolution and revolution ? is under way,how it?s undermining the foundations of once-great businesses andbrands, and how its throwing up huge new opportunities.

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In recent decades, credit unions have seen unprecedented threats, due in large part to an eighty-year-old business model and an inability to adapt quickly to a digital economy. But Kirk Drake has devised a powerful plan to revitalize these noble institutions, making them more competitive, more creative, more connected with their membership, and more in tune with the times. A serial entrepreneur focused on credit-union technology, Drake has written a must-read manual for every CU board member, CEO, and management team in America. The first and only book of its kind, CU 2.0 offers essential strategies for leveraging the latest technologies to facilitate organizational growth and foster more even competition with the banking industry. With the tools provided here, the CU of tomorrow will be better equipped to empower its employees, while giving its members the superior financial service they want and need. It's time to be innovative and bold, to challenge long-standing inefficiencies and move away from the "old school" methods of doing business. CU 2.0 provides the skills, the savvy, and the fresh ideas necessary to finally transport the credit union out of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first.