Integrated Manufacturing Systems: Volume 14 Issue 1

Inside modular production networks: “soft operational issues” in building factory competitiveness

Gustavo A.C. Guzmán

This paper examines a new model of production in a developing nation, the Electronics Contract Manufacturing Industry. It explores issues related to manufacturing management…

Competitive strategies and core competencies: perspectives for the internationalisation of industry in Brazil

Afonso Fleury, Maria Tereza Fleury

One of the key features of the new economy seems to be the change from individual to collective efficiency: the joint performance of systems of networked enterprises. That…

Flexibility versus robust networks: the case of the Brazilian automotive sector

Jose Paulo Fusco, Martin Spring

The “robust networks” concept of Ferdows is examined and related to other key theories from the manufacturing strategy literature, resource‐based and other conceptualisations of…

The application of case based reasoning to decision support in new product development

R. Belecheanu, K.S. Pawar, R.J. Barson, B. Bredehorst, F. Weber

This paper describes the application of case based reasoning (CBR) to decision support for design managers and engineers during the early phases of new product development…

Knowledge management configurations in Italian small‐to‐medium enterprises

Mariano Corso, Antonella Martini, Emilio Paolucci, Luisa Pellegrini

To survive in the global economy small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have to improve their products and processes exploiting their intellectual capital in a dynamic network of…

On an adaptive product development system: a hybrid database approach

K.M. Lee, H.C.W. Lau, I.‐K. Hui, K.‐M. Yu

Getting the right information at the right time is one of the success factors of product development. However, there exist a great variety of data formats which make the…