Management tools and technique

REIST Aerosol Science and Technology, Second Edition RHINE, TUCKER Modeling of Gas-Fired Furnaces and Boilers and Other Industrial Heating Processes ROSSITER Waste Minimization Through Process Design SAMDANI Safety and Risk Management Tools and Techniques in the CPI... 

The realisation of implementation of management tools and techniques in pavement engineering... 

This chapter focuses, first, on the cases for and against the use of management tools and techniques and shows that, while much is written about the gullibility of managers, rather less is known about the actual use and performance of tools and techniques in practice. In fact there has been little systematic empirical study of the actual use of tools and techniques in particular functions and specific industries to allow any one to make any clear statements about whether or not managers are regularly duped or whether when they use them they do so rationally. The second part of the chapter outlines the structure of the survey that was undertaken to analyse the use and performance of tools and techniques reported here. The basic structure of the subsequent analytic chapters is outlined and a brief overview of the overall findings is presented. 

The Japanese automotive industry is a case in point. Not only did practices like Total Quality Management and Just-in-Time transform the fortunes of the companies that used them domestically, it has also changed production practices internationally. For the firms that have gained from using such tools and techniques it is inconceivable that they should turn back the clock to the time before they were used. Consequently, it seems that management tools and techniques are not inappropriate per se, but can cause problems if the tool is inappropriate for the problem at hand, or appropriate but misapplied. And, it is at this point that one has to understand the problem that is created by the method by which most tools and techniques are created and then sold into firms. 

The overall findings from the survey of management tools and techniques... 

This volume is one of the products of a six-year study between 1998 and 2004 funded by the Engineering and Physical Research Council in the UK into the development, use and performance of management tools and techniques (the other major outputs from this study can be found in Cox,... 

The results of the research into the 16 different industry sectors are presented in the four parts 1 to IV that follow. Each part focuses on the experiences of the four major functions. Part 1 deals with strategy, Part 11 with marketing and sales, Part 111 with operations and production and Part IV with procurement and supply. Each of these parts is then divided into two chapters. In the first chapter in each part (chapters 2, 4, 6 and 8) a comprehensive list of the management tools and techniques commonly used in that function is provided. Following this there is an analytical chapter (chapters 3, 5, 7 and 9) that focuses on the use and performance of the tools and techniques used in each function. Each of these analytical chapters is arranged with the same structure to facilitate the process of comparison. 

Since all companies have to make decisions in situations of both risk and uncertainty and because the pace of modern technological change is much faster than ever before it is always essential for strategy managers to have risk management tools and techniques in place. 

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