There is no doubt that technological innovation is an important element in today's business environment. The importance of new manufacturing technologies is increasing as the business environment is becoming more complex and competitively intense. The environments in which organisations are competing and operating are also increasingly cross-cultural due to the advent of globalisation. Achieving organisational objectives as a result of technological adoption is made more difficult when organisations set out to undertake innovations more suited to a different national environment. This might have posed a great challenge for organisations that are engaged in technology innovation, especially in developing countries like Nigeria. / It has been suggested that the innovation of new manufacturing technologies encourages the restructuring of human resource management strategies, especially employee empowerment and workforce composition, for example by the displacement of low skilled by highly skilled workers. The reason for this, it has been suggested, is based on the assumption that highly skilled and educated employees can be empowered more easily during the implementation of new innovations. However, it has been argued that the extent of employee restructuring will be different across-national boundaries due to differences in national cultural values. / Using an operational-level survey, this study investigates comparatively the implications of culture on human resource management strategies and practices during the implementation of advanced manufacturing technology innovation in Nigeria and New Zealand. Thus, the research questions are concerned with the extent to which differences in similar human resource management strategies practiced in the two distinct national environments: Nigeria and New Zealand, are attributable to differences in their national cultural values. / Data collected through questionnaire administration in over 150 manufacturing establishments and through interview enabled the examination of the relationship between culture and advanced manufacturing technology (including linked and integrated) and human resource management (employee empowerment and workforce composition) interactions in the two countries. / Three broad hypotheses of advanced manufacturing technology-human resource management interactions were developed on the premise of cultural value convergence and divergence. The results indicated that there is little or no convergence on Hofstede's cultural dimensions between the two counties (Nigeria and New Zealand). In other words, there are statistical significant differences in the two countries' values. The test of hypotheses showed that there are significant differences between the two countries in advanced manufacturing technology-human resource management interactions. / Specifically, the statistical analysis revealed that there is more employee empowerment and workforce re-composition in the New Zealand sample than the Nigerian one during the implementation of advanced manufacturing technology, including two categories - linked and integrated. For example, the overall workforce reduction and compositional shift in favour of skilled/educated workers is significantly greater in New Zealand when compared to Nigerian organisations. / Overall, compared to New Zealand, the results indicated that Nigeria has a lesser use of employee empowerment and workforce compositional strategies, which is consistent with their high power distance, high uncertainty avoidance, high collectivism, and short-term orientation position on the Hofstede dimensions. / Thesis (PhDBusinessandManagement)--University of South Australia, 2005

Diss. Linköping : Univ., 2004.

Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1991. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 98-100). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2009. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 122-123). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references.

The work detailed in this dissertation relates to thedevelopment of high performance manufacturing systems. Theperformance factor aimed for is especially flexibility, butthere is an intention of making the results adaptable to focuson performance factors of the readers or users choice. Thefocus of the presented research is not only to provide meansfor accomplishing manufacturing that can handle changes butalso to accomplish flexibility in another area. The resultsshould be applicable in many different situations. The researchhas been divided into three parts: the further development of amanufacturing strategy, the development of a base for amanufacturing system design method and the development of amanufacturing control system. The developed strategy is called Assembly-InitiatedProduction (AIP). An implementation of the strategy shouldprovide high manufacturing system flexibility but at the sametime contribute to the lowering of inventory levels andlead-times. Different solutions coupled to technicalrequirements found are also discussed. The design method research focuses on basic manufacturingsystem properties and the possibility of expressing theseproperties by using simple combinable abstract units calledconcepts. The principle is the same as in physics where realworld phenomena may be expressed by using standard concepts asfor example time and mass. The intended use of the results isin an early manufacturing system design phase. The method isnot directly linked to the AIP strategy, but could be used forimplementing it. Production Planning and Control (PPC) is an important partof a manufacturing system. After having reviewed current PPCpractices, a need for a factory floor PPC system workingregardless of factory floor layout, was identified. Based ontheoretical and industrial studies, the suggested solution is acomputerised, decentralised control system, physicallyseparated from the PPC/ERP system. In order to be able to makequick changes in the schedule, to obtain flexibility and toprovide the organisation with a tool for manufacturing controland decision-making, the system works in real time to provideaccurate and valid data.

<p>The work detailed in this dissertation relates to thedevelopment of high performance manufacturing systems. Theperformance factor aimed for is especially flexibility, butthere is an intention of making the results adaptable to focuson performance factors of the readers or users choice. Thefocus of the presented research is not only to provide meansfor accomplishing manufacturing that can handle changes butalso to accomplish flexibility in another area. The resultsshould be applicable in many different situations. The researchhas been divided into three parts: the further development of amanufacturing strategy, the development of a base for amanufacturing system design method and the development of amanufacturing control system.</p><p>The developed strategy is called Assembly-InitiatedProduction (AIP). An implementation of the strategy shouldprovide high manufacturing system flexibility but at the sametime contribute to the lowering of inventory levels andlead-times. Different solutions coupled to technicalrequirements found are also discussed.</p><p>The design method research focuses on basic manufacturingsystem properties and the possibility of expressing theseproperties by using simple combinable abstract units calledconcepts. The principle is the same as in physics where realworld phenomena may be expressed by using standard concepts asfor example time and mass. The intended use of the results isin an early manufacturing system design phase. The method isnot directly linked to the AIP strategy, but could be used forimplementing it.</p><p>Production Planning and Control (PPC) is an important partof a manufacturing system. After having reviewed current PPCpractices, a need for a factory floor PPC system workingregardless of factory floor layout, was identified. Based ontheoretical and industrial studies, the suggested solution is acomputerised, decentralised control system, physicallyseparated from the PPC/ERP system. In order to be able to makequick changes in the schedule, to obtain flexibility and toprovide the organisation with a tool for manufacturing controland decision-making, the system works in real time to provideaccurate and valid data.</p>

No description available.

<p>The objective of this research was to work with industrial partners to develop and apply innovative and intelligent improvement to their production processes in order to achieve a higher level of productivity and quality while lowering cost.</p> <p>Two projects were completed and are discussed in this work. The first project was focused on improving tooling in a milling process of high value parts by varying coatings and geometries of the tooling. The second project involved implementing statistical process control (SPC) using control charts and process capability metrics through customized software.</p> <p>In the first project, the industrial partner was experiencing rapid wear of tools when milling NiCrMoV steel. A detailed material characterisation study revealed the likely cause was the presence of un-tempered martensite having high hardness. Cutting tools were then chosen to compare the performance of tools with varying rake angle and coating; where all other geometry/features were identical. It was found that the best performing tooling had a relatively more aggressive rake angle at 16º, and a PVD coating consisting of TiAlN + Al₂O₃+ ZrN; showing a tool life 300% greater than the baseline tooling. Inspection of the worn tools by SEM, EDX, and Raman spectroscopy revealed that the Al₂O₃ and ZrN coating layers detached long before the failure.</p> <p>In the second project, software was developed collaboratively with an industrial partner for a CNC turning process. The process was semi-automated, and used 100% inspection of parts. Part measurement data was recorded by the software, allowing for SPC to be applied to identify common-cause sources of variation. The software was then able to make offset recommendations in real-time to correct for variation. Providing process history for quality assurance (QA) also allowed for identifying of several areas for improvement in the process which were corrected, considerably reducing variability.</p> / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

Statistical analysis is used quite heavily in production operations. To use certain advanced statistical approaches such as Bayesian analysis, statistical models must be built. This thesis demonstrates the process of building the Bayesian models and addresses some of the classical limitations by presenting mathematical examples and proofs, by demonstrating the process with experimental and simulated implementations, and by completing basic analysis of the performance of the implemented models. From the analysis, it is shown that the performance of the Bayesian models is directly related to the amount of separation between the likelihood distributions that describe the behavior of the data features used to generate the multivariate Bayesian models. More specifically, the more features that had clear separation between the likelihood distributions for each possible condition, the more accurate the results were. This is shown to be true regardless of the quantity of data used to generate the model distributions during model building. In cases where distribution overlap is present, it is found that models performance become more consistent as the amount of data used to generate the models increases. In cases where distribution overlap is minimal, it is found that models performance become consistent within 4-6 data sets.