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The purpose of this article is to address the prioritisation and focus of supply chain managers subsequent to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)/severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and the great lockdown of 2020.

In this article, concepts and trends on resilient and sustainable supply chains are systematized. Main trends in sustainability of supply chains in the wake of COVID-19 are presented.

Guidelines on building smarter and more resilient supply chains are provided and future tendencies, which includes the increase of a sustainable consumption perspective, are highlighted.

This is a conceptual article blended with a practical approach aiming to propose guidelines for managers and scholars on how to address supply chain management challenges after the coronavirus pandemic.

The integration of design and manufacturing operations within the firm has been much discussed, particularly with respect to the development of a concurrent engineering approach to product development. Where product development activities occur between firms, the issue of design and manufacturing integration is less well developed. The notion of networked firms and partnership development requires consideration of how product development activities will be managed in the future. The outsourcing of design and manufacturing is becoming prevalent. Firms are involving their suppliers in both design and manufacturing. The need for cross‐functional inputs necessitates consideration of how coordination and integration can be sustained across this inter‐firm relationship. This article proposes a typology of inter‐firm mechanisms, which firms are using to integrate design and manufacturing operations in product development. It is based on a review of literature on design‐manufacturing integration at the inter‐firm level.

Companies are increasingly adopting technologies that can promote integration between functions and tasks. The implementation of these technologies has largely concerned the tasks of installation and the technical integration of the system. However, insufficient attention appears to have been directed towards organizational and managerial integration issues. Argues, based on empirical data from 15 UK engineering companies, that effective implementation of integrating technology requires a better understanding of issues concerning the integration of functions/tasks involved. Focuses on the issues and problems concerning managers involved with improving engineering/production integration, and proposes alternative organizational and technical mechanisms for implementing such integration. Reviews these mechanisms by reference to the engineering case companies.

This paper examines the product engineering relationships between a vehicle manufacturer and six key suppliers which contribute to the final design of products. The interaction of design information between each supplier and customer is termed a design chain. The paper presents findings of the engineering design relationship between these companies and compares the different project management approaches used. Various mechanisms are used to coordinate these inter‐firm design operations. The paper emphasises a need for customers to differentiate between suppliers, based on their respective design contributions, in order to develop effective and appropriate coordination for the exchange of design and development information. The paper concludes that suppliers need to focus their project management skills on their customers’ processes to assist effective coordination, and finds that suppliers are promoting the use of guest engineers as one mechanism to deliver early participation.

Contends, contrary to some media portrayals of the Internet as a surfer’s playground without signposts, that the Internet does offer some direction to serious researchers seeking operations and production management information. Attempts to decipher the Internet as a medium for information gathering and to explain how it may be used as a resource for those in the operations management field. Aims to assist the Internet novice to find his or her point of embarkation and to introduce the more experienced user to new sources of useful data. Considers how the Internet may be used to promote the operations and production management discipline, and suggests ways in which both academics and practising managers may participate and so benefit.

The possible introduction of a star rating system for hospital catering is discussed. Many Health Authority catering heads would welcome it as a help in Quality Assurance Programmes. Independent assessors would be best.

Globally, over 95% of fire related deaths and injuries occur in low- and middle-income countries. Within informal settlements, the risk of fire resulting in injury or death is particularly high. This paper examines fire risks in informal settlements in New Delhi and Cape Town, and tented informal settlements in Lebanon.

Our analysis draws on primary sources, secondary literature, statistical data and qualitative interviews.

The distribution of fire risk across urban societies is a fundamentally political issue. Residential fire risk can be tackled by accessible, affordable, safety-compliant housing. That said, important interim measures can be taken to mitigate fire risk. Some of the risks requiring attention are similar across our case studies, driven by high population densities; flammable housing materials; unreliable or inaccessible access to safe power sources; and – in the case of Cape Town and New Delhi particularly – the inability of fire services to reach sites of fire. However, these common risks are embedded in distinct social, economic and political contexts that must be placed at the center of any intervention. Interventions must also be aware that the risk of fire is not spread evenly within informal settlements, intersecting as it does with factors like gender, age, health and disability.

Informal settlement fires have been under-studied to date. The studies that do exist tend to operate within disciplinary silos. This paper represents an important interdisciplinary approach to fire within informal settlements, which grounds technical data, modeling and experiments in political, social and economic realities.

A discussion of the impact of the internet on the provision of education. Starts by looking at how, in the music industry, control of property rights has been taken over by what the internet can offer and then moves on to look at how similar effects can be seen in education. In particular it looks at the effects on the outsourcing of services within education and at distance learning.

This paper analyses how disaster risk management paradigms have gradually developed since the 1960s, shaped by practical experience of-and the debate about-the rising number of disasters, growing urbanization, and changing climatic conditions. In this context, climate change is shown as driving an urban pro-poor adaptation agenda, which could allow current shortcomings in urban risk reduction to be overcome. However, as past lessons in disaster risk management are rarely considered, any potential for improvement remains untapped. Possible ways of rectifying this situation are discussed, and a comprehensive framework for the reduction of both disaster and climate risks is presented.