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The main objective in writing this paper and conducting this research is to enhance the productivity in manufacturing operations by making them cost effective.

This paper presents a target‐costing system and model developed for the turning operation and it has a user interface designed in Microsoft Visual Basic® with a database developed by using Microsoft Access®. An algorithm is developed to apply the concepts of target‐costing that selects the machining parameters and then determines the machining cost. A geometric programming model (Gopalakrishnan and Al‐Khayyal) was used in the development of this system.

The research determined that target‐costing models can be developed for the manufacturing industry and can be implemented in realistic manufacturing environment. The research also showcased the utility of the target‐costing model in terms of the underlying detailed system level parameters.

The research focuses on one manufacturing process but can be extended to other manufacturing processes and business cost and profit centers for providing overall and enhanced benefits at the corporate levels.

The research details the development of a model that has been validated using practical shop floor data, hence implying its application in a wide variety of situations.

The original value of the paper lies in identifying the critical parameters and modeling approach towards target‐costing.

A plant layout in the context of manufacturing facilities design consists of the production areas, manufacturing support areas and personnel areas. In facilities design, plant layout has been determined to be one of the most important elements in the effectiveness of systematic manufacturing operability. This paper describes the development of a split departmental plant layout generation system (LAYSPLIT) in the domain of facilities design to develop layouts that will minimize the material handling costs. The plant layout generation system consists of a data acquisition module, a pair‐wise departmental exchange module, a layout development module, and a graphical representation module. The approach used to develop the system using a split departmental method, and the characteristics of the system are outlined. The advantages of the developed system in terms of facilitating effective operations and increasing productivity in manufacturing environments are discussed. The results obtained from LAYSPLIT are compared with that produced by the MCRAFT system and discussed.

In this study, we examine whether work from home (WFH) had an impact on firm productivity during the COVID-19 period.

We employ a panel fixed-effect model using 79,201 firm-quarter observations in a cross-country setting of 68 countries.

First, we find that firms that employed WFH contributed to real sector growth during the pandemic due to greater capital expenditure compared to otherwise. Second, we find that WFH amenable firms turned over assets better than less WFH amenable firms.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the impact of WFH on firms’ investment and efficiency using a cross-country setting.

This paper seeks to apply a heuristic approach to solve the facility layout problem and the description of a new computer‐aided layout design system.

The system utilizes a new approach for computing the adjacency scores, stacking of departments, and reserving or changing the department's shapes and dimensions. The system algorithms are based on calculating the minimal distance between departments and modified departmental closeness rating.

The research addressed in this paper has resulted in developing FLASP (Facility LAyout Support Program) software. FLASP could reduce the number of iterations needed to reach the optimal solution of the layout problems by restricting the location for each department depending on the relationships between them.

The system is built on a set of algorithms that are concerned with stacking, calculating the shortest rectilinear distances between departments, adjacency matrix system, modifications capabilities, and plans main aisles surrounding each department.

The program gathers the importance of both the adjacency relationships and the distances between departments in a way that depends on the concept that the adjacency score should not be nullified just because the two departments are no longer strictly adjacent. It rather considers that the adjacency score fades away gradually with the increase of distance between the two departments which leads to a main difference in distance consideration.

The increasing accumulation of synthetic plastic waste in oceans and landfills, along with the depletion of non-renewable fossil-based resources, has sparked environmental concerns and prompted the search for environmentally friendly alternatives. Biodegradable plastics derived from lignocellulosic materials are emerging as substitutes for synthetic plastics, offering significant potential to reduce landfill stress and minimise environmental impacts. This study highlights a sustainable and cost-effective solution by utilising agricultural residues and invasive plant materials as carbon substrates for the production of biopolymers, particularly polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), through microbiological processes. Locally sourced residual materials were preferred to reduce transportation costs and ensure accessibility. The selection of suitable residue streams was based on various criteria, including strength properties, cellulose content, low ash and lignin content, affordability, non-toxicity, biocompatibility, shelf-life, mechanical and physical properties, short maturation period, antibacterial properties and compatibility with global food security. Life cycle assessments confirm that PHB dramatically lowers CO₂ emissions compared to traditional plastics, while the growing use of lignocellulosic biomass in biopolymeric applications offers renewable and readily available resources. Governments worldwide are increasingly inclined to develop comprehensive bioeconomy policies and specialised bioplastics initiatives, driven by customer acceptability and the rising demand for environmentally friendly solutions. The implications of climate change, price volatility in fossil materials, and the imperative to reduce dependence on fossil resources further contribute to the desirability of biopolymers. The study involves fermentation, turbidity measurements, extraction and purification of PHB, and the manufacturing and testing of composite biopolymers using various physical, mechanical and chemical tests.

This paper describes the design and development of a system for the selection and construction of vertical and horizontal machining center packages with a base machine and options format subject to budgetary constraints. Options are categorized and divided into groups depending on their utilization, and their selection is based on a priority setting. Options are categorized as those providing the capability for high speed, enhanced levels of productivity, high levels of machining complexity, high levels of machining accuracy, and potential for the inclusion of automation to facilitate and satisfy production requirements. A user‐friendly and object‐oriented computer0based decision support software system was developed incorporating real data from a machine tool sales organization.

In recent years, both academics and institutions have acknowledged the crucial role multinational enterprises (MNEs) can play in addressing the sustainability challenges, as formalized by the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Nevertheless, because of their extensiveness and their design as country-level targets, SDGs have proven challenging to operationalize at a firm level. This problem opens new and relevant avenues for research in international business (IB). This chapter attempts to frame the topic of extended value chain sustainability in the IB literature. In particular, it addresses a specific topic, that is, how sustainability and resilience-building practices interact in global value chains (GVCs). To do so, the present study develops the case of STMicroelectronics (ST), one of the biggest semiconductor companies worldwide.

The primary aim of this study is to evaluate the impacts of institutional quality (IQ) and economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on bank risk-taking behavior, especially after the global financial crisis of 2007–2008.

After considering the outlier effect, missing figure and inconsistent data, the study’s final sample contains 24,364 firm-year observations of 4,367 banks. A total of 27 countries were considered as those data are available on the “EPU index” introduced by Baker et al. (2016) for 2011–2020. To estimate the core results, the dynamic panel generalized method of moments (GMM) has been used to examine the effects of IQ and EPU on bank risk-taking behavior. Later, this study also validates the core results by using two-stage least squares (2SLS).

The authors found a positive relationship between EPU and banks' risk-taking behavior of banks', but imperatively, a significant and negative relationship exists between IQ and bank risk-taking behavior. This study also has a remarkable and distinct findings from Uddin et al. (2020) one of the vital indicators of IQ quality measurement “voice and accountability” (VACC) impacted negatively on bank risk-taking behavior. It indicates that when VACC is well established, banks tend to take the low risk under the prevailing EPU conditions and vice-versa. Moreover, the lagged dependent variable significantly impacted the bank's risk-taking negatively.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, very few studies endeavored to investigate the dominance or impact level of IQ and EPU on the area, i.e. bank risk-taking behavior which inspired us to contribute to the banking literature to address this issue in a broader aspect – the connection between EPU and bank risk-taking behavior, also a relationship between IQ and bank risk-taking behavior and finally linking them with bank risk-taking behavior.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the interface between Lean strategy and organisational transformation by scrutinising the literature on why Lean strategies fail to be implemented and/or sustained.

As a conceptual and research paper, it develops a hypothesis. It encompasses philosophical discussions and comparative studies of others’ work and Lean thinking alongside its links to the principles, ideology, philosophy and underpinning values. The search involved a total of 1,931 articles spanning across 75 different journals. The content analysis approach suggested by Mayring (2004) was selected.

Successfully implementing Lean is more complex than often recognized within the literature, and the alignment between strategy and organisational transformation is repeatedly not undertaken. The investigation indicates policymakers need to view Lean as an ideology and not simply another process.

This paper addresses the inaccurate representation in the concept of Lean as a strategy. While a major evolution has occurred comprising the inputs perceived as imperative for Lean success, a translucent empathy of its philosophy alongside an acknowledgement of the magnitude of the change and transformation necessary has been comparatively perplexing. This paper has implications for academic scholars of strategy and organisational change, as well as for practitioners seeking to implement organisational change.

Empirical evidence suggests that most Lean strategies struggle. Customers are becoming more demanding, markets are becoming more customised, and product life-cycles getting shorter are dictating that Lean needs to be embraced as an ideology.

Multitasking machining (MTM) systems have become increasingly sophisticated and expensive capital equipment. The lack of practical guidelines for selection of these machines can lead to significant undesirable machine attributes, application mismatch, and longer return on investment. The purpose of this paper is to provide an insight to numerous features and configurations of MTM systems and to present several application‐based selection guidelines.

A taxonomy of MTM systems is developed based on the number of axes of motions, tooling and spindle systems. Practical guidelines for general and advance features are presented with special regard to multi‐axis and multi‐spindle features.

MTM systems are capable of meeting several production goals such as cycle time reduction, minimizing non‐value added times and concurrent processing of multiple parts. However, they possess inherent programming challenges due to their complex configuration and simultaneous machining functions.

The diversity of system configurations demand a decision support system, such as a rule‐based expert system to capture the many variations of MTM systems.

This paper should be useful to decision makers in industry or academia who are involved in selection of MTM systems.