Nicholas A. Meisel, Christopher B. Williams, Kimberly P. Ellis and Don Taylor
Additive manufacturing (AM) can reduce the process supply chain and encourage manufacturing innovation in remote or austere environments by producing an array of replacement/spare…
Abstract
Purpose
Additive manufacturing (AM) can reduce the process supply chain and encourage manufacturing innovation in remote or austere environments by producing an array of replacement/spare parts from a single raw material source. The wide variety of AM technologies, materials, and potential use cases necessitates decision support that addresses the diverse considerations of deployable manufacturing. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews with potential users are conducted in order to establish a general deployable AM framework. This framework then forms the basis for a decision support tool to help users determine appropriate machines and materials for their desired deployable context.
Findings
User constraints are separated into process, machine, part, material, environmental, and logistical categories to form a deployable AM framework. These inform a “tiered funnel” selection tool, where each stage requires increased user knowledge of AM and the deployable context. The tool can help users narrow a database of candidate machines and materials to those appropriate for their deployable context.
Research limitations/implications
Future work will focus on expanding the environments covered by the decision support tool and expanding the user needs pool to incorporate private sector users and users less familiar with AM processes.
Practical implications
The framework in this paper can influence the growth of existing deployable manufacturing endeavors (e.g. Rapid Equipping Force Expeditionary Lab – Mobile, Army’s Mobile Parts Hospital, etc.) and considerations for future deployable AM systems.
Originality/value
This work represents novel research to develop both a framework for deployable AM and a user-driven decision support tool to select a process and material for the deployable context.
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Vaughn Schmutz, Sarah H. Pollock and Jordan S. Bendickson
Previous research suggests that women receive less critical attention and acclaim in popular music. The authors expect that gender differences in the amount and content of media…
Abstract
Previous research suggests that women receive less critical attention and acclaim in popular music. The authors expect that gender differences in the amount and content of media discourse about popular musicians occur because music critics draw on the cultural frame of gender as a primary tool for critical evaluation. In order to explore the role of gender as a frame through which aesthetic content is evaluated, the authors conduct detailed content analyses of 53 critical reviews of two versions of the popular album 1989 – the original released by Taylor Swift in 2014 and a cover version released by Ryan Adams less than a year later. Despite Swift’s greater popularity and prominence, the authors find that reviews of her version of the album are more likely to focus on her gender and sexuality; less likely to describe her as emotionally authentic; and more likely to use popular aesthetic criteria in evaluating her music. By contrast, Ryan Adams was more likely to be seen by critics as emotionally authentic and to be described using high art aesthetic criteria and intellectualizing discourse. The authors address the implications of the findings for persistent gender gaps in many artistic fields.
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G. Don Taylor and Gary L. Whicker
The purpose of this paper is to examine whether or not driver job satisfaction, carrier performance, and customer service can be improved as a result of the use of uniquely…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine whether or not driver job satisfaction, carrier performance, and customer service can be improved as a result of the use of uniquely constructed, extended regional dispatching systems.
Design/methodology/approach
Simulation is used to examine regional dispatching systems that are extended in scope of dispatch by using integrated freight lanes. The results of extended regional dispatching systems are compared to traditional dispatching methods and previous experimentation with stand‐alone regional and lane dispatching.
Findings
It is shown that a carrier's adoption of extended regional dispatching can be beneficial to both trucking companies and drivers, while remaining relatively neutral to customers. Additionally, it is shown that this improvement can be obtained without significant degradation of the driving jobs that remain outside the regional dispatching network.
Research limitations/implications
A new method of dispatching has been developed in such a way that very attractive regional driving jobs can be extended to a much larger percentage of drivers than in more established regional alternatives. This reduces reliance on the less effective random, over‐the‐road dispatching systems that are typically utilized in the truckload trucking industry.
Practical implications
Carriers may be able to utilize extended regional dispatching systems as a means of improving driver satisfaction and retention.
Originality/value
This research extends knowledge in the area of alternative dispatching methods for truckload carriers in a way that drastically improves the quality of life for professional drivers.
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The learning outcomes of this case are in understanding core concepts of brand management and brand dilution. Assessment of macro-economic risks and proper positioning strategies…
Abstract
Learning outcomes
The learning outcomes of this case are in understanding core concepts of brand management and brand dilution. Assessment of macro-economic risks and proper positioning strategies are the key take-away from this case. The case gives an understanding of how brands are built and positioned, and the pitfalls of poor brand planning and assessment that could lead to brand dilution. The case is useful for highlighting the importance of brand management and the challenges of re-positioning. The discussions would shed light on why it is important to plan and manage spending on marketing for brand building activities, and why brands would suffer when spending is reduced. This case is a teaching case and not a research case. It will help participants assimilate available information in combination with existing academic theories and publications to help develop an accurate assessment and prognosis of the events leading until the point of slicing the case.
Case overview/synopsis
Reid & Taylor in 2015 had been reduced to a discounter brand offering extended end-of-season sales when most other competitors have ended their promotions. In the 17 years since its big-budget launch in the Indian market in one of the most memorable brand introductions, Reid & Taylor changed its ambassador twice and repositioned itself thrice. The case would allow participants to delve deeper into aspects of marketing spending, brand management, positioning and advertising effectiveness. The case brings to the fore discussions on marketing, specifically on branding, positioning and its related advertising in the textile sector for a brand that has not been studied in academic literature until the present time. The discussion allows for novelty, involving both forward- and backward-looking assessments and evaluations to help participants better imbibe learnings in brand management and positioning.
Complexity academic level
The case is suitable for a graduate-level (Master’s level) course in marketing and brand management. This case is suitable for elective courses that discuss positioning and brands.
Supplementary materials
Teaching notes are available for educators only.
Subject code
CSS 8: Marketing
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Venkat R. Kota, Don Taylor and Kevin R. Gue
Puzzle-based storage is a novel approach enabling very dense storage. Previous analytical studies have focussed on retrieval time when one or more usable escort locations (empty…
Abstract
Purpose
Puzzle-based storage is a novel approach enabling very dense storage. Previous analytical studies have focussed on retrieval time when one or more usable escort locations (empty slots) are located near the system input/output location, and on simulation results for more complex situations. The purpose of this paper is to extend analytical results to determine retrieval time performance when multiple escorts are randomly located within the system.
Design/methodology/approach
Closed-form expressions for retrieval time are developed and proven for cases in which the number of free, randomly placed escorts is equal to one or two. Heuristics with associated worst case bounds are proposed for larger numbers of free escorts.
Findings
Puzzle-based storage systems are practical and viable ways to achieve storage density, but retrieval time is heavily dependent upon suitable use of escort locations. Analytical and heuristic methods developed within the paper provide worst-case retrieval time performance in a variety of settings.
Research limitations/implications
As the number of free, randomly located escorts increases, optimal analytical solutions are difficult to obtain. Heuristics provide viable retrieval strategies in these situations, and worst-case bounds are relatively easily developed.
Originality/value
The primarily contribution of this paper is to make theoretical extensions of optimal methods for puzzle-based storage systems. It motivates additional research in multiple-escort systems and provides insights that should prove useful for the development of 3-dimensional puzzle-based systems and for systems in which concurrent item movement is permitted.
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Santhanam Harit, G. Don Taylor and C. Ray Asfahl
Describes a user‐friendly decision support tool to select near optimal containers for specific manufacturing scenarios relative to all the constraints associated with the use of…
Abstract
Describes a user‐friendly decision support tool to select near optimal containers for specific manufacturing scenarios relative to all the constraints associated with the use of the container. Guides the user through a dialogue to input constraints and scenario‐specific information. Shows how the decision support tool iterates between an expert system and a simulation model, to produce a near optimal container with respect to internal and external dimensional requirements. Explains the methods by which the system is tested and validated in a realistic environment. Discusses future research directions.
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G. Don Taylor, John R. English and Robert J. Graves
In many industries, the success or failure of a new product is largelydetermined in the design phase of the project. Consequently,manufacturers should strive to develop integrated…
Abstract
In many industries, the success or failure of a new product is largely determined in the design phase of the project. Consequently, manufacturers should strive to develop integrated system design tools to help ensure that new products are readily producible according to manufacturing or assembly capability. Introduces a systems integration strategy called “design to fit an existing environment” (DFEE). The purpose of this DFX sub‐strategy is to integrate capacity and product mix issues into design strategies so that it becomes possible to design new products which are more globally optimal from a systems standpoint. The result of using DFEE is that better product time‐to‐market targets can be established, and products can be designed to take advantage of existing slack manufacturing capacity, thus balancing assembly flow and reducing capital expenditures.
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Katerina Lyroudi and Don A. Taylor
The 1990s may be viewed as the decade of economic globalization. The projected EEC integration in 1992 has already lead to an increase in direct foreign investment (DFI) and…
Abstract
The 1990s may be viewed as the decade of economic globalization. The projected EEC integration in 1992 has already lead to an increase in direct foreign investment (DFI) and acquisition activity in Europe. Many firms would like to participate in the new market that will emerge in 1992. In addition, the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent reunification of the two Germanies have signalled a new era for Eastern Europe. These events will forge a new Europe of approximately 520 million people with nearly $5 trillion in combined gross national product, versus the $4 trillion economy of the United States and the $2 trillion economy of Japan.
This chapter draws on 10 years of ethnographic fieldwork collected in gay bars from three American cities to explore the strategies LGBTQ subcultures deploy to recreate meaningful…
Abstract
This chapter draws on 10 years of ethnographic fieldwork collected in gay bars from three American cities to explore the strategies LGBTQ subcultures deploy to recreate meaningful places within the vestiges of local queer nightlife. As gentrification and social acceptance accelerate the closures of LGBTQ-specific bars and nightclubs worldwide, venues that once served a specific LGBTQ subculture (i.e., leather bars) expand their offerings to incorporate displaced LGBTQ subcultures. Attending to how LGBTQ subcultures might appropriate designated spaces within a gay venue to support community (nightlife complexes), how management and LGBT subcultures temporally circumscribe subcultural practices and traditions to create fleeting, but recurring places (episodic places), and how patrons might disrupt an existing production of place by imposing practices associated with a discrepant LGBTQ subculture(place ruptures), this chapter challenges the notion of “the gay bar” as a singular place catering to a specific subculture. Instead, gay bars increasingly constitute a collection of places within the same space, which may shift depending on its use by patrons occupying the space at any given moment. Beyond the investigation of gay bars, this chapter contributes to the growing sociological literature exploring the multifaceted, unstable, and ephemeral nature of place and place-making in the postmodern city.
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Anthony S. Humphrey, G. Don Taylor, John S. Usher and Gary L. Whicker
The purpose of this paper is to examine whether or not driver life, carrier performance, and customer service can be improved as a result of the use of a technique called…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine whether or not driver life, carrier performance, and customer service can be improved as a result of the use of a technique called yard‐stacking in the truckload trucking industry. The technique seeks to find ways to provide level freight availability during normal weekly cycles in an effort to seek improvement relative to all constituencies.
Design/methodology/approach
Simulation is used to examine the use of yard‐stacking on Fridays to provide additional freight on weekends, which is generally much less available than on weekdays. In this technique, before being dispatched on Friday for a long‐haul, a driver initially picks up a load to make a short “dray” move from the customer site to the carrier's closest terminal yard. During the weekend, another driver picks up the drayed load. In this research, we evaluate the potential of weekend yard‐stacking under a variety of scenarios.
Findings
The paper shows that a carrier's adaptation of weekend freight leveling can be beneficial to both trucking companies and their customers, while remaining relatively neutral to drivers.
Research limitations/implications
Carriers may be able to utilize Friday yard‐stacking to improve their cost efficiency, driver satisfaction and customer performance.
Originality/value
This research extends the knowledge base of truckload freight imbalance problems. It was industrially motivated by J.B. Hunt Transport, Inc., one of the world's largest truckload carriers, who provided freight data and conceptual guidance.