This paper aims to reassess the marketing strategy of Britain’s Big Four railway companies during the interwar period to locate railway marketing in the broader context of railway…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to reassess the marketing strategy of Britain’s Big Four railway companies during the interwar period to locate railway marketing in the broader context of railway business and the general development of service marketing in Britain.
Design/methodology/approach
By a detailed analysis of internal company records, this paper discusses three aspects of railway marketing: the development of marketing departments within the companies, the control of marketing expenditure and the industry-wide marketing alliance. The three areas of railway marketing are examined by way of comparing them with the corresponding situations in other British industries.
Findings
It reveals the relatively advanced state of railway companies’ marketing in the contemporary context. Furthermore, a series of re-organisations are interpreted as a response to the inter-modal competition from road traffic.
Originality/value
By characterising railway marketing in the interwar period as part of the industry’s rear-guard battle in the competitive travel market, in which railways were clearly losing out to road traffic, the paper provides a perspective that enables to understand how the “golden age” of railway marketing coincided with the railways’ decline in the passenger business.
Details
Keywords
Hiroki Sato, Koichiro Imano, Shigemi Yahata and Scott T. Davis
Moving from “Engineering” oriented R&Dbeing characterised by research aimed atmeeting immediate market needs,Japanese companies are developing neworganisational and…
Abstract
Moving from “Engineering” oriented R&D being characterised by research aimed at meeting immediate market needs, Japanese companies are developing new organisational and administrative structures to permit original R&D. They are also forced to solve problems of growing labour‐costs and shortages of managerial posts stemming from the ageing of the workforce. Within this wider process, reforms of the personnel administration of R&D are being initiated. The key characteristics lie in the fact that such modifications as expansions in the scope of rotation and clarification and diversification of career paths are common to engineers/scientists of all levels. This being the case, one can expect that the Japanese style of personnel administration system will change along the lines of one which emphasises uniformity among employees both in terms of career path and method for determining reward. Within the ongoing fundamental reform, a new model of creative and original R&D is expected to emerge in Japan.
Details
Keywords
This study seeks to clarify the behavior of ground materials and the grinding mechanism corresponding to the wear of abrasives, in the grinding process by coated abrasives.
Abstract
Purpose
This study seeks to clarify the behavior of ground materials and the grinding mechanism corresponding to the wear of abrasives, in the grinding process by coated abrasives.
Design/methodology/approach
Cemented carbide ball indenters for abrasive grains were used. Cemented carbide ball indenters have a definite shape. Grinding process is carried out using a wear‐testing machine with a reciprocating motion. This is an abrasive wear test. The deformation of the ground material is observed by the measurement of the worn groove and optical microscopic photograph of the worn ground surfaces.
Findings
Grinding process regularly proceeds when indenter diameter is small, that is, abrasive has a good cutting quality. However, when abrasives are gradually worn and the cutting quality becomes worse, a groove formed by grinding process is again filled up by the re‐adhesion of the generated worn debris. So, the grinding process by coated abrasives is impossible.
Research limitations/implications
To clarify the effects of indenter shape and its material on the abrasive wear of the workpiece or grinding process by coated abrasives, the additional experiments are now planned using other indenters having different shape or material in the laboratory.
Practical implications
In this research, interesting phenomena in grinding process by coated abrasives are found. This result is useful for the improvement of coated abrasives.
Originality/value
It is clarified that the grinding process by coated abrasives (that is, the behavior of ground material) can be simulated by this abrasive wear experiment.
Details
Keywords
Syahrim Azhan Ibrahim and Eiki Yamaguchi
This study aims to predict the types of thermally induced dynamics (TID) that can occur on deployable solar panels of a small form factor satellite, CubeSat which flies in low…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to predict the types of thermally induced dynamics (TID) that can occur on deployable solar panels of a small form factor satellite, CubeSat which flies in low Earth orbit (LEO). The TID effect on the CubeSat body is examined.
Design/methodology/approach
A 3U CubeSat with four short-edge deployable solar panels is considered. Time historic temperature of the solar panels throughout the orbit is obtained using a thermal analysis software. The results are used in numerical simulation to find the structural response of the solar panel. Subsequently, the effect of solar panel motion on pointing the direction of the satellite is examined using inertia relief method.
Findings
The thermal snap motion could occur during eclipse transitions due to rapid temperature changes in solar panels’ cross-sections. In the case of asymmetric solar panel configuration, noticeable displacement in the pointing direction can be observed during the eclipse transitions.
Research limitations/implications
This work only examines an LEO mission where the solar cells of the solar panels point to the Sun throughout the daylight period and point to the Earth while in shadow. Simplification is made to the CubeSat structure and some parameters in the space environment.
Practical implications
The results from this work reveal several practical applications worthy of simplifying the study of TID on satellite appendages.
Originality/value
This work presents a computational method that fully uses finite element software to analyze TID phenomenon that can occur in LEO on a CubeSat which has commonly used deployable solar panels structure.