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Discusses a refinement to the process by which manufacturing strategy is created. Builds on an existing strategy process (Platts, 1990) and adapts it to fit more closely within the dynamic manufacturing vision. The method for creating a manufacturing vision allows a business to do this in a two‐ to three‐week period as part of a 10‐12 week manufacturing strategy project. A conceptual model of manufacturing vision has been developed that enables practitioners to explore the factors that influenced the potential competitive contribution of manufacturing and to agree an explicit direction for change. Describes the successful application of the process in six manufacturing organizations and highlights the practical limitations of the approach.

The ability of a team from a manufacturer and its partners to formulate strategic plans for supply chains is investigated. The research aims to improve the process of formulate strategic plans for supply chains is investigated. The research aims to improve the process of formulation using the strategic operations and logistics planning (SOLP) process.

SOLP involves researchers facilitating many meetings of the planning team in an action research setting at their premises. Combining knowledge from operations strategy and socio‐technical systems (STS), participant observation and semi‐structured surveys are used to obtain rich data. Team members derive order‐winning criteria and design policies along the supply chain for several product groups, using the process to craft strategies whilst researchers study it. One application included managers from supply chain partners whilst the other was limited to manufacturer managers. Working within the corporate plans of the focal company, the formulation is carried out by middle managers.

Carrying out the process twice at a heavy fabrication business (HFB) in Australia demonstrated that a team of chain managers can formulate strategic operations plans for a complete heavy industry chain. Extensive support, in the form of worksheets and facilitation, is important to formulation and extent of implementation of the plans. A case is made that assistance is probably necessary for full implementation of those plans.

Whilst limited to cases in a heavy manufacturer, the research is believed to be applicable to a range of medium‐sized supply chains.

The need for the team to include supply chain partners and the effect of member's capability and authority is investigated. The extent of implementation and the effect of team attributes on execution is studied.

The research demonstrates that a team of chain managers can, with suitable support, formulate strategic operations plans for a complete heavy industry chain. The case sheds some light on the benefits, or drawbacks, of having members of other chain partners present.

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).

The visibility and impact of young activists is evident in 2020 more than ever, most clearly in the Black Lives Matter movement, but also among climate strikers, water protectors, March for Our Lives organizers, and even TikTok users and K-pop music fans. The ambivalence with which adults have responded – from pride to dismissal to demonization – has its roots in implicit yet pervasive assumptions about young people stretching back to the early nineteenth century. Through a brief historical sketch, I demonstrate that the contemporary concept of the “American teenager” is the product of a series of social, economic, and political changes in the United States and that this concept undermines youth activism and gives license to adults to dismiss young peoples' justified anger at injustice. This essay contends that adultism, and specifically ephebiphobia – the fear and loathing of young people – dominates today's cultural perceptions of youth in the United States and contributes to policies in education and law enforcement that have domesticated and criminalized young people, undermining their political power. Understanding of the historical factors that shape adults' attitudes toward young peoples' capabilities as activists is a first step to improving and sustaining collaboration between youth and adults in social movements.

Proposes a framework for considering the factors relevant to the design of manufacturing strategy processes. The framework is built from manufacturing and business strategy literature through a review which positions popular strategies like Cellular manufacturing, TQM and JIT within more traditional manufacturing strategy frameworks and includes aspects of strategy that have been rarely mentioned in the manufacturing strategy literature. Thus competence, capability, culture and alternative strategy process modes are incorporated and throughout the review potential influences on the design of the strategy process are identified. Finally the framework′s ability to assist the design of a manufacturing strategy process is tested and the dependence of key process elements like the procedure and tools used are shown to be contingent on, for example, the outputs required from the process and the content areas under development.

OWING to the comparatively early date in the year of the Library Association Conference, this number of THE LIBRARY WORLD is published so that it may be in the hands of our readers before it begins. The official programme is not in the hands of members at the time we write, but the circumstances are such this year that delay has been inevitable. We have dwelt already on the good fortune we enjoy in going to the beautiful West‐Country Spa. At this time of year it is at its best, and, if the weather is more genial than this weather‐chequered year gives us reason to expect, the Conference should be memorable on that account alone. The Conference has always been the focus of library friendships, and this idea, now that the Association is so large, should be developed. To be a member is to be one of a freemasonry of librarians, pledged to help and forward the work of one another. It is not in the conference rooms alone, where we listen, not always completely awake, to papers not always eloquent or cleverly read, that we gain most, although no one would discount these; it is in the hotels and boarding houses and restaurants, over dinner tables and in the easy chairs of the lounges, that we draw out really useful business information. In short, shop is the subject‐matter of conference conversation, and only misanthropic curmudgeons think otherwise.

Much has been written about manufacturing strategy and its role in supporting firms in achieving competitive advantage in the marketplace. However, little is available on the process of manufacturing objective deployment, that is, on how to translate a given objective into the choice of action plans. There is a lack of methods to assist managers in identifying the range of alternative actions prior to arriving at a final decision. To address this gap, this paper revisits Burbidge’s connectance model and explains how the concept could be utilised as a tool for manufacturing improvement action plan selection. A software tool, tool for action plan selection was developed based on the concept and tested in a number of industrial case studies. This paper concludes by discussing the implication of this work for managers and academics.

This paper aims to describe an interactive action planning software tool (TAPS) for manufacturing objective deployment, and to report the results of its application in five companies.

A process approach based on action research was adopted in this research. Under this approach, a series of four to five workshops were conducted in each company. Each workshop took half a day and involved a multi‐disciplinary team of four to six managers. Besides direct observation in the workshops, a structured questionnaire was also used to elicit managers' feedback at the end of each workshop.

The TAPS approach (integration of Burbidge's connectance concept and the analytic hierarchy process) helps managers to visualise and represent their perceptions of the relationships between variables and objectives through a sequential, analytical process. Results from the case studies indicate that TAPS provides the following benefits to managers: it improves collective understanding, reduces the complexity of strategy deployment into manageable steps, facilitates discussion, and manages organizational knowledge.

The research is so far limited to application in five case studies. Future research will involve further cases and improvements to the usability of the software tool.

For practitioners, the paper provides them with an interactive software tool (TAPS) for effective strategic action planning. For academics, this paper provides an approach for researching strategy deployment, and a potential classroom teaching tool for operations management.

THE following list of contracts placed by the Department (luring April is extracted from the May issue of The Ministry of Labour Gazette:—

This paper describes a longitudinal picture of manufacturing strategy called a strategy chart. It begins with a summary of the research methodology used to develop and test the picture in live situations. Next, the chart and its role within an overall manufacturing strategy process are described. Case examples are then used to illustrate practical outcomes of a longitudinal viewpoint in two areas; first, to increase the awareness of a firm′s strategy making process and, second, to make strategies more explicit than previous methods. The method produces a rich picture that appears useful for reviewing the coherence between manufacturing and business strategy; showing strategy as concrete actions as well as objectives and plans; for providing insight into the firm′s realised strategy and its strategy process; and as a strategy communication tool which may make strategies more credible.