In the factory of the future, emphasis on quality and increased productivity creates a competitive advantage. People and computers work together in all major activities. Training is a major factor in creating that competitive advantage. (JOW)

The weak economy of the early 1990s increased the number of displaced workers. Although a disproportionately large share were in the goods-producing industries, displacements were much more widespread across industries than a decade earlier. (Author)

Responses from 135 of 268 plant managers in Minnesota and Wisconsin revealed significant differences in perceived importance of present and future competencies. The present competencies of flexibility, networking, agenda setting, and the technological imperative are not most descriptive of plant managers' jobs and need to be refined. (SK)

Case study of a manufacturing firm that implemented total quality management (TQM) found that the initiative may have failed because the company was undergoing rapid, radical structural change. Other problems included short-term focus, communication problems, and employee concerns about job security. TQM may be more compatible with continuous…

Suggests that continuous improvement tools used in the workplace can be applied to self-improvement. Explains the use of such techniques as one-piece flow, kanban, visual controls, and total productive maintenance. Points out misapplications of these tools and describes the use of fishbone diagrams to diagnose problems. (SK)

The Margin in Life (MIL) Scale and Readiness for Change Scale were completed by 131 manufacturing workers. Overall, MIL predicted readiness for change. Readiness was predicted by employees' personal power, managerial position, and newness to the company. (SK)

A project designed to reduce accidents in sugar factories used metaphors as tools for creative analysis, as ways of creating emotions, and as methods for fostering unconscious learning. When change is the goal, images, stories, narratives, and fairy tales were shown to be more effective than formal conceptual learning. (Contains 32 references.)…

A weakening labor market in 2001 spread manufacturing's downturn into other sectors. Unemployment climbed from the historic lows reached during the recent economic expansion. (Contains 84 notes and references.) (Author/JOW)

A study of 168 small British manufacturing firms showed that, as they moved from single- to double-loop learning, they adopt more formalized organizational learning methods, such as systems for the management and dissemination of knowledge across the work force. (SK)

The Uddevalla Volvo plant represents a different paradigm for automotive assembly. In parallel-flow work, self-managed work groups assemble entire automobiles with comparable productivity as conventional series-flow assembly lines. From the perspective of the demand-control model, operators at the Uddevalla plant have low physical and timing…

The German end-of-life vehicle take-back system is described and analyzed in terms of its impact on the environment and the car companies involved. It is concluded that although this system is often cited as an example of a successful take-back scheme, it is not one that maximizes the value recovered from end-of-life vehicles. As a result,…

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to examine the factors influencing the provision of increased training in Australian manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that have embarked upon different growth development pathways. Design/Methodology/Approach: The longitudinal panel data employed in this research are drawn from the…

Purpose--What is required of job design and production planning, if they are to result in a work group taking a self-starting approach and going beyond what is formally required of it? This paper aims to contribute to group research by testing a theoretical model of relations between job design on the one hand (captured as completeness, demand on…

This guide informs women about the apprenticeship system and how it operates, about apprenticeable occupations, and provides background on the problems that women sometimes encounter in seeking apprenticeships. In the first section, Women and Apprenticeship: An Overview, barriers to women in apprenticeship--such as sex discrimination, inadequate…

Focusing on the occupational clusters of natural resources and manufacturing, this unit entitled "Baking Industry" is one of four grade 2 units which are part of a total set of twenty-seven career development curriculum units for grades K-6. This unit is organized into four sections. Section 1 identifies one career development-centered…