Manufacturing in Transition

The future of British manufacturing is of immense importance and topicality. As we slide towards a service sector economy based on finance and tourism, it is worth reflecting on whether this is the most appropriate or inevitable scenario. Manufacturing in Transition makes a genuinely interdisciplinary contribution to the debate over the UK's strategy for industrial renewal. Aimed primarily at business, economics and industrial relations students, it looks at the current state of British manufacturing sector within the global economy and asks whether manufacturing matters in the twenty first century. The books explores key issues such as: the chances of renewal * developments in the management and organisation of operations and supply chains * the differences made by Japanese methods This is a timely assessment of the UK's industrial development and makes a major contribution to debates over the industrial strategy and the position of manufacturing within industrialized economies.

Part 1 An appraisal of UK manufacturing; Chapter 1 ::, Rick Delbridge, James Lowe; Chapter 2 Deindustrialization may be bad for your wealth, Michael Kitson, Jonathan Michie; Chapter 3 Are the British bad at flexible manufacturing?, Stephen Ackroyd, Stephen Procter; Chapter 4 An analysis of the performance of Japanese, US and domestic manufacturing firms in the UK electronics/electrical sector, Max Munday, Michael J. Peel; Part 2 Manufacturing management in transition; Chapter 5 The financial impact of 'Japanese' manufacturing methods, Nick Oliver, Gillian Hunter; Chapter 6 Leadership in the front line, Ivor Parry, David Tranfield; Chapter 7 Mature firms in the UK mid-corporate sector, Oswald Jones, Nelson Tang; Chapter 8 Continuity and change in buyer-supplier relations, Mike Bresnen, Carolyn Fowler; Part 3 Policy implications for future development; Chapter 9 Opening Pandora's box, John Lovering; Chapter 10 The political economy of manufacturing change in the regions, Andy Pike, John Tomaney; Chapter 11 Engineering our future again, Ian Glover, Paul Tracey, Wendy Currie; Chapter 12 UK manufacturing in the twenty-first century, Rick Delbridge, Martin Kenney, James Lowe; Chapter 13 Towards an agenda for manufacturing renewal, Rick Delbridge, James Lowe;