Strategy process in manufacturing SMEs (Small Medium Enterprises)

Strategy process has been widely publicised during the last three decades, but what has been accomplished by strategy management literature in manufacturing small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs)? The application of strategy management in manufacturing SME practices can be seen as posing particular challenges. It is argued in literature that there is a need to understand whether and how managers in manufacturing SMEs have taken up the language and practice of planning, strategic analysis and execution. This research suggests a process and activity based approach to look at the practice of strategy management in SMEs in order to tackle this challenge. This exploratory study based on four comprehensive case studies investigates the strategy stories via exploring key strategic initiatives and activities, how they link together and which strategy tools, methods and techniques are used. This research concludes that a process based approach is useful and valid to understand strategy in SMEs because this view decomposes the process phases into activities which managers are more comfortable to talk through. However, we need to understand SME managers' language around strategising. There is an indication that if we change the language of SME managers, the findings of this study would map onto main stream strategy management theory clearly. It is found that the dynamics of the manufacturing SME strategy process have both emergent and planned dimensions. SME managers execute the strategy process mainly from an informal fashion by holding multiple functions and with limited application of strategy management methods and techniques. At an activity level, SMEs seem to be putting more emphasis on external environmental scanning (customers, suppliers, competitors, universities and lenders) and defining grand strategy and goals. This implies that SME strategy process is characterised by market based orientation, opportunity seeking and strategic awareness rather than resources or core competencies/ capabilities. Although this study's findings may be criticised because they are grounded on four companies, robust dimensions and insights into dynamics of the strategy process in manufacturing SMEs are achieved through saturation among emergent themes in data

Digitally Enhanced Advanced Services: Manufacturing Theme Research Agenda

This report presents the research priorities for the EPSRC funded Digitally Enhanced Advanced Services (DEAS) NetworkPlus in the manufacturing sector. Recent developments in digital technologies make it easy for manufacturers to monitor the use of their products in the field and then offer services based on the capability of their product. These outcome-based services are known as Digitally Enhanced Advanced Services and these have the potential to deliver sustained value for the UK economy

Exact Bayesian curve fitting and signal segmentation.

We consider regression models where the underlying functional relationship between the response and the explanatory variable is modeled as independent linear regressions on disjoint segments. We present an algorithm for perfect simulation from the posterior distribution of such a model, even allowing for an unknown number of segments and an unknown model order for the linear regressions within each segment. The algorithm is simple, can scale well to large data sets, and avoids the problem of diagnosing convergence that is present with Monte Carlo Markov Chain (MCMC) approaches to this problem. We demonstrate our algorithm on standard denoising problems, on a piecewise constant AR model, and on a speech segmentation problem

Innovative Manufacturing Initiative A programme for a more effective construction industry

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:GPE/3981 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Shedding light on manufacturing management Case studies in academic-industrial collaboration

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:GPC/06630 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Review of the Superconductivity Initiative Report of the review panel

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:GPC/05570 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Process engineering Grants current at 1 October 1994

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:GPC/06634 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Review of nuclear physics Report of the Review Panel

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:GPC/08732 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Review of synchrotron radiation science

A summary of the report of the Panel chaired by Professor M.M. WoolfsonAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:q94/19278 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

Chemistry programme Current grants

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:3172.119(1994) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo