...Kasra Ferdows; Fritz Thurnheer Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce the notion of fitness in production as something different from leanness and show that building fitness puts a factory on a course of developing cumulative capabilities and improving its ability to respond to changing...

... of running parts in a straight line through work stations. © MCB UP Limited 1994 Automation Computer‐integrated manufacturing Factories Flexible manufacturing systems Machine tools Organizational change Productivity Increasing global competition has made many business leaders...

...Jan T. Zantinga Ten factories in Spain (eight non‐Japanese‐owned plants and two Japanese transplants) were evaluated using the Kobayashi 20‐key scoring method on issues such as cleanliness, quick set‐up practices, coupled manufacturing, level production scheduling, quality assurance policies,small...