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The product-market strategy is a strategy to select the environment, to determine the relationship between the company and the environment, to mark out the domain of the company activity. There are four areas for product-market strategy, as shown in Figure 4.1.

This paper describes a technique for selecting KEY machined components within two companies operating small-batch, multi-product manufacturing systems. The paper initially describes how computer-assisted modelling was developed at Simon Container Machinery Ltd to identify KEY machined components from a sales forecast for a defined product mix. Data from these components is then used to formulate the specification for new CNC Turning and Machining centres.

This paper discusses STARsCELL, a PC-based simulator for the design and evaluation of flexible manufacturing cell (FMC) flow line systems. As a design tool, STARsCELL aids in determining the ideal number of machines, number and assignment of operators, and the size of inter-workstation buffers. The menu-driven simulator also assists in evaluating the impact on cell performance of Just-in-Time (JIT) factors, changes in product mix and demands, and different user-specified job input sequences. The paper provides numerical results for a gear workcell example to illustrate the effects of various design variables on cell performance. A brief discussion of the development, applications, advantages, and limitations of STARsCELL is also presented.

The recent "crisis" in medical malpractice insurance has many facets, the most publicized of which is the skyrocketing premium required to purchase coverage. Given the dramatic increases in premiums, one would expect that the companies who traditionally have made the market in this subline of insurance would provide more capacity and, at a minimum, resolve any availability problems at the new supply price. However, it is argued in this paper that the opposite result is more likely given two crucial constraints under which the large multiple-line companies operate. The vehicle for the analysis is a corporate financial model that is used to simulate the operation of a composite company over the next several years. The composite company is formed from seven stock insurance companies that wrote over 60 percent of the medical malpractice insurance written in the United States in 1974. Various assumptions are made with respect to loss experience, premium volume, investment returns, and operating constraints, and the model traces out the operation of the company over time given those assumptions. The financial model is used to demonstrate the effects of the conventional wisdom with respect to (1) the ratio of premiums written to policyholders surplus and (2) business mix by line of insurance. Simulations of the model demonstrate and, more importantly, quantify the results one might expect intuitively from constraining the premiums/surplus ratio and product mix of a large multiple-line company actively writing medical malpractice insurance. The primary result is that even under profitable conditions and with a very weak constraint on total premium volume, the company will nevertheless write fewer and fewer malpractice exposure units over time due to the constraint on product mix. In this context, it becomes clear that the availability problem is not resolvable purely in terms of price. Furthermore, the market mechanisms that

Most models of the Soviet firm assume that it produces just one output. These models are unsuited for studying the effects of taut planning on the product mix. The objective of the firm's manager in the present two-product model is to obtain a bonus that is conditional upon the fulfillment of stochastic final targets affected by priorities as well as by the initial target. The main result is that an increase in tautness, i.e., an increase in the targets, has an expansion and a substitution effect. While the former will usually increase output in the desired direction, the latter will deflect it away from the desired mix.

In this article, we present an exploratory research on manufacturing firms' choices of operations improvement strategies. We found that in the subject firms there was significant correlation between learning propensity espoused by managers and their choices of strategies for operations improvement. Relying on empirical data and information, we also identified three primary factors that influenced the process for the managers to form particular learning propensities: infrastructure in the firm, product mix, and top management. The empirical study, albeit bearing only exploratory results, enabled us to propose a tentative conclusion that as more managerial resources and managers' attention were devoted to a particular improvement strategy for which the managers formed a learning propensity, that “way of doing things” became more effective as the intentional experience and substantive investment compatible with the selected strategy accumulated. The enhanced effectiveness of that strategy reinforced the learning propensity, and the improvement process became more induced for the selected strategy. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

This paper focuses on the scheduling problem of minimizing makespan for a given set of jobs in a two-stage hybrid flowshop subject to a product-mix ratio constraint. There are identical parallel machines at the first stage of the hybrid flowshop, while there is a single batch-processing machine at the second stage. Ready times of the jobs (at the first stage) may be different, and a given product-mix ratio of job types should be kept in each batch at the second stage. We present three types of heuristic algorithms: forward scheduling algorithms, backward scheduling algorithms, and iterative algorithms. To evaluate performance of the suggested algorithms, a series of computational experiments are performed on randomly generated test problems and results are reported.

This paper examines the cost implications from hypothetical cross-border bank mergers in the EU in light of recent claims that substantial cost savings could be expected as the result of the EU's Single Market Programme for financial services. In fact, our results suggest only limited opportunities for costs saving from big-bank mergers and indicate that such mergers are more likely to result in an increase in total costs. While there is a large variation in the simulated cost outcomes, the greatest opportunities for cost savings would appear to be generated by mergers between German and Italian banks. In contrast, mergers between French and German banks appear likely to result in substantial cost increases. Although the overall findings suggest limited benefits from cross-border mergers between large banks, this may be a reflection of the methodology. Merger simulations are carried out hypothetically, ignoring any prior information about the pairings. We assume no premiums or merger costs and no further synergies resulting from such things as branch closures or a restructuring of the product mix. These assumptions may cause us to understate the potential reduction in total costs resulting from large bank mergers, and therefore our estimates provide the most pessimistic of total cost reduction outcomes. In conclusion, the substantial variation of cost outcomes generated suggests that large banks seeking economies through cross-border mergers should select potential partners with great care.

近年,日本の各地のワインビジネスにおいて,日本在来の野生ブドウ類の資源を見直し,それらを利用したワイン生産が盛んになっている。本論文では,野生ブドウ栽培種の生産実態を概観するとともに,各ワインビジネスがどのような製品ミックス戦略をとっているか,また,その製品価格の設定がどのような要因によって規定されるかを検討した。製品ミックス戦略の検討においては,ワインビジネスの製品ラインの幅と深さ,価格設定に関するデータを用いて,主成分分析とクラスター分析を適用し,ワインビジネスの製品ミックス戦略の分類を行った。その結果,野生ブドウワインの製品ミックス戦略には,6つのタイプがあり,ワインビジネスの事業戦略に規定されることを明らかにした。価格設定の検討においては,野生ブドウワインの製法やワイン原料の品種の組み合わせに関する特性データと生産地域,製品ミックス戦略のタイプに関するデータを用いて,ヘドニック価格関数を計測し,野生ブドウワイン価格の設定要因を分析した。その結果,ワイン製法や原料品種の組み合わせだけでなく,地域やワインビジネスの製品ミックス戦略のタイプが,野生ブドウワインの価格設定に大きな影響を与えていることを明らかにした。, In recent years, it has become increasingly popular in the wine business around Japan to re-examine resources of wild grape varieties that are indigenous to Japan and produce wine. This paper, while reviewing the realities of such wine production, examines product mix strategies employed in various forms of wine business as well as the factors determining the pricing of products. In the examination of product mix strategies, principal component analysis and cluster analysis are applied by using the data on the width, depth, and pricing of product lines in the wine business in order to classify the product mix strategies in the business. As a result, it is clarified that there are six types of product mix strategies relating to wild grape wine and they are determined by the business strategies of the wine business. In the examination of pricing, formative factors of wild grape wine prices are analyzed by estimating hedonic price functions with the use of property data on production methods and combinations of ingredient varieties in producing wild grape wine as well as the data on production regions and types of product mix strategies. Consequently, it is revealed that the pricing of wild grape wine is greatly influenced not only by production methods or combinations of ingredient varieties but also by regions and the types of product mix strategies in the wine business.

In this paper, models to support the decision-making process for the design of a new shipyard are presented. The first model provides a way of globally assessing the effects various product mixes have on the effectiveness of a yard layout. The second, more detailed model is used to verify the rough results and analyze the effects of fluctuations in the product mix.

It is hardly any surprise, considering the state of the automobile industry, that the tire industry also is in trouble. Last year shipments of passenger tires in the U.S. dropped 10.3% from 1978 to 174 million. Tires made for the replacement market fell 9.8% to 122 million, and original equipment tires (those made for new cars) fell 12.4% to 48 million. In fact, total shipments of passenger tires last year dropped below 1974 levels, when about 175 million passenger tires were shipped. Passenger tires account for about 80% of all tire shipments in the U.S. The picture thus far for 1980 is even more dismal. Through April total shipments of passenger tires were off 22.8% from the first four months of 1979 to 46.8 million. Replacement tire shipments fell 20.5% to 32.2 million, and original equipment tire shipments plummeted 29.5% to 13.2 million from levels of the first four months of 1979. These figures are ...

Olefins plants in Japan were buying naphtha feedstock for about $27 a kiloliter near the end of last year. The current figure is about $40. Ethylene prices have made a corresponding jump—from 6 cents a pound in late autumn to about 8.5 cents at present. For Japanese petrochemicals producers, the oil pinch has arrived. Compounded of restricted supplies and the doubling at year's end of posted prices for Persian Gulf crude, it promises to push prices still higher. Spot purchases of imported naphtha, industry sources tell C&EN in Tokyo, already are being made at close to $67 a kiloliter. (Japan regularly imports about 10% as much naphtha as is produced in domestic refineries.) "It's a good time to be working in a company's planning department," comments one executive in a leading Japanese chemical firm. "The price upheaval that's coming is the perfect chance to make needed changes in product mix and move the chemical companies ...

The Ukrainian Scientific Research Institute of Metals (UkrNIImet) has done much work in recent years with metallurgical plants to expand the range of corrugated sheets that are produced~ Thus, whereas only sheets with a rhombic profile were made at the beginning of the 1970s, there are now more than 20 types and sizes totaling 390,000 tons; 94% of these products are general-use sheets, while 6% are sectoral-useo This product mix has resulted from the needs of different sectors and the technical capabilities of the existing mills.

embodied and/or disembodied -seems to have been more rapid in the 1960's than in the 1950's; and indeed embodied change may perhaps have been accelerating since 1900. Thus the basic assumption underlying this and other studies of embodiment, i.e., for any given country X and it are stable from one decade to another, appears not to be generally valid. If this is so, it may prove impossible in practice to obtain a reliable or indeed any separation of embodied from disembodied improvements.

In practice it is seen that for a given classification of commodities and industries, commodities are produced not only as characteristic or principal products but also as industrial by-products and/or commodity joint products. In other words, industries produce, along with its principal products, principal products of other industries, and output matrix, instead of being identity matrix (as in standard case) becomes rectangular with non-zero off-diagonal elements. On the other hand information on cost structure is available not for individual commodities produced in the economy but for individual industries. Presence of product mix in the industry output matrix thus deprives us of information on input cost structures of individual commodities.

A number of studies have found a positive relation between market share and profitability. Michael Porter argues that this need not hold when small firms find strategic niches protected by mobility barriers. This paper examines that hypothesis by comparing the profitability of large and small lines of business when the activities of the two groups (proxied by the allocation of sales across submarkets) differ on average. The authors find that, in heterogeneous product mix industries, profits of large lines of business are no longer significantly greater than profits of smaller rivals, except that market leaders maintain their advantage regardless of product mix. Copyright 1989 by MIT Press.

Engineering and econometric studies of the ability to substitute energy for capital often give different results. Engineering studies typically show substitution to be normal while many econometric studies show energy and capital to be complements. Berndt and Wood recently [13] attempted a reconciliation by showing that there was no logical conflict between two factors being gross substitutes but net complements. There is an alternative reconciliation based on differing output definitions in the engineering and econometric literatures. In addition, differences between cross-sectional and time-series studies appear to be due to holding different output measures constant. The econometric studies that found substitution were cross-sectional studies comparing either different countries [25; 47] or comparing different U.S. states [3; 27;28]. The work of Field and Grebenstein [19] for physical capital appears to be an exception. In contrast, the studies based on time-series data, whether static models of the U.S. [2; 12; 31] or dynamic models of the U.S. economy [6; 11; 16; 45], a generalized Box-Jenkins function for the U.S. [9], or time series data for the Netherlands [37], show complementarity. The pooled time-series, cross-sectional Canadian data of Fuss [20] and Denny, Fuss, and Waverman [16] do not show a clear pattern. The differences among estimates of energy-capital substitution are large enough to cast grave doubt on the basic hypothesis that elasticities of substitution can be measured econometrically. These results are embarrassing for econometrics, and cry out for explanation. This consistent pattern of opposite answers from cross-sectional and timeseries studies suggests either that different things are being estimated, or systematic biases exist in one or both methodologies. The proposed resolution involves a failure to control for product mix differences, which biases the two methodologies in opposite directions. Energy-capital substitution elasticities will be overestimated in cross-sectional studies. In contrast, a failure to control for product mix (along with other statistical problems) biases time-series studies towards complementarity. Thus, the difference in estimates is argued to be due to biases in opposite directions. A similar problem has been pointed out by Berndt [4] who notes that estimates of capitallabor substitution are much greater for cross-sectional studies than for time-series studies. This will also be argued to be due to failure to control for product mix. The basic points to be made in this paper include

With ongoing improvements in sheet steel, there has long been a need for a new standard of precision in specialty strip. While many of the special properties associated with strip steel are unavailable in sheet, the best domestic and foreign sheet mills can today hold "% standard" thickness tolerances (about ±% of nominal thickness) which are just within the upper limits for specialty strip. This has led to the marketing of "strip steel" which in reality is "slit sheet" or "gage corrected sheet." To establish a new standard of precision, Cold Metal Products Company, Inc., (CMP) required an automatic gage control system which could go well beyond the capabilities of conventional "feedforward-feedback" controls. The goal was to establish a new "CMP standard" at about ±2%% thickness control and to offer "CMP precision" tolerances which would approach ± 1 % of the nominal thickness. To accomplish this, across CMP's very wide product mix, the Vollmer In-Gap Automatic Gage Control System was selected. The heart of the Vollmer system is a pair of in-gap sensors which are inserted into the rolling mill at each end of the work rolls to measure the actual work roll gap during the rolling process (Figure 1). The contact pOints for each sensor are a set of teflon "shoes" which ride on a specially machined cylindrical surface at the end of each work roll. Since these sensors are indirectly measuring strip thickness at the roll bite during rolling at several hundred feet per minute, an extremely rapid correction of any thickness variations is required. This is accomplished by feeding an analog signal from the gap sensors directly to hydraulic "pancake cylinders" which can respond about 5 times faster than

The product-mix problem of production planning is to determine the best quantity of each product to manufacture, over a complete range of products competing for a number of limited resources. This paper examines the problem when uncertainty of demand is a major factor, making any differences between the penalties of over- and under-production important. In these circumstances the basic linear programming technique is insufficient, and a model has been developed as a multi-item newsboy problem in which a number of linear resource constraints affect the decision variables. The formulation is one of linear programming under uncertainty. A marginal analysis approach is used to obtain a detailed insight into the structure of the solution and to develop an effective computational procedure. Very little additional data is required, beyond that needed for a conventional linear program.

Solution of the product mix problem of Linear Programming leads to recommended quantities of various product styles that must be sold if the firm's ideal profit potential, based on productive capacity and market requirements, is to be realized. In practice, management has the task of making day-to-day and hour-to-hour decisions, designed to lead towards the attainable maximum profit. Sometimes, sudden opportunities arise for management to contract for the production of one product style for one customer, with quantities far in excess of those recommended in the L. P. solution. An on-the-spot decision to accept or reject the customer's bid must be made. Indeed, he may still be on the long-distance wire, expecting a response. Statistical control limits will help management in such situations, by showing the extent to which a recommended quantity on any product style may be violated, while still remaining within a predetermined percentage of the plant's ideal profit potential. Without such statistical control limits, management would have to await the outcome of a new L. P. analysis before knowing the effect of accepting or rejecting special bids, such as just described.

In this paper, a method is developed for analyzing the resolution of uncertainty over time for the individual new product and for combinations of existing and new products, or the firm's over-all product mix. Probability concepts are employed, and it is shown that new products can be evaluated according to their marginal impact upon the resolution of the uncertainty pattern for the firm's total product mix. The analysis of this dimension is undertaken within a capital-budgeting framework, allowing a GO or NO decision to be reached for the new product under consideration. Information about when uncertainty is expected to be resolved enables management to evaluate more realistically the effect of a new-product decision on the riskiness of the firm's entire product mix. This knowledge is valuable in planning for new products and in balancing the firm's risk over time. As a result, more rational capital budgeting for new products is possible.