General Information Pages

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General		Easy Guides
Investing in the future Articles on the critical investments that you will need to make in the future. Read it now to be prepared for your next investment. This is not dry financial stuff but information on the investment needed for manufacturing today. Part 1: Introduction Part 2: Machinery - Plant & Equipment Part 3: Materials - Products Part 4: Methods - Procedures and Processes Part 5: Manpower - People Part 6: Measures - Performance		Easy Guides Simple guides on topics of interest to managers and engineers. This is practical information about a range of topics - to act as a memory aid, a simple checklist or a very basic introduction. Making a project - An easy guide The Internet and World Wide Web - An easy guide Overhead Cost Management - An easy guide Overhead Cost Hit List - Things to do Next! Materials Cost Management - An easy guide Materials Costs Hit List - Things to do Next! The problem solving toolkit - An easy guide Managing your boss - An easy guide Set-up Time Reduction - An easy guide Report writing - An easy guide Grammatical Checklist - An easy guide Effective recruitment - An easy guide Plastics Processing Methods - An easy guide Metric System and Conversion Factors - An easy guide Three Letter Acronyms - An easy guide

Managing Quality Articles on how to implement ISO 9002 in a small factory. The series follows a window fabricator but is equally applicable to any type of factory. Part 1: An introduction to ISO 9000 Part 2: The requirements of ISO 9002 Part 3: The procedures (Section 1) Part 4: The procedures (Section 2) Part 5: The procedures (Section 3) Part 6: The procedures (Section 4) Part 7: The procedures (Section 5)

Managing Costs Articles designed to give you direct and clear information on some ways of looking cost information and some ideas for managing them. The series has been written specifically for plastics processors but most of the information is equally relevant to general business. Part 1 - Introduction Part 2 - Overhead costs Part 3 - Materials costs

Material Futures A series of articles on the possible new materials for the manufacture of window frames. Part 1 - The Way Behind Part 2 - The Way Ahead Part 3 - The New Composites (1) Part 4 - The New Composites (2)

Mediation
Replacement Windows and Planning Law
The Cluetrain Manifesto
New Business Rules
Reducing Inventory for Fun and Profit

The Manager's Toolkit A series of articles on new techniques for solving the problems that face modern managers. Part 1 - The Basics Part 2 - Looking after your vitals Part 3 - Charting the progress Part 4 - Scattering the problem Part 5 - Go with the flow Part 6 - Plotting for success Part 7 - Studying capability Part 8 - Mapping the mind

Market Developments The fabricator The systems supplier It's all relative The Valley of Death The Rise of the Clones
Manufacturing Strategy A series of articles for production managers in window fabrication outlining the new opportunities for manufacturing systems. Part 1: Setting the strategy Part 2: The systems and MRP II Part 3: Just in time (1) Part 4: Just in time (2) Part 5: Just in time (3) Part 6: Optimised Production Technology (OPT) Part 7: A fundamental quality Part 8: Quality management techniques & tools Part 9: �There's no accounting for manufacturing strategy� Part 10: Performance measurement Part 11: Changing roles and things to do NOW!