Highlights – April 2017

High costs of production and labor, combined with high rates of technological change, often cause manufacturers in developed countries to take their production offshore to lower-cost sources.

But research recently published in the Journal of Operations Management finds that a production system called “Seru,” which is used by the electronics industry, creates an exception to this trend.

“Seru” is a cellular assembly approach. The system, used by companies including Canon and Sony, offers promise for manufacturing in dyna.....