The Encyclopedia of Production and Manufacturing Management is an encyclopedia that has been developed to serve this field as the fundamental reference work. Over the past twenty years, the field of production and operations management has grown more rapidly than ever and consequently its boundaries have been stretched in all directions. For example, in the last two decades, production and manufacturing management absorbed in rapid succession several new production management concepts: manufacturing strategy, focused factory, just-in-time manufacturing, concurrent engineering, total quality management, supply chain management, flexible manufacturing systems, lean production, mass customization, and more. It is clear that with the increasing globalizationof manufacturing, the field will continue to expand. This expositive growth makes the need for this volume abundantly clear. The Encyclopedia's audience is a technically diverse one. It includes anyone concerned with manufacturing...