Manufacturing strategy

New market demands and new technology point to the need to include production as an integral part of corporate strategy. This paper first presents a method for defining the role of production during a constructive dialogue with parts of the firm. Development of a production strategy is seen as a parallel determination of strategies for (i) production technology, (ii) plant lay-out, (iii) production planning and control and (iv) organization. Finally, the paper discusses practical applications and results achieved in a number of Danish firms.     

Accommodation and Homelessness on Release from Prison

Summary This paper presents some of the results of a Home Office sponsoredresearch project in which men discharged from prison were interviewedbefore and after release. The findings compare pre-arrest andpost-release accommodation and demonstrate than many men arelikely to be in poorer accommodation after release than theywere before arrest.     

Using written agreements with families

SUMMARY. The notion of contracts in work between professionals and clients is not new, but their use remains patchy and little researched. This paper highlights the growing interest in written agreements. It describes their use in two American and several British child care projects and sets out some criteria against which to judge whether agreements are likely to be viewed positively by family members     

RESPONSE RATES AND RESPONSE CONTENT IN MAIL VERSUS FACE-TO-FACE SURVEYS

Two surveys were administered based on the same area probabilitysampling frame and with some of the same questions: one samplewas used for hour-long face-to-face interviewing in the 1992Detroit Area Study; the other sample received a much shorterquestionnaire in the mail for sell-administration. The samplesegments had previously been stratified in terms of the percentagethat was black. For the predominantly white stratum, there wasonly a small difference in response rates due to mode of administration.For the predominantly black stratum, the mail survey obtaineda considerably lower response rate then the face-to-face survey.Within the predominantly white stratum, there were no cleardifferences between results for the two modes of administrationin demographic variables or in gross housing characteristics.However, the mail survey respondents expressed more negativeattitudes toward racial integration and affirmative action thandid the face-to-face respondents. Because the mail sample ofthe predominantly black stratum was small, it was not possibleto carry out similar analyses of demographic or attitudinaldifferences, or to determine whether its lower response ratewas due mainly to race, to correlates of race such as incomeor education, or even to problems with mail delivery in centralcities.