One of the strategic decisions of any organization is decision making about manufacturing strategy. Manufacturing strategy is a perspective distinguishing a company from other present companies in that industry and creates a kind of stability in decisions and gives a special direction to organizational activities. SIR (SUPERIORITY& INFERIORITY Ranking) method and their applications have attracted much attention from academics and practitioners. FSIR proves to be a very useful method for multiple criteria decision making in fuzzy environments, which has found substantial applications in recent years. This paper proposes a FSIR approach based methodology for TOPSIS, which using MILTENBURG Strategy Worksheet in order to analyzing of the status of strategy of the Gas Company. Then formulates the priorities of a fuzzy pair-wise comparison matrix as a linear programming and derives crisp priorities from fuzzy pair-wise comparison matrices Manufacturing levers (Alternatives) are examined and analyzed as the main elements of manufacturing strategy. Also, manufacturing outputs (Criteria are identified that are competitive priorities of production of any organization. Next, using a hybrid approach of FSIR and TOPSIS, alternatives (manufacturing levers) are ranked. So dealing with the selected manufacturing levers and promoting them, an organization makes customers satisfied with the least cost and time.

The dynamics of the processes taking place in an environment, which is rendered in the altered perception of the character of this environment, induces a need to find answers to the following questions: (1) How do managers perceive an environment in the dimensions of stability/ changeability and friendliness/unfriendliness? (2) Is there a correlation between the stability/changeability and friendliness/unfriendliness of an environment, i.e. if an environment is more stable, is it perceived as more friendly, and if an environment is more changeable is it perceived as unfriendly? (3) Does environmental stability/changeability as well as friendliness/unfriendliness exert any influence on organizational effectiveness? In an attempt to answer the above quoted questions, the article’s objective has been defined as a discussion on the interdependencies perceived by managers between an environment’s dimensions of stability/changeability and friendliness/unfriendliness (analysed in terms of institutional categories) and the organizational effectiveness of Polish enterprises. The managers evaluated the legal environment as the least stable. In their opinion, that milieu was also more intimidating than friendly. Concurrently, a technological environment was perceived by the respondents as the most stable and favourable. The results of the effected research allow forming a conclusion concerning the existing correlation between the friendliness and stability of particular categories of an environment, at the same time pointing out to the occurrence of correlations between stability/changeability and friendliness/ unfriendliness of some categories of an environment and the organizational effectiveness of the examined enterprises.

In this article, we review the research state of the bullwhip effect in supply chains with stochastic lead times. We analyze problems arising in a supply chain when lead times are not deterministic. Using real data from a supply chain, we confirm that lead times are stochastic and can be modeled by a sequence of independent identically distributed random variables. This underlines the need to further study supply chains with stochastic lead times and model the behavior of such chains.

Abstract The paper presents an attempt to analyze comparative machinability of two different varieties of nitinol alloy type, or compare the susceptibility of these materials to change the volume, shape and dimension of adopted machining conditions. The machinability of the material can not be fully determined numerically by only one independent factor. Therefore multivariate analysis technique of weighted diagram radar was developed by authors. This technique allowed for the comprehensive identification machinability analyzed varieties of nitinol alloy exclusively on the basis of the specified in literature directional material properties and general recommendations tool manufacturers on the cutting conditions. In the paper the full usefulness of this technique to demonstrate the differences in machinability of different varieties of the same species alloy, without the need for lengthy and cost-intensive experimental trials was presented.

Abstract This article describes results of the survey, which was conducted in the context of investigating the readiness of selected companies in the Czech Republic to implement the principles of Industry 4.0. The main objective of the survey was to analyze the level of a basic knowledge of this topic in enterprises, the existence of appropriate strategies, responsible persons, and the general awareness among employees.

Abstract The objective of the analysis conducted and described in this article was to take a closer perspective of the contemporary research trends that refer to the discipline of technology management. The Author based the analysis on keywords defined by the authors of the publications that refer issues of technology management. Scopus was the database which provided data for the analysis. The Author focused on publications indexed in the selected database in 2011-2016. The resulting database keywords have been ordered and partially aggregated. Based on them, the VOSviewer tool was used to prepare a graphical presentation of frequency and co-occurrence with the rest of the analysed group. The analysis led to an indication of current research trends within the discipline of technology management.