Matthew J. Liberatore Department of Management Villanova University Villanova, PA 19085 1. BACKGROUND The weakening competitive position of many segments of u.s. manufacturing has been analyzed, debated and discussed in corporate boardrooms, academic journals and the popular literature. One result has been a renewed commitment toward improving productivity and quality in the workplace. The drive to reduce manufacturing related costs, while meeting ever-changing customer needs, has led many firms to consider more automated and flexible manufacturing systems. The extent to which these new technologies can support business goals in productivity, quality and flexibility is an especially important issue for manufacturing firms in the u.s. and other Western nations. Problems have arisen in developing performance measures and evaluation criteria which reflect the full range of costs and benefits associated with these technologies. Some would argue that managerial policies and attitudes, and not the shortcomings of the equipment or manufacturing processes, are the major impediments to implementation (Kaplan 1984).

I. Innovation Issues

1. Some Needed Advances in the Evaluation of Technological Advances
2. An Orienting Theory for Implementing Advanced Manufacturing Technologies
3. Industrial Adoption and Use of Programmable Controllers
4. The Intra-Firm Diffusion of Cadcam in the U.K. Mechanical Engineering Industry
II. Methods and Applications
5. A Synthesis of Methods for Evaluating Interrelated Investment Projects
6. A Strategic Evaluation Methodology for Manufacturing Technologies
7. The Dante Model: Dynamic Appraisal of Network Technologies and Equipment
8. The Economic Evaluation of Advanced Manufacturing Technology
III. Performance Measurement
9. Performance Measurement and Product Costing in the AMT Environment: A Literature Review
10. Cost Control and Performance Measurement: A Problem Diagnosis and Some Recommendations for the New Manufacturing Environment
11. Management Accounting and the Adoption of Flexible Automation
12. Managing the Flexibility of Flexible Manufacturing Systems for Competitive Edge
13. On an Economic Measure of Super-Flexibility in an Uncertain Environment
List of Referees.