Suchergebnisse

Purpose
Assessing the outcome of lean transformation journey has been of interest to both researchers and practitioners. Various qualitative and quantitative assessment methodologies have been proposed in literature to track and measure the degree of leanness attained. The purpose of this paper is to understand the evolution of this leanness assessment literature over different attributes and identify gaps for future research.


Design/methodology/approach
A detailed literature review of peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers addressing leanness assessment was performed. Content analysis methodology involving a four-step process suggested by Mayring (2004) was adopted for this study.


Findings
The number of studies in literature on leanness assessment is low when compared to that in the area of lean implementation. Assessment methodologies developed are of wide range, varying from simple qualitative checklist to complex quantitative mathematical models. Following the trend of lean implementation literature, lean thinking assessment literature is also getting transformed from process-level monitoring to enterprise-level monitoring. Finally, based on this review, a simplified leanness assessment framework is proposed for future validation.


Research limitations/implications
Only peer-reviewed journals and conference papers were analyzed, while excluding the manuals, reports, and white papers from practice. Clustering of leanness assessment literature revealed that future studies in this domain would fall into two major categories, namely manufacturing leanness assessment and service leanness assessment.


Practical implications
Practitioners can use this review study to choose a suitable methodology for assessing the leanness attained in their organization by controlling for the structural attributes identified.


Originality/value
This is the first paper to review the topic "leanness assessment." The review analyzes the entire literature available on leanness assessment to summarize its current status and identify potential future directions.

The first part of the fifteenth session of the General Assembly met at UN Headquarters from September 20 through December 20, 1960, when it was adjourned. The second part of the session was to open on March 7, 1961. At the opening plenary meeting, Mr. Frederick R. Boland (Ireland) was elected President of the session, having obtained 46 votes out of a possible 80. At the same meeting, the Assembly's 864th, the following fourteen countries were admitted to membership in the UN: the Republic of Cameroun, the Togolese Republic, the Malagasy Republic, the Republic of Somalia, the Republic of the Congo (Leopoldville), the Republic of Dahomey, the Republic of the Niger, the Republic of Upper Volta, the Republic of the Ivory Coast, the Republic of Chad, the Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville), the Republic of Gabon, the Central African Republic, and the Republic of Cyprus. At the 876th plenary meeting, the Republics of Senegal and Mali were admitted to membership, as was the Federation of Nigeria at the 893 d meeting, thereby bringing the total membership of the UN to 99. A special report of the Security Council on the subject of the admission to membership of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, considered by the Assembly at its 954th meeting, noted the failure of the Council to recommend Mauritania for admission; the Assembly decided to postpone indefinitely further consideration of the question. At its 895th plenary meeting, the Assembly adopted by a vote of 42 to 34, with 22 abstentions, the recomementation contained in the report of the General Committee that the Assembly reject the request of the Soviet Union for the inclusion in its agenda of the question of the representation of China in the UN, and decided not to consider at its fifteenth session any proposals to exclude the representatives of the government of the Republic of China (Nationalist) or to seat representatives of the government of the People's Republic of China (Communist). With regard to the representation in the UN of the Congo (Leopoldville), the General Assembly, at its 924th meeting, adopted by 53 votes to 24, with 19 abstentions, the draft resolution recommended by the Credentials Committee in its report; the Assembly thereby accepted the credentials issued by the head of state (President Joseph Kasavubu) and communicated by him to the President of the Assembly.

As an introduction to the Journal's literary feature, this contribution aims to shed light on recent scholarship on Palestinian literature with a view to integrating discussions of literature more concretely within the broader field of Palestine studies. The contribution structures the discussion of the articles by Amal Eqeiq and Nora Parr around three enigmas that preoccupy scholars of Palestinian literature: writing a national literature without a nation-state, writing silence and nonlinearity, and writing fragmentation and wholeness. It highlights that challenges for scholarship on Palestinian literature revolve around rethinking conventional categorizations, canonizations, and periodizations to better understand how a national literature emerged in a context of exile, fragmentation, and statelessness, and how processes of cultural production operate in extranational conditions.

The General Assembly held its seventeenth session, comprising the II22nd–I202nd plenary meetings, at UN Headquarters from September 18 through December 20, 1962, during which time it took action on 95 items. The Assembly decided to convene a special session prior to June 30, 1963, for the purpose of considering the financial situation of the Organization. Six countries were admitted to membership during the session: at the II22nd meeting, Rwanda, Burundi, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago; at the II46th meeting, Algeria; and at the II58th meeting, Uganda. The membership of the UN was thereby brought to IIO.

Fourth United Nations Technical Assistance Conference: On November 12 and 13, 1953, the Fourth United Nations Technical Assistance Conference was held at United Nations headquarters, with Ernest G. Chauvet (Haiti) serving as president. In a welcoming address Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold stated that since the inception of the expanded program of technical assistance, 3,000 experts had given their services to almost 100 countries and 4,000 fellows had been given training. Not only were 70 governments contributing to the special account, but many countries which did not contribute to this account provided experts or acted as hosts to fellows, he reported.

The seventh regular session of the United Nations General Assembly convened at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on Tuesday, October 14, 1952, to consider an agenda which included, in addition to administrative, legal and financial items, the reports of various organs and agencies of the United Nations, and the continuing problems of Korea, the limitation and reduction of armaments, economic development and the admission of new Members, certain new problems such as the questions of Morocco and Tunisia, minorities in the Union of South Africa and the complaint of violation by Arab states of their obligations under the Charter.

The sixth regular session of the United Nations General Assembly was to convene at the Palais de Chaillot, Paris on Tuesday, November 6, 1951. The agenda included: the report of the Committee of Twelve, the problem of the independence of Korea, the report of the Collective Measures Committee, items on China, Palestine, the treatment of people of Indian origin in the Union of South Africa, the report of the Economic and Social Council, relief and rehabilitation, the draft international covenant on human rights, items concerning trust and non-self-governing territories, administrative and budgetary matters and legal affairs.

On July 10, 1950 the Interim Committee of the General Assembly met to consider the following items: 1) the report of the Subcommittee on International Cooperation in the Political Field; 2) the report of the United Nations Commission for Eritrea; and 3) the study of procedure to delimit the boundaries of the former Italian Colonies. Before these matters could be discussed, however, the committee had to elect a new vice-chairman as Abdur Rahim Khan (Pakistan) had submitted his resignation from that position following his appointment as representative of Pakistan on the United Nations Advisory Council for Libya.

First Special SessionThe first special session of the General Assembly, convened at the request of the United Kingdom to consider the question of Palestine, met in New York from April 28 to May 5, 1947. The original agenda for the session contained only one substantive item, the British proposal for "constituting and instructing a special committee to prepare for consideration of the question of Palestine at the second regular session." To this was added, at the request of the Governments of Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Syria, an additional item: "The termination of the Mandate over Palestine and the declaration of its independence."

Despite an eventful twentieth century highlighted by the rise and fall of socialism and various rebellions against late capitalism, revolution remains aloof from the discourse of literary criticism, in part due to the fashionable concepts of postmodernism. The thesis attempts to bring the very catchword of revolution back to the critical considerations of literary studies through reading three writers, Edmond Jabès, Marguerite Duras and Wong Bik-wan (黃碧雲), attempting to bring them under the same rubric despite their cultural and geographical differences. They are chosen precisely because they explicitly compare their literary endeavors to revolutionary action and, to a certain extent, remain politically active in their personal life. Locating revolution in the context of modernity and modernism as we also do for their works, the thesis argue that, contrary to the dominant academic receptions, it is still possible to conceptualize literary works as a revolutionary and democratic practice which transcends the limits of representative discourses, despite the stagnant political situation of postmodernity and late advanced capitalism, bringing individuality, autonomy and dissidence back to the constitutive part of our community life. The introductory chapter provides overviews of some of the concepts which lay out the relationship between revolution and modernity, and background information on the writers and their academic receptions. Chapter 2 focuses on the narrative aspects of their works, analyzing how the usually private and self-contained practice of reading –often using family union as its conclusion –is forced opened by a certain textual arrangement of events which acknowledges readers as capable of being the receiving end of a contradictory aesthetic experience that cannot be synthesized into a coherent individual response, as summaries of the texts discussed are offered. Chapter 3 explains the various ways by which the writers attempt to liberate the individual from representativity of a given community such as the nation or an ethnicity, so that the same individual can participate in social life in a more individualistic and democratic manner, in which process the readers are also implicated. Chapter 4 compares the social mechanisms of totalitarianism –a modern political phenomenon–to religion and shows how the texts attempt to break through the system under which subjectivity is accrued to a transcendental Other. Chapter 5 tries to pinpoint the social positions, notably children and youth culture, through which hopes of social transformation with a view of a future different from now can be raised, a principle which then fall back upon the writer or the intellectual him-or herself. The current thesis aims to rethink the modern political tradition of revolution and democracy through conceiving literary writing and reading as possible sites of dissidence as well as affirmation of human freedom. ; published_or_final_version ; Comparative Literature ; Master ; Master of Philosophy

Report to the General Assembly: The third report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the UN General Assembly covered the period from July 1, 1958, to June 30, I959. The report noted that the period under consideration had been characterized by the fact that member states had begun to make substantial requests to the Agency for assistance, which the Agency had in fact been able to furnish. Furthermore, the Agency had begun to carry out its regulatory tasks, organize its first meetings, conferences, and symposia, enter upon its own research, and greatly expand the collection and publication of technical information. Whereas on June 30, 1958, membership of IAEA had stood at 66, one year later it stood at 70, Iran, Iraq, the Philippines, and the Sudan having in the meantime deposited instruments of ratification of the Statute. In the broadest terms, according to the report, the production of radioisotopes and their use in industry, agriculture, medicine, and research, and the eventual production of economic nuclear power, under safe and secure conditions, continued to be the main objectives of most of the Agency's work. For the attainment of these aims IAEA had been employing a variety of means, including technical assistance, the diffusion of information, the formulation of regulations and recommendations, the supply of nuclear fuels, the promotion of research reactor development, the elaboration of safeguards, the organization of training courses, and the award of fellowships and research contracts. A notable development was cited as being the completion of the Agency's first supply operation, three tons of natural uranium in metallic form having been supplied to Japan.

The first emergency special session of the General Assembly, summoned by the Secretary-General in the light of the resolution adopted by the Security Council at its 751st meeting on October 31, 1956, was held from November 1 through 10, 1956 (56Ist–563d, 565th, 566th–567th and 572d plenary meetings), under the presidency of His Excellency Ambassador Rudecindo Ortega (Chile). At the opening of the session the representative of France (de Guiringaud) criticized the principal substantive item of the provisional agenda of the session, which was the "question considered by the Security Council at its 749th and 750th meetings held on October 30, 1956". Mr. de Guiringaud stated that in his view it was impossible for the letter of the representative of Egypt to the Security Council to be dealt with by the Assembly, since in the Security Council debate on the Egyptian complaint, no draft resolution had been presented, and consequently no vote had been taken; therefore, no lack of unanimity on the part of the permanent members of the Council had been demonstrated. As to the United States draft resolution considered by the Security Council, Mr. de Guiringaud held that it was within the framework of Chapter VI of the Charter, rather than Chapter VII. Therefore, he concluded, the conditions of the "Uniting for Peace" resolution had not been fulfilled, and he made a complete reservation on behalf of his government as to the convening of the special session of the Assembly and as to the validity of any resolution that might be adopted.