The Factory Voice

The Factory Voice
Author: Jeanette Lynes
Publisher: Coteau Books
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2009-05-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1550505912

The lives and dreams of four vital, engaging, women revolve around mysterious events at a Fort William military aircraft factory in 1941. Loyalty and betrayal, love and worthiness, friendship and ambition are the themes which connect the characters in this lively, quirky, fast-paced novel. Wrapped around the stories of these four women, is a mystery. Something’s gone wrong with the Mosquitoes being built for the war effort - they keep crashing in flight tests, for no apparent reason. Is the problem with their design, or are they being sabotaged? By whom? The traitorous Red Finns? The political subversives who have recently escaped from one of the nearby prison camps? Everyone’s on high alert and “The Factory Voice” keeps abreast of the details or at least the rumours. Rich with forties language and imagery, especially the sights and sounds of an assembly plant, The Factory Voice is a quirky, light-hearted mystery about the daily lives of factory workers and in particular of women in a time of transition, both for their personal lives and for the society in general.

The Factory

The Factory
Author: Hiroko Oyamada
Publisher: New Directions Publishing
Total Pages: 59
Release: 2019-10-29
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 081122886X

The English-language debut of Hiroko Oyamada—one of the most powerfully strange young voices in Japan The English-language debut of one of Japan's most exciting new writers, The Factory follows three workers at a sprawling industrial factory. Each worker focuses intently on the specific task they've been assigned: one shreds paper, one proofreads documents, and another studies the moss growing all over the expansive grounds. But their lives slowly become governed by their work—days take on a strange logic and momentum, and little by little, the margins of reality seem to be dissolving: Where does the factory end and the rest of the world begin? What's going on with the strange animals here? And after a while—it could be weeks or years—the three workers struggle to answer the most basic question: What am I doing here? With hints of Kafka and unexpected moments of creeping humor, The Factory casts a vivid—and sometimes surreal—portrait of the absurdity and meaninglessness of the modern workplace.

Factory Girls

Factory Girls
Author: Leslie T. Chang
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 450
Release: 2009-08-04
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0385520182

An eye-opening and previously untold story, Factory Girls is the first look into the everyday lives of the migrant factory population in China. China has 130 million migrant workers—the largest migration in human history. In Factory Girls, Leslie T. Chang, a former correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Beijing, tells the story of these workers primarily through the lives of two young women, whom she follows over the course of three years as they attempt to rise from the assembly lines of Dongguan, an industrial city in China’s Pearl River Delta. As she tracks their lives, Chang paints a never-before-seen picture of migrant life—a world where nearly everyone is under thirty; where you can lose your boyfriend and your friends with the loss of a mobile phone; where a few computer or English lessons can catapult you into a completely different social class. Chang takes us inside a sneaker factory so large that it has its own hospital, movie theater, and fire department; to posh karaoke bars that are fronts for prostitution; to makeshift English classes where students shave their heads in monklike devotion and sit day after day in front of machines watching English words flash by; and back to a farming village for the Chinese New Year, revealing the poverty and idleness of rural life that drive young girls to leave home in the first place. Throughout this riveting portrait, Chang also interweaves the story of her own family’s migrations, within China and to the West, providing historical and personal frames of reference for her investigation. A book of global significance that provides new insight into China, Factory Girls demonstrates how the mass movement from rural villages to cities is remaking individual lives and transforming Chinese society, much as immigration to America’s shores remade our own country a century ago.

Factory Man

Factory Man
Author: Beth Macy
Publisher: Little, Brown
Total Pages: 469
Release: 2014-07-15
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0316231568

The instant New York Times bestseller about one man's battle to save hundreds of jobs by demonstrating the greatness of American business. The Bassett Furniture Company was once the world's biggest wood furniture manufacturer. Run by the same powerful Virginia family for generations, it was also the center of life in Bassett, Virginia. But beginning in the 1980s, the first waves of Asian competition hit, and ultimately Bassett was forced to send its production overseas. One man fought back: John Bassett III, a shrewd and determined third-generation factory man, now chairman of Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Co, which employs more than 700 Virginians and has sales of more than $90 million. In Factory Man, Beth Macy brings to life Bassett's deeply personal furniture and family story, along with a host of characters from an industry that was as cutthroat as it was colorful. As she shows how he uses legal maneuvers, factory efficiencies, and sheer grit and cunning to save hundreds of jobs, she also reveals the truth about modern industry in America.

Voices in the Evening

Voices in the Evening
Author: Natalia Ginzburg
Publisher: New Directions Publishing
Total Pages: 119
Release: 2021-05-04
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0811231011

From one of Italy’s greatest writers, a stunning novel “filled with shimmering, risky, darting observation” (Colm Tóibín) After WWII, a small Italian town struggles to emerge from under the thumb of Fascism. With wit, tenderness, and irony, Elsa, the novel’s narrator, weaves a rich tapestry of provincial Italian life: two generations of neighbors and relatives, their gossip and shattered dreams, their heartbreaks and struggles to find happiness. Elsa wants to imagine a future for herself, free from the expectations and burdens of her town’s history, but the weight of the past will always prove unbearable, insistently posing the question: “Why has everything been ruined?”

Voices from the Factory Floor

Voices from the Factory Floor
Author: Catrin Stevens
Publisher: Amberley Publishing Limited
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2017-02-15
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 144564973X

Catrin Stevens explores the experiences of women in Wales' post-war manufacturing industry.

The Covenant of Wickersham Hollow

The Covenant of Wickersham Hollow
Author: Thomas A. Bradley
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2015-12-15
Genre:
ISBN: 9781522787709

Wickersham Hollow holds the dark secret of a deal made in hell, a deal made on Halloween night in 1697. The secret is kept within a house - a house with a will of its own, a house long empty of living souls - a house with a heart of pure evil. Sequestered within that house, within its walls and hallways, is the memory of a covenant, a pact born of a man's lust for the body and soul a young woman. A pact forged in witchcraft by Torrance Wickersham, the founder of Wickersham Hollow. Now, three hundred years later, led by Tommy Vorland, seven teenagers (Henry Travis, Amy Pritchard, Lucy Darrow, Matt Holloway, Janet Egan and Tina Farley), in search of a Halloween night thrill get more than they bargained for, when they make their way into the old Wickersham house and awaken a malevolence that has lain dormant for centuries. Their nightmare begins when they discover that the house has a malicious mind of its own and Lucy is gruesomely murdered by one of its tricks. Things go from bad to hellish when Tommy is beset by a ghostly apparition that drives him insane, leaving Henry and Amy to take charge and find a way to get everyone out. But escape becomes no more than an elusive shadow when Wickersham's spirit once again roams free and turns his lustful desires toward Amy. Now, trapped in a dungeon at the mercy of Wickersham and the demon incubus he summoned, Henry and Amy must prepare themselves for the unthinkable. But this battle is not yet over, as an unexpected ally rises to turn the tide. The spirit of Mother Cassandra, a voodoo priestess who lost her daughter and her life to Wickersham all those years ago, bestows upon the group a gift and a curse - the ability to read each other's thoughts and summon a power none knew they held within. But all gifts come with a price. And when a dark deal is proffered, Henry accepts and is given a way to lead the group to safety. Their nightmare was over.Or was it? Seventy years later, Henry Travis, now eighty-six, discovers that his granddaughter, Annabel, and her husband, Brian, have purchased and renovated the old Wickersham place. He now knows the time has come to unveil its secrets - and his. He also knows that the time has come to honor the deal he made all those years ago. Somehow he must convince Annabel and Brian to abandon that house before it's too late. When his attempts to dissuade them fail and they take possession of the house, the nightmare begins again, and their only hope for survival depends on the reunion of old friends, and the assistance of a descendant of Torrance Wickersham, the only man who know the secret within the secret, and may just hold the key to ending the nightmare once and for all. The questions are: can they summon the courage to go back into that house; are they strong enough to defeat a festering evil that has three hundred years to grow stronger, and are they prepared to face what just might be their last stand?

Freedom Within a Framework

Freedom Within a Framework
Author: Paul G. Cafaro
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 145
Release: 2020-03-12
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0429662998

Freedom Within a Framework: Hearing the Voice of the Customer on the Factory Floor (978-0-367-08577-3, K406714) Shelving Guide: Business and Management/Customer Satisfaction/Quality This book shows you how to harmonize three business functions to address customer needs by using a novel approach that combines Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) and Continuous Improvement tools. The DFSS tool used is the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) process, which is also known as the House of Quality (HOQ). Although these are techniques reserved for the design of new products, the book illustrates how the HOQ helps translate exactly what customers specifically find important about your products. In addition, if customers are experiencing issues with that product, it helps map those issues and prioritizes the Critical to Quality (CTQ) parameters. Because the HOQs tie the Voice of the Customer to CTQs, it continues to connect to the product design and ends with manufacturing process variables. This linkage makes this idea and approach unique. Stopping there may show that there is linkage between the customer and manufacturing process variables, but moving ahead, we must also connect the functions within the business that provides the product. The book helps define the key business function as three large business functions that must work as one cohesive and unified team. These functions are: commercial (sales and marketing), R&D (product properties and services), and operations (product quality). Connecting these functions involves many colleagues, and a very effective communication process among the three is vital for the success of the product and customer satisfaction. Understanding the voice of the customer is paramount—not doing so could lead to product performance issues and loss of market share. In addition, repeated customer dissatisfaction permeates internal workplace culture—employees begin to feel that they are producing products disconnected from end users’ needs and wants.

The Idea Factory

The Idea Factory
Author: Jon Gertner
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 434
Release: 2012-03-15
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1101561084

The definitive history of America’s greatest incubator of innovation and the birthplace of some of the 20th century’s most influential technologies “Filled with colorful characters and inspiring lessons . . . The Idea Factory explores one of the most critical issues of our time: What causes innovation?” —Walter Isaacson, The New York Times Book Review “Compelling . . . Gertner's book offers fascinating evidence for those seeking to understand how a society should best invest its research resources.” —The Wall Street Journal From its beginnings in the 1920s until its demise in the 1980s, Bell Labs-officially, the research and development wing of AT&T-was the biggest, and arguably the best, laboratory for new ideas in the world. From the transistor to the laser, from digital communications to cellular telephony, it's hard to find an aspect of modern life that hasn't been touched by Bell Labs. In The Idea Factory, Jon Gertner traces the origins of some of the twentieth century's most important inventions and delivers a riveting and heretofore untold chapter of American history. At its heart this is a story about the life and work of a small group of brilliant and eccentric men-Mervin Kelly, Bill Shockley, Claude Shannon, John Pierce, and Bill Baker-who spent their careers at Bell Labs. Today, when the drive to invent has become a mantra, Bell Labs offers us a way to enrich our understanding of the challenges and solutions to technological innovation. Here, after all, was where the foundational ideas on the management of innovation were born.