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Changes in business environment are leading firms to adopt a new production model called agile manufacturing. This term moves away from the traditional mass production paradigm and focuses on manufacturing highly customised products when customers require them. In this paper, we present an initial approach to agile organisation based on case studies in an Iranian industrial organisation. An agile organisation conceptual model has been drawn up, based on the conclusions of the case study. The study presented here is of an exploratory factor analysis and the conclusions are drawn through path analysis, propose possible routes for future research in the field of agile organisation. By the definition of effective factor on organisation agility, as independent variables required information were compiled through questionnaires which are about an Iranian industrial organisation, and then direct and in-direct effects of the variables on organisation agility were surveyed as a depended variable by the path analysis method. Interior variables which directly affect on organisation agility are distinguished from exterior variables which indirectly affect on it due to t-value indicator and final model of path analysis which were defined for researched organisation. By this method, with partial standardised regression coefficient, the priority and grade of every independent variable could be defined based on effecting depended variable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental degradation due to economic activities is a key challenge facing sustainable development. The fossil fuel production sector is a very polluting industry. In this research, the future trends of pollution accumulation in the region due to direct/indirect oily discharge into the semi-enclosed area of the Persian Gulf are studied. The purpose of the study was not only to alert policy-makers about potential future threats in the region but also to conduct a trial to develop potential solutions to these problems. Four different environmental cases were studied via the principle of system dynamic modeling simulation. The cases consisted of three situations: relaxed, simple policy, and restricted policies. The results show that a rational environmental policy imposing penalties on producing firms is very effective in mitigating environmental pollution. However, while these penalties are not powerful enough to discourage or reduce the highly profitable oil production in the region, they may prevent the disposal of pollutants harmful to the marine environment to some degree. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]