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Supply chains can improve their performance by developing competitive priorities in a specified sequence: quality, reliability, flexibility, agility, and finally, cost efficiency. This paper extends Ferdows and De Meyer's (1990) sand cone model and Vokurka and Fliedner's (1998) sand cone model extension incorporating agility to supply chain management priorities. This work provides a framework for a cumulative and sustainable improvement process by which supply chains can build a strategic competitive advantage.

The concept of dependability of a product has been successfully applied in the military and associated industries and also in the special high technology industries. Today, a need has been recognized for introducing this concept into other industrial branches together with the application of the IEC 300 and ISO 9000 series of standards. Introduces a generalized definition of dependability, based on: a set of attributes of a product; processes of appearance and removal of failures; and direct correlation with the concept of the quality of a product. Furthermore, gives a description of the IEC 300 series of standards on dependability and its correlation with the ISO 9000 series. Underlines the need for implementation of the existing documents of both series of standards and some desirable improvements of these documents.

Today, to improve productivity in manufacturing, one has a large variety of improvement programmes at one′s disposal. Zero defects, value analysis, just‐in‐time, manufacturing lead time reduction are just a few of a long list of potential action programmes. Their real impact is not always clearly described, and manufacturing managers often have to start implementation on a basis of belief. In this article we use the database of the European Manufacturing Futures Survey to explore some of the medium‐term effects of these improvement programmes on manufacturing performance. The conclusions show that there are no simple cause‐effect relationships between single improvement programmes and manufacturing performance. Tenacity in implementation is required since some programmes have negative effects in the short term, but can have positive effects in the long term.

Presents a model that hypothesizes relationships between logistical complexity and both the importance of JIT manufacturing and the most appropriate organization structure for implementing JIT manufacturing. Logistical complexity can be defined in terms of the number of manufacturing steps or the number of different part numbers handled in a factory. Hypothesizes that the greater a factory′s logistical complexity, the greater the importance of JIT manufacturing and the greater the interdependences between different manufacturing steps and people and thus the greater the need for co‐ordinating mechanisms.

The purpose of this paper is to describe an information logistic framework for continuous dependability improvement that is applied within Sweden to improve the operational availability performance of the railway system.

The applied study approach is a case study of the Swedish iron ore transports, described from the perspectives of the infrastructure manager and the operator of the rolling stock. Qualitative data were collected through interviews, workshops and document studies, while quantitative data were collected through databases. As a framework for analysis, international standards within the dependability area were applied. Finally, the conclusions of the study were verified by key informants.

Information logistics provides methodologies and technologies to support continuous dependability improvement through monitoring of the operational availability performance and its included aspects of reliability performance, maintainability performance and maintenance support performance.

The operational availability performance of technical systems is crucial to provide a quality of services that fulfils the requirements of stakeholders. Hence, continuous dependability improvement is necessary to keep pace with increasing stakeholder requirements and ongoing system degradation to enable stakeholder satisfaction. The framework is based on best practices and international standards.

The proposed framework includes an integration of methodologies and technologies from the information technology and dependability management areas that considers both railway infrastructure and rolling stock.

Historically, US firms have increased production volumes to gain economies of scale and operating efficiencies. Quality, dependability, and flexibility have more recently become competitive weapons. In today’s dynamic, global marketplace, some have suggested that the next competitive dimension will be agility. Current research suggests cumulative and lasting improvements of strategic capabilities can be achieved if they are developed in a specific sequence. This paper reviews the historical competitive environment and changes in strategic responses; reviews relevant research on competitive capabilities and suggested trade‐offs in these capabilities; and offers a model which suggests how firms may build cumulative and lasting improvements in strategic competitive capabilities including agility.

The purpose of this paper is to review maintenance strategies within the healthcare domain and to discuss practical needs as gaps between research and practice.

The paper systematically categorizes the published literature on clinical maintenance optimization and then synthesizes it methodically.

This study highlights the significant issues relevant to the application of dependability analysis in healthcare maintenance, including the quantitative and qualitative criteria taken into account, data collection techniques and applied approaches to find the solution. Within each category, the gaps and further research needs have been discussed with respect to both an academic and industrial perspective.

It is worth mentioning that medical devices are becoming more and more numerous, various and complex. Although, they are often affected by environmental disturbances, sharp technological development, stochastic and uncertain nature of operations and degradation and the integrity and interoperability of the supportability system, the associated practices related to asset management and maintenance in healthcare are still lacking. Therefore, the literature review of applied based research on maintenance subject is necessary to reveal the holistic issues and interrelationships of what has been published as categorized specific topics.

The paper presents a comprehensive review that will be useful to understand the maintenance problem and solution space within the healthcare context.

The purpose of this paper is to present a successful implementation of a comprehensive workload control (WLC) concept; and to describe the associated implementation process.

Longitudinal action research using a contingency‐based approach to ensure alignment between the case company and the characteristics of the WLC approach; and the resulting expected improvements in performance. A set of 17 issues and responses from the literature is used as a checklist for implementing WLC.

Performance improvements include: reduced lead times; significant improvement in lateness and tardiness; reduced costs; improved internal and external co‐ordination; and higher quality. The relevance of 15 of the 17 implementation issues is confirmed along with the same response as in previous research for ten issues and an improved response for five issues. In addition, three new issues are identified and addressed.

Dependability was a more important competitive priority in this company than speed; and, therefore, the ability of WLC to reduce lead times was not fully assessed.

The importance of a contingency‐based approach to production planning and control is confirmed. Comprehensive WLC approaches are closely aligned with the high‐variety/low‐volume context of make‐to‐order (MTO) companies.

This is the first paper that empirically demonstrates performance improvements resulting from WLC alongside a detailed discussion of the implementation process. Few examples of successful implementations have been published previously, and these tend to treat the implementation process as a “black box”. Where more detail on the implementation process has been given in previous studies, evidence of effectiveness in practice was not provided.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the manufacturer‐supplier collaboration (MSC) types in the automotive industry and factors that affect such collaboration.

The unit of analysis is 1st tier suppliers registered with Hyundai‐KIA Motors Corporation (HKMC); a survey was conducted targeting these 1st tier suppliers. Then, hypotheses were tested using a hierarchical multiple regression analysis.

First, five distinct MSC types were identified as follows: collaborative communication, collaboration in new car development, collaborative problem solving, strategic purchasing, and supplier development. Second, contrary to previous studies, suppliers' customer proliferation capability is found to affect MSC positively. Of suppliers' capabilities, flexibility, dependability improvement, module, design, and 2nd tier supplier development/coordination capabilities affect MSC positively. Third, while technology uncertainty is found to have a significant moderating effect on the influence supplier capabilities exercise over collaborative problem solving and strategic purchasing, it has no direct impact on any MSC type.

Sampling is limited to a relatively small number of HKMC's 1st tier suppliers. Of note is that this study examined factors affecting MSC, focusing on supplier capabilities. In terms of methodology, surveys, and interviews were conducted concurrently to ensure reliability of results.

First tier suppliers can review their MSC activities and identify which capabilities they need to develop in order to strengthen their MSC with due consideration of technology uncertainty. Auto manufacturers can also benefit from the empirically tested MSC typologies.

This study not only considered technology uncertainty as a moderator of the impact that supplier capabilities have on MSC, but also improved the understanding of MSC through empirical examination.

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between improvements in information quality and the benefits and performance of e-government organizations. As information quality is multi-dimensional measure, it is very crucial to determine what aspects of it are critical to organizations to help them to devise effective information quality improvement strategies. These strategies are potentially capable of changing government organizational structures and business processes. It examines the nature, direction and strength of the connections between information quality and the success of e-government initiatives. A conceptual model by means of which organizations performance and information quality research can be viewed is proposed and validated in Kuwait.

The study used a quantitative methodology to investigate the causal paths. A cross-sectional survey was completed by 268 employees positioned in the Kuwait Government ministries. Each of the main effect hypotheses was analyzed using stepwise multiple regression with stepwise selection.

It was found that the relationships between information quality and strategic benefits along with institutional value were in upright agreement. Our statistical analysis highlighted that improvement in different aspects of information quality can lead to a better organizational image. Specifically, usability and usefulness attributes of information quality came on the top of the key influencers on both strategic benefits and institutional value.

This is the first study which adequately covers the relationships between information quality and organizations performance in Kuwait. Based on our evaluation, the authors propose a conceptual model to assist in studying the effects of information quality improvement on e-government benefits and performance.