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Manufacturing organisations are striving towards adapting and responding to the unprecedented challenges posed by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, along with the operations research streams endeavouring to support their recovery. With a view to bridging our knowledge gap on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the manufacturing operations, this paper investigates the key challenges and strategies formulated by manufacturing organisations operating in the Northern region of Cyprus.

The research was conducted through 10 in-depth interviews that analyzed the effects of the pandemic, the associated causes and the response strategies implemented.

The effects of the pandemic on the manufacturing organisations investigated are identified, along with the associated causes, and the response strategies deployed. Learnings and countermeasures implemented to date are established in light of the insights captured from the practitioners.

Contributions are made to the body of knowledge on manufacturing management and manufacturing supply chain resilience through fostering our understanding of the impacts that the pandemic had on manufacturing organisations, and practical contributions are presented through evidencing and transferring of the operations management knowledge and solutions devised in various sectors to date.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between knowledge management and creation of intellectual property within the context of small and medium size manufacturing enterprises.

A hypothesis was formulated and tested using structural equation modelling. Data were collected through an instrument that was developed based on key constructs adapted from the literature and that was first validated using Confirmatory Factor Analysis. A Cronbach’s alpha test was also conducted and the Composite Reliability Index was calculated to ensure reliability of the theoretical model. The instrument was distributed among manufacturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Aguascalientes region of Mexico, from were 125 valid responses were obtained.

In general, the results indicate that knowledge management has positive effects on the creation of intellectual property in manufacturing SMEs. This suggests that SMEs can create more intellectual property if they dedicate more efforts to the management of knowledge.

The implication of this research and its findings may inform the strategies formulated by policy makers, and the managerial practices that manufacturing SMEs can adopt to protect their knowledge.

Evidence suggests that studies focused on investigating the relationship between knowledge and intellectual property are limited. This paper provides a refined understanding of the relationship between knowledge management and intellectual property creation.

The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of operations strategy (cost, quality, flexibility and delivery) and supply chain integration on innovation performance under influence of learning orientation.

Taking a quantitative and deductive approach, a conceptual framework was developed and tested by analyzing data gathered through survey questionnaire from 243 UK manufacturing firms using structural equation modeling.

The findings show that learning orientation influences operations strategy and supply chain integration, but it does not have a direct impact on innovation performance. Additionally, quality and flexibility strategies affect innovation performance and supply chain integration positively, while cost and delivery strategies do not have a significant effect on these variables.

Operations strategy types (cost, quality, flexibility and delivery) were studied as distinct variables, whereas supply chain integration also has several dimensions but that has not been investigated separately in the present research. The findings are also based on limited 243 responses from UK manufacturing firms.

Innovation performance of manufacturing firms can be improved through a more integrated supply chain if managers embody flexibility and quality capabilities in their operations and become learning oriented.

The effect of supply chain integration on innovation performance and learning orientation on supply chain integration and operations strategy types have not been fully explored in literature. Also, having all four operations strategy types in a direct relation to supply chain integration and innovation performance is another original aspect of the current study.

The purpose of this paper is to present a theoretical approach based on the balanced scorecard (BSC) with regard to performance measurement – PM in supply chains for the Industry 4.0 era.

This paper combines the literature of PM and specifically the BSC with the literature related to the dimensions of supply chain in the context of Industry 4.0.

Dimensions extracted from the literature based on supply chains within the context of Industry 4.0 showed a strong alignment with the four perspectives of the BSC, which make it suitable to be considered as a performance measurement system (PMS) for supply chains in this new context.

From theoretical perspective, this study contributes to the limited literature on PM for supply chains in Industry 4.0 era. The study proposes a supply chain 4.0 Scorecard and strongly support researchers to conduct future empirical researches in order to get a deeper understanding about PM in supply chains in the Industry 4.0 era. As limitations, the theoretical framework proposed needs further empirical research in other to validate it and obtain new insights over the investigation conducted and presented into this paper.

Practitioners can use this study as a guide to develop more effective performance measurement systems – PMSs in their organizations.

This research is unique as it addresses a significant knowledge gap related to PM in supply chains in the Industry 4.0 era. It brings a significant contribution in terms of understanding how to measure performance in supply chains in this new era.

To address the critical sustainability challenges currently faced by China, manufacturers in this country have committed to improve their environmental performance. To support this commitment, evidence suggests that Chinese manufacturers have mainly turned to the implementation of environmental management approaches such as ISO 14001, cleaner production, green supply chain management, circular economy and green lean. However, the adoption of other approaches such as total quality environmental management (TQEM) by Chinese manufacturers is less clear. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap by providing light into fundamental issues regarding the implementation of TQEM in the manufacturing sector of China.

A survey-based exploratory study was conducted based on 119 Chinese manufacturing companies, and the data obtained were analysed using a combination of descriptive and inferential statistics.

The results revealed that in general, there is less awareness of TQEM in the Chinese manufacturing sector than other environmental and quality/operations improvement approaches such as green supply chain management, reverse logistics, ISO 9000, Six Sigma and lean Six Sigma. Thus, its degree of implementation is also lower than these approaches as well as ISO 14001. The results also indicate that although a company’s size is not associated with the implementation of TQEM, it is mainly large organisations and those that have adopted TQM those which will be mainly aware and have implemented TQEM. The study also reveals the drivers, results and challenges of TQEM implementation.

The paper extends the currently limited knowledge on TQEM, and its results are beneficial for managers who aim at effectively adopting TQEM to simultaneously improve the environmental, operational and financial performance of their organisations. The paper can also motivate organisations not currently embarked on the “green wagon” to contemplate the benefits that implementing TQEM, or any other environmental management approach, may bring to their operations and business.

This paper aims to explore synergies between lean production (LP) and six sigma principles to propose a lean six sigma (LSS) framework for continuous and incremental improvement in the oil and gas sector. The Three-dimensional LSS framework seeks to provide various combinations about the integration between LP principles, DMAIC (define–measure–analyse–improve–control) cycle and plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle to support operations management needs.

The research method is composed of two main steps: diagnosis of current problems and proposition of a conceptual framework that qualitatively integrates synergistic aspects of LP and six sigma and analysis of the application of the construct through semi-structured interviews with leaders from oil and gas companies to assess and validate the proposed framework.

As a result, a conceptual framework of LSS is developed contemplating the integration of LP and six sigma and providing a systemic and holistic approach to problem-solving through continuous and incremental improvement in the oil and gas sector.

This research is different from previous studies because it integrates LP principles, DMAIC and PDCA cycles into a unique framework that fulfils a specific need of oil and gas sector. It presents a customized LSS framework that guides wastes and cost reduction while enhancing quality and reducing process variability to elevate efficiency in operations management of this sector. This is an original research that presents new and original scientific findings.

This work presents a synthesis of current literature published from 2010 to provide an overall understanding of the sustainable implementation of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) projects in terms of project approaches rather than outcomes.

A comprehensive and validated ten-step model was applied to conduct a scoping review with the following three broad phases: “review planning”, “review execution” and “review reporting”.

The analysis shows that while a few geographically and methodologically broad research studies have been conducted on LSS and green manufacturing integration, no studies have examined organisational culture or conducted readiness assessments on the sustainable implementation of LSS projects in the manufacturing sector.

The present study contributes to existing knowledge by describing the current state of research on green LSS integration. The study also identifies a lack of research on the deployment of sustainable LSS projects for manufacturers. Further empirical analyses that include case studies must be conducted to assess the negative environmental impacts of LSS projects.

This study serves as an initial call for practitioners and research scholars to favour the sustainable deployment of LSS projects in manufacturing alongside the use of traditional approaches with a focus on costs, quality and delivery.

This research studies the development of the evolving dynamic system model and explores the important elements or factors and what detailed attributes are the main influences model in achieving the success of a business, industry and management. It also identifies the real and major differences between static and dynamic business management models and the detailed factors that influence them. Later, this research investigates the benefits/advantages and limitations/disadvantages of some research studies. The studies conducted in this research put more emphasis on the capabilities of system dynamics (SD) in modeling and the ability to measure, analyse and capture problems in business, industry, manufacturing etc.

The research presented in this work is a qualitative research based on a literature review. Publicly available research publications and reports have been used to create a research foundation, identify the research gaps and develop new analyses from the comparative studies. As the literature review progressed, the scope of the literature search was further narrowed down to the development of SD models. Often, references to certain selected literature have been examined to find other relevant literature. To do so, a supporting tool (that connects related articles) provided by Google Scholar, Scopus, and particular journals has been used.

The dynamic business and management model is very different from the static business model in complexity, formality, flexibility, capturing, relationships, advantages, innovation model, new goals, updated information, perspective and problem-solving abilities. The initial approach of a static system was applied in the canvas business model, but further developments can be continued with a dynamic system approach.

Based on this study, which shows that businesses are developing more towards digitalisation, wanting the ability to keep up with the era that is moving so fast and the desire to increase profits, an instrument is needed that can help describe the difficulties of the needs and developments of the future world. This instrument, or tool of SD, is also expected to assist in drawing future models and in building a business with complex variables that can be predicted from the beginning.

This study will contribute to the SD study for many business incubator research studies. Many practical in business incubator management to have a benefit how to achieve the business performance management (BPM) in SD review.

The significant differences between static and dynamics to be used for business research and strategic performance management. This comparative study analyses some SD models from many authors worldwide. Their goals behind their strategic business models and encounter for their respective progress.