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The purpose of this paper is to theorise and develop seven dimensions (strategic supplier partnership, level of information sharing, quality of information sharing, customer service management, internal lean practices, postponement and total quality management) into a supply chain management (SCM) practices (SCMPs) construct and studies its causal relationship with the conceptualised constructs of supply chain performance (SCP) and manufacturing firms’ performance (MFP). The study also explores the causal relationship between SCP and MFP.

Data were collected through a survey questionnaire responded by 249 Jordanian manufacturing firms. The relationships proposed in the developed theoretical framework were represented through three hypotheses: H1 – there is a significant relationship between SCMPs and SCP; H2 – there is a significant relationship between SCMPs and MFP; and H3 – there is a significant relationship between SCP and MFP. Linear regression, ANOVA and Pearson correlation were used to test the hypotheses. The results were further validated using structural equation modelling.

The results indicate that SCMPs have a positive effect on SCP (H1), which in turn also positively affect MFP (H3). Despite this intermediary positive effect of SCMP on MFP through SCP, the study also suggests that SCMPs have a direct and positive effect on MFP (H2).

This study provides hard evidence indicating that higher levels of SCMPs can lead to enhanced supply chain and firms’ performance. It also provides SC managers of manufacturing firms with a multi-dimensional operational measure of the construct of SCMPs for assessing the comprehensiveness of the SCMPs of their firms.

This study is among the very first SCM researches conducted on the Jordanian manufacturing sector, particularly, in relation to the practices that manufacturing firms in this country need to adopt to make their supply chains a solid competitive vehicle for their development. The results have broader implications for all manufacturing companies, particularly in developing economies where the growth of manufacturing and the development of integrated supply chains are key stages in economic development.

The purpose of this paper is to present a knowledge management (KM) tool which has been designed to support the creation of virtual knowledge sharing networks (KSNs). It is a software‐based application that enables the sharing of knowledge related to the implementation of manufacturing excellence (ME) best practices and improvement tools.

A survey of SMEs was carried out to investigate the implementation of ME best practices. The results indicated that that the main barrier to the implementation of best practices, quality models and improvement tools is a lack of knowledge about these initiatives due to the resource constraints experienced by SMEs. This led to the development of a KM tool to support the creation of virtual networks to enable SMEs to manage improvement projects and share effectively the generated knowledge. The KM tool is currently at the stage of validation and its future implementation is also under consideration.

The KM tool supports the creation of KSNs through an explicit KM approach to share ideas, experiences and knowledge about implementation of best practices and improvement tools; helping SMEs to become more competitive.

This research has demonstrated that is possible to provide a KM tool that is suitable for use by a KSN of SMEs. This approach allows transferring some of the tacit and explicit knowledge generated during the implementation of improvement initiatives into electronic documents for future consultation by KSN members.

The KM tool works not only as an electronic repository for knowledge, but it also drives users to apply and share knowledge through its capability to help managing improvement projects.

This paper presents a practical methodology for developing a process‐based knowledge management system (KMS) for supporting continuous improvement (CI) and asset management.

An action research methodology was used to develop a KMS to support CI in a manufacturing company. The KMS is evaluated through application in the case study company. This methodology ensures a consistent approach to carrying out all improvement initiatives. The final part of the methodology addresses the construction of an intranet‐based knowledge warehouse. This contains several searchable areas such as existing information on assets, new knowledge generated from projects, details of expertise in the business and links to the key business drivers through the corporate intranet.

The KMS is shown to support CI initiatives through the utilization of available data already held within the company's management databases (production, quality and maintenance) including consideration of corporate strategic plans. Process models trigger the application of improvement tools and projects in a true CI environment.

This methodology acknowledges both tacit and explicit knowledge within the company, and it represents an appropriate environment to promote and develop a true learning organization.

The system developed is shown to be flexible and has been implemented in a manufacturing environment. Financial benefits are presented.

The approach used is novel and integrates several areas of IT and process improvement techniques. The resulting methodology is applicable to large and small companies without requiring major IT support facilities. The methodology supports the development of true learning organizations.

Many organisations, particularly SMEs, are reluctant to invest time and money in models to support decision making. Such reluctance could be overcome if a model could be used for several purposes rather than using a traditional “single perspective” model. This requires the development of a “general enterprise model” (GEM), which can be applied to a wide range of problem domains with unlimited scope. Current enterprise modelling frameworks only deal effectively with non‐dynamic modelling issues whilst dynamic modelling issues have traditionally only been addressed at the operational level. Although the majority of research in this area relates to manufacturing companies, the framework for a GEM must be equally applicable to service and public sector organisations. This paper identifies five key design issues that need to be considered when constructing a GEM. A framework for such a GEM is presented based on a “plug and play” methodology and demonstrated by a simple case study.

Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) and process capability (PC) are commonly used and well‐accepted measures of performance in industry. These measures, however, are traditionally applied separately and with different purposes. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between OEE and PC, how they interact and impact each other, and the possible effect that this relationship may have on decision making.

The paper reviews the OEE and PC background. Then, a discrete‐event simulation model of a bottling line is developed. Using the model, a set of experiments are run and the results interpreted using graphical trend and impact analyses.

The paper demonstrates the relationship between OEE and PC and suggests the existence of a “cut‐off point” beyond which improvements in PC have little impact on OEE.

PC uses the capability indices (CI) to help in determining the suitability of a process to meet the required quality standards. Although statistically a Cp/Cpk equal to 1.0 indicates a capable process, the generally accepted minimum value in manufacturing industry is 1.33. The results of this investigation challenge the traditional and prevailing knowledge of considering this value as the best PC target in terms of OEE.

This paper presents a study where the relationship between two highly used measures of manufacturing performance is established. This provides a useful perspective and guide to understand the interaction of different elements of performance and help managers to take better decisions about how to run and improve their processes more efficiently and effectively.

The purpose of this article is to examine the difficulties associated with quality costing and propose a solution based upon the use of knowledge management techniques.

A widely available software tool is used to create a quality costing ontology based upon the prevention appraisal failure classification of quality costs. This ontology is used for the collection, processing, sharing and use of quality cost‐related knowledge. The ontology was evaluated using case study data and compared with conventional approaches to quality costing.

The quality costing ontology is easier and more efficient than conventional quality costing methods. It has greater capability in terms of the analysis and use of quality costing knowledge and overcomes the barriers to quality costing due to poor understanding and awareness.

The quality costing ontology provides a platform for researchers to investigate quality cost behaviour within a well‐structured environment. The use of alternative classifications to prevention appraisal failure in the ontology need to be investigated further.

Traditionally, training and education have been used to rectify poor understanding and awareness of quality costs but with limited success. The quality cost ontology provides an alternative solution that uses knowledge management (KM) technology and is based on information systems.

The authors could find no research or published paper that has discussed the role of KM in quality costing.

The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on total productive maintenance (TPM) implementation practice to present an overview of TPM implementation practices adopted by various manufacturing organizations and suggest possible gaps from researchers and practitioner’s point of view. This study tries to identify the best strategy for improving competitiveness of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in globalized market and evaluates TPM implementation practice in SMEs.

The objective of this paper is to study the role of TPM program in context of Indian industries either from SMEs to large-scale industries. The approach has been directed toward justification of TPM implementation practice for its support to competitive manufacturing in the context of Indian manufacturing industries.

TPM implementation improves productivity and working efficiency of employees and also improves equipment effectiveness and a positive inclination toward company is registered. Therefore, equipment maintenance is an indispensable function in a manufacturing enterprise. In this highly competitive environment, manufacturing organizations should consider maintenance function as a potential source for cost savings and competitive advantage. SMEs must be considered as an engine for economic growth all over the world (Singh et al., 2008). A total of 148 papers related to TPM implementation in large-scale industries and SMEs were collected, analyzed and classified on the basis of their applications, broadly into large industry and SMEs and further divided into Indian and Non-Indian, then case study, implementation, model, literature review, maintenance, service, etc. This classification has clearly shows that SMEs are in a need to adopt TPM implementation practice to compete in this global market and changing requirements of large industries. Maintenance is an indispensable function in a manufacturing enterprise. In this highly competitive environment, manufacturing organizations must be considered maintenance function as a potential source for cost savings and competitive advantage. Singh et al. (2008) have concluded that SMEs must be considered as an engine for economic growth of all over the world. Following are the objectives of this study: to suggest a classification of available literature on TPM implementation; to identify the need of TPM implementation in SMEs; to identify critical observations on each category of classification; to identify the potential of SMEs in India; to identify emerging trends of TPM implementation in India; to suggest directions for future researchers in the field of TPM implementation on the basis of above mention points; and to consolidate all available literature on TPM implementation practice.

The challenges of stiff competition and the drive for profits are forcing the organizations to implement various productivity improvement efforts to meet the challenges posed by ever-changing market demands. In the dynamic and highly challenging environment, reliable manufacturing equipment is regarded as the major contributor to the performance and profitability of manufacturing systems.

In this dynamic world, importance of SMEs in the growth of the nation needs more attention of researchers and industrialists. After the globalization of market, SMEs have got many opportunities to work in integration with large-scale organizations. All the organizations from SMEs to large-scale industries can adopt effective and efficient maintenance strategies such as condition-based maintenance, reliability-centered maintenance and TPM over the traditional firefighting reactive maintenance approaches (Sharma et al., 2005).

In our view, this paper clearly identifies implications for research which will be useful for society. The gap discussed by authors needs to be addressed by future researchers.

This implementation strategy can help to save huge amounts of time, money and other useful resources in dealing with reliability, availability, maintainability and performance issues. On the basis of available literature, it can be understood that SMEs should change their maintenance strategies to cope up with global competition so that a lot of resources can be utilized in a better direction.

Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) is a metric for estimating equipment effectiveness of the industrial systems. The purpose of this paper is to identify maintenance improvement potentials using an OEE assessment within the croissant production line.

The present work is carried out by analyzing the failure and repair data of the line. The failure data cover a period of 15 months. During this period the croissant production line usually operates over the entire day (24 h per day) in three 8-h shifts per day, and pauses at the weekends. Descriptive statistics of the failure and repair data for the line based on scheduled and unscheduled interruptions were carried. Moreover, the actual availability (A), performance efficiency (PE) and quality rate (Q) measures, together with the complete OEE for each working day for the croissant production line, were shown.

The main objectives are to understand the operation management of the croissant production line, and to measure the OEE characteristics in precise quantitative terms. OEE analysis can help the company to identify the primary problems concerning the A, PE and Q and acts immediately.

This paper presents a successful evaluation of OEE which will provide a useful guide to aspects of the production process, which identifies the critical points of the line that require further improvement through effective maintenance strategy (i.e. total productive maintenance). Moreover, the analysis provides a useful perspective and helps managers and engineers make better decisions on how to improve manufacturing productivity and quality.

As overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) is a metric to estimate equipment effectiveness of production systems, the purpose of this paper is to identify strategic management tools and techniques based on OEE assessment of the ice cream production line.

This paper presents the collection and the analysis of data for ice cream production under real working conditions. The data cover a period of eight months. A framework process to improve the OEE of an automated production system was proposed. Six major stoppage losses, i.e. equipment failure, setup and adjustment, idling and minor stoppage, reduced speed, defects in the process, and reduced yield, were examined with the help of Pareto analysis. In addition, the actual availability (A), performance efficiency (PΕ) and quality rate (QR) measures, together with the complete OEE for each working day, week and month of the production line were shown.

The main goal of the study is to identify major stoppage losses, in order to examine and improve the overall equipment efficiency (OEE) of the ice cream production line through the application of an adequate management, i.e. TPM approach. Based on the obtained results, maintenance management strategy and production planning have been suggested to improve their maintenance procedures and the productivity as well.

The proposed method can be applied to each automated production system. The main benefits of this method are the improvement of productivity, quality enhancement of products, the reduction of sudden breakdowns and the cost of maintenance. Moreover, the analysis provides a useful perspective and helps managers/engineers make better decisions on the operations management of the line, and suggestions for improvement were proposed and will be implemented accordingly.