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Requests for tests and measuring instruments for use in class assignments and faculty and student research are both familiar and frustrating to most academic librarians. In typical scenarios, an education student wants to measure aggression in children or a nursing student needs a test for patient mobility. Even the faculty member who may know the name of a scale may not know its author or how to obtain a copy. All are looking for a measure applicable to a specific situation and each has come to the library in hopes of walking away with a copy of the measure that day. Those familiar with measurement literature know that accessing measures can be time consuming, circuitous, and sometimes impossible. The standard test reference books, such as the Mental Measurements Yearbook and Tests in Print (both of which are published by the Buros Institute, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska), are of limited use. These books typically do not include actual instruments or noncommercial tests from the journal and report literature. While these standard reference books are essential to a test literature collection, sole use of them would mean bypassing large numbers of instruments developed and published only in articles, reports, papers, and dissertations. Sources are available to locate additional measurements, tests, and instruments, but they are widely dispersed in the print and electronic literature.

Explores a PC‐based multi‐function virtual test and measurement system for automated manufacturing lines. The system includes single and dual channel oscilloscopes, a 50MHz spectrum analyzer, a multifunctional digital voltmeter and a 20MHz digital frequency meter. Outlines the benefits of the system including the availability of high‐performance instruments anywhere there is a PC cost saving and space saving. It also has considerable potential training test and maintenance personnel.

As a way of assessing the ability of organizations to discover and manage unexpected failures in organizational capabilities of knowledge management (KM), this study aims to develop a measurement instrument that involves the five reliability dimensions of preoccupation with failure, reluctance to simplify interpretations, sensitivity to operations, commitment to resilience, and deference to expertise.

To generate measurement items, previous research related to organizational reliability, high reliability theory, mindfulness, and required organizational capabilities of KM was reviewed. The measurement instrument was then verified in terms of reliability and validity, empirically using data from 240 companies in North America. Internal consistency of measurements, measurement item reliability, and construct reliability were examined to ensure the reliability of the instrument. Based on confirmatory factor analysis using structural equation modelling, construct validity was also tested.

The reliability evaluation instrument for KM suggested in this study was constructed with four dimensions, preoccupation with failure in KM, sensitivity to KM operations, commitment to resilience in KM, and deference to expertise. The related measurement items were also identified.

This instrument is useful for researchers and executives looking for appropriate outcomes through the implementation of KM initiatives. Furthermore, the study provides a starting point for further research on KM reliability.

To date, while many of the KM success or failure studies have relied on developing success factors or organizational capability requirements, few studies have been conducted to identify evaluation measures that can assess the cognitive infrastructure that enables simultaneous adaptive learning and provides organizational reliability infrastructure through the management of unwanted, unanticipated, and unexplainable failures in KM-required capabilities.

The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a study aimed at conceptualising and developing valid measurements for two key dimensions of product innovation performance‐efficacy and efficiency – in the context of firm competition.

Data were collected from French biotechnology firms. Using structural equations modeling, the constructs’ measurement models were tested and the scale was validated.

The results of the study indicate that the operational measures developed here satisfy the criteria for unidimensionality, reliability, and validity.

This study contributes to innovation management research by providing a set of valid and reliable operational measures. These measures are expected to help researchers in theory testing. Because of the sample features, final results should be considered with caution.

The proposed measurement scale for product innovation performance could be implemented as an innovation audit tool.

This paper provides a new measurement instrument for product innovation performance.

To develop and test a reliable and valid supplier selection measurement scale that can be applied in different geographic regions, namely, the USA and Europe.

A three‐factor supplier selection measure is developed via extensive literature review and practitioner interviews. Psychometric properties of the survey instrument are evaluated using data from the ISM‐US sample via exploratory factor analysis. Based on the results, the survey instrument is modified and the revised instrument is mailed to a larger sampling group (APICS‐US and APICS‐Europe). Confirmatory factor analysis is used to validate the proposed three‐factor supplier selection construct and to test its validity across national boundaries.

This study demonstrates that underlying the documented supplier selection criteria is the need to assess a supplier's quality and service capabilities as well as its strategic and managerial alignment with the buyer.

Although the research design incorporates extensive literature reviews, it does not capture every aspect of complex supplier selection criteria. Future efforts should establish a valid, reliable instrument for the underlying constructs.

This study provides supply management professionals with guidelines for analysing selection decisions, and also shows that the underlying dimensions of supplier selection are applicable for both US and European firms.

This study contributes to the literature by answering the following two questions: what exactly constitutes effective supplier selection and what are the appropriate measures for selecting key suppliers?

Market demands, especially within the automotive sector, are pushing towards increased product complexity and performance with zero ship parts per million (PPM) requirements. To achieve both quality and performance goals very stringent requirements are being placed on the test manufacturing solution. These requirements lead to conflicts between cost, performance and quality. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to investigate the conflicts that exist between quality, performance, and cost, and second, to review current practices and techniques being used in tests to minimise ship PPM.

In the paper a test process development flow chart is presented, along with a review of current methods being used for both defect screening and performance testing. The relationship between test coverage and ship PPM is investigated using established yield models. The cost in terms of gross margin degradation of yield loss at final test to extensive screening and aggressive limits is modelled.

The paper finds that to maintain ship PPM very high levels of test coverage are required – typically test coverage needs to be > 98 per cent. The cost of yield loss to this testing typically matches on a percentage point basis gross margin degradation. Reviewing current test methods shows the need both for extensive defect‐screening techniques for the defective portion of the population, and for optimised guardbanding techniques for performance testing. Weaknesses that exist are the absence of a model to predict outgoing PPM, and the conservative nature of existing guardband techniques for performance testing.

This is a review paper and it serves to highlight both the weaknesses in current practices, and areas where improved models are required.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is now considered to be the price of entry for running a business. However, ERP systems are complex and expensive, and the decision to install an ERP system necessitates a choice of mechanisms for determining whether ERP is needed and, once implemented, whether it is successful. User satisfaction is one evaluation mechanism for determining system success. This study develops a reliable and valid instrument for measuring ERP ultimate‐user satisfaction.

Initial ERP system characteristics and the implementation context were investigated. Some previously validated instruments were selected for examination using rigorous interview techniques. A modified version was developed and pre‐tested. The instrument was then used to administer a test to 264 Taiwanese users that interact directly with an ERP system.

The results suggest a ten‐item instrument to measure three components of ultimate‐user satisfaction in an ERP environment: ERP project team and service, ERP product, and user knowledge and involvement.

This study has conducted a rigorous scale development procedure to establish a reliable and valid instrument for measuring ERP ultimate‐user satisfaction.

To explore and analyse various learning organizations and to attempt to outline the form of a holistic learning organization.

The tool described in this article is a continuation of the work published in a Licentiate thesis in 1996 and developed further in a doctoral dissertation in 2001. The Learning Organization Diamond Tool is based on a holistic concept of a learning organization being regarded as a structure of related elements: driving forces, finding purpose, questioning, empowering and evaluation at two interconnected levels of individuals and the whole. Data from 686 respondents were gathered from 25 Finnish organizations in 1998.

The outcomes of the study are mainly presented in the form of imaginary diamonds complying with the basic framework. In 24 organizations the individuals placed more trust in themselves and their own learning than in their organization as a learning environment. When comparing different business sectors the variation on the organizational side was clearly greater than on the individual side.

Developing a measurement instrument for learning organizations, administering it in practice, and analysing the “learning organization portrayals” created by this tool.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically develop a valid measurement scale for process orientation – a critical supply chain management (SCM) concept that warrants greater study.

This study follows the measurement development approach proposed by Churchill. Data are collected from China. Various statistical analysis techniques, including confirmatory factor analysis through structural equation modeling, are utilized to ensure the validity and reliability of the newly developed measurement scale.

A six‐item scale was developed for the construct of process orientation.

Because the research is conducted in one particular industry (electronics) and one country (China), future studies in different contexts are needed to validate or modify the resulted scale. The measurement scale developed in this paper can be used in future empirical SCM research to further investigate the mechanism and impacts of process orientation.

The measurement can also be used by managers to evaluate their firms' process orientation and make necessary adjustments or improvements.

The paper addresses a void covering measurement of an important SCM concept – process orientation.