Search results

This paper uses data from 349 employee involvement (EI) team projects to explore the relationships between process type, operational performance, employee involvement, and environmental performance. We investigate the stated goals and outcomes of EI team projects and relationships among these. For repetitive manufacturing processes in particular, we find strong relationships between the operational goals and outcomes of teams and the positive environmental impact outcome. To the extent that environmental performance results from operational systems, this paper suggests that the continuous improvement efforts of operations managers, including EI team projects, can be a key source of environmental improvements. Managers who understand this will take overt steps to leverage their operational improvement systems for environmental gains. From a theory development standpoint, questions are raised regarding the areas of potential synergy between operational and environmental improvement.

This study examines challenges to the retrospective financial evaluation of continuous improvement (CI) activities. Through a review of the literature and active engagement with CI implementations, we identify several issues that may lead to divergence between operational and financial assessments. Out of this conflict emerges a set of concepts that we find important − the delineation of soft versus hard capacity benefits, the distinction between capacity used and capacity paid for, and the data gaps that relate to these benefits – and recognize operational improvement and financial improvement as distinct, yet interrelated, theoretical constructs. This study helps explain a series of persistent gaps in the management accounting literature: Conflict between operations and accounting managers, the divergent perspectives of Johnson and Kaplan after their publication of Relevance Lost (Johnson & Kaplan, 1987), and the need for both operational control (including detailed capacity control) and accounting control in CI firms. Instead of one control system being at odds with the other, or co-existing despite each other, each of these systems support a different component of the financial improvement process. Operational control systems in CI firms emphasize non-financial information and social and behavioral controls that empower decision-making by employees, while accounting control systems seek to motivate and translate operational gains into financial gains. Soft and hard benefits linked to capacity play an integral role in understanding the difference in focus of each control system, while data limitations help to explain why these systems remain loosely coupled in practice (or absent, as seems to be the case with detailed Capacity Management Systems).

This study aims to investigate how to identify and address production levelling problems in assembly lines utilising an intensive manual workforce when higher productivity levels are urgently requested to meet market demands.

A mixed-methods approach was used in the research design, integrating case study analysis, interviews and qualitative/quantitative data collection and analysis. The methodology implemented also introduces to the literature on operational performance a novel combination of data analysis methods by introducing the use of the Natural Language Understanding (NLU) methods.

First, the findings unveil the impacts on operational performance that transportation, limited documentation and waiting times play in assembly lines composed of an intensive workforce. Second, the paper unveils the understanding of the role that a limited understanding of how the assembly line functions play in productivity. Finally, the authors provide actionable insights into the levelling problems in manual assembly lines.

This research supports industries operating assembly lines with intensive utilisation of manual workforce to improve operational performance. The paper also proposed a novel conceptual model prescriptively guiding quick and long-term improvements in intensive manual workforce assembly lines. The article assists industrial decision-makers with subsequent turnaround strategies to ensure higher efficiency levels requested by the market.

The paper offers actionable findings relevant to other manual assembly lines utilising an intensive workforce looking to improve operational performance. Some of the methods and strategies examined in this study to improve productivity require minimal capital investments. Lastly, the study contributes to the empirical literature by identifying production levelling problems in a real context.

The purpose of this research is to examine the effect of kaizen culture on innovation and operational performance of electrical and electronic manufacturing companies in Malaysia. A research framework, with underpinning theories of dynamic capabilities and socio-technical systems, was conceptualized to investigate the interplay of these relationships.

Data were collected from 123 manufacturing companies using an online survey and analyzed with IBM SPSS Statistics version 24.0 and the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) (SmartPLS) version 3.2.8.

Ultimately, the findings proved that kaizen culture is crucial for organizations to optimize their operational performance and can be nurtured through the implementation of process innovation and organizational innovation.

Unlike past studies, this research examines the concepts of innovation, kaizen culture and operational performance in a single study; thus, provides further opportunities for new discoveries through such relationships. Also, the novelty is identifying that kaizen culture can be nurtured via innovation.

Organisational ambidexterity has emerged as a new research paradigm that is relevant for promoting long-term firm performance however, research within practice-oriented domains has been limited. The purpose of this paper is to explore process improvement through the theoretical lens of organisational ambidexterity to understanding the conflicting aims of variation increasing and decreasing forms of operational process improvement.

Drawing on reviews of both operations and strategic management literature, the paper employs a case study methodology to unpack critical aspects of ambidextrous process improvement across a range of organisational environments.

The research shows that while the companies engaged in qualitatively different forms of improvement, by interpreting practices from an ambidextrous perspective, the complimentary nature of the two forms of improvement could be appreciated. The diversity of firms involved in the research also allowed findings to be considered in relation to a range of operational contexts.

The research highlights the relevance of an organisational ambidexterity perspective on operational process improvement, although the selection of companies the research draws from, limits it relevance to non-project-oriented organisations.

Provides practitioners with a framework to inform their views and aims when engaging in process improvement activities.

This is one of the first articles exploring process improvement from an ambidextrous perspective. This will help re-conceptualise process improvement away from wholly focusing upon quality improvement and variation reducing activities to help account for a more dynamic operating environment.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a method for analysing and improving the operational performance of business processes (BPs).

The method employs two standards, Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN 2.0) and Business Processes Simulation (BPSim 1.0), to measure key performance indicators (KPIs) of BPs and test for potential improvements. The BP is first modelled in BPMN 2.0. Operational performance can then be measured using BPSim 1.0. The process simulation also enables execution of reliable “what-if” analysis, allowing improvements of the actual processes under study. To confirm the validity of the method the authors provide an application to the healthcare domain, in which the authors conduct several simulation experiments. The case study examines a standardised patient arrival and treatment process in an orthopaedic-emergency room of a public hospital.

The method permits detection of process criticalities, as well as identifying the best corrective actions by means of the “what-if” analysis. The paper discusses both management and research implications of the method.

The study responds to current calls for holistic and sustainable approaches to business process management (BPM). It provides step-by-step process modelling and simulation that serve as a “virtual laboratory” to test potential improvements and verify their impact on operational performance, without the risk of error that would be involved in ex-novo simulation programming.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a case study of SPICE FM implementation in the Facilities Directorate of a major UK hospital. SPICE FM is a process improvement framework for FM organisations, which was developed through university research in the UK. SPICE FM identified strengths and weaknesses of the facilities operation and provides specific guidelines for organisational improvements.

The study was limited to four areas of operations, namely: catering; estates; domestics and portering. A brief organisational strategy is developed, through document review, semi‐structured interviews and a small workshop. A vertical section of staff in the Facilities Directorate participated in the case study to determine the operational capabilities of the organisation. The staff ranged from Director of Facilities to line employees. The managers partook in semi‐structured interviews, while the employees participated in workshops.

The case study highlights some of the operational deficiencies in the organisation, such as health and safety management, and risk management. It identifies specifically how these processes can be improved, and which improvements are effectively linked to strategy.

The paper only focuses on level 2 of the SPICE FM framework. Level 3 has not been researched yet. Also the SPICE FM approach must be linked to other major organisational development tools, such as EFQM, IIP and ISO.

A very useful approach in linking strategy with operational process improvements.

This case study puts the SPICE FM organisational learning framework in context. Previous papers have not reported on any major case studies, in order to demonstrates how the framework can be implemented.

The purpose of this paper is to explore crucial evolutionary operational improvement initiatives related to quality management, and the emphasis is on the lessons learned from operational improvement practices in Taiwan.

To understand a firm's evolutionary operational improvement activities holistically and deeply, the authors conducted in‐depth interviews with executives from four firms in Taiwan. The grounded theory method is adopted in this study to depict the profile of the key evolutionary operational improvement activities.

Based on the results of the qualitative empirical study, six major dimensions of operational improvement are identified. Further, eight empirical propositions are proposed with detailed descriptions.

The results are based on international manufacturing companies in Taiwan, and thus cannot be generalized to situations in other emerging countries and industries without further research.

By referring to the results of this work, managers can better understand the relationships among operational improvement activities, and thus increase the chances to benefit from operational improvement initiatives.

This paper adds to the literature by providing new empirical insights into the relationships among operational improvement activities.

Increasing competitive pressure from global markets and technological developments has resulted in the continual demand for business improvement philosophies and methodologies in operations management to address this challenge. The Six Sigma approach to business improvement has emerged in both the practitioner and academic literature as having a significant role in this area. There are many documented case studies of organizational applications of Six Sigma, where large‐scale improvements in defect and process measures have been attributed to this approach, mainly in the mass‐manufacturing sector. Moreover, there are claims, less well documented, that Six Sigma can be used as a change management approach at a strategic level and thus it can be applied to other sectors such as service industries. It is contended that there is a paucity of critical reviews of the Six Sigma literature, beyond that of descriptive accounts. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to critically review the literature of Six Sigma in relation to its effect on organizations and those that work in them. A broad theoretical perspective is used to guide the review process. The paper structure is based on the dichotomies within the Six Sigma literature, namely, what is Six Sigma — strategic change or operational methods; is Six Sigma a TQM appendage, or something new; will workers in a Six Sigma environment have more empowerment or be more controlled and is Six Sigma applicable to the service sector or only for that of the manufacturing sector?

The purpose of this study is to examine both the separate effects and the interaction effects of business process improvement (BPI) and human resource enhancement (HRE) on operational performance in manufacturing firms and to examine the moderating effect of product life cycle (PLC).

The conceptual model was based on the resource-based view, the dynamic capabilities perspective and contingency theory. Using survey data from 215 manufacturing companies and structural equation modeling, the hypothesized relationships were tested.

The empirical findings suggest that the performance implications of HRE and the interaction of HRE and BPI are contingent on PLC. HRE and its interaction with BPI have stronger effects on operational performance in the maturity stage than in the growth stage. The effect of BPI on operational performance is equally important in both stages of PLC.

The results of this empirical study can help to guide manufacturing firms to enhance their performance through improvements in their business processes and human resources at the different life cycle stages of their products. First, firms should upgrade both their processes and people to keep pace with the changing business environment and to sustain their competitive advantage. Second, the performance implications of improving processes and people are contingent on PLC, which suggests that managers should emphasize different things according to their roles.

A simultaneous examination of the performance implications of HRE and BPI practices and their contingencies reveals the roles that people and processes play in achieving organizational objectives. The results contribute to our understanding of how firms leverage their resource allocation between processes and people at different stages of PLC to effectively improve their performance.