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1 – 10 of over 4000Muhammad Asif, Prem Chhetri and Rajiv Padhye
This paper explores the interaction and impact of political disruptions on textile supply chain performance in Pakistan. A qualitative approach is adopted to explore the linkages…
Abstract
This paper explores the interaction and impact of political disruptions on textile supply chain performance in Pakistan. A qualitative approach is adopted to explore the linkages and relationships between political disruptions and supply chain disruptions and performance. Semi-structured interviews were conducted at 25 different textile manufacturing firms. This study confirmed the prevalence of severe and variegated impacts of political disruptions on the textile supply chain. Supply chain disruption is found to be a key mediating factor that directly and indirectly affect supply chain performance through an increased production and delivery lead-time, transportation delays, interruptions of raw material supplies to plants and distributors and the restricted access to workplaces for suppliers and workers. The linkages are represented through vicious circles that illustrate the interactions and inter-relationships between disrupted supply chain and performance. This study provides empirical evidence to help government to formulate pertinent labour laws and industrial policy to mitigate political disruptions and minimise deleterious effects of supply chain disruption on production and distribution networks whilst respecting and protecting the democratic rights of people.
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This paper is to explore how cross-functional integration (CFI) of production-marketing can impact the firm's build-to-order (BTO) competitiveness, marketing performance (MP) and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper is to explore how cross-functional integration (CFI) of production-marketing can impact the firm's build-to-order (BTO) competitiveness, marketing performance (MP) and financial performance (FP).
Design/methodology/approach
Empirical study with the structural equation modeling approach is applied. Six hypotheses are constructed and tested based on survey data collected from Chinese manufacturing firms.
Findings
The survey data supports that production-marketing integration (PMI) improves BTO competitiveness (BTOC) and MP and that BTOC also positively affects marketing outcome which, in turn, impacts a firm's FP. The results reveal that CFI of production-marketing is an effective approach for achieving the BTO manufacturing strategy and can improve organizational performance.
Originality/value
The paper uncovers the role of CFI of production-marketing in BTO manufacturing strategy and its impacts on a firm's MP and FP and provides important managerial implications for practitioners to improve organizational time-based competitiveness and performance in today's time-based competition era.
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Jurandir Peinado, Alexandre Reis Graeml and Fernando Vianna
The purpose of this paper is to assess the differences in importance assigned by manufacturing or service organizations to topics related to operations management and its…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the differences in importance assigned by manufacturing or service organizations to topics related to operations management and its attendant body of knowledge.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors did this by cataloguing and analyzing vacancy announcements related to operations management, presented by manufacturing and services companies in major Brazilian human resources websites.
Findings
The results show that manufacturing companies primarily hire personnel with skills in routine process management, quality management, lean manufacturing, ergonomics and work organization. Service companies generally seek professionals with knowledge and experience in logistics, supply chain management and project management.
Research limitations/implications
This study presents some limitations that reduce the power of its conclusions. There is some degree of subjectivity in the interpretation of the contents of the analyzed ads. In order to reduce this problem, the authors who did the tabulation of data marked the situations for which there were some doubts about the classification, discussing them with the other author, until they reached a consensus on the best way to classify each one.
Originality/value
The discussion about the importance assigned by manufacturing and service companies to the topics of operations management is crucial for not only the results obtained, but also to stimulate the debate on topics that comprise or should comprise the body of knowledge of operations management, and the way they are incorporated into business practice. This provides an additional opportunity to reflect on the potential of operations management in supporting business managers now and in the future.
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Wilfred H. Knol, Kristina Lauche, Roel L.J. Schouteten and Jannes Slomp
Building on the routine dynamics literature, this paper aims to expand our philosophical, practical and infrastructural understanding of implementing lean production. The authors…
Abstract
Purpose
Building on the routine dynamics literature, this paper aims to expand our philosophical, practical and infrastructural understanding of implementing lean production. The authors provide a process view on the interplay between lean operating routines and continuous improvement (CI) routines and the roles of different actors in initiating and establishing these routines.
Design/methodology/approach
Using data from interviews, observations and document analysis, retrospective comparative analyses of three embedded case studies on lean implementations provide a process understanding of enacting and patterning lean operating and CI routines in manufacturing SMEs.
Findings
Incorporating the “who” and “how” next to the “what” of practices and routines helps explain that rather than being implemented in isolation or even in conjunction with each other, sustainable lean practices and routines come about through team leader and employee enactment of the CI practices and routines. Neglecting these patterns aligned with unsustainable implementations.
Research limitations/implications
The proposed process model provides a valuable way to integrate variance and process streams of literature to better understand lean production implementations.
Practical implications
The process model helps manufacturing managers, policy makers, consultants and educators to reconsider their approach to implementing lean production or teaching how to do so.
Originality/value
Nuancing the existing lean implementation literature, the proposed process model shows that CI routines do not stem from implementing lean operating routines. Rather, the model highlights the importance of active engagement of actors at multiple organizational levels and strong connections between and across levels to change routines and work practices for implementing lean production.
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Vishal Singh Patyal, P.R.S. Sarma, Sachin Modgil, Tirthankar Nag and Denis Dennehy
The study aims to map the links between Industry 4.0 (I-4.0) technologies and circular economy (CE) for sustainable operations and their role to achieving the selected number of…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to map the links between Industry 4.0 (I-4.0) technologies and circular economy (CE) for sustainable operations and their role to achieving the selected number of sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopts a systematic literature review method to identify 76 primary studies that were published between January 2010 and December 2020. The authors synthesized the existing literature using Scopus database to investigate I-4.0 technologies and CE to select SDGs.
Findings
The findings of the study bridge the gap in the literature at the intersection between I-4.0 and sustainable operations in line with the regenerate, share, optimize, loop, virtualize and exchange (ReSOLVE) framework leading to CE practices. Further, the study also depicts the CE practices leading to the select SDGs (“SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation,” “SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy,” “SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure,” “SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production” and “SDG 13: Climate Action”). The study proposes a conceptual framework based on the linkages above, which can help organizations to realign their management practices, thereby achieving specific SDGs.
Originality/value
The originality of the study is substantiated by a unique I-4.0-sustainable operations-CE-SDGs (ISOCES) framework that integrates I-4.0 and CE for sustainable development. The framework is unique, as it is based on an in-depth and systematic review of the literature that maps the links between I-4.0, CE and sustainability.
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Karunamunige Sandun Madhuranga Karunamuni, Ekanayake Mudiyanselage Kapila Bandara Ekanayake, Subodha Dharmapriya and Asela Kumudu Kulatunga
The purpose of this study is to develop a novel general mathematical model to find the optimal product mix of commercial graphite products, which has a complex production process…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to develop a novel general mathematical model to find the optimal product mix of commercial graphite products, which has a complex production process with alternative sub-processes in the graphite mining production process.
Design/methodology/approach
The network optimization was adopted to model the complex graphite mining production process through the optimal allocation of raw graphite, byproducts, and saleable products with comparable sub-processes, which has different processing capacities and costs. The model was tested on a selected graphite manufacturing company, and the optimal graphite product mix was determined through the selection of the optimal production process. In addition, sensitivity and scenario analyses were carried out to accommodate uncertainties and to facilitate further managerial decisions.
Findings
The selected graphite mining company mines approximately 400 metric tons of raw graphite per month to produce ten types of graphite products. According to the optimum solution obtained, the company should produce only six graphite products to maximize its total profit. In addition, the study demonstrated how to reveal optimum managerial decisions based on optimum solutions.
Originality/value
This study has made a significant contribution to the graphite manufacturing industry by modeling the complex graphite mining production process with a network optimization technique that has yet to be addressed at this level of detail. The sensitivity and scenario analyses support for further managerial decisions.
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Peter E. Johansson, Jessica Bruch, Koteshwar Chirumalla, Christer Osterman and Lina Stålberg
The purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of paradoxes, underlying tensions and potential management strategies when integrating digital technologies into existing…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of paradoxes, underlying tensions and potential management strategies when integrating digital technologies into existing lean-based production systems (LPSs), with the aim of achieving synergies and fostering the development of production systems.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts a collaborative management research (CMR) approach to identify patterns of organisational tensions and paradoxes and explore management strategies to overcome them. The data were collected through interviews and focus group interviews with experts on lean and/or digital technologies from the companies, from documents and from workshops with the in-case researchers.
Findings
The findings of this paper provide insights into the salient organisational paradoxes embraced in the integration of digital technologies in LPS by identifying different aspects of the performing, organising, learning and belonging paradoxes. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate the intricacies and relatedness between different paradoxes and their resolutions, and more specifically, how a resolution strategy adopted to manage one paradox might unintentionally generate new tensions. This, in turn, calls for either re-contextualising actions to counteract the drift or the adoption of new resolution strategies.
Originality/value
This paper adds perspective to operations management (OM) research through the use of paradox theory, and we (1) provide a fine-grained perspective on why integration sometimes “fails” and label the forces of internal drift as mechanisms of imbalances and (2) provide detailed insights into how different management and resolution strategies are adopted, especially by identifying re-contextualising actions as a key to rebalancing organisational paradoxes in favour of the integration of digital technologies in LPSs.
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This paper analyzes the ways in which accounting enables operations managers to enter and perform multiple roles in their interplay with organizational groups on the shop floor…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper analyzes the ways in which accounting enables operations managers to enter and perform multiple roles in their interplay with organizational groups on the shop floor and in management, and the associated negotiations that operations managers have with “the self.”
Design/methodology/approach
Using field-based studies in a mining organization, the study draws on Goffman’s backstage–frontstage metaphor to analyze how operations managers enter and perform several roles with the aid of accounting.
Findings
The findings show that accounting legitimizes operations managers when they cross organizational boundaries, as accounting gives them an “entry ticket” that legitimizes their presence with the group. Accounting further allows operations managers to embrace more than one role by “putting on a mask” to become an outsider or insider in relation to a group. In performing their roles, operations managers exhibit varying attributes and knowledge. Accounting can thereby be withheld from, or shared with, organizational groups. The illusion of accounting as deterministic presented frontstage is not necessarily negotiated that way backstage. Rather, alternatives discussed backstage often become silenced in the frontstage performance. The study concludes that operations managers cross boundaries, embrace roles and exert agency as they navigate with accounting, enrolling it into their performance simultaneously as they backstage reflect upon accounting and its role for their everyday work.
Originality/value
This study relies on the frontstage/backstage metaphor to visualize the discrepancies in how accounting is enrolled into role performances and how seemingly categorical fronts do not necessarily share that dominant position backstage.
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Miguel Núñez-Merino, Juan Manuel Maqueira-Marín, José Moyano-Fuentes and Carlos Alberto Castaño-Moraga
The purpose of this paper is to explore and disseminate knowledge about quantum-inspired computing technology's potential to solve complex challenges faced by the operational…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore and disseminate knowledge about quantum-inspired computing technology's potential to solve complex challenges faced by the operational agility capability in Industry 4.0 manufacturing and logistics operations.
Design/methodology/approach
A multi-case study approach is used to determine the impact of quantum-inspired computing technology in manufacturing and logistics processes from the supplier perspective. A literature review provides the basis for a framework to identify a set of flexibility and agility operational capabilities enabled by Industry 4.0 Information and Digital Technologies. The use cases are analyzed in depth, first individually and then jointly.
Findings
Study results suggest that quantum-inspired computing technology has the potential to harness and boost companies' operational flexibility to enhance operational agility in manufacturing and logistics operations management, particularly in the Industry 4.0 context. An exploratory model is proposed to explain the relationships between quantum-inspired computing technology and the deployment of operational agility capabilities.
Originality/value
This is study explores the use of quantum-inspired computing technology in Industry 4.0 operations management and contributes to understanding its potential to enable operational agility capability in manufacturing and logistics operations.
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Jan Sher Akmal, Mika Salmi, Roy Björkstrand, Jouni Partanen and Jan Holmström
Introducing additive manufacturing (AM) in a multinational corporation with a global spare parts operation requires tools for a dynamic supplier selection, considering both cost…
Abstract
Purpose
Introducing additive manufacturing (AM) in a multinational corporation with a global spare parts operation requires tools for a dynamic supplier selection, considering both cost and delivery performance. In the switchover to AM from conventional manufacturing, the objective of this study is to find situations and ways to improve the spare parts service to end customers.
Design/methodology/approach
In this explorative study, the authors develop a procedure – in collaboration with the spare parts operations managers of a case company – for dynamic operational decision-making for the selection of spare parts supply from multiple suppliers. The authors' design proposition is based on a field experiment for the procurement and delivery of 36 problematic spare parts.
Findings
The practice intervention verified the intended outcomes of increased cost and delivery performance, yielding improved customer service through a switchover to AM according to situational context. The successful operational integration of dynamic additive and static conventional supply was triggered by the generative mechanisms of highly interactive model-based supplier relationships and insignificant transaction costs.
Originality/value
The dynamic decision-making proposal extends the product-specific make-to-order practice to the general-purpose build-to-model that selects the mode of supply and supplier for individual spare parts at an operational level through model-based interactions with AM suppliers. The successful outcome of the experiment prompted the case company to begin the introduction of AM into the company's spare parts supply chain.
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