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Overview All organisations are, in one sense or another, involved in operations; an activity implying transformation or transfer. The major portion of the body of knowledge concerning operations relates to production in manufacturing industry but, increasingly, similar problems are to be found confronting managers in service industry. It is only in the last decade or so that new technology, involving, in particular, the computer, has encouraged an integrated view to be taken of the total business. This has led to greater recognition being given to the strategic potential of the operations function. In order to provide greater insight into operations a number of classifications have been proposed. One of these, which places operations into categories termed factory, job shop, mass service and professional service, is examined. The elements of operations management are introduced under the headings of product, plant, process, procedures and people.

The purpose of this paper is to redesign the layout of production floor by considering lean manufacturing in order to eliminate the waste and using Block Layout Overview with Layout Planning (BLOCPLAN) algorithm to attain new layout of facilities in Indonesian home-food industry.

The common problems that might be appearing in home-food industry, especially in the developing countries like Indonesia are unstandardized production process and unorganized work environment which could produce the waste. One of many solutions to handle this problem is improving the work area (work station) in production floor by rearranging and designing standard operating procedure (SOP) by using lean manufacturing concept. The initial data to minimize the waste is motion time study (data) to identify production standard time. The next step is identifying the common waste(s). Meanwhile, the production floor layout used in this research is designed by using BLOCPLAN algorithm.

The recommendation of shop floor facility layout is based on identified waste, which is excess transportation. Subsequently, standard operational procedure (SOP) is developed to support the recommended facility layout as the reference for cookie production process so it can minimize the waste.

Lean concept is one of method that is widely implemented to reduce the occurrence of defective products and waste that do not provide added value. Based on previous researches, it was found that the concept of lean manufacturing can be applied in various types of service and manufacturing industries, both large companies and small and medium enterprises. Home-food industry competition nowadays is getting intense. This condition makes the stakeholders (of home-food industry, especially in Indonesia) need high performance and productivity to keep their business stable in winning the competition. The new layout can reduce the disadvantages of actual condition.

This research is useful for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Indonesia especially for home-food industry. The BLOCPLAN layout (as the recommendation) has displacement moment with reduction of 40 percent.

This research believed that it can help SMEs improve their productivity in producing cake and cookies in terms of better layout which can reduce worker movement and standardized working procedure. The design of the production facility layout is a method used to rearrange the production process area so that the distance between processes can be minimized. SOPs was provided as the direction and supervision of workers to work according to standards.

SOP design can support recommended layout as the reference on making the cake (product) to eliminate wastes, which are motion/movement (alternating in production process flow) and long waiting time due to process delays.

The materials planning (MP) environment sets the prerequisites for the MP process. Before and during production transfer and start-up (PTS) supply chain uncertainty of the MP environment increases, as the company goes from a known to an unknown situation. The purpose of this paper is to describe the impact of the MP environment on the MP process before and during PTS.

A conceptual framework describing the MP environment before and during PTS is developed and applied to one case of outsourcing from Sweden to China. The framework is based on a literature review and further evaluated by both researchers and managers.

A conceptual framework describing the dynamic MP environment before and during PTS has been developed compared to previously static MP environments descriptions. In addition, this framework proved to be useful in analysing the importance of various characteristics of the MP environment before and during PTS.

The study highlights the importance of a proactive approach to materials availability when transferring production. The conceptual framework developed here can be used as a checklist to identify the characteristics of the MP environment that are most important to ensuring materials availability.

The paper highlights the PTS when outsourcing, a substantial time frame with a large impact on success. This is an important contribution, given the focus of previous outsourcing research on strategic issues. Further, the paper demonstrates the differences between static and dynamic MP environments.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it is to introduce a knowledge‐based system for planning processes for families of final products, instead of component items, be they parts or assemblies. Second, it is to demonstrate the feasibility and potential of a prototypical system developed for planning processes families for truck families from a multinational company.

The authors first identify the challenges in planning process families, including data and knowledge representation and constraint handling. To accommodate these challenges, the paper adopts the integrated product and process structure (IP²S) and colored timed Petri nets (CTPNs) in the proposed knowledge‐based process family planning system. On top of the IP²S and CTPNs, XML‐based knowledge representation is employed to alleviate the difficulties in modelling complex product and process family data and planning knowledge while enabling information exchange across different operating platforms. In addition, in accordance with the correspondence between PNs and knowledge‐based systems, a mechanism is designed to cope with the generation of production rules, which model constraints.

The proposed system is able to automatically generate production processes for customized products. At a higher level, such production processes provide input (e.g. operations, machines) to downstream activities for planning process details to manufacture component parts or component assemblies.

Traditional trial and error approaches to planning processes limit production performance improvement when companies need to timely produce diverse customized products. Knowledge‐based systems should be developed to help companies better plan production processes based on the available manufacturing resources.

Unlike most reported studies addressing either detailed process planning or assembly planning for component parts or component assemblies, this study tackles process planning for final products, in attempting to maintain production efficiency from a holistic view.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the selection of decision-making approaches at manufacturing companies when implementing process innovations.

This study reviews the current understanding of decision structuredness for determining a decision-making approach and conducts a case study based on an interactive research approach at a global manufacturer.

The findings show the correspondence of intuitive, normative and combined intuitive and normative decision-making approaches in relation to varying degrees of equivocality and analyzability. Accordingly, the conditions for determining a decision-making choice when implementing process innovations are revealed.

This study contributes to increased understanding of the combined use of intuitive and normative decision making in production system design.

Empirical data are drawn from two projects in the heavy-vehicle industry. The study describes decisions, from start to finish, and the corresponding decision-making approaches when implementing process innovations. These findings are of value to staff responsible for the design of production systems.

Unlike prior conceptual studies, this study considers normative, intuitive and combined intuitive and normative decision making. In addition, this study extends the current understanding of decision structuredness and discloses the correspondence of decision-making approaches to varying degrees of equivocality and analyzability.

In the process industries, it is essential to have a well-articulated manufacturing strategy within companies. However, to facilitate manufacturing strategy development, it is important to start with a good characterisation of the material transformation system and company production capabilities. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A grounded theory approach, with inspiration from configuration modelling, attempted to characterize the material transformation system as a set of variables. The variable development was based on a literature review and the knowledge base of five industry experts. Two exploratory mini-case studies were carried out, primarily to illustrate the use of the model, but additionally to test its industrial usability.

A set of 31 variables was developed, and related measures and scales were tentatively defined. Two mini-cases supported the usability of the model. The model, focussing on company generic process capabilities, is a conceptual taxonomy and the study’s theoretical contribution.

The lucidity of the definitions and scales for the variables are open to further refinement, and the limited discussions of variable relationships in this study are addressed in an agenda for further research.

The model can be deployed as a facilitative instrument in the analysis of company material transformation systems and may serve as a platform in further discussions on companies’ strategy development.

The model is a new instrument for analysing company generic process capabilities and an effort to build new theory rather than to test an existing one.

The process of making an original music album is highlighted to illustrate aspects of the music production process in addition to how leadership and related factors play out during this process. Background information is detailed regarding musicians as entrepreneurs, the music production process, group dynamics, learning approaches, aspects of group dynamics, and an emphasis on more shared, distributive forms of leadership. The conceptual framework and results of the ethnographic field study describe a music production process consisting of the following phases: Pre-Production; Production; and Post-Production, with decision-making, direction-setting, and overall leadership approaches playing out at each phase. Reflections, key learnings, and recommendations for future research are presented, all centering on the usefulness in identifying the process of original music production.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of implementing value stream mapping (VSM), just in time (JIT), continuous flow and total productive maintenance (TPM) methods throughout production and erection processes of pre-fabricated steel frames (PSFs) of building projects.

As phased lean management, after implementing the VSM technique, the JIT technique is implemented as first lean phase and the TPM and the continuous flow techniques are implemented as second lean phase. To evaluate the expected improvement of project performance due to reduce wastes by implementing lean techniques, discrete event simulation (DES) is utilized. In this research, an eight-story residential building project in Tehran, Iran, is studied.

Simultaneous use of lean techniques to integrate production and erection processes of PSFs leads to the improvement of the performance of production and erection stages, significantly. The results indicate 43 and 17 percent reduction in PSFs production and erection processes time and cost, respectively.

In the present study, only the effects of implementing lean techniques on the production and erection of PSFs have been evaluated. However, it is also possible to apply these lean approaches and the key strategies to the other modular or pre-fabricated construction methods.

The main contribution to knowledge is improving the construction project performance by integrating the production and erection processes, using phased lean management through implementing lean techniques. The results of the current study provide valuable insight into the possibility of integrating and improving construction processes of pre-fabricated construction.

The construction industry has been criticized for not keeping up with other production industries in terms of cost efficiency, innovation, and production methods. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the knowledge about what hampers efficiency in supplying engineer‐to‐order (ETO) joinery‐products to the construction process. The objective is to identify the main contributors to inefficiency and to define areas for innovation in improving this industry.

Case studies of the supply chain of a Swedish ETO joinery‐products supplier are carried out, and observations, semi‐structured interviews, and documents from these cases are analysed from an efficiency improvement perspective.

From a lean thinking and information modelling perspective, longer‐term procurement relations and efficient communication of information are the main areas of innovation for enhancing the efficiency of supplying ETO joinery‐products. It seems to be possible to make improvements in planning and coordination, assembly information, and spatial measuring through information modelling and spatial scanning technology. This is likely to result in an increased level of prefabrication, decreased assembly time, and increased predictability of on‐site work.

The role of supplying ETO joinery‐products is a novel research area in construction. There is a need to develop each segment of the manufacturing industry supplying construction and this paper contributes to the collective knowledge in this area. The focus is on the possibilities for innovation in the ETO joinery‐products industry and on its improved integration in the construction industry value chain in general.

The purpose of this paper is to differentiate the production process within services from the dominant manufacturing-based production process, with the objective of delineating the production process in services and highlighting its implication for service productivity.

This study critically reviewed the extant literature on the production processes in manufacturing and services from a multidisciplinary perspective and proposed a framework for the service production process and its relationship with service productivity.

The production process for services differs from the dominant manufacturing-based production process and entails an input, transformation process and outcome dimensions. Therefore, any advancement in services, particularly the conceptualisation and measurement of service productivity, is dependent on the application of a service-specific production process.

The understanding and delineation of the production process in services would further scholarly understanding of what is means to be productive in services and the impact on the validity of the conceptualisation and measurement of service productivity and other service-related concepts.

The proposed service-based production process can further managerial understanding of the measurement and management of productivity in services.

This paper delineates the production process in services and highlighted its implication for service productivity. This study, therefore, is a step forward in developing service-specific concepts and measures, particularly service productivity.