Examines the development of agile manufacturing and explores the key success factors: customer prosperity, people and information, co‐operation within and between firms, and…
Abstract
Examines the development of agile manufacturing and explores the key success factors: customer prosperity, people and information, co‐operation within and between firms, and fitting a company for change. Highlights the need for agile companies to adequately address their customers’ fast‐changing and focused requirements, which requires staff that are very highly educated and trained, and significantly empowered within the constraints of a clear vision and delineated company principles and goals, and the ability to effect change rapidly, through highly flexible management structures, and comprehensive methods of introducing change.
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Just‐in‐time manufacturing is a Western adaptation of an influential Japanese idea: the existence of inventory is a way of covering up inefficiencies of procurement, production…
Abstract
Just‐in‐time manufacturing is a Western adaptation of an influential Japanese idea: the existence of inventory is a way of covering up inefficiencies of procurement, production and marketing. JIT in a western context will often be an extension of the advanced manufacturing techniques introduced in recent years, including computer‐based management methodologies, such as MRP‐II. The steps necessary to establish a JIT environment are indicated, with emphasis on the strategies which overcome the four classic problems of manufacturing management: excessive supplier lead times, inflexible production planning, large batch sizes and long queue times. The article provides an in‐depth discussion on the development of closer customer‐supplier relationships, one of the major bases of JIT. For JIT to function effectively, production planning must be accurate, timely and flexible and the best way of achieving that is with a closed‐loop MRP‐II computerised management system.
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Mark J. Hooper, Derek Steeple and Clive N. Winters
In adopting and developing the key elements of agility, there is a requirement for enterprises to overcome the philosophical challenges of a shift from mass/lean production to the…
Abstract
In adopting and developing the key elements of agility, there is a requirement for enterprises to overcome the philosophical challenges of a shift from mass/lean production to the customisation environment of agile manufacturing. There is a substantial body of knowledge supporting the use of alternative costing systems for operations and production management and particularly mass/lean production, yet none deal with the emerging philosophy of agility. This paper examines the operational cost environment of organisations seeking to attain agility. The paper considers and defines the inter‐ and intra‐enterprise activities required to support the provision of total solution systems for customers. The paper evaluates the requirements at a strategic and operational level for costing in an agile environment. The operational issues for agile costing systems are explored and discussed through an implementation case study.
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Alona Mykhaylenko, Ágnes Motika, Brian Vejrum Waehrens and Dmitrij Slepniov
The purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of factors that affect offshoring performance results. To do so, this paper focuses on the access to location-specific…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of factors that affect offshoring performance results. To do so, this paper focuses on the access to location-specific advantages, rather than solely on the properties of the offshoring company, its strategy or environment. Assuming that different levels of synergy may exist between particular offshoring strategic decisions (choosing offshore outsourcing or captive offshoring and the type of function) and different offshoring advantages, this work advocates that the actual fact of realization of certain offshoring advantages (getting or not getting access to them) is a more reliable predictor of offshoring success.
Design/methodology/approach
A set of hypotheses derived from the extant literature is tested on the data from a quantitative survey of 1,143 Scandinavian firms.
Findings
The paper demonstrates that different governance modes and types of offshored function indeed provide different levels of access to different types of location-specific offshoring advantages. This difference may help to explain the ambiguity of offshoring initiatives performance results.
Research limitations/implications
Limitations of the work include using only the offshoring strategy elements and only their limited variety as factors potentially influencing access to offshoring advantages. Also, the findings are limited to Scandinavian companies.
Originality/value
The paper introduces a new concept of access, which can help to more reliably predict performance outcomes of offshoring initiatives. Recommendations are also provided to practitioners dealing with offshoring initiatives.
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Fazli Haleem, Sami Farooq, Brian Vejrum Wæhrens and Harry Boer
Many factors have been identified that may drive a firm’s decision to offshore production activities. The actual performance effects of offshoring, however, depend on the extent…
Abstract
Purpose
Many factors have been identified that may drive a firm’s decision to offshore production activities. The actual performance effects of offshoring, however, depend on the extent to which these drivers are realized. Furthermore, the question is how risk management helps mitigating the risk involved in offshoring ventures, thus leading to better performance outcomes. The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which realized offshoring drivers and risk management mediate the relationship between offshoring experience and firm performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from the Global Operations Networks project, a cross-sectional survey administered in Denmark and Sweden, are used to test two hypotheses on the mediating role of realized offshoring drivers and risk management in the relationship between offshoring experience and firm performance. AMOS version 23 is used to perform the analyses.
Findings
The results demonstrate that realized offshoring drivers fully mediate the relationship between offshoring experience and firm performance. However, risk management does not mediate the relationship between offshoring experience and firm performance.
Originality/value
This study develops new theory on, and managerial insight into, the mediating role of realized offshoring drivers and risk management in the relationship between offshoring experience and firm performance.
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Alona Mykhaylenko, Brian V. Waehrens and Dmitrij Slepniov
The ability of an organisation’s headquarters (HQ) to bring value to and manage a globally dispersed multinational enterprise has been questioned in the existing literature. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The ability of an organisation’s headquarters (HQ) to bring value to and manage a globally dispersed multinational enterprise has been questioned in the existing literature. The purpose of this paper is to suggest that HQ-subsidiary distance is an important factor that affects such ability; this report also investigates the impact of distance on the HQ’s network management capabilities in the context of a global organisation’s evolution.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, a single company was chosen to take part in a retrospective, longitudinal case study that highlighted two embedded product cases. The concept of distance was viewed as a variety of distance dimensions existing between the HQ and its subsidiaries.
Findings
The results indicated that distance impacted the effectiveness of the HQ’s network management capabilities by affecting HQ-subsidiary interaction and, consequently, shaping HQ’s knowledgeability about the subsidiaries’ operations. Moreover, the results suggested that the impact of such distance may shift from positive to negative over the course of a global organisation’s evolution.
Research limitations/implications
Although this study was explorative, some generalisability to industrial-goods companies of Scandinavian origin that have transferred activities to their owned subsidiaries may be expected. Further replication of the study using multiple case companies across various industries and countries is desirable.
Originality/value
This work extends the understanding of technological distance, sheds light on the conditions necessary for the HQ of a globally networked organisation to engage in value creation in the context of its evolution and contributes to the overall appreciation of distance as a factor that comprises multiple dimensions.
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With this year's Symposium returning to this popular Thames‐side location, the venue, catering and general arrangements were much appreciated and commented upon by delegates…
Abstract
With this year's Symposium returning to this popular Thames‐side location, the venue, catering and general arrangements were much appreciated and commented upon by delegates attending the event. Regrettably, numbers were low—attributable partly to a clash of dates with other PCB industry activities.
Every seaport with foreign‐going shiping trade has always had its “foreign” quarters; every large city hat had its Oriental traders and services, eg., Chinese laundries, Indian…
Abstract
Every seaport with foreign‐going shiping trade has always had its “foreign” quarters; every large city hat had its Oriental traders and services, eg., Chinese laundries, Indian restaurants, Italian restaurants, greengrocers, ice cream and biscuit manufacturers; all of which has meant that foreign foods were not unknown to food inspectors and the general public in its discerning quest for exotic food dishes. It was then largely a matter of stores specially stocking these foods for their few users. Now it is no longer the coming and going of the foreign seaman, the isolated laundry, restaurant, but large tightly knit communities of what have come to be known as the “ethnic minorities”, from the large scale immigration of coloured peoples from the old Empire countries, who have brought their families, industry and above all their food and eating habits with them. Feeding the ethnic minorities has become a large and expanding area within the food industry. There are cities in which large areas have been virtually taken over by the immigrant.
A number of fundamental values for the library profession are identified and discussed, specifically: a respect for the physical forms of recorded knowledge; the steady building…
Abstract
A number of fundamental values for the library profession are identified and discussed, specifically: a respect for the physical forms of recorded knowledge; the steady building of useful collections; the tradition of personal service in libraries; and their cultural and social roles. Recent trends and policies which threaten these values are examined and two areas are considered (the Library Association and the library and information science schools) in which action might serve to challenge these threats.
Prem Chhetri, Tim Butcher and Brian Corbitt
The purpose of this paper is twofold. First to identify economic activities and broader spatial logistics functions that characterise an urban setting, and second to delineate…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is twofold. First to identify economic activities and broader spatial logistics functions that characterise an urban setting, and second to delineate significant spatial logistics employment clusters to represent the underlying regional geography of the logistics landscape.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the four-digit Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification, industries “explicitly” related to logistics were identified and aggregated with respect to employment. A principal component analysis was conducted to capture the functional interdependence of inter-related industries and measures of spatial autocorrelation were also applied to identify spatial logistics employment clusters.
Findings
The results show that the logistics sector accounts for 3.57 per cent of total employment and that road freight, postal services, and air and space transport are major employers of logistics managers. The research shows significant spatial clustering of logistics employment in the western and southern corridors of Melbourne, associated spatially with manufacturing, service industry and retail hubs in those areas.
Research limitations/implications
This research offers empirically informed insights into the composition of spatial logistics employment clusters to regions that lack a means of production that would otherwise support the economy. Inability to measure the size of the logistics sector due to overlaps with other sectors such as manufacturing is a limitation of the data used.
Practical implications
The research offers policymakers and practitioners an empirically founded basis on which decisions about future infrastructure investment can be evaluated to support cluster development and achieve economies of agglomeration.
Originality/value
The key value of this research is the quantification of spatial logistics employment clusters using spatial autocorrelation measures to empirically identify and spatially contextualize logistics hubs.