Ville Hallavo, Markku Kuula and Antero Putkiranta
The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of lean in a longitudinal context. Lean is currently experiencing its second coming. In spite of this, the current body of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of lean in a longitudinal context. Lean is currently experiencing its second coming. In spite of this, the current body of research on lean is especially lacking in longitudinal studies.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology used in this study is a longitudinal case study. The authors combined elements of multiple-case study and survey research by analyzing interview data on the same 23 Finnish manufacturing firms at three distinct points in time (1993, 2004 and 2010) with a methodology called qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) that is novel to the field.
Findings
The “thick” results of our exploratory contingency theoretic analysis suggest that the holistic and adaptive use of lean bundles is effective. It seems that especially the firm status of ownership and the phase of the business cycle exert an impact on successful lean bundle use. There is also evidence that a certain maturation effect takes place within lean bundle use: lean is increasingly being used as a complete management philosophy.
Research limitations/implications
The authors hope that this research encourages researchers to use more QCA in their research, especially with small samples.
Originality/value
This is a unique longitudinal study on the same 23 manufacturing firms and their development. Furthermore, this study opens new avenues for lean theory development, introduces a new methodology to the field and helps decision makers to gain a better understanding of the long-term dynamics of lean.
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Ville Hallavo, Jarmo Toivanen, Markku Kuula and Antero Putkiranta
Ownership change has been an overlooked contingency factor in past plant level practice-performance studies. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of…
Abstract
Purpose
Ownership change has been an overlooked contingency factor in past plant level practice-performance studies. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of ownership changes to practice-performance dynamics by longitudinally following the same 23 manufacturing sites from year 1993 to 2010.
Design/methodology/approach
Interview data of the made in Finland – study are used for presenting different paths of plant development in the long term. Both narratives and descriptive statistics are used to support the analysis.
Findings
The findings suggest that the benefits of long-term domestic ownership may in fact exceed the positive knowledge spill-over effects that derive from foreign acquisitions. Foreign acquirers seem to “cherry-pick” well-performing sites. Also it seems that the likelihood of inferior performance and plant shutdowns may increase due to foreign acquisitions.
Research limitations/implications
Due to the exploratory nature of the study the sample size did not allow for testing statistical significance of the results.
Originality/value
The exploratory findings of the study open new avenues of theory development for practice-performance studies, and corroborate research in other disciplines such as economics and corporate governance.
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Markku Kuula, Antero Putkiranta and Jarmo Toivanen
– The purpose of this paper is to analyze changes in the supply chain and production process, and the effects these changes have had on competitive performance.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze changes in the supply chain and production process, and the effects these changes have had on competitive performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is longitudinal and was conducted in 1993, 2004 and 2010 with a standard questionnaire. The data have been analyzed by using the Mann-Whitney U-test.
Findings
The study indicates that changing a role within the supply chain may help a company to adapt to surrounding changes, but there is no single best way to react to such changes. Companies must be able to position themselves in the new situation.
Research limitations/implications
Even though the study itself and the data are unique, there are still some limitations. Although the results are limited to the sample, they nevertheless give a good insight into the changes that occurred within the sample.
Originality/value
This study is the only longitudinal study in this field to compare three periods of time. This gives a unique perspective to study the changes that have occurred during the last 15 years.
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Markku Kuula and Antero Putkiranta
The purpose of this paper is to explore the possibilities and pitfalls of longitudinal studies in the field of operations management (OM).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the possibilities and pitfalls of longitudinal studies in the field of operations management (OM).
Design/methodology/approach
A longitudinal study conducted in Finland was analyzed from the methodological point of view. In the theoretical part, a framework for analyses was created by studying the literature of longitudinal studies within and without the OM field.
Findings
Longitudinal studies are important in revealing root‐cause effects. They are particularly important in generating new ideas and theories and in questioning old ones. However, longitudinal studies are somewhat difficult to conduct and some unexpected challenges may arise, such as the effect of technology development on data retrieval.
Research limitations/implications
The analyses in this study are based on the data obtained in a longitudinal study conducted in the years 1993, 2004 and 2010. The sample in the longitudinal study is quite small for real quantitative statistical analysis, and therefore the conclusions made here are only indicative. However, the purpose of this study is to give some hints and guidance, and thus the lessons learned are valuable.
Originality/value
There are only a few studies describing methodological issues in longitudinal studies in the field of OM, and most of these studies are purely theoretical and do not refer to real experiences. This appears to be one of the first studies describing real experiences from a longitudinal study.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine the use and effect of benchmarking in manufacturing companies.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the use and effect of benchmarking in manufacturing companies.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 23 companies were interviewed longitudinally in 1993, 2004 and 2010. For the study a standard questionnaire was used, and the questions asked concerned the best practices used in the companies and their operational performance.
Findings
The use of benchmarking has changed a lot over the last 15 years. It grew a lot after the first study was made, but by the time of the third study it had shrunk to the same level as in 1993. There may be several reasons for that, but, as the data indicates, there is no clear relation between the use of benchmarking and operational results, which may be one reason.
Research limitations/implications
Due to the small sample size the results are only indicative and more research is needed in this area. Furthermore, there may also be several other reasons affecting the performance of companies. It is always risky to claim that the use of a certain best practice is the only reason for a performance improvement. One implication is that certain best practices may not be suitable at all levels of operation and that therefore they need to be applied and used carefully.
Originality/value
This study is the only longitudinal study in this field using data from three different periods of time. This gives a unique perspective to critically study the changes in, and consequences of, the use of certain practices.
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Markku Kuula, Antero Putkiranta and Jarmo Toivanen
The purpose of this paper is to study how, in recent decades, manufacturing sites have reacted to changes in their business environment by developing their management practices…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study how, in recent decades, manufacturing sites have reacted to changes in their business environment by developing their management practices. This also makes it possible to predict the behavior and lifecycles of the new practices adopted by companies.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is longitudinal, conducted in 1993, 2004 and 2010. It used a standard questionnaire, based on the “Made in Europe” benchmarking study. The results were analysed by Friedman's rank order method. The use of a three (or more) data‐point longitudinal study is the clearest way to reveal changes in, and the behaviour of, the practices.
Findings
The data suggest that there is a lifecycle for the practices used in companies and that many of the practices adopted in the late 1990s are already out of date. However, personnel‐related practices seem to last longer than process‐related practices. Furthermore, these practices seem to follow the curve of the Bass diffusion model.
Research limitations/implications
The results are restricted to the sample which is quite small in size, but gives a good insight into the changes occurring within it. This research excludes new practices adopted in recent years, and uses only the questions designed for the first year in which the study was conducted. However, its purpose is to show the evolution of some practices in the form of a unique, longitudinal study. The study also indicates the lifecycles of the practices included in the sample.
Originality/value
This study is the only longitudinal study in its field to use data from three different time periods. It can thus look into and analyze change from a unique perspective.
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Ville Hallavo, Markku Kuula and Antero Putkiranta
The purpose of this paper is to examine the applicability to the service business of general models used in the manufacturing environment. This is done by applying Ferdows’s…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the applicability to the service business of general models used in the manufacturing environment. This is done by applying Ferdows’s model, “the strategic role of the plant”, in two cases.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses the case approach. One case (IBM Nordic) is based on an interview, while the other case (Google) relies on secondary data. In each case the operations are mapped on Ferdows’s model.
Findings
The cases indicate that the same kind of roles can be found in the service business as in traditional manufacturing environments, and that these roles are widely used. However, for communicative purposes, the model was terminologically slightly modified.
Research limitations/implications
Although this study presents the findings of only two cases, the knowledge of material available from public sources leads us to believe that these findings are universal. The model is easy to communicate in the service sector and is thus a very valuable tool.
Originality/value
Models used in the traditional manufacturing and operations management environment have not yet been fully discovered by, nor sufficiently applied in, the service sector. Academics and practitioners are busy trying to create new models in this sector, without noticing that the “old” tools are still usable. Benchmarking against the models used in other sectors might be a worthwhile exercise.
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Marko Kohtamäki and Petri Helo
The role of industrial services has increased in importance as product manufacturing oriented companies have been moving towards industrial services and integrated solutions…
Abstract
Purpose
The role of industrial services has increased in importance as product manufacturing oriented companies have been moving towards industrial services and integrated solutions. While migrating towards solutions provision, manufacturing companies have been developing new Service offerings, service business models logics and methods of service delivery are developed by using new technologies for value co-production and co-creation. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the solution providers perspective by illustrating central approaches tapping into industrial services, such as environment-strategy-fit, scope of industrial service offering, industrial service business capabilities, and servitization process.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reviews literature related to industrial service phenomenon providing a: framework for environment-strategy-fit in the context of Industrial Services taking Fit; defining industrial service business; defining industrial service business capabilities; and a critical perspective toward industrial service business research.
Findings
Where this paper provides a framework for environment-strategy-fit in the context of Industrial services, it also develops grounds to consider the maturity levels of servitization in a solution provider context. This paper recognizes the maturity levels of manufacturing companies providing a typology to analyze the level of servitization. Finally, this paper also serves as an introduction to an interesting special issue on industrial services.
Originality/value
The existing industrial service theory related industrial services can be strengthened by developing frameworks and typologies to better understand the transformation from products to industrial services and integrated solutions. technology digitalization and enable operational and outsourcing services, in addition to performance services.