Benito E. Flores and D. Clay Whybark
ABC analysis is used to sort inventory into categories which determine how much attention they will be given. But it is of wider management application and can be extended to cope…
Abstract
ABC analysis is used to sort inventory into categories which determine how much attention they will be given. But it is of wider management application and can be extended to cope with more than one classification criterion.
Benito E. Flores and D. Clay Whybark
Prioritising items for management attention has been advocated in operations management for a long time, normally using ABC analysis (inventory control). This focuses attention on…
Abstract
Prioritising items for management attention has been advocated in operations management for a long time, normally using ABC analysis (inventory control). This focuses attention on the “A” category items to maximise managerial effectiveness. Empirical evidence shows that this is a reasonable rule for allocating scarce resource‐management time but presents difficulties when the manager has to take more than one important dimension of a situation into account. A joint criteria matrix is put forward within the ABC framework and an industrial application given. The joint criteria matrix has practical utility provided ranking on some scale of measurement is realistic. The appropriate number of categories must be defined by the user. Combining criteria will probably require different analytical approaches, e.g. goal programming or heuristic approaches. Utilisation of the matrix by managers can provide an explicit method for taking a range of criteria into account in the development of inventory policies.
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Robert J. Vokurka and Benito E. Flores
This research determines and updates industry’s use of plant charters and their characteristics in terms of plant structure differences, competitive priorities, manufacturing…
Abstract
This research determines and updates industry’s use of plant charters and their characteristics in terms of plant structure differences, competitive priorities, manufacturing improvement initiatives, and performance. Industry differences are identified and compared to a 1982 study. The most predominant plant charter strategy remains a product plant charter assignment. Responses to a survey indicated that plants are created differently, i.e. there are structural differences between the plant charter strategy types. However, in general, the competitive priorities, efforts to improve manufacturing effectiveness, and resulting performance are essentially the same. This suggests seemingly similar manufacturing strategies regardless of the plant structure being used.
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Everett E. Adam, Lawrence M. Corbett, Benito E. Flores, Norma J. Harrison, T.S. Lee, Boo‐Ho Rho, Jaime Ribera, Danny Samson and Roy Westbrook
Investigates what approaches to quality lead to best quality and financial performance across different regions of the world. Reports a survey of 977 firms in Asia/South Pacific…
Abstract
Investigates what approaches to quality lead to best quality and financial performance across different regions of the world. Reports a survey of 977 firms in Asia/South Pacific, Europe, and North America. Fifty‐two items that suggest how a firm might improve quality were factor analysed and grouped into 11 factors, each factor a broader approach to quality improvement than any one item. Actual quality was measured eight different ways. Each approach to quality improvement (factor) was correlated to each quality measure, as well as to several financial measures. The results suggest that a company’s approach to quality correlates to actual quality and to a lesser extent to financial performance. The major factors found to influence actual quality were the organization’s knowledge of quality management, its degree of customer focus, and management involvement. When the task was to predict performance outcomes in any region, the specific factors that best predict performance were found to vary from region to region. That is, there were specific models within a region that better predicted performance than the model which predicted performance across all regions.
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K. Nikolopoulos, K. Metaxiotis, V. Assimakopoulos and E. Tavanidou
A great challenge for today’s companies is not only how to adapt to the changing business environment but also how to gain a competitive advantage from the way in which they…
Abstract
A great challenge for today’s companies is not only how to adapt to the changing business environment but also how to gain a competitive advantage from the way in which they choose to do so. As a basis for achieving such advantages, companies have started to seek to improve the performance of various operations. Forecasting is one of them; it is important to firms because it can help ensure that effective use of resources is made. In the market there are a number of off‐the‐shelf system products, which provide forecasts. The new trend, of moving traditional software packages to Web services, has pushed forecasting to a new dimension, named by the authors as “e‐forecasting”. In this paper, a first approach to e‐forecasting is made by throwing light on several aspects and a survey is presented which aims at identifying existing Web forecasting services.
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This essay aims at retracing the intellectual and biographical events of the economist Gino Arias (1879–1940), examining more in detail the two seasons at the opposite ends of his…
Abstract
This essay aims at retracing the intellectual and biographical events of the economist Gino Arias (1879–1940), examining more in detail the two seasons at the opposite ends of his life: the early one that saw him considerably committed to the Zionist cause and the one that, thirty years later, would force him to confront the racial laws of the Fascist regime.
Despite the seeming tragic continuity of these two phases, Arias’s case is a real historiographical paradox since, over the long span between the opposite ends of his biography, not only did he distance himself from the Zionist movement, but he also gradually laid the foundations for his upcoming and immediate dedication to Fascism; indeed, within the Fascist regime he would stand out as an authoritative and influential theorist of corporatism, the institutional solution Mussolini tried to exploit to organize the national economic life.
After carefully examining Arias’s early contributions to the Zionist cause (that include the establishment of the Florentine Zionist Group and that led him toward strongly nationalistic stances), this essay sums up Arias’s intellectual biography during the next years and then, thanks to unprecedented documents from the Italian Ministry of Interior, closely looks into his fate after his conversion to Catholicism in 1932 and up against the racial laws of 1938, as well as into his attempts to escape persecution. A few final observations will then try to highlight the dramatic exemplarity of his case.
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Internationalization is of high relevance and has been discussed intensively. However, different internationalization paths have been proposed by theoretical models and have been…
Abstract
Internationalization is of high relevance and has been discussed intensively. However, different internationalization paths have been proposed by theoretical models and have been observed in reality. In this study, we examine the internationalization path of 52 German firms over a period of ten years using comprehensive and rich data on all new ventures established by these companies within this period. We find four distinct patterns of internationalization and propose a stage model of internationalization based on these findings. Our results show different challenges for managers depending on the stage of internationalization and render interesting starting points for further research.
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Nidia Guadalupe López Flores, María Óskarsdóttir and Anna Sigridur Islind
The acceleration of technology adoption in higher education, prompted by the global shift to online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, called for responsive programmes to…
Abstract
Purpose
The acceleration of technology adoption in higher education, prompted by the global shift to online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, called for responsive programmes to address pedagogical challenges. This paper aims to present the design process and initial adoption of an institutional programme created to support instructors in providing educational resources for online and hybrid undergraduate courses at Reykjavik University.
Design/methodology/approach
By adopting a socio-technical perspective, the programme encompasses teacher support and digital platform use. Additionally, the programme aimed to enhance the student experience by increasing course consistency and facilitating data collection for future research on learning analytics.
Findings
The findings demonstrate the programme’s successful adoption, effectively strengthening teachers’ practices. Key contributions include a teacher-centric perspective on technology challenges and a socio-technical conceptualisation informed by teachers’ experiences during the pandemic.
Originality/value
This research provides valuable insights for teachers, administrators and researchers developing similar initiatives for effective professional development of faculty in online and hybrid teaching environments.
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Edna M. White and Benito Flores
This paper addresses the importance of goal setting in the operations function. The importance of goal setting and its possible role in the implementation and operation of…
Abstract
This paper addresses the importance of goal setting in the operations function. The importance of goal setting and its possible role in the implementation and operation of production systems is considered with particular emphasis on Material Requirements Planning (MRP). It has been argued that an operative goal setting process can improve employees' performance in any area of the organisation. Likewise, companies with a high‐level MRP system are expected to show high performance levels. This paper offers empirical support for these claims and further argues that the combination and interaction of the two processes results in synergistic effects. To support these arguments the paper draws on both theoretical studies and the results of a small regional survey.