Eiichi Taniguchi, Russell G Thompson, Tadashi Yamada and Ron Van Duin
A.A. (Alex) Alblas, K. (Kristian) Peters and J.C. (Hans) Wortmann
This paper investigates the challenges encountered by manufacturing companies in managing sustainability in new product development (NPD). It describes six case studies of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper investigates the challenges encountered by manufacturing companies in managing sustainability in new product development (NPD). It describes six case studies of manufacturers aiming for sustainability improvements but experiencing difficulties in implementing them.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper starts with a literature study. Academic literature offers explanations as to why manufacturers want to implement sustainability in NPD, and suggests methods for such implementations. This paper employs the systems theory of control to build a research framework for analyzing the challenges. Empirical data are gathered through workshops and interviews with NPD managers in the case companies.
Findings
In-depth analyses have provided three insights. First, the study shows that sustainability pressures and incentives in a firm's contexts can be fuzzy or even absent. The fuzziness of sustainability incentives is often neglected in the literature on sustainability and NPD. Second, the case companies face difficulties when setting the scope, goals, and ambitions that effectively direct NPD decisions and efforts toward designing sustainable products. Third, the results show that deploying sustainability methods, tools, and metrics, such as a life-cycle assessment or design for environment (DfE), are not sufficient to achieve sustainability in NPD. These findings call for research on sustainability and NPD processes in contexts where sustainability incentives and needs are fuzzy so as to acquire insights applicable to sustainable product development management that is proactive rather than reactive.
Originality/value
Instead of focusing only on the output of sustainable products, this paper presents a more nuanced perspective on managing sustainability in NPD. Moreover, by adopting the holistic perspective of the systems theory of control, the authors challenge the assumption that there are already sufficient external incentives to force companies toward greater sustainability. Consequently, in the light of proactive sustainability management, the authors recommend three tracks for further research: organization and filtering of information concerning sustainability pressures and incentives in a firm's context; and how to manage sustainability proactively rather than reactively.
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Robbert-Jan van der Burg, Kees Ahaus, Hans Wortmann and George B. Huitema
Technological developments and new customer expectations of immediacy have driven businesses to adopt on-demand service models. The purpose of this paper is to study the…
Abstract
Purpose
Technological developments and new customer expectations of immediacy have driven businesses to adopt on-demand service models. The purpose of this paper is to study the characteristics of a range of on-demand services in order to better understand the meaning of “on-demand” and its implications for service management. This enables the on-demand service logic to be applied to other service contexts, where it may add value for customers.
Design/methodology/approach
The study starts with a focused literature review and continues with a multiple case study methodology, as the on-demand service concept is in the early stages of theory development. Seven cases were studied, based on a maximum variation sampling strategy.
Findings
The results show that on-demand services are characterized by three interrelated characteristics: being highly available, responsive and scalable. Analysis further reveals that on-demand services display differences within the conceptual boundaries of these characteristics, i.e. they vary in terms of their availability, responsiveness and scalability.
Originality/value
Drawing on these findings, the study contributes to the service literature by being the first to specifically conceptualize and define the on-demand services concept and reveal three key characteristics that clarify the distinctive nature of this service type. Accordingly, on-demand services are clearly differentiated from other services. Additionally, the paper discusses the variety within on-demand services and develops an on-demand service continuum that gives detailed insights into the conceptual variations within such services.
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Tiedo Tinga, Flip Wubben, Wieger Tiddens, Hans Wortmann and Gerard Gaalman
For many decades, it has been recognized that maintenance activities should be adapted to the specific usage of a system. For that reason, many advanced policies have been…
Abstract
Purpose
For many decades, it has been recognized that maintenance activities should be adapted to the specific usage of a system. For that reason, many advanced policies have been developed, such as condition-based and load-based maintenance policies. However, these policies require advanced monitoring techniques and rather detailed understanding of the failure behavior, which requires the support of an OEM or expert, prohibiting application by an operator in many cases. The present work proposes a maintenance policy that relieves the high (technical) demands set by these existing policies and provides a more accurate specification of the required (dynamic) maintenance interval than traditional usage-based maintenance.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology followed starts with a review and critical assessment of existing maintenance policies, which are classified according to six different aspects. Based on the need for a technically less demanding policy that appears from this comparison, a new policy is developed. The consecutive steps required for this functional usage profiles based maintenance policy are then critically discussed: usage profile definition, monitoring, profile severity quantification and the possible extension to the fleet level. After the description of the proposed policy, it is demonstrated in three case studies on real systems.
Findings
A maintenance policy based on a simple usage registration procedure appears to be feasible, which enables a significantly more efficient maintenance process than the traditional usage-based policies. This is demonstrated by the policy proposed here.
Practical implications
The proposed maintenance policy based on functional usage profiles offers the operators of fleets of systems the opportunity to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their maintenance process, without the need for a high investment in advanced monitoring systems and in experts interpreting the results.
Originality/value
The original contribution of this work is the explicit definition of a new maintenance policy, which combines the benefits of considering the effects of usage or environment severity with a limited investment in monitoring technology.
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Mingze Yuan, Lin Ma, Ting Qu, Matthias Thürer and George Q. Huang
Workload contribution calculation approaches in the existing literature overestimate or underestimate indirect workload, which increases both workload fluctuation and shop floor…
Abstract
Purpose
Workload contribution calculation approaches in the existing literature overestimate or underestimate indirect workload, which increases both workload fluctuation and shop floor throughput performance. This study optimizes a Corrected Aggregate Workload (CAW) approach to control the workload contribution of workstations and Work In Progress (WIP) levels, thereby improving the shop floor throughput performance.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts simulation experiment by SimPy, and experimental factors are: (1) two workload contribution methods (CAW method and considering Position Corrected Aggregate Workload [PCAW] method); (2) two release methods (LUMS COR release and immediate release); (3) eleven workload norms for LUMS COR release (from 7- to 15-time units), and infinite workload norm for immediate release; and (4) two dispatching rules (First Come First Served, FCFS and Operation Due Date, ODD). Each scenario is replicated 100 times, and for each replication data are collected for 10,000 time units, being the warm-up period set to 3,000-time units.
Findings
The results of this study confirm that the PCAW calculation method outperforms the CAW method, especially during higher workload norm levels. The PCAW method is considered the better solution in practice due to its excellent performance in terms of percentage tardiness and mean tardiness time. The efficient workload contribution approach, as discussed in this study, has the potential to offset delivery performance loss that results from throughput performance loss.
Originality/value
This study proposes a novel approach that considers the workstations’ position in the routing of the job and the position of jobs CAW method. The results demonstrated that it allows shop floor throughput time to be short and feasible. It controls WIP by workload contribution of workstations, resulting in a lean shop floor. Therefore, workload contribution calculation is of particular significance for high-variety Make-To-Order (MTO) companies.
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A.A. (Alex) Alblas and J.C. (Hans) Wortmann
Success in manufacturing industries often depends on the ability of a firm to apply product platforms. In speeding up product development, platforms often enable companies to…
Abstract
Purpose
Success in manufacturing industries often depends on the ability of a firm to apply product platforms. In speeding up product development, platforms often enable companies to benefit from scale effects by reusing existing components in the development of new products. In the delivery of complex products and system (CoPS), however, platforms are frequently modified since components have to be changed within their life cycle to meet additional customer-specific engineering demands and evolving innovations in technology. In this article, it will be illustrated that intangible design elements can be used as platforms in firms that deliver CoPS. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
Through extensive fieldwork at a leading supplier of science-based lithography machinery, a modified platform concept was developed and tested that is labelled as the function-technology (FT) platform. The longitudinal data, collected on site, demonstrate positive effects of applying FT platforms.
Findings
The results show that an important explanation for firm's success in delivering lithography machinery with attractive performance is their ability to deliver variants that are specific in terms of physical modules, but common in terms of functions and technologies. Based on the results, it can be argued that establishing an FT platform will allow the efficient creation of variants within a family of CoPS.
Originality/value
The findings add considerable insight to the existing literature on operations management by explaining how intangible design elements, instigated during development, can be reused in the delivery of CoPS. Moreover, it enables development managers to more easily structure and reuse complex development tasks.
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Fabian Akkerman, Eduardo Lalla-Ruiz, Martijn Mes and Taco Spitters
Cross-docking is a supply chain distribution and logistics strategy for which less-than-truckload shipments are consolidated into full-truckload shipments. Goods are stored up to…
Abstract
Cross-docking is a supply chain distribution and logistics strategy for which less-than-truckload shipments are consolidated into full-truckload shipments. Goods are stored up to a maximum of 24 hours in a cross-docking terminal. In this chapter, we build on the literature review by Ladier and Alpan (2016), who reviewed cross-docking research and conducted interviews with cross-docking managers to find research gaps and provide recommendations for future research. We conduct a systematic literature review, following the framework by Ladier and Alpan (2016), on cross-docking literature from 2015 up to 2020. We focus on papers that consider the intersection of research and industry, e.g., case studies or studies presenting real-world data. We investigate whether the research has changed according to the recommendations of Ladier and Alpan (2016). Additionally, we examine the adoption of Industry 4.0 practices in cross-docking research, e.g., related to features of the physical internet, the Internet of Things and cyber-physical systems in cross-docking methodologies or case studies. We conclude that only small adaptations have been done based on the recommendations of Ladier and Alpan (2016), but we see growing attention for Industry 4.0 concepts in cross-docking, especially for physical internet hubs.
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Jun Du, Yuan‐Yuan Jiao and Jianxin Jiao
Traditional production management systems are often designed to support manufacturing based on a limited number of product variants. With the emerging trend of producing…
Abstract
Purpose
Traditional production management systems are often designed to support manufacturing based on a limited number of product variants. With the emerging trend of producing customized products to meet diverse customer needs, the number of product variants increases exponentially in mass customization. In a situation of assembly‐to‐order production, production planning and control involve not only product variety, but also process variety. It is imperative to synchronize product and process variety in a coherent manner.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper discusses integrated product and production data management for assembly‐to‐order production. An integrated BOM and routing generator is proposed for the purpose of unifying BOM and assembly‐planning data in order to accommodate a wide range of product variability and production variations.
Findings
An integrated BOM and routing generator excels in variety synchronization for assembly‐to‐order production planning.
Research limitations/implications
Variety synchronization opens many opportunities for research into mass customization production. It is important to deal with not only the results of high variety production but also the causes of process variations.
Practical implications
The proposed methodology is applicable to manage high variety production like mass customization.
Originality/value
The paper proposes the variety synchronization issue in mass customization. An object‐oriented methodology is applied to manage variety of BOMs and variety of routings.
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Wenhui Fu, Qiang Wang and Xiande Zhao
The purpose of this paper is to systematically review the platform literature and synthesize the various topics of research into a common framework to reveal the relations between…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to systematically review the platform literature and synthesize the various topics of research into a common framework to reveal the relations between platform-based service innovation, system design and other platform-related factors.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative descriptive analysis led to an overview of the distribution of research focuses of the 187 sample articles identified by a well-established search strategy. A qualitative in-depth review was then used to clarify the detailed research topics and generate an overall conceptual model to link them, with a focus on platform-based service innovation and system design.
Findings
In total, 11 research topics of three research perspectives were identified and linked by a framework that accounts for the relationships between platform-based service innovation and system design and their influences on platform evolution. A small panel of industry experts validated the accuracy and utility of the proposed framework.
Originality/value
This paper provides an integrated framework for separately developed research perspectives and the topics investigated in the platform literature. Through the proposed framework, this paper helps to improve the knowledge on platform study and management, and lays a foundation for exploring the research opportunities in platform-based service innovation and system design.