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This paper reports on a benchmarking study carried out on supply chain management (SCM) activities of manufacturing organisations in New Zealand. The purpose of the paper is to report the current state of the play in this area. A postal survey was carried out to ascertain the status of SCM adoption in New Zealand, and identify the issues in SCM that are significant for New Zealand manufacturers. The findings suggest that although there is awareness of the SCM concept in New Zealand, the adoption of the newer concepts of SCM is not very far advanced.

This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/09596119710164641. When citing the article, please cite: Joel D. Wisner, William J. Corney, (1997), “An empirical study of customer comment card quality and design characteristics”, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 9 Iss 3 pp. 110 - 115.

Studies on supply chain management suggest that the scope of business processes being coordinated across supply chains is broad. However, little empirical evidence exists that corroborates such claims. In this study executives randomly selected from a diverse array of industries were surveyed to determine the scope of processes that are being integrated across organizational borders, the extent to which they are being jointly managed, and the span in terms of the number of tiers across which they are being managed. The results indicate that a large proportion of companies that practice supply chain management are attempting to integrate logistics, marketing, and operations‐oriented processes with those of other companies in their supply chains. Also, the span of a company's supply chain management efforts significantly relates to the extent to which it jointly manages business processes with other firms.

Customer feedback capabilities and mechanisms were identified and evaluated in30 bank and credit union sites in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. Additionally, 82 US Internet bank sites were identified and evaluated withrespect to their customer feedback capabilities. Comparisons were made between the brick/mortar and Internet banks and their respective feedback mechanisms. While this study identified a number of value‐enhancing customer feedback characteristics employed in banks, many of these financial institutions were found to be lacking even the most basic methods of feedback collection. Suggestions for improvement and areas for future research were included in the study.

Many leading firms in the USA have adopted an integrated strategic approach to purchasing and logistics management known as supply chain management. As the twenty‐first century begins, supply chain management has become a significant strategic tool for firms striving to improve quality, customer service and competitive success. This article surveyed senior managers in various industries to study the prevalent supply chain management and supplier evaluation practices. The study reduced these practices to a smaller set of constructs and related the constructs to firm performance. The results show that many constructs were correlated with firm performance and that some constructs were found to adversely affect performance.

The use of comment cards is a very popular method for obtaining customer feedback in the hospitality industry. An investigation was made regarding the current status of comment card usage in hotel‐restaurants offering high quality, Sunday champagne buffets, in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. Cards were assessed with regard to frequency and mode of availability, information content, service quality, card design, and management follow‐up. Although 81 per cent of the buffets made use of comment cards, problems were found with accessibility, comprehensiveness of information, questionnaire design principles and frequency of call‐backs.

Presents the findings of a comprehensive survey conducted among a wide variety of US machine shops. The objectives of the study were to develop the literature‐based just‐in‐time (JIT) machine shop model and to study empirically the changes taking place in the operation of machine shops in response to increasing demands by customers for JIT deliveries of products. Determines basic facility operating characteristics, machine operator characteristics, shopfloor control policies, and overall shop performance characteristics of machine shops having a significant level of sales to JIT customers. Discusses these findings with respect to the JIT machine shop model described in the previous literature. Supplies descriptive information for machine shops having little or no sales to JIT customers, to identify operating differences between the two classes of machine shops.

This article presents the findings of a comprehensive, exploratory survey concerning transportation quality improvement programs. Various quality improvement program dimensions were compared among two groups of respondents: those who experienced market share increases or cost decreases associated with the quality programs, and those who did not. The survey examined firms’ general focus on quality and customers, the use and design of formal quality improvement programs, and the success and current status of these programs. A number of significant quality program differences were found when comparing the two groups, including differences in top management support, benchmarking practices, customer interaction, and program design elements.

Since 1987, 17 businesses have won the US Baldrige Quality Award, established to promote awareness of quality management among US businesses. Assesses the financial and competitive performances of these 17 companies. Previous research with respect to the quality‐performance relationship has shown a positive relationship between quality improvement and financial or market share performance. Finds that while substantial improvements in operations performance characteristics among Baldrige Award winners have coincided with the implementation of quality improvement programmes, these improvements have not always resulted in financial success. Firms should therefore view quality improvement programmes as a method for building a strong competitive foundation, not as a panacea guaranteed to result in economic health.

This paper describes an exploratory research effort to analyze and classify emerging operations management practices in US manufacturing. Using a survey of senior materials and operations management professionals in the United States, this study investigates manufacturers' supplier assessment practices, new product design and development practices, just‐in‐time practices, and quality practices. This study also identifies practices that share common variance‐covariance characteristics and to what extent the observed practices are linked to their underlying factors by means of exploratory factor analysis. Finally, bivariate correlation analysis is used to examine the relationships of the factors.