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The objective of this article is to analyze the integration between the internal functions related to demand and supply processes. The studied object was an agribusiness company that uses digital technologies to operate its inbound logistics.

A case study was conducted in a global agribusiness company that went through a restructuring process with the implementation of a shared service center. In-depth interviews were conducted with employees from the demand and supply areas. The analysis involved description of cross-functional integration processes from the areas of demand and supply, the identification of technologies from Industry 4.0 present in the activities of those areas and their role in the integration process.

The analysis revealed the mediating role of technology in cross-functional integration, the presence of new integration factors and their impact on process performance. A framework was developed that describes the relationship between technology and integration factors, their impacts, and the implications for theory and practice.

Regarding this study, the focal company migrated its activities, which were previously isolated and dispersed across branches, to a centralized shared services unit. This research contributes by providing managers with elements to support their investment decisions in technologies that facilitate the integration process, mainly in the areas of planning and execution. It also contributes to the planning of processes, helping managers who are implementing or migrating activities and areas to new management structures.

This paper brings two new assumptions that may guide future investigations about cross-functional integration and its effects on demand and supply integration (DSI): (1) Digital technologies are able to support cross-functional integration in order to provide information integrity, team alignment, agile and assertive decision making within supply and demand processes; (2) Cross-functional integration, mediated by digital technologies, can generate agility and accuracy of information in the demand and supply processes. This accuracy and agility provide improvements in demand and supply process performance metrics, such as predictability, assertiveness, standardization, productivity and response time.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a model to predict the antecedents of the integration level among marketing, logistics and production, considering the influence of formal and informal factors that generate integration and the existence of conflicts.

A survey of 179 participants from all regions of Brazil was conducted. A parsimonious model including four dimensions and 34 variables was developed through confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling.

The field data corroborate studies dealing with the impact of various formal and informal integration factors on the cross-functional integration level as a construct. Furthermore, this paper concludes that the level of cross-functional can be defined as: the intensity of the relationship among internal functions which can be measured by the mutual existence of formal and informal factors and the absence of manifest conflicts.

The findings of this paper cannot be generalized because of the convenience sampling. Future research could apply a probabilistic sampling and try to explore other geographical settings in both national and international contexts.

The proposed model can generate important information for managers by pointing out variables that can predict the integration level and their impacts on the organizational performance. The paper concludes with examples about how the model could be useful in several practical situations.

This paper proposes a model with reasonable accuracy to predict the integration level and overcomes prior research limitations with respect to models to predict the antecedents of the integration level, particularly the role of conflicts in the integration processes.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the processes of interconnectedness in cross-functional relationships involved in customer value enabling.

In total, 20 in-depth interviews were conducted in three Brazilian companies from different industries. The critical incident technique was used for data collection and analysis. Content analysis was used to characterize the critical incidents within functional area networks.

Six main critical incidents were identified within the studied relationships: process, urgency, lack of trust, capacity and demand imbalance, motivation and challenge. The results show situations in which the collaborative behavior of the actors generates customer value facilitation.

The firms studied are small and medium, located in an emerging economy and are resource-constrained. Further research could be performed in organizations in other countries with different sizes and resources. Future studies could also include customers within the analyzed functional networks to evaluate value-in-use behavior.

Process, as a critical incident, may be composed of several elements that could affect the processes of value creation. Moreover, the adjustment between production capacity and demand should focus on avoiding propagation of functional problems through the processes. This focus may facilitate spontaneous community behavior and customer knowledge renewal.

This paper generates new qualitative bases to characterize the interconnectedness within functional networks within the perspective of relationship marketing. The study of the internal functions and processes revealed several particularities that are not evidenced in the extant literature, which is concentrated in relationships among companies. The quality of the relationship among the members of a functional network may affect the effectiveness of the promises of customer value, more specifically in value enabling.

The objective of this study is to analyze how cross-functional integration contributes to the development of market-oriented strategies in the context of food and beverage manufacturers in Latin America.

A multi-case study was conducted in two multinational companies in Costa Rica and Brazil. Twenty-four semi-structured interviews were carried out with managers, leaders and supervisors.

The results showed four market-oriented processes: product launch, product delivery, customer complaints solution and improvement and innovation projects. Within these processes, 12 integration factors that impact market orientation were characterized. They also indicate that the concepts of market orientation and cross-functional integration should be integrated in the organizational culture to facilitate the understanding of the different needs and levels of urgency.

The studied literature does not emphasize the way integration is operationalized to allow organizations to be market oriented. According to our findings, responsive strategies depend on the integration of various internal functions to generate market intelligence. Managers must realize that when the workers are motivated and informed, they become more willing to take on a group vision and commit to organizational goals. This paper presents seven propositions on the operationalization of market orientation through cross-functional integration.

Competitive pressures force companies to seek solutions to eliminate wastes while improving product quality. Lean Six Sigma (LSS) has been considered one of the most effective approaches for business transformation. This article aims to present an empirical case study where LSS and Define, Measure–Analyze–Improve–Control (DMAIC) methodologies are applied to reduce defects in a car parts manufacturer.

The study follows the DMAIC methodology. Design of experiments and hypothesis testing were applied in a single case study.

The main defects and the main factors that cause defective parts were indicated for die-casting and machining processes. Solutions implemented reduced the defect incidence from a chronically high level to an acceptable one. The sigma level rose from 3.4 s to 4 s sustainably.

The study is limited to a single case study, without intention of generalizing the results to other types of industries.

This paper can be a useful guide of how to use DMAIC Six Sigma approach to defect reduction and can be applied in many sectors.

This study offers the knowledge on how to apply the Six Sigma DMAIC methodology, reducing the dependence on specialization courses.

This study describes in detail the process used in a structured improvement exercise including sigma-level calculation, factorial experiments and hypothesis tests – a set of techniques still poorly combined in the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to characterize the internal dynamics of cross-functional teams (CFTs) in different organizational processes in a service company.

A case study from a Brazilian service company was conducted. CFTs in five different organizational processes (strategy development, product development, portfolio management, sales channels management and business analysis) were analyzed through in-depth interviews, documents and non-participant observation.

A framework with four pillars was constructed: constitution of the CFT, task drivers, behavior and attitudes of the team and personal motivators. It was possible to analyze the process of how a group acts and reacts under changing circumstances based on the pillars included in the framework.

The study is focused on creating analytical generalizability. Several insights in the 12 propositions presented in this study may be investigated in future research to validate the identified relationships among the pillars included in the framework. Moreover, the proposed framework allows the teams to be analyzed through a multidimensional view: structure, processes and impacts.

If the semantic boundaries of the communication are not well delineated, the differences in understanding can generate manifest conflicts. Moreover, the workload in a CFT seems to be larger and more complex than working in a functional activity; however, members perceive that it reduces the risk of unemployment and increases motivation.

The present study contributes to the extant literature with the proposal of a set of new exploratory propositions that can support future quantitative research about the use of CFTs in the service industry context.

The aim of this paper is to characterize how innovation may happen through cross-functional teams (CFT) in an organization of the public sector.

A case study helped to characterize several behavior patterns, team structures and respective links with generating innovation in internal processes and public answering contexts.

The results highlight that formal-temporary teams present a higher capacity to generate incremental innovation in products, whereas permanent-informal teams have a higher capacity to generate innovation in the internal processes and public answering contexts.

The limitations of this research relate to the fact that this is a single case study, and although it is an important case to examine innovation and CFTs, by its very nature, it is not possible to extend and generalize the obtained data to other organizations. The evaluation of its propositions was merely qualitative, and future research is needed to validate its characteristics.

Several settings of CFTs are presented, as well as their ability to generate different types of innovation, such as the computerization of documents, petitions and papers, which decreases the time to answer the taxpayer. Moreover, CFTs can help to create products, such as computer programs that can be used not only locally but also in several public organizations related to tax management.

The field research provides the perceptions of the respondents regarding CFT characteristics that can lead to specific types of innovation, as well as the types of products or services that can be generated by these processes.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how cross-functional integration supports the execution of the demand-side processes and its effects on both the demand and supply-side processes.

A case study was conducted including a Brazilian multinational manufacturer in the automobile industry and some of its suppliers and dealers. 17 interviews were conducted. A theoretical framework is proposed containing five basic elements, they are: characteristics of the demand/supply processes; involved functions; integration factors; context influencers and impacts of integration on demand and supply processes.

The findings present three demand-side processes (Product Launch, Marketing and Sales and Demand Planning) that demonstrated a greater need for cross-functional integration in the studied case, mainly through informal integration factors.

The empirical results of this study have methodological limitations due to the use of the case study method. Future research should analyze the effects of other context influencers (e.g. natural catastrophes, civil wars and low level of unemployment) on cross-functional integration.

The results highlight that joint planning, willingness to work together, team spirit, adequate communication and cross-functional meetings helped the studied organizations to achieve competitive advantages and improve their performance.

This study provides a theoretical framework that helped to improve the understanding of the interrelationships between demand management constructs and cross-functional integration factors. There are indications that a political–economic crisis has stimulated the existence of a willingness to work together and group spirit among employees who remain in the organization after mass dismissals. This climate of cooperation helped to increase the agility and resilience of the studied supply chain, which is currently affected by a changing market.

The purpose of this study is twofold. First, this study proposes to investigate the impact of inter-functional value co-creation (VCC) in a manufacturing firm’s value chain on supply chain performance, considering the moderating role of external integration. Second, this study proposes to validate a modified version of the VCC considering the inter-functional interaction context.

Quantitative data were collected using survey approach from 129 managers from 51 departments of 22 manufacturing firms performing roles in several areas, such as procurement, logistics, sales, marketing and production. This study uses a PLS-SEM to analyze the model measurement, through confirmatory factor analysis.

The empirical data supported the proposition of this study that the VCC degree (i.e. value co-production/value in use) between functions of the firm has significant positive effects on the performance of the supply chain, in customer service and flexibility.

This study could be exceedingly useful for practitioners suggesting them to improve inter-functional integration by adopting VCC practices grounded on “value co-production” and “value in use.” Such practices may help to maximize supply chain performance.

The coordination theory was useful to deepen the analysis of its quadrant named “participatory design,” considering the relationship between VCC and inter-functional integration. This paper extended the knowledge about the relationship between the participatory design quadrant and the quadrant referring to organizational structures and processes.

The present paper aims to demonstrate the potential of integration between industrial robotics and Lean Manufacturing (LM) approach to increase the efficiency of an assembly line.

Based on a case study performed in an Italian company, this paper reports a comparative analysis of the results produced on a line balancing study involving a semi-automated production line, aided by an industrial robot.

The results suggest the possibility of implementing industrial robotics in line balancing studies highlighting efficiency gains and idle reduction. Further, it also addresses some concepts directly related to industry 4.0, such as collaborative robotics, artificial intelligence, and lean automation.

Line balancing studies may include advanced robotics in order to extend traditional lean practices toward Digital LM.

This study adds contributions to the operational excellence literature, demonstrating the symbiosis between industrial robotics and LM practices.