Michael T. Sweeney and Marek Szwejczewski
Details the findings of a search for manufacturing “strategic groups” in the engineering industry, that is a set of firms competing within an industry on the basis of similar…
Abstract
Details the findings of a search for manufacturing “strategic groups” in the engineering industry, that is a set of firms competing within an industry on the basis of similar combinations of business scope and resource commitments. The research methodology used was to adopt stockturns (excluding work in process), as a measure of manufacturing scope. Manufacturing throughput efficiency was selected as a measure of production engineering resource commitment. An initial grouping of companies was accomplished by using these two manufacturing performance variables. Comparisons were then made of the manufacturing practices and performances of the firms in the four strategic groups that were formed. The results show statistically significant differences in the performance of each of the strategic groups formed. They can also serve as benchmarks for the evaluation of manufacturing management performance. The proposed manufacturing strategy and performance matrix provides a practical framework for strategic planning.
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Benchmarking to improve strategic manufacturing management seems to be alogical extension to benchmarking to improve operating systemperformance. This assumption is, however…
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Benchmarking to improve strategic manufacturing management seems to be a logical extension to benchmarking to improve operating system performance. This assumption is, however, untested. The research objective for this study was to learn how to benchmark the strategic manufacturing management process. The experiences of a consortium of non‐competing firms struggling with the problems of benchmarking implementation constitute the base data for this research. The study has found that inappropriate choices of key manufacturing performance indicators were made by 50 per cent of the business units studied and this is because of poor strategic vision for manufacturing operations. Also evidence was found to show that 70 per cent of the firms studied needed a better understanding of their own processes before they could benefit from benchmarking other organizations.
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Little previous research has been carried out on the issues to be considered when choosing between manufacturing at home, offshore or sourcing from an offshore third party…
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Little previous research has been carried out on the issues to be considered when choosing between manufacturing at home, offshore or sourcing from an offshore third party supplier. As a consequence, few concepts or frameworks have been developed to help determine how the manufacturing and sourcing resources of a business should be configured to create or sustain a competitive advantage. The offshore production or sourcing of manufactured products is usually organized to lower costs. However, such a strategic move can constrain an organization's capability to satisfy other critical market needs. Many manufacturing companies must now adopt strategies that deliver both a time‐based and a price competitive advantage. There is therefore a need to develop strategic management frameworks for determining how the use of both international production and sourcing resources can enable the adoption of both least cost and differentiation competitive strategies. This was the objective of the study detailed in this paper.
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Marek Szwejczewski, Michael T Sweeney and Alan Cousens
The purpose of this paper is twofold; first, to investigate whether the manufacturing specializations of network plants fulfilling similar strategic plant roles (Ferdows, 1997…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is twofold; first, to investigate whether the manufacturing specializations of network plants fulfilling similar strategic plant roles (Ferdows, 1997) are common in type. Second, to examine current strategic manufacturing network management practice and develop a map of this process.
Design/methodology/approach
Three multisite manufacturing businesses participated in this case research. The first phase of the study consisted of an initial visit made to the headquarters of each firm to be briefed on its manufacturing network strategy and to collect company manufacturing performance data. Visits were then made to 11 network plants to collect site manufacturing performance data and to research the manufacturing specialization of each site and the degree of autonomy of its management team. The second phase of the research comprised a number of additional visits to the headquarters of one of the three case study firms to investigate the process employed to downsize its existing manufacturing network capacity in response to a significant decline in customer demand.
Findings
Three common types of manufacturing specialization have been identified in the networks of plants studied and the case research findings have enabled the development of a process for manufacturing network strategy deployment.
Research limitations/implications
The proposed process for the strategic management of a manufacturing network is based upon the findings of a single case study and thus the generalizability of the findings is limited.
Practical implications
Auditing the manufacturing specialization of network sites is an essential preparatory procedure for determining a manufacturing network strategy. How this information is used to facilitate the management of manufacturing network configuration and coordination and for manufacturing network strategy deployment is detailed in the paper.
Originality/value
A process map has been developed that includes a review of current network configuration and coordination policies, in combination, as these underpin manufacturing network strategy deployment. Such a process map has not been detailed previously in the literature.
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Alexandra L. Ferrentino, Meghan L. Maliga, Richard A. Bernardi and Susan M. Bosco
This research provides accounting-ethics authors and administrators with a benchmark for accounting-ethics research. While Bernardi and Bean (2010) considered publications in…
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This research provides accounting-ethics authors and administrators with a benchmark for accounting-ethics research. While Bernardi and Bean (2010) considered publications in business-ethics and accounting’s top-40 journals this study considers research in eight accounting-ethics and public-interest journals, as well as, 34 business-ethics journals. We analyzed the contents of our 42 journals for the 25-year period between 1991 through 2015. This research documents the continued growth (Bernardi & Bean, 2007) of accounting-ethics research in both accounting-ethics and business-ethics journals. We provide data on the top-10 ethics authors in each doctoral year group, the top-50 ethics authors over the most recent 10, 20, and 25 years, and a distribution among ethics scholars for these periods. For the 25-year timeframe, our data indicate that only 665 (274) of the 5,125 accounting PhDs/DBAs (13.0% and 5.4% respectively) in Canada and the United States had authored or co-authored one (more than one) ethics article.
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Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) from 1979 to 2008, this study examines how employment precarity is associated with the transition to first marriage…
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Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) from 1979 to 2008, this study examines how employment precarity is associated with the transition to first marriage. Building upon research on precarious work and economic determinants of marriage, I employ various measures of precarious work, including health insurance coverage, the provision of pension benefits, and part-time work. Results from the discrete-time hazard models show that precarious work delays men’s marriage entry more than women’s. For men, all indicators of precarious work decrease the odds of first marriage by up to 40%. Compared to men, women’s entry into first marriage is delayed when they have part-time employment. My study findings contribute to the theoretical discussions of the causes of family inequality, which have suggested the precarization of work and associated deterioration of job quality as one of the leading influences on the retreat from marriage. Further, results of this study indicate that the spread of precarious work has profound social consequences through its impact on family formation. In light of limited empirical research on the impact of precarious work on non-work-related outcomes, subsequent research needs to continue examining how employment precarity and family inequality are intertwined with various substantive foci across societies.
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Vu Thang Long Pham, Do Quoc Tho Nguyen and Thuy-Duong Tô
This chapter aims to expand the overreaction literature by examining whether the price reversals occur in the short-term period (i.e., 3 days) and long-term period (i.e., up to 20…
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This chapter aims to expand the overreaction literature by examining whether the price reversals occur in the short-term period (i.e., 3 days) and long-term period (i.e., up to 20 days), following large 1-day price changes in Asia-Pacific markets over the period 2001–2005. Our results based on firm data in three Asia-Pacific markets, namely, Australia, Japan, and Vietnam, and static and dynamic measures of large price changes indicate the followings. First, stock prices tend to reverse over the short-term period after large price changes. Second, in the case of large price declines defined by arbitrary trigger values, investors may earn profit from exploiting the phenomena of price reversals; however, the profit is not large enough to exploit since it is less than the profit from passive funds. This result is supportive of the weak form of efficient market hypothesis. Third, we find mixed evidence of long run price reversal across markets. Forth, market conditions (i.e., bear or bull) may not explain the magnitude of price reversals. Finally, the dynamic measures of large price changes based on individual firms provide more consistent evidence across markets, which is supportive of short-term price reversals and overreaction hypothesis. This evidence exists in the emerging market of Vietnam as well as developed Australian and Japanese markets.
The use of innovation to achieve a competitive advantage is notnew. What is of current interest is how some manufacturing organizationshave used the speed of product innovation to…
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The use of innovation to achieve a competitive advantage is not new. What is of current interest is how some manufacturing organizations have used the speed of product innovation to gain competitive edge. To implement such a competitive strategy effectively, many firms have applied the technique of simultaneous engineering. The most common subject of previously published research on simultaneous engineering has been its application to product innovation. The article focuses on simultaneous process engineering. It explains how the principles of quality function deployment, which are used for product design, can be applied to manufacturing process design. It details the lessons learned from adopting such an approach for simultaneous process design.
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In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of…
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In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.