Luis Alejandro Gólcher-Barguil, Simon Peter Nadeem, Jose Arturo Garza-Reyes, Ashutosh Samadhiya and Anil Kumar
Equipment performance helps the manufacturing sector achieve operational and financial improvements despite process variations. However, the literature lacks a clear index or…
Abstract
Purpose
Equipment performance helps the manufacturing sector achieve operational and financial improvements despite process variations. However, the literature lacks a clear index or metric to quantify the monetary advantages of enhanced equipment performance. Thus, the paper presents two innovative monetary performance measures to estimate the financial advantages of enhancing equipment performance by isolating the effect of manufacturing fluctuations such as product mix price, direct and indirect characteristics, and cost changes.
Design/methodology/approach
The research provides two measures, ISB (Improvement Saving Benefits) and IEB (Improvement Earning Benefits), to assess equipment performance improvements. The effectiveness of the metrics is validated through a three stages approach, namely (1) experts' binary opinion, (2) sample, and (3) actual cases. The relevant data may be collected through accounting systems, purpose-built software, or electronic spreadsheets.
Findings
The findings suggest that both measures provide an effective cost–benefit analysis of equipment performance enhancement. The measure ISB indicates savings from performance increases when equipment capacity is greater than product demand. IEB is utilised when equipment capacity is less than product demand. Both measurements may replace the unitary cost variation, which is subject to manufacturing changes.
Practical implications
Manufacturing businesses may utilise the ISB and IEB metrics to conduct a systematic analysis of equipment performance and to appreciate the financial savings perspective in order to emphasise profitability in the short and long term.
Originality/value
The study introduces two novel financial equipment performance improvement indicators that distinguish the effects of manufacturing variations. Manufacturing variations cause cost advantages from operational improvements to be misrepresented. There is currently no approach for manufacturing organisations to calculate the financial advantages of enhancing equipment performance while isolating production irregularities.
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Alexis Uwamahoro, Simon Peter Nadeem, Noor Shale Ismail and Elizabeth Wachiuri
This research examines how supply chain collaboration, underpinned by stakeholder trust, information sharing and strategic partnerships, impacts the performance of manufacturing…
Abstract
Purpose
This research examines how supply chain collaboration, underpinned by stakeholder trust, information sharing and strategic partnerships, impacts the performance of manufacturing SMEs in Rwanda. The focus on manufacturing SMEs is due to their vital role in the economy and their distinctive resource dynamics.
Findings
The study demonstrates that supply chain collaboration, particularly through strategic partnerships and stakeholder trust, positively impacts supply chain performance. While information sharing’s influence is currently limited by technological constraints, the findings highlight the need for a comprehensive approach to address existing challenges and emphasise the crucial roles of stakeholders and policymakers in supporting SMEs’ performance.
Research limitations/implications
This research contributes to a broader understanding of supply chain collaboration, its impact on performance, its interactions with other organisational factors and its implications for managerial decision-making, academic research and supply chain partnerships.
Originality/value
This research is one of the few to demonstrate the impact of supply chain collaboration on the performance of manufacturing SMEs in developing countries, particularly Rwanda.
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Vimal K.E.K., Simon Peter Nadeem, Siddharth Meledathu Sunil, Gokul Suresh, Navaneeth Sanjeev and Jayakrishna Kandasamy
Improving the medical oxygen supply chain (MOSC) is important to cope with the uneven demand and supply seen in the MOSC when India faced the second wave of COVID-19. This…
Abstract
Purpose
Improving the medical oxygen supply chain (MOSC) is important to cope with the uneven demand and supply seen in the MOSC when India faced the second wave of COVID-19. This improvisation increases the supply chain (SC) maturity and consequently the efficiency and resiliency to tackle oxygen shortage across the country and to prevent another similar scenario from ever happening. The purpose of this study is to identify and prioritize the solutions to overcome the issues faced by the MOSC during the second wave of COVID-19 cases in India and in turn reduce the extent of casualties in the expected third wave.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses best worst method (BWM) and fuzzy technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution to classify the sub-criteria for solutions to solve major SC issues. BWM is used to determine the weights of the sub-criteria and fuzzy technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution for the final ranking of the solutions to be adopted.
Findings
The result of this study shows that the Internet of Things based tagging system is the best solution followed by horizontal and vertical integration of SC in making a resilient and digitized MOSC capable of handling general bottlenecks during a possible third wave.
Research limitations/implications
The research provides insights that can enable the personnel involved in MOSC. Proper understanding will help the practitioners involved in the SC to effectively tailor the operations and to allocate the resources available in an effective and dynamic manner by minimizing or eliminating the pre-existing bottlenecks within the SC.
Originality/value
The proposed framework provides an accurate ranking and decision-making tool for the implementation of the solutions for the maturity of the MOSC.
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Boga Balaji Praneeth, Simon Peter Nadeem, K.E.K Vimal and Jayakrishna Kandasamy
The purpose of this paper is to persuade a hybrid framework, which can be used to assess the performance of various supply chains and can be further used to segregate supply…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to persuade a hybrid framework, which can be used to assess the performance of various supply chains and can be further used to segregate supply chains concerning critical KPMs. The KPMs have been selected in the COVID-19 pandemic condition.
Design/methodology/approach
A real case of e-commerce is presented to illustrate the working of the proposed framework comprising a hybrid methodology of BWM and Fuzzy TOPSIS to measure the performance of the e-commerce supply chains by identifying the critical key performance metrics (KPMs) and measuring the performance of the considered supply chains against these.
Findings
The proposed framework is illustrated using real-time data from experts, collected through interviews and discussions. It is found that rate of return on investment (SCPM 27), flexibility of service systems to meet particular customer needs (SCPM 23) and supplier lead time against industry norm (SCPM 33) are significantly weighed in assessing performance of the selected supply chains, with weights 0.07764, 0.06863 and 0.0547, respectively. Amazon and Flipkart are seen to stand out among the other supply chains taken for the present study with closeness coefficients as 0.945 and 0.516, respectively.
Originality/value
The contemporary world has seen the drastic attack of COVID-19 on many firms worldwide, and hence measuring the performance of the supply chains has become necessary so as to understand the critical factors affecting performance, their relative importance and the firm's relative standings. There have been studies in the recent past where researchers worked on similar motives to generate a framework to measure performance of supply chains, but it is seen that the methodologies lack flexibility with respect to effectively handling large data, uncertainty in human emotions, consistency, etc. This is where the current study stands out in effectively measuring the performance of supply chains so as to aid many firms affected by the pandemic.
Corin Kraft, Johan P. Lindeque and Marc K. Peter
The study explores the alignment of Swiss small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) managers' understanding of digital transformation, with evidence of digital tool adoption in…
Abstract
Purpose
The study explores the alignment of Swiss small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) managers' understanding of digital transformation, with evidence of digital tool adoption in managerial and operative work. This reveals opportunities for more fully realizing the potential of digital transformation for SMEs.
Design/methodology/approach
This multiple-case study, with four theoretically sampled cases, analyzes data from the qualitative answers of 1,593 respondents to a survey of Swiss SMEs about digital transformation. The study draws on a convenience sample of Swiss SME managers.
Findings
The analysis shows little understanding of digital transformation as related to managerial work. However, there are two clear digital tool adoption patterns for managerial work: (1) workflow and workforce management and (2) work-flow and team management. Understandings of digital transformation and operative work focus on the (1) organization of operational work or (2) a combination of organization and changing the way people work. The digital tool adoption in operational work additionally focuses on the digital skills of operational employees.
Research limitations/implications
The study is only able to identify patters of understanding of digital transformation and digital tool adoption in managerial and operative work. More research is needed to understand why these patterns are observed.
Practical implications
SME managers need to think far more carefully about aligning their vision for digital transformation and the digital tools they adopt in both managerial and operational work, but especially in managerial work.
Originality/value
This is the first empirical study of the digital transformation of Swiss SMEs and their digital tool adoption. Significant potential for alignment is revealed, suggesting potential performance gains are possible.
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The strategic management literature emphasizes the concept of business intelligence (BI) as an essential competitive tool. Yet the sustainability of the firms’ competitive…
Abstract
The strategic management literature emphasizes the concept of business intelligence (BI) as an essential competitive tool. Yet the sustainability of the firms’ competitive advantage provided by BI capability is not well researched. To fill this gap, this study attempts to develop a model for successful BI deployment and empirically examines the association between BI deployment and sustainable competitive advantage. Taking the telecommunications industry in Malaysia as a case example, the research particularly focuses on the influencing perceptions held by telecommunications decision makers and executives on factors that impact successful BI deployment. The research further investigates the relationship between successful BI deployment and sustainable competitive advantage of the telecommunications organizations. Another important aim of this study is to determine the effect of moderating factors such as organization culture, business strategy, and use of BI tools on BI deployment and the sustainability of firm’s competitive advantage.
This research uses combination of resource-based theory and diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory to examine BI success and its relationship with firm’s sustainability. The research adopts the positivist paradigm and a two-phase sequential mixed method consisting of qualitative and quantitative approaches are employed. A tentative research model is developed first based on extensive literature review. The chapter presents a qualitative field study to fine tune the initial research model. Findings from the qualitative method are also used to develop measures and instruments for the next phase of quantitative method. The study includes a survey study with sample of business analysts and decision makers in telecommunications firms and is analyzed by partial least square-based structural equation modeling.
The findings reveal that some internal resources of the organizations such as BI governance and the perceptions of BI’s characteristics influence the successful deployment of BI. Organizations that practice good BI governance with strong moral and financial support from upper management have an opportunity to realize the dream of having successful BI initiatives in place. The scope of BI governance includes providing sufficient support and commitment in BI funding and implementation, laying out proper BI infrastructure and staffing and establishing a corporate-wide policy and procedures regarding BI. The perceptions about the characteristics of BI such as its relative advantage, complexity, compatibility, and observability are also significant in ensuring BI success. The most important results of this study indicated that with BI successfully deployed, executives would use the knowledge provided for their necessary actions in sustaining the organizations’ competitive advantage in terms of economics, social, and environmental issues.
This study contributes significantly to the existing literature that will assist future BI researchers especially in achieving sustainable competitive advantage. In particular, the model will help practitioners to consider the resources that they are likely to consider when deploying BI. Finally, the applications of this study can be extended through further adaptation in other industries and various geographic contexts.
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Cristiano Codagnone, Athina Karatzogianni and Jacob Matthews
Rim Zouari-Hadiji and Wafa Mroua
This study aims to examine the effect of audit quality (auditor expertise and discretionary accruals) on financial communication quality and to distinguish the moderating role of…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the effect of audit quality (auditor expertise and discretionary accruals) on financial communication quality and to distinguish the moderating role of corporate governance mechanisms (board size, CEO duality, board gender diversity and block ownership) on this relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
Linear regression is used to analyze the annual reports of 150 nonfinancial firms that belong to the CAC All-tradable index for the period 2015–2023.
Findings
The empirical results show that auditor expertise has a positive and significant effect on financial communication quality. Furthermore, board size reinforces the negative effect of discretionary accruals on financial communication quality. However, CEO duality and block ownership attenuate the positive effect of auditor expertise on the dependent variable.
Research limitations/implications
Our research covers three areas of research, i.e. audit quality, corporate governance and financial communication research. It presents the moderator role of some governance mechanisms on the relation between audit and financial communication quality. Furthermore, it aims to identify best practices in the governance system that attempt to facilitate and improve the positive impact of audit quality on the quality of financial communication, which increases stakeholder confidence in the firm. We caution readers from generalizing the findings of this study, as our study is based on a well-developed sample. Also, it is limited only to annual reports to measure the financial communication index without looking at other information transmission channels.
Originality/value
This study investigates the moderating role of internal governance mechanisms in the relationship between audit quality and financial communication quality in the French context.
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Faisal Rasool, Marco Greco, Gustavo Morales-Alonso and Ruth Carrasco-Gallego
This study aims to examine and understand the impact of reverse logistics adoption on firms' digitalization and collaboration activities. Specifically, leveraging the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine and understand the impact of reverse logistics adoption on firms' digitalization and collaboration activities. Specifically, leveraging the knowledge-based view, this study examines how adopting sustainable logistic practices (reverse logistics) prepares firms to embrace digitalization and encourages them to collaborate with other organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used longitudinal survey data from two waves (2017 and 2019) from the Mannheim Centre for European Economic Research. The authors used the negative binomial regression analyses to test the impact of reverse logistics adoption on the digitalization and inter-organizational collaboration dependent count variables.
Findings
The study's findings highlight the usefulness of reverse logistics in enabling digitalization and inter-organizational collaboration. The results show that the firms investing in sustainable supply chains will be better positioned to nurture digitalization and inter-organizational collaboration.
Practical implications
For resource-bound managers, this study provides an important insight into prioritizing activities by highlighting how reverse logistics can facilitate digitalization and collaboration. The study demonstrates that the knowledge generated by reverse logistics adoption can be an essential pillar and enabler toward achieving firms' digitalization and collaboration goals.
Originality/value
The study is among the first to examine the effect of reverse logistics adoption on firm activities that are not strictly associated with the circular economy (digitalization and collaboration). Utilizing the knowledge-based view, this study reports on the additional benefits of reverse logistics implementation previously not discussed in the literature.