ACHIEVING MANUFACTURING FLEXIBILITY: THE ROLE OF PEOPLE, TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION AND CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

2010 ◽  
Vol 07 (02) ◽  
pp. 161-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
HAIRULLIZA MOHAMAD JUDI ◽  
ROGER BEACH

This study examines the contribution of a pair of opposite factors: technology versus people, and innovation vs. continuous improvement to obtain manufacturing flexibility. These factors are opposing as they play different roles in TQM and BPR. An exploratory multiple case study was conducted that involves three Malaysian manufacturing companies from electronic and electric sector. The results show that flexibility could not be achieved through technology solely, but by combining technology with people, the required outcome is attainable. By applying innovation and continuous improvement simultaneously, it will yield better flexibility than if only one of them was used. The contribution of these factors in the selected manufacturing setting could guide practitioners to obtain flexibility and verify the research model that could be tested further in a survey.

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan A. Marin-Garcia ◽  
Yolanda Bautista-Poveda ◽  
Julio J. Garcia-Sabater

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1 2021) ◽  
pp. 61-78
Author(s):  
Jovan Miljković ◽  
Marija Todorović

A brand could be named as the marketing goal of any organization, including the educational one. The issue of brand in education is becoming more and more actual, but the current focus of the scientifc community has remained mainly on branding higher education, while non-formal adult education organizations on this issue have been largely ignored. Therefore, we conducted research to determine whether users of non-formal education organizations perceive the educational service provider as a brand, as well as to identify which activities are carried out by non-formal education organizations to reach this level of connection with their users. The research used a combination of quantitative-qualitative research paradigm, with a multiple case study as a research model and a descriptive method as the dominant one. The research sample consists of managers and students of the analyzed foreign language schools. The results of the research indicate that non-formal education organizations in Serbia follow world trends and make efforts to achieve the status of an educational brand, that branding is not a uniform process, and that each organization and their strategies have certain specifcs.


2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 810-854 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan L. Cohen ◽  
Christopher B. Bingham ◽  
Benjamin L. Hallen

Using a nested multiple-case study of participating ventures, directors, and mentors of eight of the original U.S. accelerators, we explore how accelerators’ program designs influence new ventures’ ability to access, interpret, and process the external information needed to survive and grow. Through our inductive process, we illuminate the bounded-rationality challenges that may plague all ventures and entrepreneurs—not just those in accelerators—and identify the particular organizational designs that accelerators use to help address these challenges, which left unabated can result in suboptimal performance or even venture failure. Our analysis revealed three key design choices made by accelerators—(1) whether to space out or concentrate consultations with mentors and customers, (2) whether to foster privacy or transparency between peer ventures participating in the same program, and (3) whether to tailor or standardize the program for each venture—and suggests a particular set of choices is associated with improved venture development. Collectively, our findings provide evidence that bounded rationality challenges new ventures differently than it does established firms. We find that entrepreneurs appear to systematically satisfice prematurely across many decisions and thus broadly benefit from increasing the amount of external information searched, often by reigniting search for problems that they already view as solved. Our study also contributes to research on organizational sponsors by revealing practices that help or hinder new venture development and to emerging research on the lean start-up methodology by suggesting that startups benefit from engaging in deep consultative learning prior to experimentation.


2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan Zimmermann ◽  
Christopher Rentrop ◽  
Carsten Felden

ABSTRACT In several organizations, business workgroups autonomously implement information technology (IT) outside the purview of the IT department. Shadow IT, evolving as a type of workaround from nontransparent and unapproved end-user computing (EUC), is a term used to refer to this phenomenon, which challenges norms relative to IT controllability. This report describes shadow IT based on case studies of three companies and investigates its management. In 62 percent of cases, companies decided to reengineer detected instances or reallocate related subtasks to their IT department. Considerations of risks and transaction cost economics with regard to specificity, uncertainty, and scope explain these actions and the resulting coordination of IT responsibilities between the business workgroups and IT departments. This turns shadow IT into controlled business-managed IT activities and enhances EUC management. The results contribute to the governance of IT task responsibilities and provide a way to formalize the role of workarounds in business workgroups.


Procedia CIRP ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 81 ◽  
pp. 399-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Stoettrup Schioenning Larsen ◽  
Ann-Louise Andersen ◽  
Kjeld Nielsen ◽  
Thomas Ditlev Brunoe

Author(s):  
Robert Martens ◽  
Susan K. Fan ◽  
Rocky J. Dwyer

PurposeThe purpose of this qualitative, multiple-case study was to explore the successful strategies that managers of light and high-tech small and medium-sized manufacturing companies in the Netherlands, use to adopt additive manufacturing (AM) technology into their business models.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative, multiple-case study approach was used. The participants for this study consisted of executive-level managers of light and high-tech manufacturing companies in the Netherlands. Company documents were studied, and individual interviews were undertaken with participants to gain an understanding of the strategies they used to adopt AM technology into their business models.FindingsThree significant themes emerged from the data analysis: identify business opportunities for AM technology, experiment with AM technology and embed AM technology.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings of this study could be of advantage to industry leaders and manufacturing managers who are contemplating to adopt AM in their business models.Originality/valueThis study may contribute to the further proliferation of AM technology. Industry leaders may also gain a clearer understanding of the effects of 3DP on local employment. The results of the study may also work as a catalyst for increased awareness for manufacturing firm leaders who have not yet considered the opportunities and threats AM technology presents to their organizations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
pp. 101386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Friederike Sommer ◽  
Vincenz Leuschner ◽  
Nora Fiedler ◽  
Eric Madfis ◽  
Herbert Scheithauer

2006 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah White ◽  
Elizabeth Milne ◽  
Stuart Rosen ◽  
Peter Hansen ◽  
John Swettenham ◽  
...  

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