Applying analytical hierarchy process for addressing the agile manufacturing drivers

In order to incorporate agile manufacturing (AM) in materials and systems, the manufacturing sectors have drivers to face obstacles. Agility is generally accepted for satisfying diverse consumer demands as a new strategic principle in the automotive industry. There has now been a prerequisite for evaluating AM in industry. An organization’s effectiveness relies on their ability to find and pay special attention to the crucial success drivers to achieve a high level of efficiency. This paper suggests a number of Agile Manufacturing Drivers (AMDs) to evaluate AM that is deemed suitable to the production industry. In order to prioritise performance drivers, the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) approach is used to summarise the perspective of an expert. The proposed AMDs are believed to encourage and assist the manufacturing sector in producing agile products to achieve higher efficiency so as to improve competition.

DIGITAL STRATEGY — INTEGRATED APPROACH AND GENERIC OPTIONS

The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated approach for a digital strategy including generic options. Our research is based on our previous contribution in which we have analysed and compared existing approaches on digital strategy. We expanded this research by conducting 13 semi-structured interviews to gain insights from experts on digital strategy (researchers and consultants). We also analysed 10 case studies collected using semi-structured interviews with company representatives. Our findings show that digital strategy, although still in its infancy, is currently a significant topic across several industries. The paper offers an integrated approach for the development of a digital strategy which consists of six phases: external strategic analysis, strategic forecasting, internal strategic analysis, strategic principle, strategic options and strategy formulation. Within the integrated approach we also deliver four generic digital strategies: product provider, service provider, product platform operator and service platform operator.

Topical Trends of Improving Economy of Regions and Municipal Entities in Siberia

Today, socio-economic development of regions and municipal entities in Russia and, in particular, in Siberia is characterized by getting out of crisis state after overcoming the period of recession, in spite of the increasing sanction policy pursued by the governments of the western developed economies. However, restoration of the pre-crisis level of personal incomes and social security will require significant time and system efforts on the part of regional and municipal authorities. In terms of resource restrictions and, as a rule, insufficiency of financial means, practical stabilization of socio-economic growth in many respects and generally depends on manifestation of legal entrepreneurial activity at the intermunicipal, regional and interregional levels, according to the strategy of new industrialization of Siberia. Respectively, it requires development of the topical trends of improving the economy of regions and municipal entities on the principles of cooperation and interterritorial interaction, including the international cooperation, taking into account the territorial specifics of ecological restrictions. In this regard, the article offers a new approach to implementing the strategic principle - eco-industrialization, on the principles of the financial and budgetary project development.

Why a management concept fails to support managers’ work: The case of the ‘core competence of a corporation’

Management concepts are both products and instruments of abstractive thinking. This conceptual article discusses the relationship between different forms of abstraction and the practical relevance of management concepts. It focuses on the difference between empirical and theoretical abstraction. The former serves to categorize while the latter serves to explain and construct. We argue that this distinction can partly explain the difficulties managers face when using the management concepts that researchers have introduced. To substantiate our claim, we analyse the creation and use of the concept of a corporation’s core competence. The analysis shows how, in this case, a theoretical abstraction of a novel strategic principle turned into an empirical abstraction, which in practice has triggered unproductive attempts to categorize existing competencies rather than create new ones.

Strategic principles at Southwest Airlines

Purpose – Southwest is the world’s fourth largest airline and has consistently been one of the most admired organisations in the USA. Its founder and Chairman Emeritus, Herb Kelleher, attributes much of this success to the use of strategic principles. This gives a guiding framework for employees within the company but allows them leeway to make their own decisions. The result is greater employee engagement, a more efficient organisation that is adapting to the needs of its major stakeholders and greater customer satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach – The article analysis of the use of the strategic principle methodology at Southwest Airlines. It focuses on the position of Southwest as “THE low fare” airline and the use of humour and different working practices within the airline. Findings – The article shows that If this can be done in an industry as heavily regulated as aviation, it can be applied with the same success to many other business sectors and organisations.

El ateísmo considerado como delito extremo en las Leyes de Platón

This article focuses on Plato’s conception of atheism in the tenth book of the Laws. The Laws themselves are seen as Plato’s last great effort to propose a written code, a project that involves major theorizing. In contrast, the treatment of atheism as a capital crime appears merely as the working out of questions of detail (which feature prevention, a subtle typological analysis of atheists, and the means of eventual repression). Punishment of atheism is a strategic principle, closely associated with a new conception of punishment that includes the possibility of long-term imprisonment for offenders that commit serious crimes. The set of the relevant legislative dispositions against religious offenders is thus put in context (of which the broad outlines are the civil and penal codes), payingspecial attention to ‘unspeakable crimes’. The paper puts in perspective the significance of Plato’s last written work (particularly its pioneering character in the history of formal codification of law) and stresses how he restates his thoughts on what political life and its rules should be, thus substantially (and valuably) revising the utopia of the Republic. The main point of contrast between these works can be said to consist in a shift from the philosopher-king to the embodiment of values in the laws, the promotion of a complex system of internalization of rules and values in all citizens and by all citizens, the establishment of numerous means to achieve the conditions and social atmosphere in which the laws can actually come to live inside each and every one. This represents a considerable change if we compare it to the absolute trust put upon philosopher kings in the earlier work. It is, then, against this general background that Plato’s notion of atheism as “the worst of crimes” should be understood. The strong bond between religion and public morality is the basis supporting the set of social policies, measures of detection and strategies of repression of atheism that Plato proposes (described and briefly discussed by Rossetti). So, considering all that Plato carefully prescribes in the tenth book of the Laws, if atheism and impiety appear as the worst sort of crimes, punishable in a few extreme cases by death, this suggests, on the one hand, that the level of cruelty known in classical times was quite low by modern standards, and secondly, that Plato shows a rather admirable moderation for his time. Making atheism punishable by death and so perhaps the only really unspeakable crime is then only an “extreme prophylactic measure”, not “vengeance of the state”.