Suchergebnisse

Purpose
– Taking a social network perspective, the purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for the assurance of food safety via relational networking.


Design/methodology/approach
– The authors consider both informal and formal relational networking, and explore a firm's learning orientation, risk aversion and consumer pressure as potential precursors to such relational networking. It is further hypothesized that relational networking generates both industry and supply chain knowledge, which is suggested to be beneficial for contamination detection. The model is tested with survey data collected among food-producing firms in India, the world's second largest food producer.


Findings
– The authors find a positive influence of consumer pressure on both a firm's learning orientation and risk aversion, which in turn affect both informal and formal relational networking. Informal networking further generated industry knowledge and was beneficial for contamination detection. Formal relational networking influenced supply chain knowledge, which in turn enabled contamination detection.


Originality/value
– Recent food product-related safety breaches, which have, in the worst case, led to fatalities, illustrate the importance of food safety in supply chains. This study represents the first systematic investigation of relational networking in the context of food safety from the perspective of social network theory.

Purpose– Best-value supply chains characterized by agility, adaptability, and alignment, have become a crucial strategic means for firms to create and sustain competitive advantage in today's turbulent environment. The purpose of this paper is to investigate linkage between best-value supply chains and firms' competitive performance.Design/methodology/approach– In Study 1, survey data from 76 firms is used to test the impact of the three qualities of best-value supply chains on firms' competitive performance. In Study 2, to test if a firm's competitive advantage can be sustained through building best-value supply chains, a long-run performance analysis is conducted, which is based on a stock portfolio of firms identified from the American Marketing Association's annual list of "Supply Chain Top 25."Findings– The results of Study 1 indicate that the three qualities of best-value supply chains are positively related to firms' competitive performance. The results of Study 2 show that firms having best-value supply chains generate significant and positive abnormal returns for shareholders over time.Originality/value– This is a multiple-method research, providing two-level empirical evidence to the investigation of theoretical linkage between best-value supply chains and firms' competitive performance.

Purpose
– World-class total productive maintenance (TPM) status depends on critical success factors (CSF) to be properly implemented. The relevant literature has identified several CSF; however, researchers have not investigated the degree of importance of each phase of the process. The purpose of this paper is to prioritize the CSFs that influence TPM implementation during each phase of the process in order to aid decision making in companies.


Design/methodology/approach
– The main CSF are identified from a literature review. This paper focusses on the judgments of managers who are experts in TPM implementation in companies which have received TPM awards for excellence. The judgments are processed using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method. Three aggregation methods (geometric mean, Copeland and fuzzy) are employed for comparative analysis.


Findings
– Although the literature highlights some important CSF, the relevance of these factors is not the same in each phase of TPM implementation. Analysis shows that ranking using the Copeland method is most coherent.


Research limitations/implications
– This research was carried out in some Brazilian companies.


Practical implications
– If managers are aware of the CSF to be prioritized in each phase, this facilitates decision making, resulting in a more effective implementation of TPM.


Social implications
– If TPM implementation is effective, this stimulates the personnel involved and avoids the possibility of the program being abandoned.


Originality/value
– The originality of this paper consists in the proposed model to prioritize CSF during each phase of the implementation of TPM.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to investigate if a firm's organizational culture affects the set of quality techniques it uses, and if these quality techniques affect the relationship between organizational culture and operational performance.Design/methodology/approach– Based on data collected from 250 firms in Brazil and Denmark, structural equation modeling is used to investigate the relationship between organizational culture and the use of quality techniques, and its impact on operational performance. Four quality technique groups, four cultural profiles adopted from the Competing Values Framework and a set of operational performance indicators are used to operationalize the study.Findings– Culture does not appear to be an unequivocal predictor of the use of quality techniques. Furthermore, while most quality technique groups contribute indirectly to the total effect on operational performance in the developmental, group and hierarchical cultures, the performance effects are insignificant for all four groups in the rational culture.Practical implications– Managers need to be actively aware of the cultural characteristics of their organization before adopting quality techniques, in order to benefit most from the use of these techniques.Originality/value– Most previous studies address the relationships between culture, quality management and performance at the level of quality practices. This study takes the unitarist-pluralist discussion to the level of quality techniques and extends that discussion to what should be its core, namely, the influence of quality techniques on the performance impact of culture.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to take a critical, analytical approach to explore the growth and spread of Lean through the academic and practitioner community over the last 25 years to understand the impact of the bookThe Machine that Changed the Worldon management thinking.Design/methodology/approach– A comprehensive and systematic review of the extant literature of lean was undertaken and analysed critically to observe patterns and trends that could explain the acceptance of Lean as an operations management philosophy. The review spans from 1987 to 2013. To enable us to effectively manage and understand the diffusion of this literature a database, the Lean Publications Database, was constructed. The number of publications has been adjusted to compensate for growth in the total number of articles published in the same period.Findings– Lean has evolved to be one of the best-known, yet fiercely debated, process improvement methodologies. It emerged during a proliferation of such methodologies in the business and management literature. Lean has developed from a generic description of Toyota Production System (TPS) to a particular type of organisational and management intervention focused on best practice and process improvement methodologies.Research limitations/implications– This paper provides the first comprehensive review of the Lean literature, from the perspective of Lean as the unit of analysis. It covers both sides of the academic debate and categorises the progression of Lean from its origins as a generic description of TPS to a movement that has changed management systems in many and diverse sectors.Practical implications– This paper demonstrates how Lean research, application and thinking has evolved over 25 years from its origins in Japanese auto-manufacturing to a holistic value system that is applicable to all business sectors, both private and public.Originality/value– In most empirical studies on Lean, the unit of analysis is the organisation. In this study, the unit of analysis is the Lean phenomenon itself. This paper examines the impact ofThe Machine that Changed the Worldon management thinking. In addition, it presents a step to developing an underpinning theory by linking Lean to theTheory of Swift, Even Flow. As such it is of interest to academics in the field of operations management and offers a contribution to knowledge. It is also likely to be of interest to policy makers. Considerable amounts of public money have been spent, and continue to be spent, on promoting Lean. Taxpayers and policymakers are likely to be interested in whether that expenditure is justifiable. 25 years of publications have been analysed to provide clarity around this popular approach to organisational improvement.

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to explore the configurations of supply chain integration.


Design/methodology/approach
– The authors use qualitative data from manufacturers shortlisted for the UK's Manufacturing Excellence awards over three years. Detailed processes and policies of 68 manufacturers are analysed.


Findings
– Process structure and product newness require different supply chain configurations, which change as products mature. Supply chain integration is dynamic, and the extent of collaboration between suppliers and customers will be different at different moments in time. The authors define and discuss four key supply chain configurations: customised; ramp-up; recurring; coordinated.


Research limitations/implications
– Future studies on supply chain integration should be controlled for the variation in the configurations. A limitation is the use of data which were derived for an award. The paper explains how the authors have mitigated the associated risks.


Practical implications
– The configuration of integration will change as the manufacturing plant becomes more familiar with a product. Additionally, different suppliers may provide better support at different stages of a product's lifecycle. To yield better performance, supply chain integration would need to take different forms. Efforts to integrate with suppliers should not be avoided as, when certain conditions are met, integration can lead to improved performance.


Originality/value
– The authors have identified manufacturers' main process structures and products' newness as two strategic characteristics that differentiate integration approaches with customers and suppliers, and defined four integration configurations. To the authors' knowledge this is the first study to argue that these also define the configuration of supply chain integration.