Alberto Petroni

A quality assurance-oriented methodology for handling trade-offs in supplier selection

In an era of global sourcing, the firm’s success often hinges on the most appropriate selection of its suppliers. Supplier selection is sometimes very complicated, owing to a variety of uncontrollable and unpredictable factors which affect the decision. Describes a multiple attribute utility theory based on the use of data envelopment analysis (DEA), aimed at helping purchasing managers to formulate viable sourcing strategies in the changing market place. An application of the methodology using actual data retrieved from a firm operating in the bottling industry is illustrated. DEA has proved to be capable of handling multiple conflicting attributes inherent in supplier selection while simultaneously trading‐off key supplier selection criteria.

Organizational socialization, career aspirations and turnover intentions among design engineers

– Turnover intention is ones behavioural intention to quit. The purpose of this study is to compare the relative influences of organizational socialization and career aspirations on turnover intentions of design engineers and to address the design of more effective development programmes and the reduction of dysfunctional turnover., – A study of 442 engineers staffed within “design and development” units is presented, and a research model is tested using structural equation modelling techniques., – The analysis indicates that design engineers report lower levels of turnover intention when organizational socialization is prominent and an adequate range of opportunities that satisfy career aspirations exist within the organization., – The cause‐effect relationships among constructs that are empirically derived from the analysis should be further supported by a longitudinal study. Future research should be aimed at exploring the different patterns of turnover intentions of engineers with different career orientations and in organizations with or without rigid formalized career advancement system., – Managers of technical staff are advised to put an effort to develop and encourage lateral career moves of research and development staff members, particularly for newcomers, by offering a variety of experiences, that is likely to speed up their prompt creation of a better defined self‐concept., – The originality of the research lies in that it addresses an explanation of engineers’ turnover based on a theoretical framework that jointly combines internal career anchors as well as external career opportunities and socialization, thus striving to fill a gap in existing literature.

From Traditional Purchasing to Supplier Management: A Fuzzy Logic-based Approach to Supplier Selection

Making a decision requires the consideration of possible alternatives and then selecting the optimal one. This selection process generally relies quite considerably on subjective judgement. The intrinsic difficulty of any decision is increased by the unavailability of precise or complete information. This kind of problem exists when selecting the most appropriate supplier and it is worsened when purchasing managers are willing to adopt advanced approaches to supplier selection and auditing whereby less traditional criteria are considered. In fact, when dealing with such factors as the suppliers effort to implement total quality management principles, its capacity to adapt flexibly to changes in the customers requirements, its technological profile, its capacity to operate in a just-in-time supply perspective and its organisational culture, the subjective and qualitative dimensions of the purchasers judgements become paramount. In this paper, we develop a system for supplier selection using fuzzy logic. Fuzzy logic enables us to emulate the human reasoning process and make decisions based on vague or imprecise data. The approach seems to be particularly effective in reducing the uncertainty inherent in the determination of the relative importance (weight) given to the different criteria and in determining the impact of each alternative supplier on the attributes considered.

Critical factors of MRP implementation in small and medium‐sized firms

The paper deals with the implementation process of material requirements planning (MRP) within small and medium‐sized firms. While the literature shows almost general agreement on the critical factors of MRP implementation, few empirical studies exist to support the proposed elements. The purpose of this study is to identify the elements of MRP implementation that are required to ensure successful implementation. A number of elements of implementation were identified and subsequently grouped into a hierarchical structure consisting of eight broader elements. Criteria were selected as measures of the level of implementation success. The analysis revealed that only a few of the identified elements were indeed required for successful implementation. Among these are management support, level of functional integration and data accuracy.

Evaluating and selecting investments in industrial robots

This paper proposes an alternative methodology for the selection of industrial robots using data envelopment analysis (DEA). It aims at the identification, in a cost/benefit perspective, of the optimal robot, by measuring, for each robot, the relative efficiency through the resolution of linear programming problems. The methodology adopted is based on a sequential dual use of DEA with restricted weights. This approach increases the discriminatory power of standard DEA and makes it possible to achieve a better balancing of robot performances. Further benefits refer to the possibility of extending the use of this approach to various multi-attribute decision-making problems where each performance may depend on a number of factors. An empirical application of the methodology, using data from 12 robot manufacturers, confirms the applicability of revised DEA to advanced manufacturing technology selection, and reinforces its use as a tactical/operational tool in the area of production/operations. In order to eva...

Strategic career development for R&D staff: a field research

Explores the evolution of career management systems for industrial researchers. Based on case studies of experimental career development systems for industrial researchers, combined with a survey of 151 researchers and engineers employed at a large public research institution, alternative approaches toward managing professional careers are discussed. The results indicate that the researchers’ personal career orientations, as measured by Schein’s Career Anchors Inventory, may serve as a useful predictor of their career preferences. In addition, the research enables an evaluation of alternative modes of career development for industrial R&D to be developed.

Towards a taxonomy of search patterns of manufacturing flexibility in small and medium-sized firms

Manufacturing organizations are experiencing a wide range of forces which make it necessary for them to continuously adapt their operations and consider the consequences of their production activities on customer expectations, supplier constraints and changes in the law. This paper presents an empirical verification of knowledge levels and the perceived strategic relevance of manufacturing flexibility. A questionnaire survey was conducted with a sample of 89 manufacturing firms located in the area around Brescia, one of the most industrialized areas in Europe. Initial results gave a better understanding of which type of flexibility is preferred when facing different environmental challenges. In addition, insights into managerial approaches were brought out through clustering and discriminant analysis which have made it possible to emphasize some significant differences between firms in the search patterns of manufacturing flexibility.

Identifying manufacturing flexibility best practices in small and medium enterprises

Most of previous research on manufacturing flexibility has been conceptual by nature and finalized to build analytical models and only a small percentage of the studies have focused on empirical observations of actual industrial practice. In this study, we applied a DEA‐based methodology to identify small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) that operate on the frontier of manufacturing flexibility practice. Data were obtained via a questionnaire survey that considered seven basic dimensions of manufacturing flexibility. Subsequently, discriminant analysis was carried out to delineate which contextual factors and managerial aspects characterize the firms that have reached the “best practice” status. Finally, on‐site investigation was carried out with the “excellent” firms to better delineate their organizational and strategic profile.

A fuzzy logic based methodology to rank shop floor dispatching rules

Abstract When scheduling jobs in a flow shop no single dispatching rule works best for all performance criteria. Hence, it becomes paramount to assess which rule is more balanced in terms of different conflicting achievements. An alternative to the simulation based comparison of different dispatching rules can be represented by a linguistic based decision making method. In this paper, we present a fuzzy logic based tool intended to rank flow shop dispatching rules under multiple performance criteria. This tool is detailed with reference to a significant industrial case of a major company operating in the boilermaker industry. The results show that the approach is robust and effective in providing a practical guidance to scheduling practitioners in choosing priorities dispatching rules when there are multiple objectives. Finally, the benefits and the shortcomings of the approach are discussed.

Data envelopment analysis for dispatching rule selection

Scheduling techniques and dispatching rules are widely studied because of their strategic role in achieving optimal management of manufacturing systems. In the case of flexible manufacturing, it is essential to evaluate the effects of different dispatching rules to foresee the overall system performance. This paper addresses the issue of performance measurement and comparison of different dispatching rules with respect to several possible evaluation criteria by using data envelopment analysis (DEA). Based on simulation data retrieved from a recent study on dispatching rules in a dynamic hybrid flow shop environment, DEA methodology seems a suitable technique for ranking competing dispatching rules according to the set of selected performance criteria.