Andrea Bacchetti

Engineer-to-order (ETO) production planning and control: an empirical framework for machinery-building companies

This paper illustrates the results of an empirical study involving 21 engineer-to-order (ETO) companies, operating in the machinery-building industry. The study investigates the needs and requirements of such companies in terms of software support for governing the businesses, with particular emphasis on production planning and control (PPC) processes. An empirical analysis investigated two main aspects: (i) the set of business activities performed by the companies in the analysed industry and (ii) the relevant, high-level software functionalities required for the execution of such activities. As an answer to the observed compelling need for reviewing the general approaches to PPC in machinery-building companies, we develop an empirical, high-level production planning and scheduling reference framework, encompassing all the activities involved in the order fulfilment process.

The transition towards service-oriented business models: A European survey on capital goods manufacturers

New trends for capital goods manufacturers push towards selling the products usage or performance rather than the product itself. This evolution from traditional business models, based on the product sales, to new service-oriented business models (BMs), has received increasingly attention both in the academic and managerial community. Despite this, a limited application of service offerings has been observed in the capital goods sector. This article reports the results from a survey carried out during the T-REX project, funded by the European Union under the Seventh Framework Programme, and has two objectives: (a) to empirically investigate the way BMs of capital goods companies are configured and (b) to analyse the degree of service orientation of such BMs. Finally, the main challenges for practitioners emerged from the survey are discussed in this article, highlighting directions for future research.

Manufacturing lead time shortening and stabilisation by means of workload control: an action research and a new method

Abstract This paper stems from an improvement project carried out at a men’s outwear manufacturer, aimed at reducing and stabilising the production lead time (LT). A method has been developed that builds on three well-established operations management theories: Little’s law, the workload control method and the logistic operating curves. In the action research study, by setting the system’s work in process to a level more consistent with its operating curves, the average system LT was reduced by 34% while its coefficient of variation was reduced to one-third. On the grounds of these encouraging results, and given the good fit between empirical results and theoretical expectations, the method is standardised and proposed for general use in the analysis and improvement of manufacturing systems.

Research vs. Practice on Manufacturing Firms’ Servitization Strategies: A Gap Analysis and Research Agenda

Servitization in the manufacturing industry implies a shift from an offer based mainly on standard goods, to a wider value proposition composed of solutions aimed at solving specific customers’ problems, obtained by integrating tangible and intangible elements. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the servitization strategies of manufacturing firms, more specifically about: (i) how manufacturing companies move toward servitization (servitization pattern); (ii) how they achieve the capabilities needed; and (iii) which factors enable this transition. We did so by comparing the state of the art of academic research with a qualified sample of case studies of global companies that famously improved their competitiveness by shifting from products to solutions. The results show some gaps between research and practice, concerning in particular: the impact (either transformational or integrative) of servitization on the manufacturing organization; the role of financial resources in shaping the capability achievement strategy, particularly for external acquisitions, and; the role of servitization enablers poorly considered by the extant literature, such as time, leadership and continuity, operational excellence and digital technologies. These findings lead to the definition of seven formalized research directions, thus outlining an agenda for future research.

An Economic Insight into Additive Manufacturing System Implementation

With an ever growing diffusion of Additive Manufacturing (AM) system in industrial and commercial level, as well as the direct and indirect dynamics which are being introduced resulting from its inclusion as a possible production technology on companies’ portfolio, the need to reconfigure production system and adapt the production strategy becomes even more relevant than before. There are several studies which have emphasized on the importance of a paradigm shift in order to exploit advantages of AM, not only considering changes within design and functionality of the product, but also concerning AM’s impact on the entire value chain (re)configuration. Thus, it is of crucial importance to take into consideration that for this shift to be feasible and manageable, there is a need to include both technical and managerial aspects of manufacturing. This work proposes an economic insight in order to provide a guideline for the proper evaluation of AM system implementation.

One-of-a-Kind Production (OKP) Planning and Control: An Empirical Framework for the Special Purpose Machines Industry

In this paper, we focus on the One-of-a-Kind Production (OKP) industry, where each product is designed and manufactured based on specific customer requirements to a large extent, according to an Engineer To Order (ETO) approach. This research has been carried out among the “SIGI-X” project, funded by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development (MISE). The paper illustrates an empirical study on the state-of-the-art of information systems supporting the leading processes in OKP companies. Through a set of 21 case studies in Italian companies producing special machines, we aim to: identify and investigate strengths and weaknesses of the main OKP business processes; analyze the ICT support and its level of integration among the different ICT solutions; identify levers for improvement, concerning organizational, methodological and informatics aspects; build a practical framework that could define and link the main processes in order to obtain a sort of guideline useful for re-engineering the processes, and laying the foundation for a new integrated ICT business template for OKP companies. The lack of support of three fundamental tasks such as project management, planning and cost control underlines that there is substantial room for improvement under the ICT support perspective. Finally, the development of an integrated IT environment to support (in particular) project management and planning activities, specifically addressed to OKP context, would help these companies to improve their performance and competitiveness.

Additive manufacturing impacts on a two-level supply chain

ABSTRACTAdditive Manufacturing (AM) is a recent and rapidly developing technology, which has brought about significant disruptions in the manufacturing arena. To capture the full spectrum of changes resulting from AMs introduction into the industry, it is not sufficient to look at it just as a disruptive set of technologies but, rather, take a systems approach. It must be noted that the investigation of AMs impacts cannot be limited to an individual actor, but should encompass the whole supply chain to fully consider the relevant changes in strategic as well as tactical decision-making and operations. This paper presents an analytic approach based on Joint Economic Lot Sizing model, and aims at capturing the most significant impacts resulting from the implementation of the AM concept on a two-level supply chain. This assessment of AM from inventory and logistics standpoints is targeted at providing insights into how manufacturers could adapt their supply chains’ planning to accommodate new paradigms in...

The Impact of Aligning IT Capability and Operations Strategy on Operational Performance

This paper examines the relationship among IT capability, operations strategy decisions and operational performance. Using primary data from a sample of European firms, the authors test a model of fit between two specific IT capability-building decisions and three competitive priorities, and they analyze the impact of IT capability alignment on several dimensions of process performance. After uncovering three stylized configurations, they note that firms tend to adopt internally coherent IT capability-building decisions but they find only mixed evidence of alignment between IT capability-building decisions and competitive priorities. Interestingly, however, failing to achieve alignment has negative performance consequences but only for firms that develop limited IT capability. Their results suggests that IT plays a central role in the fulfillment of a firm’s operations strategy, not only for firms that pursue differentiation and are interested in improving the effectiveness of their customer-oriented functions, but also for firms seeking efficiency improvements in back-office operations. Although it is, a priori, more expensive, the development of advanced IT capability can support cost leadership strategies more effectively than a frugal approach, as long as IT projects are used to generate operational knowledge and thus improve process efficiency. At the same time, their results cast further doubt on the value of frugal IT capability, even for firms that strive to reduce cost.

Improving The Distribution Planning Process In The Food&Beverage Industry: An Empirical Case Study.

The distribution planning process is one of the phases of the broader logistics and production planning process for almost every company, and plays a pivotal role in the overall performances (Lee and Kim, 2002; Bard and Nananukul, 2008). According to Chandra and Fisher (1994), companies can treat this stage in a dual approach. In the first one the overall planning process is considered as an indivisible entity: according to this way several researchers (Glover et al., 1979; Cohen et al., 1988) proposed models in order to coordinate production and distribution activities. In the second approach, the company considers the distribution policy as an independent stage of the entire planning process (for details, see Thomas and Griffin, 1996). Such an approach is more frequently adopted in industry (Chandra and Fisher, 1994). According to the “independent approach”, this paper illustrates the results of an empirical study involving a relevant food company operating in Italy. The aim of the study is to investigate the distribution planning process, in order to identify the main parameters that govern it, to analyse their impact on the company’s performances and, finally, to propose some improvements, in terms of costs reduction. According to these objectives, the study addressed, through an intensive case study, two main aspects: (i) the analysis of the company as-is context, encompassing the order process management and the supply chain structure, and (ii) the development of a simulation model that replicates the as-is context and proposes alternative scenarios (to-be), following some ad-hoc optimization rules. Thanks to the simulations, we carried out an optimal configuration for the process parameters, which guarantee, along with the standardization of the order process management, significant economics savings and increased effectiveness for the overall distribution