Bjørnar Henriksen

Holistic performance management: an integrated framework

Purpose – The work presented aimed at developing an integrated framework for holistic performance management.Design/methodology/approach – The research was carried out using an action research approach. A case study was used as the basis for developing a pilot framework for performance management, involving both employees in the case organization and researchers. The research is based on theoretical contributions within performance management, total quality management, and trend analysis.Findings – A generic holistic performance management framework is outlined, encompassing diverse areas that need to play together and reinforce each other to give full effect to an organization. The main focus is a case study of a bank office, where a tailored version of the performance management framework was developed to give a setting where all these elements now are harmonized and work together.Research limitations/implications – The framework must be viewed as a pilot that should be further tested in other types of ...

Knowledge and manufacturing strategy–how different manufacturing paradigms have different requirements to knowledge. Examples from the automotive industry

In this paper we aim to give insight to how manufacturing strategies, represented by manufacturing paradigms are linked to different approaches to knowledge. Strategies are closely related to the development of core competence and how to deal with knowledge in general. In this paper we focus on how the different manufacturing strategies represent different challenges when it comes to knowledge creation and knowledge transfer. Our discussion has references to suppliers in the automotive industry, represented by a Scandinavian case. In this case the focus is on lean principles, which in contrast to mass manufacturing, represents attention to the synthetic knowledge base and tacit knowledge. Mass manufacturing, which is also still relevant in the automotive industry, is more centralised in its approach to knowledge and is focusing more on the analytical knowledge base and explicit knowledge. Knowledge should be a central part of companies’ strategies, also functional such as within manufacturing, and should cover issues such as: what is crucial knowledge, how do we create it, and how to transfer it to meet our overall company goals?

Benchmarking applications in public sector principal‐agent relationships

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the range of benchmarking applications that can be used in a principal‐agent relationship setting often found in the public sector.Design/methodology/approach – Collection and critical analysis of secondary data from relevant publications addressing applications of benchmarking in the public sector. Extraction of knowledge from several research projects where the authors have been involved in studying and developing benchmarking approaches for different public sector organizations. Induction of new theory about the use of benchmarking in principal‐agent relationships in the public sector, grounded through empirical evidence from case studies.Findings – A number of new approaches to benchmarking in the public sector have been identified and described, some of which are already used in real life cases, others which need further development before being implemented. All of these can introduce benefits to both principals and agents involved in such benchmarkin...

Evaluating and prioritizing projects – setting targets

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a methodology aiming to improve the process of prioritizing among projects, focusing on the strategic impacts. The methodology is expected to have a particular relevance for companies operating in a distributed organizational environment.Design/methodology/approach – The methodology has been developed within the PROMISE project, where ten applications and eight corresponding companies (application owners) represent the cases where the methodology has been developed and tested.Findings – The paper has documented a need for a methodology that links projects and initiatives to overall the overall company strategies. Through the PROMISE project such a method business effect evaluation methodology (BEEM) is developed. The structure of the method and the process of using it are described.Originality/value – This paper presents a methodology, BEEM, proven relevant in different contexts when projects and units need to be evaluated, compared, prioritized and coordi...

The Innovation Process

Continuous improvement and incremental change is not enough—companies also need to be part of major changes or radical and disruptive innovation. Innovation is necessary in all organizations in order to maintain or improve competitive position. Innovation is no less important in manufacturing than in any other section of industry. The ‘Oslo Manual’ defines innovation as, “… the implementation of a new or significantly improved product (good or service), or process, a new marketing method, or a new organizational method in business practices, workplace organization or external relations”. Radical innovation is about making major change and we can visualise it as a ‘step change’ in some measure of performance such as revenue or efficiency. A high level of risk is not possible for many companies who prefer instead to invest in incremental innovation or continuous small changes to their products, processes and services. Incremental innovation is supported in manufacturing by initiatives such as the Plan Do Check Act cycle and ‘Lean Manufacturing’. Most manufacturing organisations need to consider both radical and incremental innovations. Manufacturing paradigms have inherent principles and guidelines for the development of innovation processes. Projects and project models are essential for building an efficient innovation 20 process.

ECO-Boat MOL Capturing Data from Real Use of the Product

In many industries, such as leisure boat production, product design and process engineering are often based on diffuse criteria and a lack of data about the actual use of the products. If design and process development are not based on facts, there is a great risk of setting the wrong quality criteria and performance requirements. In the leisure boat industry the lack of data from how customers actually use their products results in product design based on experience (looking backwards), subjective judgments and input from certain customers or key persons. This often results in too high or wrong quality standards and consequently over-processing. ECO-boat MOL has studied this situation in the leisure boat industry. The paper describes how this research project has approached the need for more fact-based design through three different sources. The project also (re)defines work processes in design and production that take advantage of the new data and information.

Is there a tactical level of business processes

Purpose – As companies are facing an increased need for knowledge creation, innovation, improvement, and change, the processes that enable these matters should be identified. The purpose of this paper is to identify and find a way of classifying these processes.Design/methodology/approach – The paper conducted literature studies to identify what could be the tactical processes. This has then been exemplified through a case study in the automotive industry where the focus has been on the formal process descriptions and how decisions and roles are distributed.Findings – From the case study the paper can identify processes that could be classified as tactical, as they are not only “something between” the strategic and operational processes, but also different by nature, as they are related to certain dynamic elements of a company, such as knowledge creation, innovations and improvements.Research limitations/implications – To some extent the research is based on formal descriptions in systems and documents fr...

An IoT Fueled DSS for MOL Marine Auxiliaries Management

The producers of marine auxiliaries face the challenge, that they need to adapt their middle-of-life activities to the otherwise defined and often not well communicated schedules of the ships, which are carrying their products. This paper presents both the methodological approach to a solution and its prototypical implementation in a specific use case. The solution presented is utilizing the Internet of Things (IoT) and the data that is constantly being produced by the ships through the Automatic Identification System (AIS) to help overcome this problem.

Research Roadmaps in Manufacturing

The contribution of manufacturing to the momentum to change and improvement in modern civilization has its basis in innovations and improvements that to a large extent build on research activities. According to OECD manufacturing accounts for the bulk of business R&D. 80% of the EU private sector Research and Technology Development expenditure is spent within manufacturing. Much research work has been devoted to improving manufactured product quality and manufacturing process efficiency for many decades. However, new research areas in manufacturing are emerging and we also see that new research schools are now entering the manufacturing field, such as social science, strategy development, and increasingly innovation, knowledge and learning. Over the last 40–50 years manufacturing industry has undergone a significant change, new manufacturing paradigms have appeared with new focus areas. It is possible to recognize four generations of research focus areas: machine focus, factory focus, supply chain focus and now, life cycle focus.

The Knowledge Dimension

The capabilities of organisations are closely related to knowledge. Resources can be regarded as capabilities if we have the knowledge to exploit them. The development of technological, but also human and organizational capabilities is important to create, transfer and adapt knowledge. These capabilities are often defined as a companies’ ‘infrastructure’ as opposed to ‘structure’ which include the more tangible aspects such as physical assets (facilities and capacities), vertical integration and process technology. Typically, it is the transfer and combination of knowledge that initiate changes for example innovations and improvements. Knowledge creation is a difficult process, involving people and their knowledge in a way that not only supports knowledge creation, but also accelerates it. Knowledge transfer across organizational boundaries can involve tacit, explicit, and cultural knowledge to varying degrees. Being global means companies have opportunities for developing a wider repertoire of knowledge, but it will be more difficult and costly to transfer the knowledge to other corporate units that do not possess the same relational absorptive capacity.