Douglas A. Hensler

The AO chronicle: earth@omega or sustainability@alpha?

We are at perilous points in the histories of humanity and of planet Earth. Plant and animal species are disappearing at an alarming rate in parallel with ecosystem distress and destruction – with responsibility for and consequences of set firmly upon the furrowed brow of humanity. On one hand there is urgent need to abate global environmental degradation and on the other there is concern for humankind – alleviation of suffering and poverty through economic development. It appears increasingly likely that only great resolve with rapid and appropriate action born out of radical change in our worldview may forestall disaster. Too often, however, “the right‐hand doesn’t know what the left‐hand is doing”. Sustainable development is an area that considers these dual imperatives; examined herein are contributions that can be made to sustainable development by businesses applying organizational excellence principles to activities with environmental and societal implications.

A simulation analysis of factors influencing the flow time and through‐put performance of functional and cellular layouts

Contrasts functional layouts and cellular layouts with regard to the effects of set‐up time reduction and lot size on flow time and through‐put. The structural environment for the functional analysis is an efficient functional system with a staged sequence of four machine centers with unidirectional flow and no backtracking. The structural environment for the cellular analysis is a partitioned cell consisting of one machine from each of the four machine types with unidirectional flow and no backtracking. Simulation models produce robust results for eight lot size levels and one (functional model) and seven (cellular model) set‐up time reduction levels. The results contrast the effectiveness of the two manufacturing approaches under differing input conditions. Shows that the choice between the functional structure and the cellular structure significantly affects through‐put at lot sizes up to 55, while for lot sizes of 60 and above there is no significant effect. The study also confirms previous results regarding the effect of manufacturing structure choice on flow time.

QFD and the BEST paradigm: deploying sustainable solutions

This paper joins concepts from sustainable development, business excellence, and quality function deployment to develop a vehicle that deploys a unified concept of BEST Business Excellence. Four sustainability cornerstones comprise BEST: Biophysical/Environmental Sustainability; Economic Sustainability; Social Sustainability and Technical/Technological Sustainability. European Foundation for Quality Management Business Excellence Model provides a conceptual framework to which the construct of business excellence is wedded herein. Other TQM/Excellence models provide similar frameworks. Without a deployment mechanism, good policies are no more than words and diagrams; therefore, this paper provides a BEST Deployment model.

The performance of initial public offerings in the Mexican stock market, 1987-1993

Abstract This paper documents differences in the performance of bank and nonbank initial public offerings (IPOs) in Mexico during 1987–1993. We measure performance relative to the Mexican stock market index. Banks experience much larger initial underpricing than nonbanks due in part to a hot issue market in 1987. In the aftermarket, excess returns for banks, industrials, and services are not significant. Excess aftermarket returns for brokerage houses are significantly negative. We also find that underpricing of the privatized IPOs diminishes over time, supporting the argument that the Mexican government offered discounts on IPOs issued early in the privatization program.

Modeling BEST business excellence

BEST business excellence addresses the issue of excellence and sustainability from four perspectives: bio/physical, economic, social, and technological. The concept of BEST business excellence seeks to address the balance of objectives that many academics and practitioners alike believe are necessary, perhaps not sufficient, to secure the long‐term survival, prosperity, and thriving of humankind and its institutions. Somewhat allied with triple bottom line, this concept is in its infancy and little work has been completed in the formation of the concept intuitively or formally. This paper begins a discourse to develop an optimization model for the concept of BEST business excellence. The models presented herein are graphical and descriptive and offer a basis for further development. These models represent the transformation from maximizing economic outcomes as the organizational objective constrained by B‐sustainability (bio/physical) largely through regulation, S‐sustainability (social) largely through a sense of obligation or by consumer action, and T‐sustainability (technology) largely through the limitations of current technology available. The new model offers the different perspective of the objective function containing variables representing B‐, E‐, and S‐sustainability, wherein those objectives are jointly optimised using technology (T‐sustainability) where cost becomes the constraint. The resultant descriptive model shows how technology forms the centerpiece of optimization and provides direction for technological development resulting in simultaneous optimization of bio/physical, economic, and social objectives.

East meets West: Weaving the threads of Deming, da Vinci and the Tao Te Ching

Douglas A. Hensler, Rick L. Edgeman & Jose-Luis Guerrero-Cusumano College of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Colorado at Boulder, Campus Box 433, Boulder, CO 80309-0433, USA, Multinational Alliance for the Advancement of Organizational Excellence, College of Business, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA & The Summer International Management Programme at Oxford University, McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, 20057, USA

Next‐generation quality management: multinational, multidisciplinary and performance‐focused

Outlines the origin, vision, guiding principles and strategic intents of the Multinational Alliance for the Advancement of Organizational Excellence (MAAOE). Describes how MAAOE brings together leaders from many disciplines who are bonded together by a shared desire to investigate, create, disseminate and apply the multidisciplinary and multicultural knowledge necessary to assist organizations in their quest for excellence.

Developing the organization for growth

The CEO of a fulfillment company in Portland, Oregon, USA, has long been known for innovation and growth. He has reached the stage where he wishes to grow the firm significantly over the next five to ten years. Within the first four months of the current fiscal year, the company has already doubled its sales pace. Doubling the size is not the end goal, for the CEO wants to eventually take the firm to 10‐20 times the size of the most recent fiscal year completed. To set the stage, the CEO commissioned an initial set of discussions with his key management personnel to ascertain whether or not he has the personnel in place to grow the firm. Herein the report of that effort.

Knowledge Dissemination and Advancement of Organizational Excellence

Since 1998 the Multinational Alliance for the Advancement of Organisational Excellence (MAAOE) has worked to advance multinational, multidisciplinary, and performance-focused quality management. Three strategic intentions, each with its own goals and ob..

The kids are bickering and sniping: missteps in collaborative management

One of the methods used to develop “integrated management” is a collaborative management style by an organization leader. Known under a number of monikers including collaborative management, empowerment, and pushing decisions down, these attempts sometimes yield negative results emanating from a misunderstanding of what collaborative management means. The aim of this article is to present anecdotal evidence of missteps in collaborative management through the use of two mini‐case studies of firms with which the author has consulted. One firm is a large public corporation and one is a small private firm, and the missteps are similar across the firms.