Frank M. Hull

Organizing for Innovation: Beyond Burns and Stalker's Organic Type:

This paper investigates the extent to which characteristics of the organic model of organization are correlated with innovation rates in a sample of 110 American factories. The more organic rather than mechanical the socio-technical structure of the organization, the higher the innovation rate. However, the organic design rules work best in a small-scale, high technology niche. This result transcends Burns and Stalker by suggesting that there is more than one best way to organize for innovation. Some of the problems of organizing for innovation in large-scale, high technology environments are explored at the conclusion of the paper.

Flexibility and Standardization: Test of a Contingency Model of Product Design–Manufacturing Integration

This article proposes and tests a contingency model of system integration of product design and manufacturing among producers of goods involving tooling development. The model predicts which combinations of organizational and technical practices will be most effective under conditions of high and low design newness. The results, based on data from 74 firms, largely support the model. Differentiating mechanisms, such as a tall hierarchy and job specialization, are negatively associated with design–manufacturing integration, particularly for new designs. Socio-integrative mechanisms, including such flexible practices as cross-functional teaming and collocation, are positively related to design–manufacturing integration for new designs only. However, the use of in-process design controls is positively related to design–manufacturing integration regardless of design newness, which suggests that some modes of standardization may be beneficial even for new designs.

Inventions from R & D: Organizational Designs for Efficient Research Performance

Invention rates are found to be more proportional to R & D input if organization design is organic-professional rather than mechanistic-bureaucratic in a diverse sample of 110 U.S. factories. However, organic design rules are appropriate only if the work of the organization is small-scale and technically complex. Problems and opportunities associated with incorporating organic design elements into large, high-tech industries are explored and some observations offered on practices in Japanese industries.

Simultaneous Involvement in Service Product Development: A Strategic Contingency Approach

This paper analyzes how simultaneous involvement by multiple functions in the development of service products affects performance. Early simultaneous involvement entails input from the outset by all relevant functions, especially those representing downstream competencies. Given that cross-functional involvement is time consuming and costly, one may hypothesize that its best for high performance only to the extent needed, such as at early stages of development or under the condition of novelty. The impact of simultaneous involvement on performance is measured as time compression and cost reduction. The contributions of ten functions are examined at three stages of a development cycle: (1) product concept; (2) product release; and (3) after sale. How product innovation strategy moderates the impact of simultaneous influence on performance, measured as time compression and cost reduction, is examined for three product innovation strategies: new, major modifications, and minor modifications. Results from analyzing 62 service enterprises in New York show that simultaneous involvement by multiple functions has the strongest main effects on performance at the earliest stage of the product concept. But, it also has weaker effects after initial sale. If the product innovation strategy is one of novelty, simultaneous involvement by multiple functions has interactions with performance throughout the development cycle. Some functions appear to be a kind of core team that is involved throughout. Others play more stage specific roles. If the product innovation strategy involves a lesser magnitude of innovation, levels of simultaneous involvement are either lower and/or do not have positive interactions with performance. These results are generally consistent with contingency theory that suggests the level of coordination and integration is affected by the novelty and uncertainty of the task environment. These results parallel those observed studies of goods industries. However, the level of augmentation of service products after initial sale, especially those involving interpersonal exchanges and transactions, appears higher than for more tangible goods.

EARLY SIMULTANEOUS INFLUENCE OF MANUFACTURING ACROSS STAGES OF THE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS: IMPACT ON TIME AND COST

This paper focuses on the concept of ESI (early simultaneous influence) as a cornerstone of concurrent engineering. How much influence downstream functions such as manufacturing engineering should exert in product design decisions is investigated by stage of development. Six stages were defined as: (1) research, (2) product concept, (3) prototype and test, (4) final design, (5) tooling and facilities, and (6) ramp-up to full production. Performance is measured as time compression at the tooling and facilities stage and reduction in manufactured cost. Results from analysis of 74 companies suggest that manufacturing influence has significant effects on performance at the first three stages. Its peak impact is at the third stage, a crossroads of work by up and downstream functions. If the design is new, however, the peak impact of ESI is earlier as indicated by significant interaction effects at the research and product concept stages. We also show that high levels of manufacturing influence at the end stage have a weak negative interaction effect with performance when designs are new. To the extent that high levels of manufacturing influence within their own domain preclude reciprocal influence by upstream functions, this result is consistent with the notion of concurrency as simultaneous influence by multiple functions at all points along the value chain.

Profiles of leaders, followers, and laggards in programmable automation adoption

Programmable automation (PA) helps firms compete in a marketplace that is increasingly requiring higher quality production and continual product redesign. Yet only a small percentage of firms actually use some form of this technology, and even they have not capitalized on its full technical potential. Why do some firms choose to adopt PA technologies while others do not? How is the use of these technologies related to the firms technology strategy, human resources, and organization design? Results show that leaders operated in more technologically intensive industries that were experiencing more overall growth. Leaders generally held a technology strategy that emphasized product quality and product differentiation in the form of minor and major product changes, but not fundamentally new products. Finally, leaders were more likely to have a hybrid organic-mechanistic type of organization design that was relatively flat and emphasized personal control.

Some New Species of Syrphidæ

Related to the clarapex wied but distinguished by the ochraceous brown coloration, and the slender paired spots upon the abdomen. Female. Length 10 mm. Head: Cheeks light brown, face yel lowish-brown along the sides, blackish along the tubercle in the middle. Vertex blackish above, with a single median row of short, black hairs. Front brownish-black broadly throughout the middle; pale brown along the edges. Antennae brown, the third joint darker apically and dorsally and about half again as long as wide. Thorax: mesonotum dark brown, feebly shining including the lateral margin, the middle of the disc with a pair of conspicuous, light, yellowish brown pollinose vittae widely separated between which is a much more slender one running from anterior margin all the way to the scutellum. These vittae have brassy reflections. The post calli and the humeri are brown, the latter paler. Pleurae brownish black, the pro-, meso-, pteroand upper sternopleurae obscurely reddish brown, densely covered with silvery pubescence and with some scattered pale pile. The mesonotum itself is broadly covered with pale, whitish-brown pubescence and with very short, sparse black pile. Scutellum light, brownish-yellow, obscurely brown across the disc with short, sparse, stubby, black pile and blackish ventral fringe. Abdomen: considerably constricted basally, dark brown in color, including the first segment and marked very vaguely with diffuse spots as fol lows: a pair of submedial, rather small, light brown elongate spots well separated in the middle of the third segment; fourth segment with a pair of similarly placed and colored spots and the lateral anterior corners diffusely lighter brown. Fifth segment over twice as wide as long and a little shorter than the preceeding segment but with a similar arrangement of spots. Sixth segment rather long, flattened, ridged in the middle and though only half again as long as wide, the basal width is much narrower than that of the preceeding segment. This segment is apically pointed and laterally strongly compressed. Pile of the abdomen black except for a few long pale hairs at the extreme base of the first segment. Legs: front and mid dle tibiae and tarsi pale yellow, the last two tarsal joints barely dark er and a mere suggestion o? brownish, submedial annnlus on the tibiae. Anterior femora brown, middle pair darker, the hind pair quite dark brown, their pile brownish black. Hind tibiae, except extreme base, dark brown. Hind tarsi quite pale yellow, the extreme base of basi

Tertiary Flies from Colorado and the Baltic Amber

I wish to. thank Dr. Frank M. Carpenter of Harvard University for the opportunity to study the. following two species .of most interesting f.ossil flies. The. asilid from the Miocene shales of Colorado is particularly interesting because of the information that it affords as to the narrow extent .of change in Recent related flies. The syrphid in Baltic amber represents the third species belonging to its genus and is unusually well preserved. Both are from the collections of the Museum of Comparative Zoology.