Harri Haapasalo

Fast production for order fulfillment: Implementing mass customization in electronics industry

Abstract Modern means to improve efficiency in manufacturing are quite diverse. However the traditional cornerstones are those still to pursue. Scale, cost, quality and time in a row are the targets and also paradigms where business is managed. Mass customization is one of these modern means to achieve these goals. It is customizing product to individual customers and producing those with principles of mass production. The key issue in it is customer focus. Fast production means delivering products to customer faster than the lead-time of the whole manufacturing process in order to satisfy customers. This can be achieved utilizing standardized methods and modularized product structure. This paper addresses to review elements of mass customization for fast productions systems. Based on theoretical cornerstones a model is created. It is generated from Finish electronic industry based on large development project entity with several manufacturing companies.

Knowledge creation through a project review process in software production

Abstract The new era of ICT that can be seen as shorter time to market has created a stronger pressure on the software production. At the same time the fast growth of complexity and size of software have caused problems in quality, costs and schedule accuracy in software development. Traditionally, new methods and tools are considered to be a solution to these difficulties, but problems have not disappeared. A great problem has been and still is the inability of the organization to manage the software development process. The research carried out in a telecommunications company pays attention to the special characteristics of the software and the software process. In order to find proper solution for the case company the various methods of assessment and measurement were studied. The case itself produced a simple tested tool to improve the software process. A new approach to the review practice was created. The traditional way of making reviews in project work has been in finding errors in specifications, design, realization, integration, implementation and operations. The new approach is based on the view of sharing knowledge of the good practices in all phases of the project and creating a knowledge base of the organization in addition to the more conventional review objectives. The case showed measurable improvements in the software development process and also a creation and enhancement of the knowledge base of good practices in software development work.

Managing one master data – challenges and preconditions

– This paper aims to provide a framework of the multidimensional concept of one master data. Preconditions required for successful one master data implementation and usage in large high‐tech companies are presented and related current challenges companies have today are identified., – This paper is qualitative in nature. First, literature was studied to find out the elements of one master data. Second, an interview study was carried out in eight high‐tech companies and in three expert companies., – One master data management framework is the composition of data, processes and information systems. Accordingly, the key challenges related to the data are that the definitions of master data are unclear and overall data quality is poor. Challenges on processes related to managing master data are inadequately defined data ownership, incoherent data management practices and lack of continuous data quality practices. Integrations between applications are fundamental challenge to tackle when constructing an holistic one master data., – Studied companies are vanguards in the area of master data management (MDM), providing good views on topical issues in large companies. This study offers a general view of the topic but not describes special company situations as companies need to adapt the presented concepts for their specific case. Significant implication for future research is that MDM can no more be classified and discussed as only an IT problem but it is a managerial challenge which requires structural changes on mindset how issues are handled., – This paper provides a better understanding over the issues which are impacting on the implementation of one master data. The preconditions of implementing and executing one master data are: an organization wide and defined data model; clear data ownership definitions; pro‐active data quality surveillance; data friendly company culture; the clear definitions of roles and responsibilities; organizational structure that supports data processes; clear data process definitions; support from the managerial level; and information systems that utilize the unified data model. The list of preconditions is wide and it also describes the incoherence of current understanding about MDM. This list helps business managers to understand the extent of the concept and to see that master data management is not only an IT issue., – The existing practical research on master data management is limited and, for example, the general challenges have not been reported earlier. This paper offers practical research on one master data. The obtained results illustrates the extent of the topic and the fact that business relevant data management is not only an IT (application) issue but requires understanding of the data, its utilization in organization and supporting practices such as data ownership.

Linking strategy into operational management

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to find a means of connecting strategic management and operative performance measurement.Design/methodology/approach – The paper focuses on the balanced scorecard (BSC), its levels of use and utilization, the influence of specific features, the most used metrics and features of successful implementation of the BSC in the energy sector. The paper is based on empirical interviews with 16 locally operating energy companies and business units of larger corporations. BSC is a wide spread strategic management system which originated in the early 1990s. The aim of the BSC is to facilitate in depth discussion about a companys vision, strategy and critical success factors and translate them into specific measures and objectives in action.Findings – The study shows that maintaining a vision and a strategy has not been very prevalent in Finnish electricity companies. However, the deregulation of the energy markets in Finland, from the mid‐1990s, has increased the competition a...

Managerial view on design for manufacturing

– The purpose of this paper is to provide a tangible example of organisational solutions in effective design for manufacturing (DfM) in a large information and communications technology (ICT) company., – An interview study was carried out in a leading ICT company to clarify the practical realisation of DfM, and the current challenges encountered. The interviews covered all the key persons involved in DfM and related processes, in a case company that has successfully applied DfM for over a decade., – The paper shows the importance of a separate management organisation for coordinating the requirements of internal functions. With relation to the case company, this organisation, in contrast to the literature, is located in production, not in product development. Despite the successful application of DfM, the case company still has challenges in exploitation of related data systems., – This paper describes one of the top companies in its field. However, the obtained results could vary to some degree, should a wider set of companies be included in the study., – Managers of other companies could learn from this example at three levels: organisational solutions for DfM, its practical realisation, and the challenges encountered., – The existing literature is relatively scarce on organisational implications of DfM implementation. This paper identifies a functional organisational location, structure and practical realisation for effective DfM.

The characteristics of and cornerstones for creating integrated teams

Purpose – Defective stakeholder management has frequently resulted in conflicts and partial failures. Integrated project delivery (IPD) and team integration provides opportunities for organizations to achieve more than they could on their own. The purpose of this study is to analyze the level and challenges of team integration. In addition, study tries to recognize the cornerstones for creating integrated teams in construction projects.Design/methodology/approach – This paper discusses the characteristics and level of team integration in a construction project, but the main purpose is to derive the cornerstones for creating integrated teams. Results are derived from the analysis of current literature and an empirical case study.Findings – This paper describes the 12 characteristics of an integrated project team. In addition, the cornerstones for creating integrated teams were recognized as the early involvement and assessment of stakeholders, continuous communication and interaction, cultural change, and ...

A framework for creating business models – a challenge in convergence of high clock speed industry

Internet Protocol (IP) convergence has been identified as the next discontinuity in the mobile telecommunications business. IP convergence brings together technologies and services from the mobile and internet domains. One of the challenges caused by this discontinuity is to create a profitable business model for the IP convergence era. This study provides two frameworks: one for describing and building, the other for evaluating business models. Based on four existing business models, six alternative scenarios of business models for mobile IP software application business are created. This paper also gives a proposal on how to evaluate the business models using the defined evaluation framework.

Improving the efficiency of verification and validation

The application of electronics and software technologies is spreading to new areas, because they offer new feature possibilities. Consequently, these technologies require more Validation and Verification (V&V) efforts, resulting in increased costs and slower time-to-market for new products. The ICT industry has been forced to significantly improve its V&V processes. In this study, major Scandinavian telecom companies have been interviewed to clarify the challenges of V&V, and to identify ways to tackle them. The management of traditional industrial sectors could use the experiences from the ICT sector as a benchmark, as they will face the same challenges.

In Search of Organisational Creativity: The Role of Knowledge Management

Contemporary management theories lead to systematic practices that appear to limit the creative capacity of any given organisation. Often there is a closed system paradigm, when in reality organisations are open systems. A desire to seek a rational way of operating is not necessarily negative, but gives priority to mechanisms and results over processes or contents. Drawing on practical experiences in architectural design within the construction industry, we point to approaches that inhibit the emergence of creativity in an organisation, and which can be harmful from the business point of view in the long run. It is suggested that one way to overcome these difficulties lies in improvements in knowledge management.

Perceptions of strategic management of technology in small high-tech enterprises

Strategic management of technology is a necessity for wealth creation in society, but also in corporations as members of that society. Emergence of new economical order enabled by global competition and proliferation of information involves increasingly rapid changes in technologies which causes major competitive challenges to enterprises to manage their technological capabilities. In the absence of commonly agreed management of technology frameworks this study discovers perceptions and current state of management of technology in high-tech SMEs. Theoretical background of this study is based on a conceptual framework of strategic management of technology originating from large enterprise practices. The elements are classified with respect to structures, objectives and company internal and external impacts. Conceptually entire field is perceived to be complex and there is contingency and immaturity in practices deployment in SMEs. As a conclusion it is suggested that SMEs should consciously develop management of technology practices, and the presented structures elements of strategic management of technology framework would provide a frame of reference when constructing the practices in enterprises. It is also proposed that strategic management of technology should be evolved as a distinguishing functional and managerial domain that enhances the management paradigm of multifunctional strategic orientation in enterprises.