Ina Heine

Critical incidents of quality orientation in lower and middle management

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present research about identifying critical management behaviour regarding quality orientation in organisations. Design/methodology/approach – In order to describe how quality orientation is manifested in management behaviour, the critical incident technique was chosen. First, quality orientation was defined based on an extensive literature review. Then, critical incidents that represent a behavioural manifestation of each dimension were derived through a deductive approach. Lastly, an expert group consisting of scientists and practitioners were asked to categorise the critical incidents and evaluate their practical relevance and completeness. Findings – The results show that the construct quality orientation is related to the five variables internal customer focus, external customer focus, continuous improvement orientation, systems-thinking perspective, and data-driven. For each variable four critical incidents were developed and evaluated by the expert group. A...

ANP-based knowledge management solutions framework for the long-term complaint knowledge transfer

This paper presents a methodological framework based on the analytical network process (ANP) approach for selecting knowledge management (KM) solutions for transferring complaint knowledge to new product developments. Based on an extensive literature review and prior research projects, competing objectives, diverse criteria as well as various organisation-specific factors have been identified and integrated into the framework. An expert study amongst 15 KM experts was conducted to evaluate KM solutions with respect to the identified objectives and selection criteria. Additionally, the practical applicability was tested in a case study in the German machinery and equipment industry. The framework exceeds existing approaches to technical complaint management (TCM) in enabling a more elaborated design of the long-term knowledge transfer phase within the TCM process. In this regard, the framework provides a systematic approach to assist practitioners in selecting KM solutions for a specific organisational setting. Several universal implications for selecting KM solutions in the context of TCM were derived from the results of the expert study and the case study (e.g. most favourable KM solutions for single criteria). These findings enable an effective and efficient transfer of complaint knowledge to future product developments, and thus facilitate the design of a more sustainable and improved TCM process.

Conceptual Approach to Integrated Human-Centered Performance Management on the Shop Floor

The aim of this paper is to present a conceptual approach for an integrated human-centered performance management on shop floor level. Existing practical and theoretical approaches to both performance management and shop floor management in the context of production are commonly based on managerial driven key performance indicators (KPIs). These metrics neglect a worker-oriented preparation and visualization, thus being detrimental to the motivation of workers. With our concept we address this shortcoming by (1) considering and aligning both strategy and operations, (2) directing on the shop floor level, (3) considering explicitly the perspective of workers, and (4) integrating motivational gamification elements. The development of the approach included extensive literature review to identify existing research deficiencies. Subsequently, we derived requirements for an integrated human-centered approach to performance management on the shop floor. Finally, the results were used to define an overriding research framework and to conceptualize the aspired performance management approach. Central to this are digitalized data collection, intelligent KPI calculation and consolidation as well as motivating visualization and presentation of information dedicated the needs of shop floor workers.

Aid for the User-Centered Evaluation of Human Machine Interfaces During Ramp-up of Socio-Cyber-Physical Production Systems

Aim of the present research is the introduction of a self-assessment instrument fostering the user-centered development and evaluation of human machine interfaces during ramp-ups of socio-cyber-physical production systems. This objective is addressed by first outlining the concept of socio-cyber-physical production systems and their specific design restrictions. Then existing user-centered design approaches are analyzed and guiding questions from a user-centered perspective are deduced. The questions are structured under consideration of the agile framework scrum. Applicability of the instrument is tested by conducting a self-assessment with “oculavis”, a software environment for smart glasses and other wearable technologies. Results show that the integration of agile and user-centered development remains a challenge in practice and seems to be approached more intuitively than methodical.