John C. Anderson

Operations strategy: A literature review

Abstract Competitive pressures on American business have created the need for improved understanding and practice of operations strategy. Over the past 20 years some 80 articles and several books have been written on the subject. These writings, while diverse in nature and placement, serve to shape what we know about operations strategy and the opportunities for improved practice and meaningful research. This paper examines an underlying argument that exists within the literature that proper strategic positioning or aligning of operations capabilities can significantly impact competitive strength and business performance of an organization. The discussion is organized around four related premises: (1) that there exists a strategic, as opposed to a tactical, view of operations, (2) that there must be some synergistic process of integrating business and operations strategic issues, (3) that there are operations decision or policy areas which demonstrate strategic opportunities, and (4) that conceptual structures exist by which to target and focus operations strategy. The paper concludes that the literature and emerging research support each of these premises to varying degrees. The authors believe that further understanding of these premises could be benefited by more careful and consistent definition of operations strategy concepts and terminology, by more attention being placed on the content and process of operations strategy, by more empirical study, and finally by more emphasis being placed on service operations strategy.

The content of manufacturing strategy: An empirical study

Abstract While there has been an extensive literature written on manufacturing strategy since the 1960s, little empirical research has been done. This article reports on a study of manufacturing strategy in thirty-nine companies based on questionnaire responses received from manufacturing managers. The study indicates that things are not as bleak as the literature might suggest. About one-third of the companies appear to have a well-developed manufacturing strategy. In those cases where the manufacturing strategy exists it is consistent with the business strategy and internally consistent among mission, objectives, policies, and distinctive competence. The term “manufacturing strategy” is not well understood by the managers surveyed. When asked to state their manufacturing strategy, they gave statements about what manufacturing should be, what it should do, how it should do it, and why it should do it. Apparently, the terminology itself is confusing. Frameworks for stating both business strategies and the elements of manufacturing strategy need to be strengthened and some specific suggestions are given in the article for doing so. Even though two-thirds of the companies did not have well-developed manufacturing strategies, 80% of the managers felt that manufacturing had lent competitive strength to the business. This was being done through the development of a distinctive competence in manufacturing that provided competitive advantage. Manufacturing strategies seemed to follow from business strategy. This is contrary to the literature, which indicates that manufacturing strategy is missing, or, at the very least inconsistent with business strategy and marketing strategy. Perhaps a stronger relationship exists than was previously thought. This article provides some evidence for establishing this premise and also provides data on the general status of strategy in manufacturing today.

An integrated systems approach to process control and maintenance

Abstract Organizational leaders increasingly recognize process management as an essential element in organizational performance. Two key tools for process management––Statistical Process Control and Maintenance Management––can create profound economic benefits, particularly when they are coordinated. This paper demonstrates the value of integrating Statistical Process Control and maintenance by jointly optimizing their policies to minimize the total costs associated with quality, maintenance, and inspection. While maintenance is often scheduled periodically, this analysis encourages “adaptive” maintenance where the maintenance schedule accelerates when the process becomes unstable. This paper presents a number of models to demonstrate the economic behavior and value of coordinating process control and maintenance. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is conducted to develop insights into the economic and process variables that influence the integration efforts.

The Process of Manufacturing Strategy: Some Empirical Observations and Conclusions

Manufacturing strategy has become a subject of increasing importance to practice and research. It involves two elements: content and process. The content of manufacturing strategy has recently received considerable attention. The process of manufacturing strategy has not received the same level of emphasis. There is little prescriptive literature on the subject, and even less literature of an empirical nature. It is argued that effective manufacturing strategy is inseparable from an effective process for the development of manufacturing strategy. This article provides some beginnings with regard to the process of manufacturing strategy by (1) exploring and drawing out concepts and methodologies in existing literature which can contribute to the process of manufacturing strategy, (2) reporting on an empirical study of the process of manufacturing strategy involving 53 manufacturing executives within organisations primarily from the midwest region of the USA, and (3) developing implications for future pract...

A study of the MRP implementation process

Abstract This paper reports on a large-scale survey of companies involved in MRP implementation. Survey responses are used to develop a profile of problems typically encountered during the implementation process. Discriminant analysis is used to determine which of those problems, and additional factors, appear to affect the success or failure of MRP implementation. Finally, comparisons are made between the problems encountered during implementation and problems which were found to significantly discriminate between successful and unsuccessful MRP implementors.

Hypoglycemia and diabetes: a report of a workgroup of the American Diabetes Association and the Endocrine Society.

OBJECTIVE To review the evidence about the impact of hypoglycemia on patients with diabetes that has become available since the past reviews of this subject by the American Diabetes Association and The Endocrine Society and to provide guidance about how this new information should be incorporated into clinical practice. PARTICIPANTS Five members of the American Diabetes Association and five members of The Endocrine Society with expertise in different aspects of hypoglycemia were invited by the Chair, who is a member of both, to participate in a planning conference call and a 2-day meeting that was also attended by staff from both organizations. Subsequent communications took place via e-mail and phone calls. The writing group consisted of those invitees who participated in the writing of the manuscript. The workgroup meeting was supported by educational grants to the American Diabetes Association from Lilly USA, LLC and Novo Nordisk and sponsorship to the American Diabetes Association from Sanofi. The sponsors had no input into the development of or content of the report. EVIDENCE The writing group considered data from recent clinical trials and other studies to update the prior workgroup report. Unpublished data were not used. Expert opinion was used to develop some conclusions. CONSENSUS PROCESS Consensus was achieved by group discussion during conference calls and face-to-face meetings, as well as by iterative revisions of the written document. The document was reviewed and approved by the American Diabetes Associations Professional Practice Committee in October 2012 and approved by the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors in November 2012 and was reviewed and approved by The Endocrine Societys Clinical Affairs Core Committee in October 2012 and by Council in November 2012. CONCLUSIONS The workgroup reconfirmed the previous definitions of hypoglycemia in diabetes, reviewed the implications of hypoglycemia on both short- and long-term outcomes, considered the implications of hypoglycemia on treatment outcomes, presented strategies to prevent hypoglycemia, and identified knowledge gaps that should be addressed by future research. In addition, tools for patients to report hypoglycemia at each visit and for clinicians to document counseling are provided.

A study of MRP benefits and costs

Abstract This paper describes benefits and costs of MRP systems based on a large survey of MRP users. These users report they have achieved significant improvements in inventory turnover, delivery performance, and other benefits, and that further improvements are expected when their MRP systems are fully implemented. A series of regression models are also described in the paper which explain why some companies achieve more benefits from MRP than others. The models are not only fitted to the sample data, but they obtain good predictive results on a holdout sample. These models indicate that companies should stress a broad approach to implementation; there is no one overriding factor which guarantees MRP success.

Productivity as a Performance Measure

Both the improvement of productivity and the effectiveness of performance measures have been topics of extreme interest to managers and researchers in recent years. Looks at the potential advantages and disadvantages of using the traditional productivity measure, output/input, as a measure of performance at the firm, work‐unit, individual, product, or product‐line level. Considers the ability of productivity measures to adjust for price changes and to detect factor substitutions. The distortion of productivity measures by fixed expenses and the inability of productivity measures to consider quality changes are among the disadvantage cited. Also, criticisms that have been levelled at traditional cost accounting measures are found to apply to productivity measures. Proposes three criteria that can aid in determining when productivity measures are appropriate as performance measures. Makes recommendations for ways of using productivity measures effectively also.

ADOPTION RATES AND PATTERNS OF BEST PRACTICES IN NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Firms are experimenting with numerous different best practices in order to improve the timeliness and effectiveness of their new product development (NPD) process. This paper examines how widely adopted certain best practices are, and if the adoptions show any pattern in terms of being simultaneously adopted within organisations. We developed an inventory of best practices related to NPD, and an empirical survey was administered to 39 companies. Our results indicate that best practices associated with enhancing the human resources involved in NPD, and improving the fuzzy front end of NPD appear to be getting little attention to date, despite a strong call for such attention in the management literature. Best practices associated with the strategic implementation of NPD (project selection, goals, technological leadership, product strategy, and customer involvement) are on average all more widely adopted than best practices associated with controlling the execution of NPD (process control, metrics, documentation, change control).

Conceptualizing organizational implementation and practice of statistical process control

Abstract Current widespread implementation and practice of statistical process control (SPC) attest to the potential of SPC to contribute to continuous quality improvement efforts. While much has been written about SPC- related topics, a more fundamental question — “What does the implementation and practice of SPC entail?” — has yet to merit a detailed conceptual or empirical examination. As a result, very little knowledge has accumulated or has been documented to identify, describe, and define the requisite organizational policies and actions to make the implementation and subsequent practice of SPC an effective and viable part of any organizations quality management system. In this paper, we report on research efforts towards an enhanced conceptualization of this phenomenon; we provide various definitional perspectives on organizational efforts to implement and practice SPC, culminating in the proposition of the construct, SPC Implementation/ Practice , and its nominal definition. We also employ an empirical approach, utilizing a panel of subject-matter-experts and the affinity diagram, to identify and define a set of 14 requisite policies and actions indicative of the implementation and practice of SPC within organizations. The identification of these 14 requisite policies and actions facilitates the construction of a diagnostic instrument that organizations can employ to assess shortcomings and uncover improvement opportunities in their implementation and practice of SPC.