Narendar Sumukadas

Workforce agility through employee involvement

This paper develops and empirically tests a theoretical model of the impact of several workforce management practices on workforce agility. We apply an employee involvement lens to examine a range of practices, viewing them as sets, rather than a hodgepodge of sporadic individual practices. Beyond examining which sets of practices are more or less effective, we develop a unique conceptualization of how these practices interact to promote workforce agility. Our resulting hierarchical model envisages lower-order practices as providing a supportive environment, upon which higher-order practices build, to foster workforce agility. Empirical testing supports this model.

Coping with customs clearance uncertainties in global sourcing

Purpose – Seeks to show how developing countries are becoming important links in global sourcing networks. However, inefficient functioning of governments as customs‐clearance agents adversely impacts the flow of goods to and from these countries. This uncertainty not only impacts firms in the developing countries, but also seeps into the global supply networks in which these firms participate. Existing strategic supplier partnership (SSP) models do not address the role of government.Design/methodology/approach – This paper utilizes observations gathered from a field study to understand better the mechanisms that companies use to cope with government‐induced import uncertainty. The paper draws insights from a buyer‐buyer collaboration mechanism found among a few firms in the printed circuit board manufacturing industry in India. To generalize the findings to other settings, the paper investigates how such a mechanism came to be, and how others in different settings might benefit from similar mechanisms.Fi...

Employee involvement: a hierarchical conceptualisation of its effect on quality

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to study the effect of employee involvement (EI) practices on quality comprehensively.Design/methodology/approach – This paper views the EI domain as sets of related practices interacting within a hierarchy. Using survey data, the paper tests a model of higher order practices building on a foundation of lower order practices to affect quality.Findings – The results support a hierarchical conceptualisation of EI practices. Some practices are found to be more effective than others, yet even the less effective EI practices serve a supportive purpose.Research limitations/implications – The model was analyzed from a predictive perspective, using a relatively small sample. Rather than simply identifying some EI practices as more effective than others, it is important to view the practices as being interrelated.Practical implications – Cherry‐picking only the most effective EI practices may not work. Managers must first install a foundation of less effective practices.Ori...

Ready-to-use simulation

Business students are typically introduced to the concept of process management in their introductory course on operations management. A very important learning outcome here is an appreciation that the management of processes is a key to the management of quality. Some of the related concepts are qualitative, such as strategic and behavioral issues, whereas others are quantitative, such as statistical process control (SPC). Students often fail to interlink the qualitative and quantitative concepts. SPC, in particular, tends to be one of the most challenging topics for students. This exercise allows students to intuitively experience the underpinnings of SPC, embedded within the broader context of managing processes for quality. Once students become familiar with terms such as process variability, process control, and process capability, they are less daunted by SPC and become more appreciative of the number crunching that SPC entails.

Operations Strategy with Paper Boats

When participants in introductory business courses encounter the term “operations strategy,” it is not easy for them to appreciate what operations strategy is about, or how it fits with overall business strategy. This game breaks down highfalutin jargon into experiences that participants can readily relate to. While working in teams to make paper boats, and competing with other teams, participants realize that they have intuitively engaged in the formulation and implementation of their team’s operations strategy. They begin to appreciate the interplay between the customer’s requirements, their own team’s strengths, the “competitive priorities” that their team must emphasize, and the tradeoffs inherent in making these decisions.

Preparing engineering students for the global sourcing environment

Rapid changes in modern product development and realization and the move towards globalization are creating gaps in engineering education systems around the world. The global economy has changed the way that engineering firms design, develop, and produce their products. The new global business realities mandate that all firms should evaluate many options available worldwide, not just locally. The current trends are only likely to continue as the world economy becomes more competitive, interdependent, and characterized by global relationships among supply chain partners. This paper presents a plan for preparing engineering students for the new global sourcing environments and product realization processes.

Fostering engineering students engagement using problem-based learning and course learner agent object portfolios

Engineering education today is undergoing an unprecedented array of challenges, including maintaining student engagement during the lecture and throughout the semester. Fostering student engagement in the class room has become a challenging task for engineering educators. In this paper, the authors report on the application of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) to maintain student engagement throughout each lecture, and the use of Learner Agent Object (LAO) portfolios to maintain student engagement in the course throughout the semester.

The Power of Process Improvement

Over the last several decades many systematic management approaches, such as Total Quality Management, aimed at improving organizational performance and employee satisfaction have captured organizations’attention. Given their origins in statistics, operations management, and engineering, many of the concepts and techniques are technical. When first introduced to these methods, students become lost in their complexity and lose interest. This exercise was designed to provide students a simple way to experience firsthand the power of process improvement so that, once their interest was stimulated, they would explore advanced methods.