Neil D. Burns

Implications of postponement for the supply chain

As a marketing, logistics and manufacturing concept, postponement has been around in the literature for a long time. Its application can also be dated to the 1920s. However, only in recent times has it been used as a supply chain strategy. Postponement fosters a new way of thinking about product design, process design and supply chain management. In this paper, we rethink the supply chain from a postponement point of view and present the implications of postponement for the decoupling point, supply chain integration, control of the supply chain and capacity planning issues. The objective is to extend the significance of postponement towards the perspective of a holistic supply chain context.

Postponement: a review and an integrated framework

The concept of postponement has a long history of academic literature and practical applications. The recent literature has also well documented that the need for postponement is driven by todays market and business environment. However, its applications are still not as widespread as expected. Therefore, we are interested in what factors enable or hinder the successful implementation of postponement. After a review on postponement, we propose an integrated framework that will help to develop a set of general ideas on which further work can be based. The practical difficulties associated with moving toward postponement are also included in this framework. The objective is also to understand better the challenges that exist in implementing postponement strategies.

Management of uncertainty through postponement

It has long been recognized that one of the most important tasks for any organization to cope with is uncertainties. However, uncertainty in the business environment has still been the main cause of failure in industry. The paper investigates the role of postponement in the management of uncertainty. The concept of postponement is developed to include product development postponement, purchasing postponement, production postponement and logistics postponement. These postponement strategies are all presented to cope with different levels of uncertainty. Finally, conclusions are drawn and some remarks about further research are made.

Investigating factors affecting ERP selection in made‐to‐order SME sector

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of research carried out as part of an industrial project for selection of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system in a made‐to‐order (MTO) small‐to‐medium enterprise (SME) scenario. It develops a framework or methodology for selection. It also highlights the areas pertaining to the unique needs of, first, the SME sector and, second, the MTO sector, to be considered while selecting a solution. A work book is developed to provide a structured ERP software selection process for SMEs using a comprehensive literature review plus practical experience. This research is potentially aimed at being useful to other SMEs as a guide for a structured selection process.Design/methodology/approach – A combination of comprehensive literature review and experience of managing the selection process for an ERP system in an SME was employed for the study.Findings – Over the past few years, the number of large companies buying new ERP systems has reached satur...

Transformational leadership and organizational culture: the situational strength perspective

Abstract This paper provides a new leadership alignment model incorporating various concepts focusing on leadership styles, organizational leadership, and situational strength. These concepts are brought together to introduce a leadership model, which looks not only at individual leadership and the effect of that on the organization but also at an organization as a system and how leadership behaviour and culture in individual departments or sections in an organization can be explained. Based on the work of Podsakoff et al., a 23-item measure of transformational leadership questionnaire was employed to evaluate transformational leaders. 339 followers from five manufacturing companies were asked to complete the questionnaire about their leaders and it was analysed to identify transformational leaders. The 76 manufacturing leaders then completed the organizational culture assessment instrument and a situational strength questionnaire, which was used to study the hypothesis.

Rapid manufacturing: impact on supply chain methodologies and practice

This paper demonstrates the use of Rapid Manufacturing (RM) as the enabling technology for flexible manufacturing in a number of industrial sectors. This paper discusses the evolution of Rapid Prototyping (RP) to RM and the current issues that require further research for the successful integration of this technology within manufacturing companies. The use of RM will have particular impact on supply chain management paradigms such as lean and agile and has particular strategic fit with mass customisation. The effect of RM will have on these paradigms is discussed and confirmed with example cases from automotive production, motor sport and medical devices industries. In conclusion, RM has already been shown in the three cases to offer benefits, particularly where fast reconfiguration of the manufacturing process is required and with the production of customised components.

Managing Relationships to Improve Performance: A case study in the global aerospace industry

Organizations wishing to succeed in the competitive climate of the contemporary marketplace will need to differentiate themselves from competitors. World-class product development is considered the key to competitive advantage and, to compete effectively in global markets, organizations need to be proficient at this core activity. The knowledge-intensive process of product development will benefit from strategic alliances with customers based on trust and mutual benefit. This paper reports on research which developed a managerial tool that allows manufacturing organizations to understand the impacts of relationships at the boundaries of their internal and external activities. It focuses upon the importance of collaboration to forming and maintaining productive relationships within and between organizations. Such an approach will help organizations, and the individuals within them, to identify appropriate internal and inter-organizational network development strategies. An important assumption that underlies its development is that the model will improve project and product development performance by improving communication flows through enhanced networked relationships between team members, and hence improve the overall performance of the organization. This paper sets the research context and presents results of action research with a team of engineers from a large organization in the aerospace industry. It reveals the crucial importance of trust in underpinning successful internal and inter-organizational relationships. It is suggested that the tool provides a convenient methodology for measuring and benchmarking relational network performance.

The implications of organizational culture and trust in the working of virtual teams

Abstract The research described in this paper is concerned with examining trust issues in global teams and whether there are any implications for trust in respect to the cultural orientation of firms. Trust is the individuals (or groups) belief that another individual (or group) makes good faith efforts to behave in accordance with any commitments both explicit and implicit. This research was carried out as part of a collaborative project between Loughborough and Aston Universities. In this research it was decided to measure whether there was a relationship between perceived levels of trust in the organization and organizational culture as depicted by Cameron and Quinn in the working dynamics of virtual organizations. The research investigated the issue of trust in a number of business situations and showed that there does appear to be a relationship between trust and cultural orientation of firms for the working of virtual teams.

Agile value chains for manufacturing – implications for performance measures

This paper will focus on the implications for value chain performance measures arising from the rapidly emerging requirement for agility both within individual business units and across sophisticated manufacturing value chains. Recent developments in the way companies are expected to respond to rapid and unpredictable change in the external environment have resulted in new paradigms for manufacturing which comprise a combination of leanness, agility and virtual enterprises. The primary focus of academic researchers has been in the area of determining how agility is attained in order that organisational structures can best be designed. However, the concept that “what you measure is what you get” is equally valid for virtual organisations as it has always been for stand‐alone manufacturing businesses. This paper therefore discusses the requirements for new approaches to performance measures and raises some of the issues that need to be developed further in support of the concept of agility.

An Empirical Investigation into the Barriers to Postponement

The need for postponement is significantly driven by todays business and marketing environment. However, currently its applications are still not as widespread as expected. Therefore, this paper empirically investigates what factors hinder the adoption and implementation of postponement, and whether postponement applications are expected to increase in practice. Following a literature review on how to prompt and progress postponement applications, we present our research design. Namely, a questionnaire survey was conducted (by way of both post and e-mail) among 368 British manufacturing companies across four industrial sectors to help build statistical generalizations on the barriers to postponement. Then, we provide demographic data and response rate, and assess the reliability and validity of the survey instruments. The results from our questionnaire survey indicate that most of the highest ranked barriers were related to how a company manages its external networks (suppliers or customers), while those barriers related to distributors were put towards the bottom of the list. The respondents also expected postponement to be less used in three years. Finally, we draw some conclusions, determine limitations of this research and make suggestions for future research.