Palminder Smart

Integrating lean and 'high reliability' thinking

Abstract This paper illustrates how recent tragedies have been shown to be threatening to the medium-term sustainability of organizations designed and developed solely on the basis of short-term efficiency gain. Over the past 30 years, Western organizations have institutionalized this emphasis on efficiencies through the implementation of Japanese management philosophies, such as lean thinking. This situation has assisted the removal of vital adaptive and responsive capacity or ‘organizational slack’, necessary for organizations that need to contend with complex and dynamic environments. The authors argue for the need to challenge managerial mindsets and re-engage a pluralist metaperspective both at the level of strategic purpose and organizational configuration. In particular, it suggests that, in addition to the efficiency model, a complementary and to some extent alternative set of ‘high-reliability’ organization (HRO) design principles are required. They focus on the notion of creating an HRO that privileges integrity in the achievement of medium- and long-term goals over short-term efficiency gains. Integrating both ‘lean thinking’ and ‘high-reliability’ principles is a requirement for post-modern managers operating in their roles as organizational engineers, if mission accomplishment is to be realized.

Coordinating for service delivery in public-private partnership and private finance initiative construction projects: Early findings from an exploratory study

Abstract This paper presents the early findings of an extensive literature review and an exploratory empirical investigation into five UK construction organizations and outlines the management and organization design issues in introducing service delivery based on teamworking practices in construction. In particular, it highlights the challenges facing the industry in transitioning from prioritizing an asset delivery focus to a service delivery focus (SDF), especially when delivering private finance initiative and public private partnership types of project. The paper argues that introducing SDF cultures requires addressing issues commonly encountered in todays dynamic business environment, driven by the need to work collaboratively across organizational boundaries over long complex project cycles. Cultural change in this context is argued to be an emergent phenomenon resulting from the interconnectedness of a web of networks coexisting at the industry, organization, and project levels in a dynamic open system, prone to constant reconfiguration. This paper articulates the preliminary findings of an exploratory study that initiates much-needed understanding of how whole-life serviceability can be leveraged in construction projects. In essence, a network perspective of organizational design is enunciated, which suggests that ‘teamworking’ is the key to coordinating ‘design for service delivery’ across projects, across functions, across organizations, and over time (often 30 years plus). This dominant networked organizational form on which teamworking practices are focused is identified as the ‘special-purpose vehicle’ (SPV), an intermediary organization that is often the fundamental mechanism for project delivery. Further areas of research associated with the operations of SPVs are highlighted.

A workbook-based methodology for implementing concurrent engineering

Abstract Concurrent Engineering demands a new way of working and many organisations experience difficulty during implementation. The research described in this paper has the aim to develop a paper-based workbook style methodology that companies can use to increase the benefits generated by Concurrent Engineering, while reducing implementation costs, risk and time. The three-stage methodology provides guidance based on knowledge accumulated from implementation experience and best practitioners. It encourages companies to learn to manage their Concurrent Engineering implementation by taking actions which expose them to new and valuable experiences. This helps to continuously improve understanding of how to maximise the benefits from Concurrent Engineering. The methodology is particularly designed to cater for organisational and contextual uniqueness, as Concurrent Engineering implementations will vary from company to company. Using key actions which improve the Concurrent Engineering implementation process, individual companies can develop their own ‘best practice’ for product development. The methodology ensures that key implementation issues, which are primarily human and organisational, are addressed using simple but proven techniques. This paper describes the key issues that the majority of companies face when implementing Concurrent Engineering. The structure of the methodology is described to show how the issues are addressed and resolved. The key actions used to improve the Concurrent Engineering implementation process are explained and their inclusion in the implementation methodology described. Relevance to industry Implementation of Concurrent Engineering concepts in manufacturing industry has not been a straightforward process. This paper describes a workbook-style tool that manufacturing companies can use to accelerate and improve their Concurrent Engineering implementation.

A boundary-based view of product development: a feasibility study

Abstract The ‘Working the Boundaries’ research project investigates the organization structural changes in the Rover Group arm of the BMW AG corporation. An important aim of this research is to determine the feasibility of a ‘boundary-based’ view to organizing human resources during product development. This viewpoint stresses the need for firms to consider not only the strategic placement of formal organizational boundaries but also the concurrent development of innovative options for overcoming them. This paper presents some important grounded theoretical developments. They focus on the identification of an important mechanism—the informal organization used to overcome formal organization boundaries. The informal organization is based on a network of self-generated, self-organized and self-managed interrelationships between product developers. They form the foundations of effective and efficient flows of information, experience, knowledge and ideas during product development task activity. Consequently product development performance relies significantly on a formal recognition of the informal organization.

Working the boundaries in the motor industry

Abstract Improving product development performance, through changes in organizational structure, has been an important goal for many researchers, organizational development consultants and industrialists in the 1990s. The challenges of the twenty-first century business environment will require a radical re-think of old ideas about formal organizational structures and their impact on company achievements. Perhaps it is time to question whether the choice of any one organizational structure over another is really conducive to improvements in product development performance. The ‘Working the Boundaries’ Project will undertake an investigation into the feasibility of a boundary-based view to product development in the automotive industry. This paper sets the research context and presents some preliminary research findings in the form of a ‘tentative theory’ that suggests the importance of the informal organization based on the network of interrelationships between product developers.

Understanding the Concurrent Engineering Implementation Process — A Study Using Focus Groups

Focus groups have been used as one method of collecting data on how practitioners view Concurrent Engineering and its implementation. Focus groups are a controversial research method, but their use provides a rich source of primary data, which can be supplemented by other data collection methods. The output from the focus groups shows the issues which Concurrent Engineering practitioners consider to be important for Concurrent Engineering implementation: senior management commitment, implementation planning, launching a multi-functional pilot team fast, and having a continuous improvement process. The need for extensive organisational analysis prior to implementation, for using team profiling techniques, early development of a new product strategy and investment in new technology have been understated by focus group participants.

A faster, cheaper and safer route to CE

Describes the FAST concurrent engineering (CE) implementation methodology that has been developed by the authors at Cranfield University, through research and consultancy activities. The methodology is presented in a paper‐based work‐book and describes three stages a company could proceed through to take it from an initial interest in CE, to the successful implementation of a pilot CE product development project and then expansion. The focus is on the introduction of multidisciplinary product development teams as the main vehicle for radically improving product development performance.