Rainer Breite

The potential for achieving mass customization in primary production supply chains via a unified taxonomy

Develops a theoretical taxonomy that can be used by management to strategically assess their current capabilities and identify areas of change to move towards a mass customization environment. Although many of the components have been previously published, this paper brings them together as a unified whole. The classification is applied to case study supply chains with a focus upon the primary producer. These are illustrated through process maps. By adopting a mass customization approach, these companies could generate competitive advantages. However, this is difficult for them to achieve in the dynamic production environment often advocated for mass customization. A more stable, supply-chain-based approach is needed. With this in mind, we use vendor-managed inventory to demonstrate the application of the taxonomy. This provides greater flexibility in the logistics system to deliver mass customization. The paper concludes that only by using a unified taxonomy can management get a full understanding of the challenges faced in implementing mass customization and the solution does not necessarily require purely a production-based response.

Supply chain as an autopoietic learning system

Purpose – This paper seeks to present a comprehensive overview of the supply chain as an autopoietic system. The new autopoietic approach suggests a transition from traditional cognitivist epistemology to the theory of learning as a creational matter, and this type of thinking can potentially shed light on the role of knowledge creation as a part of supply chain management. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is structured as follows: the first section describes the theoretical background of the concept of knowledge management in the supply chain. After that, the paper examines the general systems theory and the role of an autopoietic system within it. Then the paper addresses autopoietic epistemology. In particular, the notions of knowledge, learning, and knowledge flows are described so that the focus is on the context of the supply chain and supply chain management at operational level. Findings – The suppliers, customers, and firms own organization and parts of the organization have autonomy sy...

Expert Knowledge Integration—A Systematic Approach for Multi-stakeholder Innovation

Companies developing their products or production often face complex, innovation-demanding problems. These innovations call for diverse expertise that does not exist within one company or even in its immediate network. The purpose of the knowledge integration system (KIS) tool is to transform expert knowledge into action systematically. By applying the cross-learning type of knowledge integration, the tool combines workshops and boundary objects that overcome knowledge boundaries between functions and organizations. The tool has been tested in a manufacturing investment project, where a new technology was brought into the production of a networked company. Based on this case, KIS was found to be a useful tool for supporting expert knowledge integration by collaboratively communicating and sharing knowledge in a multi-stakeholder environment to create solutions.

Value Chain Methodology for Dynamic Business Environments

The requirements of the dynamic business environment have made companies’ value chains unstable, which means that companies have more and more been forced to make decisions concerning the value chain and its management. This, in turn, means that companies are changing their value chain management into more external network management, information management and communication management. The dynamic business environment seems to affect both internal as well as external business processes. Its recent leap from internal business processes to external business processes has been very quick, due to different IT-applications. These applications now strongly affect the form and content of the whole value chain, which also sets new demands on company strategies, tactics and daily operations. Managers have to understand how to manage these new structural changes and they also have to understand many new behavioral features in the new type of value chain. In this chapter we have created a method for managers and other decision-makers to examine and manage the value chain in order to meet the demands of the dynamic environment.

Third-Party-Supported Benchmarking for Reciprocal Learning

The tool has been developed for situations when a focal company encounters a practical problem in network management but does not have resources to match the problem into the right theoretical context and divide the problem into manageable entities. Here, benchmarking is viewed through a practice lens. Practice lens leads to focusing on the use of tool for creating common language and offering space for interaction. The tool has been developed and tested in a case where the focal company wanted to improve its R&D processes and better manage its innovation network. The purpose is to show how third-party-supported benchmarking is mobilized, that is, to provide the guidelines for successful benchmarking facilitating discussions and reciprocal learning in a network as well as to present the outcomes the process generated.

Relational Factors as Part of Network Relationship Evaluation

The purpose of the tool is to provide the guidelines for evaluation of network relationships. It helps networked parties to focus on the essential relationship factors when the aim of the focal company is to reduce the need for control. The tool maps the level of relational factors in order to evaluate the potentiality for increasing self-direction between network parties and decrease the need for the focal company’s control. Together, the relational factors including both relational properties and relational behavior aspects form a platform that enables or restricts self-direction. The tool has been developed and tested in a case where the focal company was in need to decrease the control of its supply network and to secure its suppliers’ common cooperation capability.

Introduction to Part II—Knowledge Integration in Networks

In order to achieve the needed competence and knowledge in the business world, companies more and more today need and indeed must depend on their external knowledge sources. In this section of the book, we examine networks as external knowledge sources, from a focal company’s and network node’s point of view. Knowledge integration in this context means learning the processes, in other words, the needed knowledge collected from network parties that is performed for a specific purpose to accumulate existing knowledge of the organization. Our examination is based on epistemological assumptions. We understand that knowledge sharing and utilization of a company’s external knowledge are not self-evident processes. They are both strongly related to individual learning; that is, different forms of knowledge (tacit or explicit) are needed for different learning or knowledge acquisition methods that in turn lead to different ways of examination. Further, according to cognitivist epistemology, when an individual gathers information from an external environment (from his/her own organization or a network partner’s organization), the person stores and interprets the received information based on his or her own existing experiences. On the other hand, connectionist epistemology emphasizes the large number of integrating units (e.g., network) more than the individuals. According to this epistemology, units have the possibility to affect one another using stimulus connections. Both epistemological assumptions do examine information processing as the basic activity of the system. However, the connectionist assumption emphasizes the system itself, and then relationships and communication become the most important issues of cognition.

The knowledge transfer typology for the relationships of the supply chain

During the last few years the utilisation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has played a significant role in the management of the complexities of the supply chain. However, due to the complexity of knowledge the management of an efficient and effective supply chain with the help of ICT is not unambiguous. Therefore, in this article we introduce a typology in which supply chain management can be seen as a knowledge intensive function. The typology can be utilised in the estimation of measures needed in the improvement of knowledge transfer in different ontological situations, and moreover, to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of supply chain management.

The role of WWW sites in delivering brand's value: the user-based evaluation

During the last few years, the utilisation of WWW sites has played a significant role in transferring information to the customer and thus supporting the companys brand making and trustworthiness as a supplier. Therefore, in this paper we introduce a taxonomic model that can be utilised in the estimation of measures needed in the improvement of knowledge communication in different ontological situations, and moreover, in the improvement of a companys abilities to deliver value to customers via WWW sites. The created model is applied to an empirical study in which the WWW sites of two car brands were compared. The comparison revealed that in spite of the good quality of both WWW sites, differences between them can be found and analysed from the decision-making point of view. The study also highlighted that the reputation of the car brand affects decision-makers choices more than the quality of the WWW sites.

Experiences of WWW Sites as a Decision Support System in Different Acquisitions

In this chapter we examine how hypertext based Internet applications support decision making in different purchasing situations. Our research methods are based on hyperknowledge framework, which is characterized to create an ideal computer based decision support system environment. We have performed three different purchasing case tests. In the two cases test subjects acquired a product or service from Internet without a defined www address or www page. In one case, test subjects used a definite product and www address. The test results of our study are based on comparisons between the above mentioned three cases. The comparisons suggest that if decision-makers use Internet based applications in complex purchasing situations, hypertext based Internet applications seem not to sufficiently support the purchaser’s decision making.