Scott T. Young

Material matters: assessing the effectiveness of materials management IS

Materials management information systems (IS) are designed to enhance decision-making performance by lowering costs, increasing turnover, and improving service. Because of the large investment that these systems represent, companies have developed several ways to evaluate their effectiveness. The most direct approach is to assess the effects of the system on materials management performance outcomes such as inventory costs, turnover, and fill rates. The more common approach is to assess effectiveness via substitute measures, such as user perceptions and usage statistics. A laboratory experiment was conducted to examine the relationships between materials management performance, user satisfaction, and system usage. The three measures were recorded as subjects performed a purchasing task using an materials management IS. Correlations among the three measures suggest that although satisfaction and usage are closely associated with performance, the relationships among the measures are not sufficiently strong to warrant their use as interchangeable measures of effectiveness.

Configurations of low-contact services

Abstract This study uses a cluster analysis procedure to develop a classification model of low-contact services based on seven operations objectives. The effectiveness of the classification scheme is tested by demonstrating the link between the objectives, competitive priorities, and performance. This study also identifies eight underlying factors of competitive priorities in low-contact services. Furthermore, discriminant analysis on competitive priority dimensions shows that low-contact services consist of multiple groups and therefore should not be lumped into one group in any analysis scheme.

POM research productivity in U.S. business schools

Abstract This study examines the publication output of individuals and business schools in the field of Production and Operations Management (POM). A ranking system was devised based upon publications in the leading POM journals. Two ranking approaches were applied to business schools: productivity and quality. Articles were counted in two ways: one ranking counted each article as one unit, and authors “shared” the unit equally, and the second ranking gave each contributor credit for one “distributed” unit. These are the first publication productivity rankings for the field of POM, and are based upon publications in the years 1989–1993.

Global Manufacturing Strategies and Practices: A Study of Two Industries

Describes the manufacturing strategy implications of a two‐industry study of manufacturing practices. A research team administered questionnaires to managers in the machine tools and textiles industries in China, Japan, Korea, the USA and Western Europe. Highlights of the results include the superior Japanese delivery speed and the extensive use of information systems in the USA. An overview of the relative industrial strengths of each country provides a setting to discuss manufacturing strategy. Each national industry is then classified according to the Hayes and Wheelwright stages of manufacturing competitiveness.

Coordinating manufacturing and marketing in international firms

In this article, the authors argue that manufacturing experiences much of the turbulence and conflict imposed by the dynamic global marketplace through its relationship with marketing, because marketing is usually responsible for introducing changing competitive priorities and demand patterns to the organization. Through a survey of manufacturing and marketing managers within international firms, the authors develop a profile of manufacturing-marketing conflicts experienced in each of four international strategy environments: export, multidomestic, global, and transnational. As international strategies became more complex, firms made use of more techniques for coordinating between marketing and manufacturing, with more use of decentralized and informal approaches. Coordinating techniques included individual MBO-reward systems, joint task forces for problem-solving, and direct involvement of manufacturing and marketing in establishing the competitive priorities of the firm.

Functional coordination within the global firm

In this article the authors present a framework that describes coordination difficulties for each of five international strategy alternatives. For each international strategy, the authors discuss the conditions that can create conflicts in managing marketing, operations, and product development. They then suggest functional coordinating mechanisms that are best suited to the particular demands of each strategy.

A study of operations and marketing goal consensus in the banking industry

Consensus building plays an important role in strategy formulation and implementation. Previous researchers have attempted to find a link between goal consensus among top management and organizational performance, mainly in manufacturing settings, with varying results. Few extant studies have examined goal consensus at the functional level. Aims to expand our knowledge of the goal consensus/performance relationship by focusing on the relationship between operations and marketing in the service setting. Attempts to identify the types of co‐ordination mechanisms that help achieve functional goal consensus between operations and marketing. Finds a positive relationship between goal consensus of the marketing and operations managers and performance based on return on equity and return on assets. Concludes that consensus is correlated with the use of process and programming co‐ordination mechanisms and not correlated with the use of interpersonal co‐ordination mechanisms.