Thomas F. Burgess

Beyond critical success factors: A dynamic model of enterprise system innovation

Enterprise systems (often referred to as enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems) can help organisations manage their key resources: money, staff, products, customers and suppliers, more effectively. Like many new technologies, ERP has been accompanied by vendor hype and stories of implementation failure. Work on critical success factors (CSFs) should encourage more appropriate implementation practice; however many CSF studies conclude with a list of factors but provide little further guidance. This paper presents a new model of ERP CSFs which draws upon existing work in IS innovation and on simulation ideas in order to better understand the relationships between CSFs and to encourage exploration of more appropriate implementation strategies.

Modelling a complex supply chain : understanding the effect of simplified assumptions

The benefits of coordinating activities and consolidating distribution points in supply chains are well highlighted and intuitively logical. However, the impact of these decisions on the overall performance of a complex supply chain may not be as obvious as usually perceived. This study models a relatively complex supply chain and evaluates the impact of simplifying demand and lead time assumptions under various supply chain configurations. Of particular interest is the investigation of the effect of risk pooling and the synchronization of production cycles in a multi-level multi-retailer supply chain under the influence of various parameters such as batch size, delivery frequency and ordering cycle. This study highlights the extent of complicated interaction effects among various factors exist in a complex supply chain and shows that that the intricacy of these effects can be better understood with a simulation model.

Editorial Board Membership of Management and Business Journals: A Social Network Analysis Study of the Financial Times 40

We apply social network analysis to editorial board membership data for 36 of the 40 high-ranking journals forming the Financial Times list for grading business schools. Data are presented by individuals, journals, organizations and countries. Using cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling, journals are allocated to academic fields. Distributions of journals, editorial board members and business school staff by field are compared. Academics affiliated to US organizations predominate and highly ranked US organizations occupy the top positions for number of board memberships. Academics with high multiple board memberships come from a more diverse set of organizations but are still predominantly North American and male. We suggest that the domination of the sampled journal production system by special interest groups could permit academic patronage to prosper. We characterize the academic area of management (and business) as a loosely connected grouping of mono-disciplinary fields. Organization behaviour, strategy and enterprise/small business fields are over-represented in the Financial Times list while accounting, finance, marketing and operations research/management information systems are under-represented. We argue that domination by an elite and its fragmented mono-disciplinarity is not healthy for the management academic area.

Traditional or contemporary? The prevalence of performance measurement system types

Purpose - The paper seeks to examine the prevalence of traditional versus contemporary (balanced) types of performance measurement system (PMS) in an emerging economy and link incidence to key organisational factors of size, age and ownership. Design/methodology/approach - Data on design and use of PMSs are collected through a questionnaire survey ( Findings - Use of contemporary PMS dominates the sample. PMS type is significantly associated with size and ownership, while age is not. Firms more likely to use contemporary PMSs are foreign-owned and large in terms of number of employees. Research limitations/implications - This survey-based research employs multivariate analysis and therefore standard limits for such statistical work apply. Results rely on hierarchical cluster analysis. Practical implications - If balanced approaches are more effective, as is argued by many, then a firm without such a style of PMS is at a competitive disadvantage given the high incidence of use. Originality/value - The paper establishes a framework for a contemporary type of PMS that integrates balanced scorecard and other balanced approaches, then collects data in an emerging economy. Links use of contemporary PMS type to key organisational factors.

Configuration management in the aerospace industry: a review of industry practice

Purpose – Addresses the research question “how is the discipline of configuration management (CM) practised in the European Aerospace industry?”Design/methodology/approach – Uses a mixed method approach with a questionnaire survey followed by in‐depth interviews.Findings – CM discipline relies on fragmented and diverse processes and its organisational role and contribution are undervalued. Remedying present piecemeal deployment of information technology holds out substantial opportunity for improvement.Research limitations/implications – This exploratory research focusses on a specific industry and relies mainly on descriptive statistics. Future research could examine other industries or carry out explanatory research on CM systems in aerospace.Practical implications – Substantial scope for business benefits exists if information technology and people are mobilised to improve CM. The need for effective CM systems in organisations will grow as social and environmental responsibilities increase.Originality/...

Supply chain agility: the influence of industry culture on asset capabilities within capital intensive industries

Supply chain agility in capital-intensive industries is argued as strongly linked to the capabilities of the individual processing assets comprising the chain. Therefore the desired asset capabilities conducive to overall agility need to be designed in to plant and equipment. However, in addition to asset design, how the assets are used in the production process is an important factor in determining capabilities. In culturally-conservative industries the penetration of modern operations management (OM) practices is expected to be limited and this will hold back the contribution that assets can make to supply chain agility. First the paper begins by reviewing the need for agility in supply chains and links this to agile plant capabilities. Next the research context and collaboration is described, which focused upon the speciality chemicals industry and involved three UK universities and thirteen industrial partners. Experiences drawn from industrial case studies undertaken in the research initiative are used to illustrate in a practical manner the key asset capability underpinning agility, that of reconfigurability. The paper adopts a novel focus on a process industry to complement the work on agility that is more usually grounded in discrete manufacturing.

Revitalising new process development in the UK fine chemicals industry

Reports on one of the key developments made to date on a three‐year EPSRC IMI research project in the fine chemicals industry. The project, Batch Route Innovative Technology: Evaluation and Selection Techniques (BRITEST), began in late 1997 with the aim to research new methods to deliver substantial benefits associated with new product development. The project will deliver a methodology, models and a suite of decision support tools sustaining and improving the new product development process, enabling novel technical solutions to be developed more in line with, and evaluated more appropriately against, the business strategy and market characteristics. The specific deliverable presented in this paper is an action research‐derived framework that integrates the detailed processes, information requirements and decision making as a model of good practice for new product (or process) development (NPD) in the fine chemicals industry.

Modelling the impact of reengineering with system dynamics

A high level model of the organisation is built using the system dynamics method and an operations management perspective. The organisation is portrayed as a process linking the key competitive capabilities of cost, quality, time and flexibility. Empirical data are used to calibrate the model and predict improvements stemming from business process reengineering (BPR). The model is evaluated and suggestions made for future developments. The study highlights the need for more data on the outcomes of BPR and the need for more knowledge on how competitive capabilities are linked.

Organisational self-assessment and the adoption of managerial innovations

Purpose – This paper investigates managers use of self‐assessment in diagnostic routines to assist organisations embarking on major organisational change involving the adoption of a managerial innovation.Design/methodology/approach – The illustrative case focuses on the comparative adoption of two assessment tools set within a methodology developed via action research to improve the performance of new process development in the specialty chemical industry.Findings – Features of the case context, such as prior commitment to the methodology, contribute to explaining managerial preferences for the non‐financial diagnostic tool over the financial one.Practical implications – For practitioners the case illustrates how prior commitment can obscure rational considerations when faced with planning and implementing major change, particularly so when introducing managerial innovations. For academics the case study highlights the potential for fruitful research into the design and use of self‐assessment routines th...

Entropic-related complexity for re-engineering a robust supply chain: a case study

This article uses entropic-related complexity to analyse a case study of a business process re-engineering (BPR) intervention to improve the supply chain of a large UK chemicals manufacturer. Entropic-related complexity is defined as the amount of information needed to describe the state of a system; a measure which captures the extent of uncertainty and variety within the system. To evaluate BPRs impact, complexity is calculated before and after the intervention for three elements of the supply chain: incoming supply process, production process and outgoing customer delivery process. The complexity measures are derived from the time-related performance of these three system elements. The results show that the robustness of supply chains, i.e. their ability to perform well despite disturbances, can be assessed using entropic-related complexity retrospectively (after a change has occurred), but it could also be used prospectively (if anticipated outcomes could be estimated) before embarking on BPR initiatives.