Young K. Ro

Modularity as a Strategy for Supply Chain Coordination: The Case of U.S. Auto

Companies across industries have admired the success of Dell Computersin using modularity as part of a mass customization strategy to achieve build-to-order and a streamlined supply chain. Many companies are attempting to emulate this successful model, including the American automotive industry. This paper focuses on how the auto industry has been attempting to move to modularity, in part, motivated by a desire to build cars to order. This movement has led to major changes in supply chain practices based partly on imitation of successful keiretsu models in Japan and a move toward modules. This study finds significant impact of modularity on outsourcing, product development, and supply chain coordination based on interviews conducted with automakers and suppliers from 2000-2003. Based on our interviews, we observe that modularity has accompanied a major reorganization of the automotive supplier industry. We identify two major issues that appear to block U.S. automakers from gaining most of the advantages possible through modularity. First, most modularity activities appear to be primarily strategically cost reduction driven, leaving the potential of modularity for mass customization largely untapped. Second, the shift in industry reorganization has not been accompanied by changes in the supply chain infrastructure to encourage long-term partnerships. We contrast this to the more gradual approach used by Toyota as it incorporates modularity on a selective basis and moves to a build-to-order model

Evolving Models of Supplier Involvement in Design: The Deterioration of the Japanese Model in U.S. Auto

The U.S. auto industry in the 1990s was in a state of transition, driven by a rapidly changing environment and attempts to adopt best practices from other automakers. The Japanese supplier management system is regarded as extremely effective in delivering high-quality component systems integrated into the vehicle with short design lead times. American automakers dedicated themselves to reengineering their product development systems, benchmarking the Japanese model, and outsourcing increasing levels of vehicle content and design responsibility. This paper analyzes how these attempts at institutional imitation evolved new approaches to supplier involvement in design in the U.S. auto industry based on interviews conducted during 1998-2001. Although once copying the Japanese model, the United States has chosen a modified approach and developed models distinctively different from the original. The authors identify two dominant supplier management models emerging during this time and a newly emerging hybrid original equipment manufacturer/supplier relationship style. Concepts from organizational design and behavioral economic theories are used to explain observations across industries overtime. Evidence suggests that American automaker practices have not evolved to support the great responsibility being outsourced to suppliers. There are still barriers that create adversarial relationships when a partnership model is required for true integration of design efforts.

Modularisation and outsourcing: who drives whom? A study of generational sequences in the US automotive cockpit industry

In this paper, we study the interactions between modularity and outsourcing in the auto industry. Focusing on vehicle cockpit projects in North America, we collect data over three product architecture generations and the associated shifts in firm boundaries for multiple processes covering product development and production. We find that the direction of influence between product architecture and firm boundary varies across individual processes and over time, resulting in a zig-zag path towards higher levels of modularity and outsourcing over the observed timeframe. The relative strength of the factors that drive these changes appears to be dependent on (a) idiosyncrasies of the logic of individual processes, i.e., their cost structure, their perceived strategic value, and the capabilities available in the supply chain for their completion, and on (b) the relevance and relative weight of external factors such as labour costs, capital cost, and external development of technologies.

Augmented reality smart glasses: an investigation of technology acceptance drivers

Microsoft Hololens and Google Glass (Project Aura) are two examples of a new stream of wearable technology devices called Augmented Reality Smart Glasses that might substantially influence media usage in the near future. In this study, the authors draw upon prior technology acceptance research and propose an exploratory model of antecedents to smart glasses adoption. An empirical study reveals the importance of various drivers such as functional benefits, ease of use, individual difference variables, brand attitudes, and social norms. Although smart glasses are worn in a similar manner to fashion accessories and capture various personal information, self-presentation benefits and potential privacy concerns seem less likely to influence smart glasses adoption. The findings provide pre-market knowledge about smart glasses that can help scholars and managers understand this new technology.

An Examination of the Effects of Flow on Learning in a Graduate-Level Introductory Operations Management Course.

The authors investigated the effects of flow on learning outcomes in a graduate-level operations management course. Flow was assessed through an overall flow score, four dimensions of flow, and three characteristics of flow activities. Learning outcomes were measured objectively through multiple-choice quiz scores and subjectively using measures of students’ perceived learning of the subject matter, students’ perceived skill development, and student satisfaction. The findings show that flow affected students’ perceived learning of the subject matter and student satisfaction but did not affect learning performance as measured through multiple-choice quizzes. Partial support is found for an effect of flow on students’ perceived skill development.

Fashion or Technology? A Fashnology Perspective on the Perception and Adoption of Augmented Reality Smart Glasses

Abstract Smart glasses are a new family of technological devices that share several characteristics with conventional eyeglasses. Yet, little is known about how individuals process them. Drawing upon categorization theories and prior research on technology acceptance, the authors conduct two empirical studies to show that (a) smart glasses are perceived as technology but vary in their degree of fashion, (b) the perception of smart glasses determines the factors that explain adoption intention, and (c) a majority of consumers process smart glasses as a combination of fashion and technology (“fashnology”), whereas a smaller number of consumers perceive them exclusively as technology or fashion, respectively.

Product Architectures and Sourcing Decisions Their Impact on Performance

The relationship between product architecture (PA) and a firm’s make or buy (M-B) sourcing decision has been a topic of interest over the past several years. However, the interplay between PA and a firm’s M-B decision and its impact on performance is still underexplored. This study draws on transaction cost economics and the knowledge-based view within the framework of the PA and sourcing strategy literature to develop a causal model concerning the relationship between PA and the M-B sourcing decision and its implication for technological and financial performance via an investigation of the bicycle freewheel and derailleur markets from 1980 to 1995. The study readily provides theoretical reasoning as to why firms should choose an M-B sourcing strategy in the context of integral-modular PAs. It also suggests the need for further theoretical and empirical investigation of the relationships between PA type and the M-B choice and of the resulting impact of the sourcing decision on performance.

Rescheduling for machine disruption to minimize makespan and maximum lateness

We consider a scheduling problem where a set of jobs has already been scheduled to minimize some cost objective on a single machine when the machine becomes unavailable for a period of time. The decision-maker needs to reschedule the jobs without excessively disrupting the original schedule. The disruption is measured as the maximum time deviation, for any given job, between the original and new schedules. We examine a general model where the maximum time disruption appears both as a constraint and as part of the cost objective. For a scheduling cost modeled as the makespan or maximum lateness, we provide a pseudopolynomial time optimal algorithm, a constant factor approximation algorithm, and a fully polynomial time approximation scheme. The approximation algorithm has an asymptotically achievable worst-case performance ratio of 2 and has average performance close to optimal. Managerial insights are given on how scheduling costs are affected by machine disruption and the approximation algorithm.

Further Motivation for Continuous Improvement in Just-In-Time Logistics

In the supply chain literature, little work has been done on modeling the propagation pattern of quality defects in supply chains. We quantitatively model a defect bullwhip effect in supply chains that can be addressed logistically by reducing time intervals between product deliveries. We explicitly consider the cause and effect of this defect bullwhip effect and demonstrate analytically that there is a strong incentive for practitioners to continuously reduce shipment size. We also consider production characteristics such as the frequency of supplier failure and stringency of the buyers inspection process. Implications for managers are suggested.

Product development and failures in learning from best practices in U.S. auto: A supplier perspective

Despite decades of imitation and apparent convergence, there are still major differences in product development practices between Japanese automakers and their North American counterparts. Through an in-depth investigation of product development practices at the project level, we study two firms-Toyota and a major North American automaker-that possess very different approaches to product development. We take the perspective of a major supplier to both automakers. Adopting a grounded theory approach and by selecting similar projects performed by the same supplier for different original equipment manufacturer (OEM) customers, we hold constant variables such as product, supplier, and period of observation. We find that the lack of best practice proliferation in product development can be explained by a lack of organizational culture that sustains and facilitates best practices. We view our results through the lens of cultural frameworks offered in the literature and derive a model linking organizational culture to product development effectiveness.