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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
41

Supply chain performance measurement framework : case studies on the Thai manufacturers

Pasutham, Asawin January 2012 (has links)
One of the most significant paradigm shifts of modern business management is that individual businesses no longer compete as solely autonomous entities, but rather as supply chains. Firms worldwide have embraced the concept of supply chain management as important and sometimes critical to their business. The idea of a collaborative supply chain is to gain a competitive advantage by improving overall performance through measuring a holistic perspective of the supply chain. However, contemporary performance measurement theory is somewhat fragmented and fails to support this idea. Therefore, this research develops and applies an integrated supply chain performance measurement framework that provides a more holistic approach to the study of supply chain performance measurement by combining both supply chain macro processes and decision making levels. Therefore, the proposed framework can provide a balanced horizontal (cross-process) and vertical (hierarchical decision) view and measure the performance of the entire supply chain system. Firstly, literature on performance measurement frameworks and performance measurement factors of supply chain management will help to develop a conceptual framework. Next the proposed framework will be presented. The framework will be validated through in-depth interviews with three Thai manufacturing companies. The fieldwork combined varied sources in order to understand the views of manufacturers on supply chain performance in the three case study companies. The collected data were analyzed, interpreted, and reported using thematic analysis and analysis hierarchy process (AHP), which was influenced by the study’s conceptual framework. This research contributes a new theory of supply chain performance measurement and knowledge on supply chain characteristics of a developing country, Thailand. The research also affects organisations by preparing decision makers to make strategic, tactical and operational level decisions with respect to supply chain macro processes. The results from the case studies also indicate the similarities and differences in their supply chain performance. Furthermore, the implications of the study are offered for both academic and practical use.
42

Using min-sum loopy belief propagation for decentralised supply chain formation

Winsper, Michael January 2012 (has links)
Modern business trends such as agile manufacturing and virtual corporations require high levels of flexibility and responsiveness to consumer demand, and require the ability to quickly and efficiently select trading partners. Automated computational techniques for supply chain formation have the potential to provide significant advantages in terms of speed and efficiency over the traditional manual approach to partner selection. Automated supply chain formation is the process of determining the participants within a supply chain and the terms of the exchanges made between these participants. In this thesis we present an automated technique for supply chain formation based upon the min-sum loopy belief propagation algorithm (LBP). LBP is a decentralised and distributed message-passing algorithm which allows participants to share their beliefs about the optimal structure of the supply chain based upon their costs, capabilities and requirements. We propose a novel framework for the application of LBP to the existing state-of-the-art case of the decentralised supply chain formation problem, and extend this framework to allow for application to further novel and established problem cases. Specifically, the contributions made by this thesis are: • A novel framework to allow for the application of LBP to the decentralised supply chain formation scenario investigated using the current state-of-the-art approach. Our experimental analysis indicates that LBP is able to match or outperform this approach for the vast majority of problem instances tested. • A new solution goal for supply chain formation in which economically motivated producers aim to maximise their profits by intelligently altering their profit margins. We propose a rational pricing strategy that allows producers to earn significantly greater profits than a comparable LBP-based profitmaking approach. • An LBP-based framework which allows the algorithm to be used to solve supply chain formation problems in which goods are exchanged in multiple units, a first for a fully decentralised technique. As well as multiple-unit exchanges, we also model in this scenario realistic constraints such as factory capacities and input-to-output ratios. LBP continues to be able to match or outperform an extended version of the existing state-of-the-art approach in this scenario. • Introduction of a dynamic supply chain formation scenario in which participants are able to alter their properties or to enter or leave the process at any time. Our results suggest that LBP is able to deal easily with individual occurences of these alterations and that performance degrades gracefully when they occur in larger numbers.
43

Investigation of user-centred approaches to design practice in Botswana

Ollyn, Matthews G. January 2015 (has links)
Increased competition of product offering has led to the need to better understand the end-user, in order to create a more appropriate product. Furthermore, the ever increasing individualistic culture has led to the need for more customised products; where a New Product Development (NPD) team has to balance user needs and wants. Initial study assumptions were that the more the user involvement the better the product outcome. The aim was to investigate design awareness and use of User-centred Design (UCD) practices in full in the design industry in Botswana; and the training needs of the design industry in relation to UCD. Literature review determined the study focus areas; design awareness (DA), design practices (DP) and UCD. Best global practices were identified since there was little to no literature on UCD practice in Botswana and the researcher investigated products developed for the Base of the Pyramid (BoP). This study has been carried out from the NPD team s perspective. Data collection began with the scoping study, which provided an early overview of UCD practice utilisation in NPD; it also provided a guideline to data collection in Botswana. The survey study provided a broader overview of the use of design and UCD practices within the design industry. The interviews provided a follow-up to questions arising from the survey study and are focused on the Graphic and Advertising (GA) and Furniture and Interior (FI) industries for more in-depth analysis. The case studies were conducted to better understand how specific projects were conducted in relation to UCD practices; they also provided an evaluation mechanism for findings from previous studies. The results show case study findings correlating with findings from previous studies; the lack of documentation, heavy user involvement at the start stage of the PDP followed by the end stage. The vast majority of the participants failed to obtain product needs directly from the end-user and instead used the client as a proxy for the user. Design is viewed as an act of planning; user reaction was also viewed as the most important measure of design effectiveness. The majority of participants reported educational institutions not offering the needed skills. Two thirds of the participants did little market research; but the majority agreed user involvement in the PDP was important and that the user can effectively share ideas with the NPD team. The data was not clear as to whether, user involvement helped or hindered NPD team s creativity. The researcher s views on the user involvement in NPD have evolved to the need of an organised way for obtaining and documenting user and product needs, instead of treating the user like a co-operation partner. More case studies are expected to evolve case study questionnaire to, a tool for facilitating UCD practice use in Botswana s design industry.
44

Lean on me : an impact study of mutuality supportive leadership behaviour on employee Lean engagement

Leslie, Ian January 2015 (has links)
Total Quality Management (TQM) has been around in the West since the early 1970s. Over the last 40 years it has advanced from its early form, based around ‘quality circles’, to more advanced forms such as Lean and the now common Business Excellence (BE) models. However, up to 60% of implementations fail to deliver initially anticipated results. Research into Lean/TQM suggests that management commitment and conducive culture are key factors inhibiting subordinate engagement. Yet it is recognised that the ‘softer’ side of TQM is vital for its success and a key dimension of Lean/TQM philosophy. This thesis is a longitudinal study of an organisation in the throes of implementing Lean and struggling to engage its employees. Taking a mutuality perspective, the Behavioural Perspective Model (BPM) provides a framework for understanding the manager-subordinate context and Lean engagement. The BPM, complemented by the incorporation of Deci and Ryan’s Self-Determination Theory (SDT), aids understanding of respondents’ learning history in a complex Lean/TQM environment. An objective of this research was to use the insight gained from taking a behavioural/SDT perspective to improve the ‘softer’, respectful side of TQM deployment as in managerial relational practice, thus enabling improvement in leader-subordinate, day-to-day relations and increased Lean approach behaviour. The thesis is built around three interrelated projects. Project One investigates the deployment context, identifying engagement barriers and opportunities. Project Two, a longitudinal intervention based on mutuality supportive leader-subordinate behaviour, identifies positive affect across three surveys. Project Three, a survey-based study of the whole organisation (n=328), considers both ‘active’ and ‘not-active’ employees, finding significant differences in all key variables between the two groups, identifying ‘work climate’ and motivation as key influences on Lean engagement. This research provides tentative evidence that managerial commitment to a supportive work climate influences subordinate engagement and quality of engagement in Lean/TQM.
45

An analysis of the determinants of total factor productivity in China

Tocco, Claudio January 2015 (has links)
In this study, I analyse total factor productivity (TFP) and its determinants in Chinese industrial firms. The results from the system-GMM estimation indicate the existence of increasing returns to scale and a positive impact on firms’ TFP arising from technological change. Moreover, the following factors were found to be determinants of higher TFP levels in most industries: lack of political affiliation, paid-in capital share owned by investors other than the State, Marshallian and Jacobian spillovers, age, marketing capabilities, internal liquidity and industrial competition. The results from the TFP growth decomposition indicate an annual average TFP growth of 9.68% across Chinese industrial firms during the period of 1998-2007. This was largely determined by the reallocation of resources across existing firms. From a policymaking perspective, measures targeting the previously mentioned determinants are likely to spur firms’ TFP and consequently drive national long-run economic growth.
46

A strategic operations framework for disassembly in remanufacturing

Priyono, Anjar January 2015 (has links)
Previous studies into the field of disassembly have widely focused on both product attributes. These attributes include the number of components, product structure, type of materials and other geometrical information. From a management perspective, disassembly that focuses on these attributes is categorised as operational issues, which deal with day-to-day decisions. On the other hand, organisational characteristics and process choices, which are strategic in nature, have generally been overlooked by previous investigations. Some studies have attempted to include such variables in their analysis, but these studies were not comprehensive. This research therefore endeavours to address this oversight by investigating disassembly from an integrative perspective that incorporates organisational characteristics, process choices and product attributes. This inductive study features five remanufacturing companies as case studies in order to develop a comprehensive framework of disassembly strategies. The selection of the companies was not random, but rather took into consideration their potential for providing theoretical insights. The study starts by outlining a new process model of disassembly for remanufacturing, followed by a comprehensive identification of factors affecting disassembly. It incorporates organisational characteristics, process choices and product attributes. The five companies are then grouped into four quadrants, according to these factors, and the strategies within each group are analysed in order to develop the framework of the disassembly strategies, which is the main contribution of this study. The key findings of this research are: (1) remanufacturers in Quadrant I, which disassemble cores with low complexity and high stability supply, rely on disassembly resources flexibility; (2) remanufacturers located in Quadrant II, which disassemble cores with low product complexity and high stability supply, attempt to exploit the benefits of high volume of production; and (3) remanufacturers in Quadrant III, which disassemble complex cores in high stability supply, endeavour to maximise recovered value from the cores. No company was classified as belonging in Quadrant IV, which disassemble cores with high complexity but lack of stability. The generalisability of the framework has been confirmed by a panel of experts. The members of the expert panel are academia and practitioners that have an extensive knowledge in this field. This study could be criticised on the basis of its small sample size; however, the validity and reliability criteria are fulfilled to ensure that the results represent its objectivity.
47

A systems approach to resource planning in new product development

Hird, Abigail January 2012 (has links)
This thesis documents the novel application of Design of Experiments (Design of Experiments) to the predictive modelling of resource demand information in New Product Development (NPD). Resource information is a fundamental problem across resource planning processes. No matter what tools are used to re-organise and manage the data, the essential success of the planning process lies in the data quality. The thesis begins by exploring the current resource information generation process before setting out criteria by which "good" resource data can be defined: accuracy, timeliness, consistency and transparency. It is at this juncture that the decision is taken to invest research effort in developing a predictive resource information model. Several modelling approaches are considered with little success owing to a shortage of past-project data. Resultantly, a novel approach is developed. The approach is verified through internal repetition, external repetition and comparison with a limited pool of past project data before being successfully implemented in the sponsoring company. The novel approach involves using Design of Experiments to model the tacit, process of estimating resource using hypothetical project scenarios in place of experiments. The outcome of the thesis is a process by which the tacit considerations of estimators can be modelled. Practically this translates to a useable and tested process for the development of a new approach to generating timely, accurate, consistent and transparent resource-demand-per-project information for industry leading to enhanced portfolio planning capability and resource utilisation.
48

Innovation of product modularity development through the integration of a formal Industrial Design framework

Abdullah, Muhammad Firdaus Abong January 2015 (has links)
Growing numbers of global manufacturers are not only adopting the modularity concept, but integrating design methodologies that explicitly focused on achieving a range of competitive advantages through the enhancement of product appearance and utilities designs. The rising interest in industrial design is also an interesting symptom of changes in the approach to new product development, hence, integrating industrial design in modular product design posed a new challenge. In meeting these challenges, a formal Industrial Design framework known as InDFM (Industrial Design Framework for Modular Product Design/Development) was developed to support the innovation of design in modular product development. Within the InDFM, a methodology is developed for modular product design realisation. This research embarked with identifying the appropriate range of product as the focus of the investigation, followed by qualitative surveys on the design and development processes relevant to the selected product. The surveys were conducted in modular product companies within a range of industries related to the product, in the U.K., Belgium and Malaysia. Literatures reviews were also conducted on related domains across a range of application to understand the fundamentals of modularity and industrial design processes that are relevant to the domains. Data findings from these exercises were used to identify InDFM construction components, which were also vital to develop a technical standard for implementation of the InDFM. To evaluate its practicability, the InDFM was retrospectively applied in an existing modular product design process of a selected company. The evaluation focused on process compatibility of industrial design and modular design processes. Validation of the process compatibility emphasised the quality of integration at all stages of the design and development process. In conclusion, industrial design applications in a highly technical process of modular product design provide a design-driven innovation to complement the engineering driven innovation in the process. The combinations were proven to enhance the visual, interactive, and the feasibility contents of a modular product apart from providing a broader perspective to the objective of product modularity. InDFM also provides design practitioners with systematic design methodology to integrate both processes, thus performed as a tool for innovation that facilitate the revision of object identity, break away from the existing design rules and generating new rules. Additionally, as InDFM is a flexible methodology, innovation of modular product design through industrial design is accessible to any product company, small scale or big organisation that would want to acquire an advanced interactive version of the InDFM in the future.
49

Enterprise Architecture adoption method for Higher Education Institutions

Syynimaa, N. January 2015 (has links)
During the last few years Enterprise Architecture has received increasing attention among industry and academia. Enterprise Architecture (EA) can be defined as (i) a formal description of the current and future state(s) of an organisation, and (ii) a managed change between these states to meet organisation’s stakeholders’ goals and to create value to the organisation. By adopting EA, organisations may gain a number of benefits such as better decision making, increased revenues and cost reductions, and alignment of business and IT. To increase the performance of public sector operations, and to improve public services and their availability, the Finnish Parliament has ratified the Act on Information Management Governance in Public Administration in 2011. The Act mandates public sector organisations to start adopting EA by 2014, including Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Despite the benefits of EA and the Act, EA adoption level and maturity in Finnish HEIs are low. This is partly caused by the fact that EA adoption has been found to be difficult. Thus there is a need for a solution to help organisations to adopt EA successfully. This thesis follows Design Science (DS) approach to improve traditional EA adoption method in order to increase the likelihood of successful adoption. First a model is developed to explain the change resistance during EA adoption. To find out problems associated with EA adoption, an EA-pilot conducted in 2010 among 12 Finnish HEIs was analysed using the model. It was found that most of the problems were caused by misunderstood EA concepts, attitudes, and lack of skills. The traditional EA adoption method does not pay attention to these. To overcome the limitations of the traditional EA adoption method, an improved EA Adoption Method (EAAM) is introduced. By following EAAM, organisations may increase the likelihood of successful EA adoption. EAAM helps in acquiring the mandate for EA adoption from top-management, which has been found to be crucial to success. It also helps in supporting individual and organisational learning, which has also found to be essential in successful adoption.
50

To what extent do informal learning and technology transfer impact absorptive capacity?

Nakale, Metusalem January 2015 (has links)
This thesis aimed to investigate the extent to which informal learning and technology transfer impact absorptive capacity and to uncover how individual social agents contribute to the development of absorptive capacity. Research on absorptive capacity has hitherto mainly focused on the use of proxies such as R&D intensity and the number of PhD holders in organizations to measure absorptive capacity. This preoccupation with proxies has retarded progress with respect to our understanding of how absorptive capacity is developed. The literature review revealed that most previous studies employed the quantitative paradigm and failed to capture the contextual dimensions of absorptive capacity. Most studies focused mainly on organizational level aspects thereby neglecting the individual antecedents of absorptive capacity. In order to reveal aspects of absorptive capacity development that quantitative studies are unable reveal, this study employed a qualitative paradigm, based on the constructionist philosophy. The data were generated through the use of semi-structured interviews, supplemented by field notes. The data analysis drew on the grounded theory approach. The evidence generated by this study shows that informal learning and knowledge/ technology transfer impact the ability to integrate and use external knowledge through individual agency. The findings also show that individual employees rely on their cognitive resources to acquire knowledge. Further, the results suggest that working with others, interacting with them, helps with knowledge transfer and institutionalization. The main implications of this study are that managers need to facilitate the creation of more learning opportunities in the workplace. Such learning has the potential to contribute significantly to the aspiration of creating a knowledge economy, especially in the context of Namibia. Also, organizations need to forge more links with industrial forerunners in order to learn from them and build up their own technological capabilities.

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