This thesis reports on an empirical investigation into manufacturing strategy (MS) formation in practice. The broad objective is to advance the understanding of MS processes through constructing consistent patterns in decision-making and action-taking relating to the manufacturing structure and infrastructure of the organisations studied. Using a combined "Grounded Theory - Case Study" approach, nine organisations within the metal products, machinery and equipment manufacturing sectors in Australia were studied, in order to address the following research questions: How are competitive priorities arrived at and translated into decisions and actions regarding the manufacturing structure and infrastructure? What are the consistent patterns of manufacturing strategy formation within specific organisational contexts and why those patterns exist that way? Qualitative data gathered through interviews conducted with the management staff - based on the sequences of events, actions and decisions, as well as other broader aspects of MS - were analysed by means of progressive coding. The themes, relationships and conceptual schemas emerged through the coding process are presented using narratives and graphical displays. The overall findings are presented in aggregate terms using a conceptual model, supplemented by several theoretical propositions. Deeper structures in MS processes represent linear and parallel, converging and diverging and sequential and iterative progression of strategic initiatives across four major phases identified as initiation, progression, commitment and realisation. The multiple modes of initiation, alternative paths of consolidation and differing forms of commitment and realisation are explained by the nature of strategic initiatives, the causal links between the modes themselves and the influence of certain organisational contextual factors. When enfolded in extant literature, these findings make two major contributions. First, apart from corroborating the complex and dynamic nature of MS formation in practice, they explicate the underlying patterns and alternative forms of MS formation. Second, they demonstrate some causal relationships between alternative forms of MS formation and certain contextual factors. These insights would inform future research, leading towards the development of a plausible mid-range theory of MS processes. They would also help practitioners to better understand the dynamics of MS formation and to nurture appropriate forms of MS formation within specific organisational settings.

This dissertation deals with three issues that are important to many firms, namely, volatile commodity prices, environmental regulations, and globalization. In the first essay I study the benefit and the coordination of inventory sharing when there are two existing channels for procurement, i.e., the spot and forward markets. I propose a method for sharing inventory such that the decentralized firms get the same benefit per unit of the sharing transactions regardless of whether the firm is borrowing or lending. The procurement cost gap between the centralized and decentralized cases is dramatically small by using this method. In the second essay, I analyze whether imposing carbon costs to retailers and consumers changes the supply chain design or social welfare. I consider three types of players who want to maximize different objectives and three kinds of competitive settings. Different from previous studies, I show that the supply chain design is changed significantly by imposing carbon costs especially when market competition is medium to high. In the third essay, I consider long-term / short-term strategies of multi-national corporations. For the long-term strategy, I show that the correlation between the exchange rate and the market demand in a foreign country affects plant location. For the short-term strategy, I show that manufacturers increase the inventory levels as the exchange rate of the country where the plant is located grows weaker. I confirm these results empirically using plant-level data of Korean multi-national corporations provided by the Export-Import Bank of Korea. / text

This thesis reports on an empirical investigation into manufacturing strategy (MS) formation in practice. The broad objective is to advance the understanding of MS processes through constructing consistent patterns in decision-making and action-taking relating to the manufacturing structure and infrastructure of the organisations studied. Using a combined "Grounded Theory - Case Study" approach, nine organisations within the metal products, machinery and equipment manufacturing sectors in Australia were studied, in order to address the following research questions: How are competitive priorities arrived at and translated into decisions and actions regarding the manufacturing structure and infrastructure? What are the consistent patterns of manufacturing strategy formation within specific organisational contexts and why those patterns exist that way? Qualitative data gathered through interviews conducted with the management staff - based on the sequences of events, actions and decisions, as well as other broader aspects of MS - were analysed by means of progressive coding. The themes, relationships and conceptual schemas emerged through the coding process are presented using narratives and graphical displays. The overall findings are presented in aggregate terms using a conceptual model, supplemented by several theoretical propositions. Deeper structures in MS processes represent linear and parallel, converging and diverging and sequential and iterative progression of strategic initiatives across four major phases identified as initiation, progression, commitment and realisation. The multiple modes of initiation, alternative paths of consolidation and differing forms of commitment and realisation are explained by the nature of strategic initiatives, the causal links between the modes themselves and the influence of certain organisational contextual factors. When enfolded in extant literature, these findings make two major contributions. First, apart from corroborating the complex and dynamic nature of MS formation in practice, they explicate the underlying patterns and alternative forms of MS formation. Second, they demonstrate some causal relationships between alternative forms of MS formation and certain contextual factors. These insights would inform future research, leading towards the development of a plausible mid-range theory of MS processes. They would also help practitioners to better understand the dynamics of MS formation and to nurture appropriate forms of MS formation within specific organisational settings.

Universiẗat, Diss., 2006--Bochum.

Master-Arbeit Univ. St. Gallen, 2005.

This dissertation is based on three essays in operations and supply chain management. In essay 1, we study an operations scheduling problem in a complex manufacturing system, most notably, semiconductor manufacturing. In particular, we study the scheduling problem of minimizing total weighted tardiness on parallel non-identical batch processing machines. We formulate the (primal) problem as a nonlinear integer programming model. Moreover, we prove that the primal problem can be solved exactly by solving a corresponding dual problem with nonlinear relaxation. Since both the primal and the dual problems are NP-hard, we propose to use genetic algorithms, based on random keys and multiple choice encodings, to heuristically solve them. We found that the genetic algorithms consistently outperform a standard mathematical programming package in terms of solutions and computation times. We also found that for small scale problem instances, the multiple choice genetic algorithm outperforms the random keys genetic algorithm, while for medium and large scale problem instances, the random keys genetic algorithm outperforms the multiple choice genetic algorithm. In essay 2, we study a monopolist firm offering successive versions of a durable good (e.g., software) that improves over time. The firm decides the time between successive introductions as well as price. In turn, consumers strategically decide whether to purchase or wait for a later version. We model and analyze three alternative strategies for offering successive product versions: the partial-, continuous-, and no-updates policies. We first consider the firm's profit maximizing policy assuming a homogeneous market and subsequently address consumers with heterogeneous product valuations. Our analytic model's simple structure and results highlight the important tradeoff between price and release timing for products with successive versions. In essay 3, we study the effect of time series structure of customer demand models on the value of information sharing within a supply chain. We contribute to the literature by incorporating a nonlinear demand model based on exponential disturbances, coupled with temporal heteroscedasticity, which captures more complex patterns in the demand process. We examine the conditions under which information sharing is valuable. / 10000-01-01

Abstract The framing into demand driven operations is because of the operations research modelling approach. The modelling approach requires continuous regressors and an independent response factor. The demand as an operating factor is considered as independent response factor in relation to the continuous regressors. The method validation is made along several longitudinal case studies to cover local, global and international industrial operations. The examined operational scope is from continuous operations to one-off production. Concerning scheduling, these examined demand driven, industrial operations are considered as open and dynamic, flow shop or job-shop operations. The examined managerial scope is from local work management to global industrial operations management. The theoretical framework of this study is based on operations management, productivity and controllability engineering. The strategical target is to improve productivity. The operational target setting is based on linear goal programming, streamlined demand driven material flow and specified operating factors according to this study, Forrester effect diagnostics and replenishment models. The engineering of strategical target into exact operational schedule as a task target is hard to accomplish, because of the combinatorial dynamic job-shop problem. The purpose of this study is to simplify this managerial task. These study operating factors are the heart in constructing a Decision Support System for the examined operations, alongside the method’s product flow diagnostics. This operations management method consists of the operating factors, specified in this study and these specified factors’ use in constructing a Decision Support System, by engineering current operations management system. The construct consist two parts. Firstly, the exact operational target alignment along this method diagnostics and secondly, the control mechanism according to this operational linear target. The expected managerial benefit is in productivity improvement. The practical benefits are in savings in logistics costs and improvement in customer service, due to shorten lead time and exacting delivery.

The field of Operations & Supply Chain Management (O&SCM) deals with large and complex structures. Evidence from practice suggests that management still runs in silos and decisions are often focused on specific functions as the totality of the problem and the impact on the broader organisation is not always understood. To manage such structures, managers have been investing in information technology to improve data availability and quality. Finally, good data is available with potential to enable holistic decision-making (DM). The field of analytics answers the need to transform data into information to support DM processes. Visual analytics rely specifically on visual representations to support DM processes. As visual analytics is still at its infancy, the aim is to identify what types of visual analytics has been used in empirical research, to support what decisions and its impact in O&SCM context. Evidence based literature review, also known as systematic literature review (SLR) method is used to review 41 papers. The most common type of visual analytics identified is modelling, mapping and visual interfaces between data and managers. These most often support Plan and Make type decisions. Vast majority of applications are identified as positive, enabling better understanding of the problem, greater management involvement in the process and better communication. Future research is needed to define the term “visual analytics” as the field is still at its infancy. Development and empirical testing is required of whether the identified visual tools are an enabler for holistic decisions in the O&SCM context.

The main objective of the study was to define FM in its broader context and identify ways of exposing its value to the organisation’s core business. The study firstly included defining FM, its scope and nature to provide an in-depth overview and understanding of the discipline. Secondly, the study discussed in detail the level of support of FM by top or senior management. Thirdly, the study discussed the importance of quality management in enhancing the value of FM within an organisation. Lastly, the study discussed how service level agreements can be utilised to enhance the value of FM within the organisation. Questionnaires were distributed via electronic mail and some hand-delivered to private, public organisations and government parastatals to gather their views on how they think FM can add value to their organisations. Questionnaires were sent out to various professionals from various organisations that employ FM services based on the aforementioned objectives. The findings from the survey showed that most organisations understand and have the knowledge about FM but there is no set and defined scope; the scope of FM differs in various organisations; soft services are grouped together and branded as FM services; FM is moderately incorporated throughout and top management still sees FM as adding no value to the organisation’s core business. The results also show that FM needs to adopt strategies such as understanding and working towards the organisation’s goals and objectives; ensuring sustainability in FM services; providing superior quality service and projecting defined and improved levels of service linking service to the organisation’s culture and facilitating organisational change for it to gain support from top management. The majority of respondents incorporating FM in their organisations agree with the benefits afforded by this discipline and have developed and implemented quality management systems that are linked to their business strategies and, by doing so, have enhanced their organisation’s performance levels. Service Level agreements are not being utilised by the majority of the organisations the few organisations that utilise SLA’s, have benefited a great deal from SLAs.

The main content of this master´s thesis is Airport Operations Management and it´s application on regional airport Brno – Tuřany. The study analyses common airport operations at the airports and compares it with actual situation at Brno airport. Focusing on comparsion, new upgrading or suggestions for increasing the operations are made. The part of thesis encloses also an approach to contemporary issues in greening the airports and air traffic.