This study evaluated the changes which occur in manufacturing organizations in the plastic molding industry which implement statistical process control (SPC). The study evaluated changes in product quality, consistency, cost, changes in employee attitudes, and changes in the organization structure which occur after the implementation of SPC. The study was conducted in two phases. Phase 1 consisted of an exploratory field study of a single manufacturing company. Phase 2 consisted of a field survey of three manufacturing companies in the same industry. An unexpected opportunity to evaluate the differences in effects of successful and unsuccessful SPC implementations occurred during the field survey. One plant, whose management assessed their SPC program as being unsuccessful, reported no economic or quality benefits from SPC. Neither did this plant report any changes in the attitudes or behavior of their employees. Neither of these findings was surprising since this plant was the only one of the four study plants which implemented SPC as a quality control program with no participation from the production department. The three plants whose management assessed their SPC programs as being successful reported reduced product variation and a decrease in the proportion of defective product produced as a result of SPC. No consistent evidence was found concerning a reduction in the material required per product resulting from SPC. No consistent evidence was found linking changes in employee attitudes and behavior to the implementation of SPC. The field study found a significant change in the employees1 attitudes toward management but no change in their attitudes toward the company. The field survey found no evidence of change in either dimension. Evidence was found for a change to a more organic structure during SPC training and to a more mechanistic structure during SPC implementation. The final form of the organization was more organic than before SPC. No consistent evidence was found for an increase in hierarchical levels or a reduction in the spans of control within the production departments as a result of SPC. All three of the plants with successful SPC programs increased the size and authority of their technical support staffs as a result of implementing SPC.

Litteraturen om Sälj- & verksamhetsplanering (S&OP) är generellt sett samstämmig kring slutsatsen att  en  sådan  process är  överlägsen traditionell planering,  där  varje  funktion planerar  sin  egen verksamhet. Men även om konceptet och möjliga fördelar är lätta att förstå, så har det visat sig svårt för många företag att operationalisera processen i verkligheten. Syftet med denna studie var därför att undersöka vilka stora hinder ett komplext tillverkande företag ställs inför vid operationaliserandet av en Sälj- & verksamhetsplaneringsprocess. För att fylla detta syfte så  genomfördes en djup fallstudie på  ett företag med ambitionen att operationalisera en standardprocess. Vidare gjordes en syntes av idag existerande mognadsramverk för processen, för att identifiera det mest passande ramverket för att diagnostisera en organisation och dess mognadsnivå. Genom att syntetisera litteraturen identifierades ramverket framtaget av Grimson och Pyke (2007) som det mest passande ramverket för att diagnostisera en organisation i den specifika kontexten. Vidare identifierades tre problemområden som i störst utsträckning hindrar operationaliserandet av en standardprocess: organisationens komplexitet, produktportföljskomplexitet samt IT-stöd. Denna  studie  bidrar  till  både  utövare  och  forskare  med  vägledning  för  att  framgångsrikt diagnostisera en organisations mognadsnivå inom processen, genom att identifiera och belysa de största hindren en komplex tillverkande organisation möter. För forskare påvisar detta att djupare forskning behövs inom vart och ett av dessa problemområden, och för företag och organisationer belyser   denna   studie   vart   resurser   ska   fokuseras   för   att   möjliggöra   ett   framgångsrikt operationaliserande av en Sälj- & Verksamhetsplaneringsprocess. / In general, literature is unanimous in concluding that Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) is superior to traditional decoupled planning. But even though the concept and potential benefits of S&OP  is  easy  to  comprehend,  the  process  has  proven  to  be  difficult  for  organizations  to operationalize in reality. Thus, the objective of this research was to investigate what major obstacles complex manufacturing organizations face while striving to operationalize a standard level Sales & Operations Planning process. In order to fill the research objective, empirical research in an in-depth case study format at a company that have the ambition to operationalize a standard level process was performed. More, a framework synthesis was carried out to identify the most suitable maturity framework for diagnosing organization’s S&OP maturity level. Through the S&OP Maturity Model Synthesis the framework by Grimson & Pyke (2007) is found the most appropriate for diagnosing a company within the specific context. Further, the major obstacles  for  complex  manufacturing  organizations  identified  are:  Organizational  complexity, product portfolio complexity and IT system support. This study firstly contributes to  practitioners and  researchers with guidance for  organizational diagnosis.   Secondly,   by   investigating   and   highlighting   the   major   obstacles   that   complex manufacturing organizations encounter when seeking to evolve in a S&OP process.  For researchers this indicates further research within each of these areas, and for practitioners the result signals where to focus time and resources in order to enable S&OP maturity progress.

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Strategic Marketing is very essential to realize firm’s objectives and thereby take the advantage against the competitors. Innovation becomes the means of taking the firm to the higher level among the existing local and global competitors. Strategic Marketing (SM) is making the firm do well where as Innovation is still enhancing the firms capability of doing things better and it happens to be the need of the hour. Thus Strategic Marketing and Innovation becomes the important components that need to be adopted by any organizations. It becomes essential to analyze the importance of Strategic Marketing for realizing the firm’s innovativeness and there by achieve the higher growth. This research is an attempt to find how Strategic Marketing is affecting the organizations performance by adopting innovation. The literature review gives a clear indication to do the research with reference to our Indian MSME’s. Considering this, the following specific objectives were formulated for the research. • Building the measures of Strategic Marketing and Innovation and develop a conceptual research framework for examining the relationship between them. • Designing a measuring instrument using Strategic Marketing and Innovation measures and test the instrument. • Examine the relationship between Strategic Marketing and Innovation and also its impact on each. • Examine the effect of different dimensions of Innovation on Strategic Marketing dimensions and find which of these needs more thrust in an organization. • Make appropriate suggestions on the need for adoption of SM as a means for any Indian manufacturing organizations to achieve a higher growth rate. The constructs of Strategic Marketing and Innovation are identified for further study. A conceptual framework was formulated with the set of hypothesis which needs to be tested. A structured questionnaire based on likert scale is used for collecting the primary data. The manufacturing organizations falling under Micro, Small and Medium scale are taken for the study through the directory provided by MSME Development Institute of India, Bangalore. The data was collected by approaching the managers of the manufacturing firms who have responsibilities to exhibit different management roles. The purpose of collecting the primary data is to know the management’s view regarding Strategic marketing and Innovation related to their firm. Our work includes both pilot and main study, where in validity and reliability of the measuring instrument is tested during pilot study. In our main study, 150 manufacturing organizations were approached situated in Peenya and Rajajinagar, Bangalore urban region. We got around 91 responses yielding about 60.6 % response rate. The data was obtained from 91 organizations, consisting of 04 Micro, 38 small and 49 medium scale organizations. A detailed statistical analysis is done for the collected data. Highly loading factors for the collected data was found out using confirmatory factor analysis and followed by finding the summated score of the data for the further analysis. The main study data was analyzed using multiple regression method by considering Strategic Marketing(SM) constructs as independent variables and Innovation performance constructs as dependent variables. The different assumptions underlying multiple regression were verified and five regression models estimated. The overall model fit was assessed and hypothesis was tested. The relationship established between SM and Innovation performance clearly indicates that SM has a great impact on the innovation performance of an organization irrespective of whatever may be the type of innovation. Hence achieving of SM performance can lead to the achievement of innovation performance also within organizations. Further the significant variables were identified from the individual regression models, interpreted and the models validated. It was found that out of the four variables of SM considered, as many as three variables viz. Marketing mix, Brand positioning and Entrepreneurial management are having a significant impact in one way or other way on the overall innovation performance of the organization. The strategy of focusing on the identified significant variables of SM was suggested for improving the innovation performance within organizations.

The new Industry 4.0 technologies have the potential to increase the operational performance of lean-driven manufacturing organizations, however, there is a lack of guidance on how to select and implement Industry 4.0 technologies which often leads to digital waste. In essence, these organizations want to preserve the value of their current lean manufacturing system, without missing out on improved operational performance potential from exploiting new I4.0 technologies. Furthermore, recent research suggests that there is a complementary effect between lean manufacturing and Industry 4.0 where higher use of both domains in a factory results in higher operational performance. However, in theory, it has not been established what influencing factors lead to the increase in operational performance when the two domains, lean manufacturing and Industry 4.0, are in high concurrent use. The purpose of this study is to identify the influencing factors in the implementation process of Industry 4.0 technologies that facilitate higher Industry 4.0 maturity within factories. In this case study, a qualitative method was used to obtain the empirical data by conducting a series of interviews with individuals working in a multi-national lean-driven manufacturing organization. From a thematic analysis, seven influencing factors were identified that contributed to higher Industry 4.0 maturity: three in the governance structure, two in the selection of Industry 4.0 technologies, and two in the implementation of Industry 4.0 technologies. In the governance structure, a shared digital vision, following a roadmap, and a standardized way of working with digitalization in place facilitated a more successful implementation process. In the selection, a demand-based selection and identification of a business case around the Industry 4.0 technology increased the possibility of the technology selected reaching an implementation stage. Further, in the implementation, having local cross-functional teams and actively developing the employees' knowledge, and providing training in digitalization resulted in more successful implementations. Further, a ripple effect was seen between the influencing factors: having an effective governance structure led to more demand-based selections and thereby more successful implementations that resulted in higher Industry 4.0 maturity. / De nya industri 4.0 teknologierna har potentialen att öka de operativa resultaten inom lean-drivna industriföretag, men det saknas vägledning för hur man väljer och implementerar industri 4.0 teknologier vilket oftast resulterar i digitalt slöseri. Industriföretagen vill bevara värdet av de lean-drivna tillverkningssystemen utan att gå miste om förbättrade resultat med hjälp av industri 4.0. Dessutom tyder den senaste forskningen på att det finns en kompletterande effekt mellan lean produktion och industri 4.0 teknologier, där högre användning av båda domänerna i en fabrik resulterar i bättre operativa resultat. I teorin har det dock inte fastställts vilka de påverkande faktorerna är som leder till ett förbättrat operativt resultat när de två domänerna, lean-produktion och industri 4.0, används i hög grad samtidigt. Syftet med studien är att identifiera vilka de påverkande faktorerna är i implementeringsprocessen av industri 4.0 teknologier som främjar en högre mognadsgrad av industri 4.0 i tillverkningsfabriker. I fallstudien användes en kvalitativ metod för att erhålla empirin genom att utföra en serie av intervjuer med individer som arbetar på ett multinationellt lean-drivet industriföretag. Utifrån en tematisk analys identifierades sju påverkande faktorer som bidrog till en högre mognadsgrad av industri 4.0: tre i styrningsstrukturen, två i valet av industri 4.0 teknologier och två i implementeringen av industri 4.0 teknologier. I styrningsstrukturen återfanns att en delad vision, att följa en roadmap och att ha ett standardiserat arbetssätt för digitalisering främjade en mer framgångsrik implementeringsprocess. Inom valet av teknologier återfanns att ett val baserat på efterfrågan och generering av ett business case för industri 4.0 teknologier ökade möjligheten för den valda teknologin att nå en implementeringsfas. Till sist, i implementeringsfasen visade det sig att lokala tvärfunktionella team och att aktivt utveckla medarbetarnas kunskaper, samt att ge utbildning i digitalisering, resulterade i mer framgångsrika implementeringar. Slutligen sågs en kedjeeffekt mellan de påverkande faktorerna, nämligen att ha en effektiv styrningsstruktur ledde till fler val baserade på efterfrågan och därmed fler framgångsrika implementeringar vilket resulterade i en högre mognadsgrad av industri 4.0.