Does a manufacturing company have to concentrate on a few competitive priorities or can it excel at everything it does? The traditional notion of trade-offs between manufacturing capabilities has recently come under question. Based on the manufacturing management practices of certain Japanese companies, or lean production, it has been proposed that manufacturing capabilities are built cumulatively. The sequence of the initiatives with which manufacturing capabilities are built has, however, received less attention. Particularly lacking are studies which take a process view of implementation. A process view implies studying implementation through longitudinal research, as opposed to cross-sectional research. This book addresses this gap in knowledge. The central problem examined in this book is whether there exists any sequences of lean production principles and what the sequences are. For a period of two and a half years, the author participated in and studied the transformation of Office Machines - the fictitious name of a company adopting lean production. Using the clinical methodology, the author gained access to data not normally available for research, which provided a unique opportunity to study the adoption process. The findings from the clinical study groups the principles of lean production into four different categories, depending on when management devoted effort and resources to the principles. Through a comparison with existing operations management theory, the study’s conclusions indicate that there are sequences in which lean production principles are adopted. However, management also need to devote effort and resources to a set of principles simultaneously. / <p>Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögsk.</p>

Indirect Management Consulting (IMC) is a new concept within organizational change management consulting. The basic principle is to make the client more active in the change effort compared to conventional management consulting where the consultant actively drives the change. With IMC, the client is provided with a tailored set of skills and methods that makes him able to lead a change project and to make sure that the new organization is sustained. The IMC-model is a combination of management consulting and e-learning, where the consultant has an indirect role in supporting the client. This study has shown that the IMC-model increases the chance for successful change implementation by increasing knowledge and involvement of the managers in the client organization. A common problem with conventional consulting is that the new organization fails to persist some time after the change project has ended and when the consultants have left the organization. This is overcome by the IMC-model since it transfers necessary knowledge and tools to the client’s managers who then can drive the change as well as ensure sustainability long after the project itself is completed. The IMC-model is more cost-efficient than conventional consulting since less involvement is required by the consultant and since the customization of the e-learning systems can be made efficient by modularization. The lower costs make it possible to compete with a lower overall price and the combination of high quality of the organizational change with low prices makes the IMC-model an attractive complement to conventional management consulting. / This study is a part of an evaluation of the potential of a new business concept within the field of management consulting. The study is written to give insight of the functionality of the concept as well as the market barriers that a new company can expect to encounter if it decides to start up a business based on the concept. Indirect Management Consulting (IMC) is a new and unproven concept within change management consultancy and can in a simplified manner be described as a mix between e-learning and traditional management consultancy. The basic principle is that the client is given instructions and tools to be able to lead the change project by following a model similar to an e-learning program. The contents of the program are custom-built by a management consultant according to the needs of the change project. The consultant monitors the progress of the organizational change and adapts the model and gives feedback to the client as the project progresses. By following the IMC model, the client does the majority of the work while he does not require initial knowledge of change management since he is continuously provided with the information, tools and templates needed to analyze the organizational performance and implement the change successfully. The functionality of the IMC concept was evaluated in two ways: First by comparing the contents of the IMC-model with existing change management theories in order to find out if the model covers the most critical aspects of the theories. Secondly, the market for the IMC model was analyzed mainly by using Porter’s five-force theory. This study has shown that IMC can be an efficient method for implementing organizational change. Its efficiency comes from a number of sources, mainly related to the fact that the organization’s own managers have, compared to conventional management consulting, a high degree of involvement in the analysis of the organization and the implementation of the change. This in turn leads to better communication of the change plan and makes it easier to motivate employees to accept to the organizational change and make them feel a ‘sense of urgency’ for participating to successfully implement the project. The model was also found to make it easy for the manager to formulate a change strategy and to implement the change in a structured manner. For the consulting company, IMC means that costs (and consequently prices) can be kept much lower than for conventional consultant services. One main reason is that the model does not have to be built from scratch for each client. The contents of the model are relatively easily adjusted to suit most types of organizational changes. A second reason for the lower cost is that time the consultant spends at the client’s offices is minimized or eliminated. This gives an advantage compared to conventional management consulting. While the management consulting industry have relatively low entry barriers, that is however not equivalent that it is easy for a company to enter the market based on the IMC-model. A high quality of the services is crucial and, if that cannot be proven, the advantage of having a low price is diminished. It is therefore important for a new starter in this industry to have a portfolio of successfully implemented projects. For the IMC concept, this is problematic since the model is new and unproven. It can therefore be difficult to find the first clients and alternative entry strategies such as partnering or simply advocating a “non-profit” strategy for the first clients might be necessary.

In this thesis, we study the repair shop scheduling problem(repair-to-stock) and the production/inventory system pricing and production scheduling problem(make-to-stock). For both types of problems, we compare the performance of different scheduling policies. For the make-to-stock type problem, we also study the performance of different pricing strategies. The optimal repair/production scheduling policy of both problems is difficult to characterize, and, therefore, is only formulated as a Markov Decision Process to numerically compute the optimal cost/profit. As an alternative, we propose the dynamic Myopic policy, which is easy to implement. The numerical study we have conducted demonstrates that the performance of Myopic policy is superior compared to the alternative policies and yields costs very close to the optimal for the repair-to-stock type problem. On the other hand, for the make-to-stock type problems, the performance of Myopic policy is not superior compared to the alternative policies when dynamic pricing strategy is implemented.

In this thesis, we study the repair shop scheduling problem(repair-to-stock) and the production/inventory system pricing and production scheduling problem(make-to-stock). For both types of problems, we compare the performance of different scheduling policies. For the make-to-stock type problem, we also study the performance of different pricing strategies. The optimal repair/production scheduling policy of both problems is difficult to characterize, and, therefore, is only formulated as a Markov Decision Process to numerically compute the optimal cost/profit. As an alternative, we propose the dynamic Myopic policy, which is easy to implement. The numerical study we have conducted demonstrates that the performance of Myopic policy is superior compared to the alternative policies and yields costs very close to the optimal for the repair-to-stock type problem. On the other hand, for the make-to-stock type problems, the performance of Myopic policy is not superior compared to the alternative policies when dynamic pricing strategy is implemented.

This paper examines the determinants of profitability using operations strategy, productivity, and service measures in the context of the U.S. domestic airline industry. Data on ten carriers was collected on a quarterly basis between 1995 and 2007. An analysis is performed separately on data prior and post 9/11 attack. It is found that operations strategy and productivity measures are significant both before and after the 9/11 attack, whereas service measures are only significant before 9/11. Some managerial implications are provided. Additionally, it is found that the profitability of full-service carriers is improving faster than low-cost carriers after 9/11.

Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery AB i Finspång är ett företag som bland annat levererar gasturbinanläggningar till hela världen. Inför huvudleveransen av anläggningen från Finspång genomgås en process, kallad avropsprocessen, där förberedelser görs i form av bland annat utplock ur förrådet, packning och administration. Processen är idag ojämn då arbetet stoppas och startas flertalet gånger, dessutom krävs mycket handpåläggning och påtryckningar för att driva processen framåt. Avdelningar som ingår i det studerade systemet är främst projektstöd, förråd, montage och packning. Projektstöd har en administrativ roll och skapar den systemmässiga transporten med allt som ska levereras, där bland annat genereras plocklistor till förrådets kö. Förrådet i sin tur plockar material som ska levereras, och skickar det sedan till packningen som förpackar materialet enligt de behov som krävs beroende på transportsätt. Montagets del i processen är att montera av material som inte kan levereras monterat på maskinen och skicka det till packningen som packar på samma sätt som beskrivs ovan. Syftet med examensarbetet är att kartlägga den nuvarande avropsprocessen för leverans av gasturbinanläggningar och ge åtgärdsförslag på hur material- och informationsflödet i processen kan utjämnas. Åtgärdsförslagen ska utvärderas med hänsyn till interna risker och kostnader. En kartläggning upprättades med hjälp av SIPOC-modellen för att skapa en detaljerad bild av hur avropsprocessen fungerar, med samtliga ingående avdelningarnas material och informationsflöden. Kartläggningen analyserades, och utifrån analysen identifierades ett antal orsaker till det ojämna flödet. De identifierade orsakerna strukturerades därefter med hjälp av Ishikawadiagram och samlades till följande huvudorsaker; att materialet hemkommer sent till SIT AB, att avropsmötet är bristfälligt, att processen för att skapa avrop är otydlig, att arbetssättet i förrådet brister, samt att vissa triggers är bristfälliga. Huvudorsakerna som framkom i orsaksanalysen diskuterades sedan i en åtgärdsanalys där diskussioner kring möjliga åtgärder fördes utifrån relevanta teorier. Dessa diskussioner sammanställdes sedan till mer konkreta åtgärdsförslag. Förslagen som framkom beskrivs kortfattat nedan: 1. Sent material. Steg ett är att arbetet som påbörjats med att införa proactive planning, som åtgärd till grundproblemet, fortsätter. Detta kompletteras med att den lista med material som riskerar att bli sent fortfarande skapas och lämnas till internprojektledaren som tar reda på om materialet hinner komma hem i tid. Om det inte hinner hem är det viktigt att information om detta förmedlas till berörda avdelningar så att onödig väntetid inte uppstår, detta förslagsvis av internprojektledaren som har störst helhetsinsikt. 2. Bristande avropsmöte. Ett förslag har tagits fram på hur checklistan för avropsmötet kan utvecklas för att underlätta förberedelser inför mötet. Denna ska distribueras av internprojektledaren tillsammans med övrig information till mötet i samband med kallelsen. Det kan även vara bra att förtydliga de rutiner för genomförande som finns, till exempel gällande vem som håller i mötet. Ett uppföljande möte kan även hållas veckan innan packveckan för att följa upp och informera om läget i projektet. 3. Otydlig process för avrop. Projektstöd bör inte invänta klartecken från packningen utan istället i största möjliga utsträckning göra samtliga avrop under samma dag och ange fredagen innan packveckan i deras avrop. Om materialet inte finns hemma i tid ska projektstöd invänta inlagringen på förrådet innan de gör sina avrop, och i de fallen föreslås att dagens datum skrivs in i avropet så att utskriften av listan görs så fort som möjligt. När avropet skapats skriver förrådet ut alla listor och lämnar till packningen för nytt plockdatum. Packningen föreslås alltid ge det nya datumet till förrådet exakt tre dagar innan de vill ha materialet för att minska risken för att de ska behöva ändra datumen flera gånger. I de fall förrådet i Centrum ska plocka på samma lista rekommenderas att det nya plockdatumet distribueras via mejl. Förslaget innebär att förrådet inte kan utföra mätningar genom SAP, och därför har en möjlig manuell mätning tagits fram i form av ett Excel-dokument. 4. Arbetssätt förråd. Det första som tas upp är att dokumentera strulet för att kunna prioritera att lösa det strul som orsakar mest problem. Ett förslag för hur detta skulle kunna se ut har tagits fram i ett Excel-dokument. Viktigt är även att tid avsätts för förrådet för att kunna arbeta fram bra rutiner och processer för sitt arbete och att en person finns ansvarig för att driva förrådets arbete med förbättringsarbete. Förutom detta kan förbättringar uppnås för packningen om förrådet börjar göra muntliga överlämningar i samband med att de levererar material. För att förenkla detta vid de tillfällen då den ansvariga packaren inte finns tillgänglig är förslaget att en whiteboardtavla sätts upp med en kolumn för varje packare där plocklistan till det som lämnas över sätts upp. Det sista som tas upp i detta förslag är att förrådet borde skriva ut de korrekta märklapparna från början och märka materialet med dessa. Då lapparna inte går att få ut i plockordning är det viktigt att fortsätta att arbeta med detta för att hitta en bra lösning. 5. Otydliga triggers. Gällande triggern för att platslistan ska skapas förslås att packningen hör av sig till projektstöd när de vill ha listan. Behovet är tydligare hos dem och därför är det mer naturligt att de styr när de vill ha den.

This paper examines the determinants of profitability using operations strategy, productivity, and service measures in the context of the U.S. domestic airline industry. Data on ten carriers was collected on a quarterly basis between 1995 and 2007. An analysis is performed separately on data prior and post 9/11 attack. It is found that operations strategy and productivity measures are significant both before and after the 9/11 attack, whereas service measures are only significant before 9/11. Some managerial implications are provided. Additionally, it is found that the profitability of full-service carriers is improving faster than low-cost carriers after 9/11.

Operations strategies, whether prompted by competitive or regulatory forces, can greatly impact firm performance. While operations strategies cover a wide spectrum of issues - supply chain management, technology choice, capacity allocation, etc. - this dissertation focuses on two such issues, namely, sustainability and product development. The thesis comprises three essays. The first essay (Chapter 2) examines a regulatory aspect of sustainability strategy, product take-back, a form of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). With a stylized model, we analyze the trade-offs between assigning full responsibility for product recovery to a single echelon in a multi-echelon supply chain versus sharing responsibility between echelons. We demonstrate how the sharing of EPR program costs between the echelons can move the supply chain closer to the coordinated profit benchmark. The second essay (Chapter 3) examines a voluntary aspect of sustainability from an empirical perspective. We investigate the impact from various types of corporate environmental initiatives and environmental awards and certifications on the market value of the firm. We find that the market is selective in reacting to environmental performance, with certain types of initiatives and awards even valued negatively. The third essay (Chapter 4) is an empirical examination of the shareholder value effects that result from the restructuring of firms' product development activities. We find that, on average, the stock market reacts positively to product development restructuring, and that the reaction is dependent on the firm's prior financial performance, restructuring objective, R&D expenditures, and size.

With the increased attention of different stakeholders on the environmental performance of businesses, several firms are increasingly focusing on product recovery and reuse activities which are not only profitable but may also help to reduce the environmental impact of their operations. This dissertation focuses on managerial challenges associated with such value-added recovery and reuse activities. The first essay examines how a firm should bring a product to market, in particular, whether to lease or sell products. Motivated by claims that leasing can be an environmentally superior to selling, we analytically investigate if either leasing or selling can be both more profitable for a monopolist and have a lower total environmental impact. The second essay first experimentally examines the effect of remanufactured products on the perceived value of new products. This effect is then incorporated to analytically investigate an OEM's strategy in the presence of competition from third-party remanufacturers. In the third essay, motivated by a major IT company, we investigate the optimal product recovery and remanufacturing strategy for a firm that can offer trade-in rebates to achieve price discrimination. We also consider the effect of potential entry of third-party remanufacturers on the firm's recovery and remanufacturing strategy.

Effective and efficient operations management is the cornerstone of any company's success. Presently, because of cost-cutting pressures, all investors look out for companies' operations before making any investment commitment. The South African Government (through the Department of Public Enterprises), as an owner and investor in Eskom, is looking at optimising operational excellence within state-owned enterprises like Eskom. Eskom is presently experiencing problems with increased electricity consumption which it cannot meet due to the limited plant capacity it presently has. These challenges are forcing Eskom to be more efficient and effective in management of the present plant assets (like Matimba Power Station) it presently operates. Matimba Power Station has consistently shown improvement in the areas of plant, financial and operations performance over the last three years. It is presently the standard bearer for the whole Eskom in terms of plant and operational performance. Asset management (through maintenance and management thereof), especially preventative management with in a power utility like Eskom, is a critical factor because supply (generation of electricity) has to meet demand (consumption of electricity) instantaneously as electricity cannot be saved. The planning, scheduling and execution of maintenance (through a work management process) to ensure success of business operations are very critical. An Eskom document titled Routine Work Management Manual emphasised the criticality of preventative management and included a six-step process of work management within the power generation business. The Japanese success in ensuring that operations costs are limited by implementing total productive maintenance (which includes work management) is suggested in the study as a way to go for operational success at Matimba Power Station. Many of the research studies done at Eskom in regard to maintenance were based on and confined to a sampling population of senior staff members like managers, engineers and supervisors. Experience has shown that progress of implementing change (whether in systems or structures) is slow if there was no proactive involvement of all participants and stakeholders, especially employees at lower levels involved in operations. A work management process, which is one of the pillars of total productive maintenance, was recently implemented at Matimba and is currently experiencing teething problems which are being attended to. Employee involvement in making sure of the success of work management is critical. The study investigates the implementation of work management from the employees' perspective in order to address problems for possible full implementation of total productive maintenance. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2010.