Using replication research for just-in-time purchasing construct development

Using replication research, the validity of the just-in-time purchasing (JITP) construct is established. Although empirical researchers have examined JITP over the last two decades, a consistent set of valid, reliable factors has not been used. The lack of valid construct is a barrier to hypotheses testing and meta-analyses on JITP. This study confirmed the validity of six JITP factors: top management commitment, employee relations, training, supplier quality management, transportation, and quantities delivered using two different data sets and testing the first- and second-order structure of the JITP construct. Content validity, reliability, unidimensionality, convergent validity, discriminant validity, criterion-related validity, and an invariant factorial structure of the JITP construct were empirically established.     

Relationship between just-in-time manufacturing practices and performance: A meta-analytic investigation

Just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing is among the most commonly researched topics in the area of operations management. This study examines the relationship between JIT manufacturing practices and performance outcomes by means of meta-analysis of correlations approach. Based on an in-depth analysis of literature spanning from 1992 to 2008, the results of this meta-analytic investigation support a positive relationship between JIT manufacturing practices and aggregate performance. However, the findings suggest that not all individual JIT practices are associated with all types of performance outcomes. This study highlights the JIT practices that have the greatest impact on individual performance outcomes and emphasizes the role of moderating factors in the relationship between JIT practices and performance. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed and directions for future theory building in JIT are presented.     

Assessing the impact of JIT using economic theory

This paper combines ideas that are well founded in the production and inventory management literature, with analytical approaches that have been long established in the economic theory literature, to reveal and explore production-function characteristic differences between JIT producers and non-JIT producers among electronic firms in Ontario, Canada. The methodology employed is the estimation of the CES-TL total cost system. Our primary conclusion is that JIT firms are more cost-efficient and appear to be distinct from the non-JIT group. This conclusion is supported by: (1) the fact that, in most cases, the elasticities calculated from the two groups of firms are significantly different; (2) the fact that the cost elasticity with respect to output is lower for the JIT firms than for the non-JIT firms, indicating that the former are better able to capture economies of scale and density; (3) the difference between the elasticities of factor productivity, with respect to output changes, shows the JIT firms as being more labor- and materials-saving than the non-JIT firms.     

‘Green’ value chain practices in the furniture industry

This paper draws on the results of interviews with five environmental managers in the furniture industry to develop a taxonomy of environmentally-friendly (‘green’) best practices within the operations management value chain. This taxonomy is then extended to develop a group of propositions concerning the role of management in promoting environmentally-friendly practices. The results suggest that in order to be successful, environmental management strategies must be integrated into all stages of the value chain, which includes all of the processes spanning product design, procurement, manufacturing and assembly, packaging, logistics, and distribution. While the potential for environmental performance improvement in all five of the companies is evident, all of them demonstrated ‘pockets’ of environmentally-friendly practices (EFP) in different areas of their respective value chain functions. The propositions and results emerging from the analysis also suggests that reacting to regulations is no longer sufficient. World-class EFP must anticipate and pre-empt changing environmental regulations and customer expectations, and proactively prepare products, processes and infrastructure for these changes without sacrificing competitive advantage.     

A meta-analysis model of manufacturing capabilities

Recent research in operations strategy has focused on showing the extent to which manufacturing's competence in developing and executing one or more competitive capabilities affects the organization's overall business performance. Several of those efforts have produced models, such as the ‘sand cone’, that suggest an ideal sequence in which manufacturing capabilities should be developed. However, efforts to empirically validate such sequential models, except for one recent study, have been inconclusive. This paper takes a different approach to examining the relationships among competitive capabilities. The existing cross-sectional studies of manufacturing capabilities are integrated to synthesize a proposed model of: (1) the relationships among manufacturing capabilities, and (2) the relationships between those capabilities and business performance. The proposed model is synthesized using data from previous studies, other models and theoretical arguments. Meta-analysis is used to identify aspects of the model that appear better supported by empirical research and those that require further study. The implications of this proposed model with regard to research, practice and future research in operations strategy are discussed.     

Problems of establishing service supply relationships: Evidence from a high-tech manufacturing company

This paper identifies areas, which may cause problems when establishing service supply relationships. Case research has been conducted within the service division of a global manufacturing company, analysing 11 instances where the company established or attempted to establish a relationship with a supplier to provide services as part of their offering to the end-customer. Four problem areas are identified through inductive case analysis. First, writing legal agreements for service exchanges. Second, clearly specifying service processes to be transferred to suppliers. Third, handing over service delivery to suppliers. Fourth, losing control over the relationship with the customer. These problems expand on already known problems of establishing supply relationships. Suggestions for how the problems may be moderated are also provided.     

Strategic supply management,quality initiatives,and organizational performance

Researchers in supply chain management have found over the past two decades that supply management should be not merely a purchasing function but a strategic tool for supply chain integration. Supply management, the cornerstone of the integration of industrial supply chains, has evolved as a key research area. Based on quantitative and qualitative investigations of 225 electronics manufacturing firms, we examine the organizational impacts of strategic supply management (SSM) and the contexts of company size, process type, ISO 9000 certification, and quality management (QM) implementation that facilitate such an endeavor. We reveal that SSM is essentially a quality management initiative that requires bilateral efforts for continuous improvement and thus is not associated with the basic requirements of ISO 9000. We find that SSM improves on-time shipments, reduces operational costs, and leads to customer satisfaction and improved business performance. Developed based on contemporary premises in supply chain and QM, this research refines our understanding of the relationships among quality initiatives, SSM, and organizational performance.     

Relationships between implementation of TQM, JIT, and TPM and manufacturing performance

Research on Total Quality Management (TQM), Just-in-Time (JIT) and Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) generally investigates the implementation and impact of these manufacturing programs in isolation. However, many researchers believe and argue conceptually the value of understanding the joint implementation and effect of manufacturing programs. This study investigates the practices of the three programs simultaneously. We find that there is evidence supporting the compatibility of the practices in these programs and that manufacturing performance is associated with the level of implementation of both socially- and technically-oriented practices of the three programs.     

A contingent view of e-collaboration and performance in manufacturing

Manufacturers are increasingly utilizing Internet-based tools to more readily conduct collaborative activities with key business customers. While the emerging conventional wisdom suggests that the greater the extent to which manufacturers engage in Internet-enabled commerce with downstream business customers the better the performance, we espouse an alternative view. Consistent with the relational view of competitive advantage and contingency theory, we develop a model and a series of hypotheses that specify how various product and market characteristics may influence the nature of the expected positive relationship between e-collaboration and performance.To test the model, we collected data from 50 manufacturers using a Web-based survey. Our partial least squares (PLS) analysis results do indeed support the notion that e-collaboration is related to better operational and business performance. However, we go on to show that the strength of the relationship between e-collaboration and operational performance diminishes as the level of environmental munificence increases. Notably, we found no such moderating effect with respect to the level of product complexity or market variability. Our findings contribute to the operations strategy literature on supply chain relationships in the e-business arena and offer managers a framework for understanding the conditions under which investments in e-collaboration may be more appropriate and therefore more beneficial.     

Demand chain management in manufacturing and services: web-based integration, drivers and performance

This paper investigated the relationship between Internet-enabled supply chain integration strategies and performance in manufacturing and services. It summarizes the literature on demand and supply integration and describes four web-based strategies. A stratified random sample was collected from UK manufacturers and services, and there was strong evidence that demand chain management (DCM) led to the highest performance in manufacturing, but few signs of DCM in services. Manufacturers and services relying on only web-based demand or supply integration outperformed their low integration counterparts, but lagged DCM in manufacturing. The study also investigated DCM adoption drivers and found that rational efficiency and bandwagon effects drove change. The findings have some important implications for theory as well as for manufacturing and service companies interested in improving their performance.     

亏损上市公司盈余管理实证分析

亏损对上市公司的负面影响非常大,处于亏损边缘或可能微亏的上市公司会通过盈余管理手段来操纵盈利,以避免成为被关注对象或暂停上市或终止上市。本文以我国连亏两年、连亏三年又扭亏的106家上市公司为样本,通过构建模型进行了实证检验,总结出亏损上市公司进行盈余管理的结论并提出建议,以期为证券监管提供经验证据。     

Demand chain management theory: constraints and development from global aerospace supply webs

This paper develops an empirical and theoretical approach to where strategic capabilities should lie within global aerospace supply chains. Theory from transaction cost economics (TCE) and the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm are applied to the aerospace sector and used to underpin a theory of demand chain management (DCM). A two-stage research process was used to generate and validate data from aerospace supply chain case studies. Demand chain driver and resource-based response categories were identified from these data and are presented. Concluding comments concern current limits of a demand chain theory and implications for practitioners.     

The deployment of temporary production workers in assembly operations: a case study of the hidden costs of learning and forgetting

The dynamics of workforce skill levels has a considerable impact on plant-level performance that is commonly overlooked by managers of manufacturing operations. In this study, we present a discrete event simulation model inspired by and validated in an actual manufacturing setting that includes short product life cycles, mid-volume production quantities, and a production environment consisting of assembly, inspection and testing.The effect of worker skill dynamics is analyzed using a factorial experimental design that contrasts the use of temporary versus permanent workers on manufacturing cost performance. The manufacturing costs assessed include labor, inspection and testing. The cost of reworking a defect is captured as an increase in the labor consumption. Materials costs are not assessed. At the core of the analysis, it is assumed that temporary workers have relatively less skill and therefore have higher average production times, higher average defect rates associated with their assembly activity, and lower rates of learning. In addition, the variance of the production time is higher for the temporary workers. Despite these indicators of performance problems, temporary workers may be used because of the considerably lower wage rate compared to permanent employees.Our in-depth case analyses shows that assigning skilled permanent workers to upstream build operations was superior to other policies deploying temporary workers, regardless of lot size or product complexity. Attesting to the importance of the labor mix component of manufacturing strategy, workforce deployment policies tended to dominate product switching frequency (a proxy variable for lot size and product mix) in impacting costs.     

Assessing supply chain risks with the analytic hierarchy process: Providing decision support for the offshoring decision by a US manufacturing company

This paper reports the process used by a US manufacturing company to assess supply chain risks within the context of an offshore sourcing decision. The case study company was faced with the objective of finding a new supplier for two of its major product lines. Five alternatives were considered: (1) sourcing finished goods from Mexico; (2) sourcing finished goods from China; (3) sourcing parts from China and assembly in the US; (4) sourcing parts from China, assembly in a Maquiladora in Mexico with investment; and (5) sourcing parts from China, assembly in a Maquiladora in Mexico with no investment in the venture. To find the best solution, action research methodology was combined with the application of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Through iterative and structured discussions, 17 risk factors were identified, which were subsequently grouped into main and sub objectives. AHP was then used to evaluate the importance of each risk factor, and to determine the best alternative. This study makes several contributions to the field of purchasing and supply management. First, it provides a comprehensive framework of empirically derived risk factors to be considered in an international sourcing context. Second, it shows how AHP can be used to assess these risk factors and alternatives as part of the framework to facilitate and support the final offshoring decision. And third, it illustrates the successful application of the approach by a US manufacturing company. As such, this paper contributes to the research streams of offshoring and risk management in purchasing and supply, as well as to decision-making under uncertainty and AHP. In addition, it serves as a practical methodology for firms in similar situations.     

Advanced manufacturing technology: Implementation policy and performance

This article investigates the relationships between adoption of various advanced manufacturing technologies (AMT), the way that firms plan for and implement them, and their eventual performance. Data obtained from 125 manufacturing firms in the U.S. is used to test several hypotheses which were derived from an extensive review of the AMT implementation literature. The four research questions that drive this study are: (1) What types of planning and installation activities have firms utilized to support their AMT adoptions?, (2) do differences in the level of effort applied to these activities have any impact on the eventual performance of the systems?, (3) are firms that are using integrated technologies, such as FMC/FMS and CIM, applying higher levels of effort on these planning and installation activities than other firms?, and (4) Are these firms achieving higher levels of success than firms that are not using the integrated technologies. The results indicate that firms adopting integrated technologies had exerted significantly higher levels of effort on strategic planning and team-based project management and had also achieved higher levels of performance across a wider range of performance factors than other firms. In addition, firms that had exerted higher levels of effort on developing human factors appeared to be achieving more of the benefits of AMT than their counterparts. The overall results and the research and practical implications of this study are discussed.