Threats to new product manufacturability and the effects of development team integration processes

The thesis of this article is that new product manufacturability (NPM) is influenced by certain challenges inherent in new product development (NPD), and by efforts to integrate manufacturing and other functional concerns into the product design process. This research tests the direct and interacting effects of these influences via a survey of 91 completed NPD projects representing a variety of manufacturing industries. While most hypotheses were supported, the analysis also provides some surprising findings. Project complexity and increased levels of design outsourcing are associated with poorer NPM. Product newness and project acceleration are associated with better NPM. All the measured aspects of development team integration are associated with better NPM, including intense manufacturing involvement, a collaborative work environment, supplier influence on the product design, and strong management support in the project. Furthermore, certain integration variables exert moderating effects on relationships between technological uncertainty, product newness, design outsourcing, project acceleration and NPM. By exposing these relationships this research extends the theory of product development influences on manufacturability beyond a focus on engineering-oriented approaches (e.g., design-for-manufacture). The results suggest that larger managerial issues must be addressed and that more contingency-oriented research is needed to explore the benefits and limitations of development team integration processes.     

基于ANP-TOPSIS方法应急物流外包商的评价与选择

首先文中根据应急物流的特点设计了应急物流外包供应商的评价指标体系,然后利用ANP-TOPSIS模型确定指标的客观权重,并计算和分析方案的排序;最后进行算例研究,为选择应急物流外包供应商提供了理论研究。     

Global sourcing and quality recalls: An empirical study of outsourcing-supplier concentration-product recalls linkages

This study investigates how supply chain sourcing strategies are associated with product quality recalls. In particular, the research examines how make-or-buy decisions (i.e., outsourcing), the use of foreign suppliers (i.e., offshore outsourcing), the relocation of production to offshore markets (i.e., offshoring), and decisions to consolidate supply bases (i.e., the use of few vs. myriad suppliers) are related to product recalls. Product recalls are serious quality failures in supply chains with significant, negative impacts on firm performance. Product recalls are frequently connected to the globalization of supply chains. Globalization has, at times, promoted inconsistency in quality control and standards, leading to quality problems and failures. Data across multiple industries, with widely reported recalls, have been collected and analyzed using regression techniques. Our findings indicate that offshore outsourcing has a greater impact on recalls than offshoring without outsourcing; outsourcing domestically has the least influence. Outsourcing to a smaller supplier base may lead to fewer recalls at low levels of outsourcing. However, it may exacerbate the impact of outsourcing on recalls at high levels of outsourcing.     

Critical success factors for mutual collaboration with suppliers in IT outsourcing industry: a case study of a top IT outsourcing company in Korea

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, information technology (IT) outsourcing companies face enduring demands to reduce cost while increasing productivity. This pressure leads many IT outsourcing companies to rely on outsourcing arrangements with IT personnel suppliers. In order to maximise efficiency, outsourcing companies have focused on fostering high-performing suppliers through improved collaboration and mutual relations. However, it is very difficult to advance to a long-term partnership using the existing outsourcing process because of insufficient collaboration between IT outsourcing companies and their suppliers. Based on collaboration perspective of supply chain management (SCM), this study identifies the critical success factors for collaborative strategic partnerships and presents an evaluation framework for assessing and managing suppliers. We have developed an organisational process model for Supplier relationship management (SRM)-based collaboration which includes some of the key constructs from the previous studies and interviews with the IT outsourcing industry people. In this study, we will identify four types of strategic suppliers and suggest approaches for improving collaborative relationship between an IT outsourcing company and its partner companies. In addition, to validate the feasibility of the proposed model, we applied it to a well-known Korean IT outsourcing company ‘A’.     

A model for outsourcing and governing of maintenance within the process industry

Many industrial firms motivate structural changes by an increased focus on core activities and reduced ownership of non-core activities. However, classifying maintenance activities as either core or non-core can be difficult, since maintenance is a support function strongly linked to the production core within a manufacturing firm. Based on a multiple case study that included four buying firms and four suppliers within the process industry, this paper investigates how the relative capabilities of the firms affect the governance decision about maintenance outsourcing. A conceptual framework built on a distinction between core-close and core-distant maintenance and between different maintenance capabilities is presented. The subsequent empirical analysis illustrates how the developed framework can be used for both analyzing and guiding firms’ decisions about outsourcing and governance regarding maintenance.     

Continuous strategic sourcing

This article is based on a specific situation and competence analysis research project. The objective of the project is to point out possible action areas for improvements and potential competence areas; areas that should be integrated in the company's future strategic work. In the long term, the objective is to develop specific tools that can support a company's decision processes when in and/or outsourcing. The specific tools form the basis for the development of a conceptual framework that may facilitate the work with and the understanding of strategic in and outsourcing.During recent years new theories on SCM, outsourcing, supplier cooperation, etc. have emerged. Each theory has its own specific basis seeking to give solutions to problems concerning how to use and cooperate with suppliers. All theories, however, seek to solve a well-known problem within economic theory. Thus, the issue on division of labour and specialization is well known (Foretag i netwark, Stockholm, Studieforbundet for Naringsliv och Sammhallet, 1982; Joint Venture: theoretische und empirische analyse unter besonderer berücksichtigung der chemischen industrie der schweiz. Verlag Rugger, Germany, 1989). From an economic point of view it is a question of reaching the situation with the lowest production and transaction costs (Handbook of Industrial Organization. Amsterdam, 1989, pp. 135).     

中国制造业外包对劳动力需求弹性及就业的影响

研究目标：测算中国30省份的生产者责任以及消费者责任CO2排放量;各个省份的净碳转移量以及进出口隐含碳排放;测算省间的碳转出量,计算8大区域的净碳转移量,并分析了碳转移的方向。研究方法：借助投入产出表,用多区域投入产出模型测算各省份各行业的CO2排放量以及省间的碳转移量。研究发现：两种责任测算的CO2排放量差别较大;广东、上海、北京、浙江、江苏的净碳转出量最大,内蒙古、山西、河北、新疆、贵州的净碳转入量最大;东部沿海、南部沿海以及京津地区的净碳转出量最大,西北地区的净碳转入量最大。研究创新：用投入产出表结合能源平衡表测算各省份各行业的直接CO2排放量;研究了省间的碳转移。研究价值：对中国的碳减排具有一定的政策建议。     

商业银行服务外包风险来源及防范对策分析

服务外包已日渐成为商业银行提升竞争力的重要工具,由于外包过程中所隐藏的各类风险使得服务外包活动的效益大打折扣,因此如何正确认识和有效防范服务外包风险是摆在商业银行决策者面前的重要课题。文章首先从发包方(银行)、接包方(供应商)、双方交互以及外部环境等四个方面归结了商业银行服务外包的风险来源及其主要风险形式,然后在此基础上着重从内部治理和外部监管两方面提出了商业银行服务外包的风险防范对策。     

研发外包是否会抑制我国制造业自主创新能力?

本文利用2002年、2007年中国投入产出表和联合国贸发数据库中数据,测算历年我国制造业的研发外包率,随后利用2003~2011年制造业细分行业的面板数据,从创新能力和创新效率两个维度,考察了研发外包对我国自主创新能力的影响。实证结果显示:研发外包可以显著地促进我国制造业的创新能力和创新效率。研发外包每增加1%,将会促进制造业创新能力提高0.322%,创新效率改善0.0884%。从作用机制来看,研发外包对创新效率的正向作用主要体现在对纯技术进步率的提高上。本文进一步运用Hansen(1999)提出的门槛检验方法对研发外包创新提升效应的若干因素及其门槛特征进行检验,并从吸收能力和议价能力两个方面分析和筛选出适合开展研发外包的行业。本文的研究结论表明在后危机时代,研发外包是我国制造业提高创新能力,进而顺利完成转型升级任务的最佳选择。     

基于层次分析法的物流业务外包的研究

随着世界经济的快速发展和经济全球化的浪潮,21世纪的市场竞争已经由企业间的竞争转变成为供应链之间的竞争。越来越多的企业管理人员接受了供应链管理这种概念,并在实践中受益匪浅。物流业务外包已成为供应链竞争中日趋明显趋势,对大多数选择将物流业务外包的企业而言,外包供应商选择是企业物流业务外包成败的关键环节。层次分析法可为企业选择合适的外包供应商提供定量分析依据,也可使外包供应商在提高自身竞争力上找准关键点。     

战略性外包：企业核心能力的“辅助舵”

获得长期可持续发展、追求激情的卓越一直是企业孜孜以求的战略远景。如何实现这一远景是理论界与企业界共同探讨的课题,本文认为企业可持续发展的最根本的源泉是动态性核心能力,并围绕这一命题,追寻出新经济时代战略性外包是撬动核心能力的杠杆,进而通过对核心能力的解构,探索战略性外包对核心能力的作用机理,在阐述了外包的战略意义后,最后文章就如何进行基于企业核心能力的外包进行了研究,以图为中国企业有所借鉴。     

Together we share? Competitive and collaborative supplier interests in product development

While supplier involvement in product development projects can contribute with valuable knowledge and expertise, such involvement also poses organizational and managerial challenges, particularly if several rival suppliers are involved. This paper explores these challenges in the wind turbine industry, based on two interrelated Danish case studies. The analysis results in three propositions regarding how supplier rivalry and technological specialization influences roles, coordination patterns and communication between actors in distributed product development projects.     

企业外包的成本与效益分析

在市场竞争日益激烈的环境下,外包作为经济管理的战略工具,已越来越多的被运用.许多企业将其视为降低成本、分散风险、提高核心竞争力的法宝.但也有研究表明,外包策略并不如意.本文通过对外包的涵义与成本效益分析,探讨如何正确外包.     

中国制造业承接外包对产业国际竞争力的影响研究

文章从理论上分析了承接外包对中国制造业国际竞争力的影响机理,在此基础上分析了中国制造业承接国际外包对产业竞争力的影响。实证研究结果表明,承接外包分工对我国制造业的竞争力提升产生了积极影响,但对资本(技术)密集型行业与劳动密集型行业影响程度不同。其中,对劳动密集型产业竞争力的影响系数为1.103874,而对资本(技术)密集型产业的影响系数为3.109623。     

基于关系风险的物流外包风险实证研究

通过结构模型假设和样本调查,研究了关系风险如何影响物流供应商受托的资产和胜任能力,在统计分析的基础上,找出了导致物流外包关系破裂的潜在风险因素以及其结构关系,并利用信度、效度检测方法和测量模型测试了研究结果。研究发现,物流外包中关系风险对资产风险、胜任能力风险以及资产风险对胜任能力风险有积极显著的影响,且能力风险的影响比资产风险稍微显著。研究还发现,物流服务供应商缺乏维持较好的运输经营和损失控制能力是批发商最直接相关的风险;资产风险与能力风险显著正相关,与内部治理成本相比,批发商更关心不可估量的专用资产。     

Developing a scale to measure liabilities and assets of newness after start-up

New ventures can simultaneously face survival challenges and benefit from distinct advantages based on their newness. Despite the importance of these issues, extant entrepreneurship studies, with limited exception, have often employed only rudimentary measures (e.g., venture age) to investigate important issues related to organizational newness. Accordingly, we develop and refine a scale to measure critical dimensions of newness that stakeholders perceive after NV start-up. We first discuss the theoretical background and previous research related to various newness dimensions. We then introduce a new construct, organizational energy, that heretofore has received scant attention in NV research. Next, we present results from an inductive study conducted to generate various dimensions of newness as well as two empirical investigations that further refine these dimensions into a reliable scale for measuring different newness dimensions. We conclude by discussing our empirical findings, the study’s limitations, and potential future research directions.     

我国制造企业物流外包模式初探

21世纪,随着经济全球化进程的加快,制造企业面临的竞争日益激烈。面临竞争压力的加大和经济活动的全球化与区域化,制造企业不得不专心于自己的核心制造业务,专注于降低制造成本和提高运行效率,集中于发展核心竞争力,而将非核心的物流业务外包出去。物流外包已成为影响制造企业竞争力的重要因素之一,是企业提高绩效的有效途径。主要从制造企业物流外包的发展现状分析和现有的物流模式研究,探索制造企业物流外包模式的应用。目的在于,为制造企业寻求合适的物流外包模式,进一步提高制造企业物流核心竞争力,促进企业繁荣发展。     

Some political and cultural issues in the globalisation of software development: case experience from Britain and India

Global outsourcing of software development is a phenomenon that is receiving considerable interest from North American and European companies currently under pressure to meet their growing manpower resource shortages and find new ways to cut costs. However, these outsourcing arrangements are technologically and organisationally complex, and present a variety of challenges to manage effectively. In this paper we discuss results from an ongoing longitudinal study of a British firm's attempts to develop and manage global software outsourcing arrangements with an Indian software company. More specifically, we focus on understanding management challenges along three key dimensions of culture, organisational politics and the process of distributed development across time and space. The process of globalisation provides the context within which these management challenges can be investigated.     

Outsourcing of Services and the Productivity Recovery in U.S. Manufacturing in the 1980s and 1990s

Manufacturing productivity growth recovered during the 1980s and 1990s, while other sectors, particularly services, did not. In the same period U.S. manufacturing has engaged in the “outsourcing” or “contracting-out” of service functions. Has the recovery of manufacturing been accomplished by industrial reorganization--sloughing off sluggish services--rather than technical progress? We analyze this question by reducing service inputs to their consituent elements of material inputs. Service productivity growth is thus imputed to the goods sectors, reducing the recovery of manufacturing productivity growth in the 1980s by one fifth. The recovery lasted through the 1990s, when high productivity performers in manufacturing have been relatively successful at outsourcing sluggishservices.