Agile Stage-Gate Management (ASGM) for physical products

We present a qualitative study of Agile Stage-Gate Management (ASGM),: a hybrid new product development methodology that combines Agile and Stage-Gate Management (SGM) approaches for the coordination of new product development. When applied to software projects, Agile is expected to deliver reduced development times, improved resource utilization, and greater financial success. We examine whether ASGM practitioners realize similar outcomes in a sample of global firms developing complex electro-mechanical products (e.g., automobile components, railway propulsion systems, and medical devices). Our grounded theory approach articulates an understanding of ASGM through extensive interviews of experienced professionals. Our thematic analysis supports many expected benefits (i.e., speed to market, innovation enabling), but also does not encourage others, and reveals new pitfalls that deserve recognition (i.e., resource inefficiency). ASGM is not a panacea for all product development. Overall, physical product firms adopting this method can expect reduced development times and higher levels of innovation but will expend more resources to complete development projects, but a dichotomy exists. Physical product developers using ASGM experience a negative impact on project resource efficiency due to the need for dedicated resources, frequent product demonstrations, and duplicative management structures.     

Agile-Stage-Gate: New idea-to-launch method for manufactured new products is faster,more responsive

New evidence reveals that Agile methods, until now used primarily for IT developments, can be integrated with traditional gating approaches to yield significant potential benefits for manufacturers of B2B physical products. Indeed, this new Agile-Stage-Gate hybrid approach represents a significant change to our thinking about how new-product development should be done since the introduction of today's popular gating systems thirty years ago!The article shows how Agile emerged in the IT industry and early attempts to integrate it with gating models, also in the IT world. The article moves on to the recent use of this hybrid model by manufacturers, and the results achieved by early adopters when implementing this new system in industries from food to heavy equipment. In terms of implementation, the details of the new Agile-Stage-Gate system are presented, including the “Power of Nine” – the three key artefacts (such as sprints and scrums); three important tools (such as sprint backlogs and burndown charts), and the three vital roles (such as the product owner and the scrum master) needed to make it work.Agile from the IT world cannot be directly integrated into Stage-Gate for physical products without some important modifications, however. These needed adjustments – such as redefining a “done sprint” and how to present versions of the product or “protocepts” for continuous customer feedback – are outlined, complete with a case study from an equipment manufacturer. Additionally, the article identifies and deals with ten important issues and apparent inconsistencies that arise when implementing this new system for B2B products.     

Implementing: Alternatives,costs, and benefits

This essay provides a conceptual framework for thinking about the problem of implementing (i.e. getting things done) as part of the larger process of managing. We shall isolate some alternative approaches to that implementing problem and briefly examine the underlying beliefs, the accompanying technologies, and the attendant costs/benefits of those alternatives. We shall then make a few suggestions about appropriate alternatives for the decade ahead.     

The implementation of customer profitability analysis: A case study

By using customer profitability analysis (CPA), firms can determine the profit contribution of customer segments and/or individual customers. This article presents an approach for the implementation of CPA. The implementation process is illustrated using a case study of a firm producing and selling professional cleaning products. The case study highlights specific issues related to CPA in an industrial setting, and the results provide examples of the possible benefits of implementing a process of regular CPA.     

Front End Transfers of Digital Innovations in a Hybrid Agile-Stage-Gate Setting

Digital innovations often follow a more fluid innovation process and, therefore, require different ways of managing the front end of innovation. Agile as alternative to established front end management practices is often suggested, potentially combined with Stage-Gate, in what is called a hybrid Agile-Stage-Gate model, to reap the benefits from both. Implementing the hybrid model in the front end is however not sufficient for firms with separate Research and Development departments to succeed. In such organizations digital innovations still need to be transferred from Research, where the front end work on digital innovations takes place, to the Development department, where formal development actually starts. Yet, such front end transfers have been described as inefficient and ineffective. Realizing digital innovation front end transfers is likely even more challenging because of their fluid definition. In the absence of extant theory on front end transfers in such a setting, this research uses a case study approach to analyze the front end transfer experiences of the Research department of a firm in the lighting industry that is undergoing a transformation from traditional to digital lighting. The in-depth analysis of triangulated data on eight front end projects shows that Research struggles to transfer digital innovations to Development, because transfer practices in terms of management, scope, and synchronization, turn out to be inherently challenging in a hybrid Agile-Stage-Gate setting. Specifically, the results reveal that each transfer practice plays an intricate role in either facilitating (i.e., transfer management) or inhibiting (i.e., transfer scope and synchronization) front end transfers of digital innovations. The discovery of these opposing forces has important implications for novel theorizing on the use of Agile in the front end of digital innovation, transfer practices from Research to Development in a hybrid setting, as well as for theorizing about digital innovation management.     

Utilizing the balanced scorecard for R&D performance measurement

R&D programs are critical for many firms to achieve and sustain competitive advantage. Yet, measuring R&D performance over time can be quite complex due to inherent uncertainty. The paper responds to calls in the R&D literature to explore integrated performance measurement systems that capture financial and nonfinancial performance. We integrate the Stage-Gate approach to R&D management with the Balanced Scorecard to present a framework to show how firms can link resource commitments to these activities and the firm's strategic objectives. In this paper, we provide specific examples of how firms can apply this integrated performance measurement system to the R&D function.     

实施峰谷阶梯电价的计费方法及执行措施

介绍了浙江永康为了既保证基本生活用电水平又倡导节约用电和合理用电而执行峰谷阶梯电价的具体方法、阶梯电价计费方式和实施过程,以及居民用户在实施峰谷阶梯电价中采取的降低电费的相应措施;指出执行居民峰谷阶梯电价既有移峰填谷的作用又有促进节约用电的功能,并可引导人们改变用电习惯,是一项利国利民的电价政策。     

工作任务分解（WBS）在企业成本过程控制管理中的作用

长庆采油二处通过对企业水电燃料网络的系统研究，在继承传统的水电燃料管理方式和方法的基础上．引入现代企业质量过程控制的方式方法，按照“四新一效”的管理指导思想，提出了“五确定”的过程控制政策和具体要求，将工作任务层层分解（即WBS），落实了“启动、计划、执行、控制、结束”五个阶段的成本过程控制，实现了“监管一体化、管理过程化、业务流程精简效能化、资源共享化”四大效用，并取得了显著的经济效益。     

Implementation strategy and performance outcomes in related diversification

Strategy research has a long‐standing interest in the performance consequences of corporate diversification. In theory, resource sharing should yield economic benefits in related multi‐business firms, but the extensive empirical research remains equivocal. To explore this paradox, this paper examines the process of implementing a related diversification strategy. Working from existing theory, a formal model is constructed that describes the process and performance implications of a related diversification move. The model is analyzed using computer simulation, and the analysis suggests that successful diversification strategies require managerial policies that maintain organization slack. In the absence of such policies, related diversification can negatively impact firm performance even when substantial synergy opportunities exist. The analysis also demonstrates, contrary to existing theory, that diversification strategies based on a very high degree of relatedness can lead to lower performance than less related strategies in some circumstances. Counter‐intuitively, extracting potential synergies may require additional investment in shared resources. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

质量管理与经济效益浅析——对石油物资供应质量管理经济性的思考

指出了石油物资供应部门,在对质量管理与经济效益关系的认识上,存在的单纯强调高质量水平和注重管理形式,缺乏对投入产出和质量体系有效性的综合经济分析的认识误区.提出了质量成本科目设置和运行等实施质量成本管理的具体设想.     

Implementation of Social Innovations in Subsistence Marketplaces: A Facilitated Institutional Change Process Model

Implementation of social innovations in subsistence marketplaces often fails as a result of not bringing about institutional change. In this article, we study the process through which social enterprises facilitate local communities in effecting the process of institutional change as they introduce social innovations. Analyzing rich ethnographic data from 19 social enterprises, we develop the process of “facilitated institutional work” for implementing social innovation. We present a process model for implementing social innovation with four distinct stages involving social enterprises—(1) legitimating themselves within local communities, (2) disrupting aspects of the local institutional environment, (3) helping re‐envision institutional norms or practices, and (4) resourcing the institutional change process. The four stages relate to important concerns that local communities have in working with social enterprises implementing social innovations. These community‐level concerns revolve around the following questions: (1) Why should we allow an external social enterprise to be involved in our affairs? (2) Why do we need to change? (3) What should we change and what should we sustain? and (4) What role should we play in implementing change (such as in mobilizing resources)? This article demonstrates that bringing about institutional change is often necessary for implementing social innovations in subsistence marketplaces. The findings depict a participatory approach in which social enterprises work with local communities to bring about the institutional conditions necessary for implementing social innovation.     

Is customer loyalty vulnerability-based? An empirical study of a Chinese capital-intensive manufacturing industry

Through cooperation, firms can work together to collectively enhance their performance by sharing resources so as to achieve complementary synergism; while assuring their own self interests by adapting some opportunistic tasks simultaneously to gain benefits. There are few studies on the key but hidden reality of relationship vulnerability — i.e., the dynamic process of both creating relationship value and making sacrifices. We aim to empirically investigate the dimensions of a vulnerability-based relationship (complementary synergism and opportunism) and its link with customer loyalty. A framework is proposed in order to give a new dynamic tool in understanding and implementing effective customer loyalty strategies. Our findings revealed that the level of a vulnerability-based relationship is reflected by the high levels of flexible customization, relationship-specific bonding, coercive integration, buyer idiosyncratic investment and a low level of self-interest seeking. A vulnerability-based relationship also has a positive impact on loyalty. Managerial implications of our study are described.     

安全本质化在石油钢管制造企业的实施

从危害辨识和风险控制、季节安全管理、教育培训、HSE体系管理等多方面阐述了石油钢管企业实施安全本质化．用安全运作产生经营效益来提升企业的竞争地位和社会地位，为石油铜管企业安全管理提供了一些经验。     

建立共享服务中心，发挥企业集团规模优势

论述了共享服务中心的定义和特点、成立共享服务中心的意义、共享服务中心的组织模型和运作模式、建立共享服务中心的路径和策略、中国企业集团建立共享服务中心的重要性和可行性。随着中国企业集团的发展，建立共享服务中心是企业有效扩张和发挥规模优势的重要方法，中国企业也具备了相应条件来建立企业共享服务中心。     

Configurations of social media-enabled strategies for open innovation,firm performance,and their barriers to adoption

The use of social media offers tremendous innovation potential. Yet, while current research emphasizes success stories, little is known about how firms can leverage the full potential of their social media use for open innovation. In this paper, the authors address this gap by conducting a configurational analysis to develop an integrative taxonomy of social media-enabled strategies for open innovation. This analysis stems from the integration of internal and external variables such as social media communication activities, organizational innovation seekers, potential innovation providers, the stages of the open innovation process, and their relationship with different performance outcomes and barriers to social media adoption for open innovation. Through an empirical study of 337 firms based in eight countries, four clusters have been identified that are characterized as distinct strategies: “marketing semi-open innovators,” “cross-department semi-open innovators,” “cross-department full process semi-open innovators” and “broad adopters open innovators.” The findings reveal the trade-offs associated with different strategies for implementing social media for open innovation and provide insights of the use of these strategies. By doing so, they suggest a more nuanced approach that contrasts with the traditionally positive (or even rosy) depiction of the effects of social media on open innovation. Accordingly, managers are encouraged to contemplate their organizational competencies, capabilities, and their strategic intent when drafting social media strategies for open innovation. Selective approaches, along with greater adoption leading to greater benefits, are shown to be more rewarding than a middle way that spreads things too thin. Avenues for further research include qualitative explorations of the trajectories unfolding through implementing social media strategies for innovation activities and the use of objective performance measures rather than subjective perceptions from informants to understand the complex relationships between social media adoption and performance.     

健全计量管理体系 促进企业节能降耗

能源计量是用能单位实现节能降耗、提高经济效益、强化能源科学管理必不可少的技术手段之一。新疆油田分公司勘探开发研究院在完善计量管理体系,全面贯彻GB17167-2006《用能单位能源计量器具配备和管理通则》的具体实践中,围绕计量管理服务于生产、服务于质量工作,充分发挥计量工作在科研生产、降低能源消耗,实现企业经济效益等方面所取得的丰富经验。     

The Coastal Construction Control Line: A Cost-Benefit Analysis

This paper reports on a cost-benefit study of the Florida Coastal Construction Control Line (CCCL) in Martin County, Florida. The study compared the costs of implementing and maintaining the line with the value of the potential benefits resulting from (1) storm damage reduction and (2) increased open space. A systems model of development patterns was designed to project forward the historic development patterns along the beach which were compared with the patterns that have occurred subsequent to implementing the CCCL. The analysis showed the CCCL not to be cost effective in the area studied.     

Environment-quality management coalignment across industrial contexts: An empirical investigation of performance implications

Quality management (QM) affects many variables related to marketing. Persuaded by the numerous benefits and competitive potential of QM, many firms have decided to implement QM programs. The study examines how the fit between industrial environment characteristics and QM practices impacts financial, operational and employee performance. To test our hypotheses, we surveyed a sample of 273 managers. The findings suggest that the results of implementing QM practices depend on the degree on internationalization of the industrial environment, as well as on the existing level of competence. Findings offer implications for marketing theory and practice as well as for strategic management and QM.     

外输原油质量管理体系建设方法的探讨

针对原油外输质量管理持续改进问题,从运行联动管理系统、实行精细控制措施、推行跟踪培训方法的3个方面进行探讨,明确了原油外输过程质量控制的目的;论证了采油厂原油外输过程质量控制方法改进,既是油田质量管理的重点,又是质量管理创新的核心,只有在质量管理体系运行中不断探索与创新,才可以确保油田质量管理工作与时俱进、持续发展。