bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
THE IMPACT OF LOCAL CONTENT RULES ON GLOBAL SOURCING DECISIONS
Authors: MUNSON CHARLES L. , ROSENBLATT MEIR J.
Published: August 2010

Many governments have established, for various reasons, local confent purchasing rules for companies that wish to operate in their country. These requirements force firms to purchase a certain amount of components from suppliers located in that country. This paper describes local content rules and develops models to select suppliers while satisfying local content provisions. The single plant model can be transformed into a knapsack problem that is solved by a ranking procedure, and the solution provides insight as to the manner in which local content rules impact more generalized models. Furthermore, we illustrate possible negative effects to local industry that may result when governments set the local content percentage too high, and we discuss methods for companies to circumvent local content rules. Finally, we address the issue of local content rules in the context of multi‐plant global sourcing decisions, and we provide an efficient solution procedure for the classical plant location model extended to include local content rules at each site
RATIONALIZATION OF THE SUPPLIER BASE IN THE PRESENCE OF YIELD UNCERTAINTY
Authors: AGRAWAL NARENDRA , NAHMIAS STEVEN
Published: August 2010

An important aspect of supply chain management is the optimal configuration of the supplier base. We develop a model to determine optimal lot sizes and the optimal number of suppliers when the yield of the product delivered from each supplier is random. While small orders from a large number of suppliers can reduce yield uncertainty, fixed costs associated with each supplier provide a penalty for having too many suppliers. This is the key tradeoff addressed by our model. We look at the cases when the suppliers are identical as well as nonidentical.
DEMAND FULFILLMENT RATES IN AN ASSEMBLETO‐ ORDER SYSTEM WITH MULTIPLE PRODUCTS AND DEPENDENT DEMANDS
Authors: ZHANG ALEX X.
Published: August 2010

This paper presents a model for evaluating product fulfillment rates in an assemble‐to‐order system with a two‐level bill‐of‐material structure (products and components). Inventories are kept at the component level and are used to support service levels to product demands; each component is managed under a periodically reviewed, decentralized order‐up‐to policy. Product demands are correlated in a given period but are independent across periods. We develop the demand fulfillment rate for each product when demands are filled based on a first‐come‐first‐served discipline with limited priorities for different products within a period. We show that the fulfillment rate can be expressed as a multivariate normal probability when the product demands follow a multivariate normal distribution. We then use a numerical example to discuss computational issues and bounds associated with the evaluation of the demand fulfillment rates. Finally, we consider a model for minimizing the total inventory investment subject to given product demand fulfillment rates.
OPTIMAL AND NEAR OPTIMAL CONTROL OF A TWO‐PART‐TYPE STOCHASTIC MANUFACTURING SYSTEM WITH DYNAMIC SETUPS
Authors: ELHAFSI MOHSEN , BAI SHERMAN X.
Published: August 2010

This paper deals with a manufacturing system consisting of a single machine subject to random failures and repairs. The machine can produce two types of parts. When the production is switched from one part type to the other, a random setup time is incurred at a constant cost rate. The objective is to track the demand, while keeping the work‐in‐process as close as possible to zero for both products. The problem is formulated as an optimal stochastic control problem. The optimal policy is obtained numerically by discretizing the continuous time continuous state opti‐mality conditions using a Markov chain approximation technique. The discretized optimality conditions are shown to correspond to an infinite horizon, discrete time, discrete state dynamic programming problem. The optimal setup policy is shown to have two different structures depending on the parameters of the system. A heuristic policy is proposed to approximate the optimal setup policy. Simulation results show that the heuristic policy is a very good approximation for sufficiently reliable systems.
PRODUCTION SCHEDULING OF CONTINUOUS FLOW LINES: MULTIPLE PRODUCTS WITH SETUP TIMES AND COSTS
Authors: CHENG FENG , YAN HOUMIN , YANG JUN
Published: August 2010

The problem of production planning and setup scheduling of multiple products on a single facility is studied in this paper. The facility can only produce one product at a time. A setup is required when the production switches from one type of product to another. Both setup times and setup costs are considered. The objective is to determine the setup schedule and production rate for each product that minimize the average total costs, which include the inventory, backlog, and setup costs. Under the assumption of a constant production rate, we obtain the optimal cyclic rotation schedule for the multiple products system. Besides the decision variables studied in the classical economic lot scheduling problem (ELSP), the production rate is also a decision variable in our model. We prove that our solutions improve the results of the classical ELSP.
A SYSTEMATIC STRATEGY FOR OPTIMIZING MANUFACTURING OPERATIONS
Authors: KERKHOFF JONELL , EAGAR THOMAS W. , UTTERBACK JAMES
Published: August 2010

A manufacturing optimization strategy is developed and demonstrated, which combines an asset utilization model and a process optimization framework with multivariate statistical analysis in a systematic manner to focus and drive process improvement activities. Although this manufacturing strategy is broadly applicable, the approach is discussed with respect to a polymer sheet manufacturing operation. The asset utilization (AU) model demonstrates that efficient equipment utilization can be monitored quantitatively and improvement opportunities identified so that the greatest benefit to the operation can be obtained. The process optimization framework, comprised of three parallel activities and a designed experiment, establishes the process‐product relationship. The overall strategy of predictive model development provided from the parallel activities comprising the optimization framework is to synthesize a model based on existing data, both qualitative and quantitative, using canonical discriminant analysis, to identify main effect variables affecting the principal efficiency constraints identified using AU, operator knowledge and order‐of‐magni‐tude calculations are then employed to refine this model using designed experiments, where appropriate, to facilitate the development of a quantitative, proactive optimization strategy for eliminating the constraints. Most importantly, this overall strategy plays a significant role in demonstrating, and facilitating employee acceptance, that the manufacturing operation has evolved from an experienced‐based process to one based on quantifiable science.
POM TEACHING AND RESEARCH IN THE 21st CENTURY
Authors: MILLER JEFFREY G. , ARNOLD PETER
Published: August 2010

We offer a view of operations management in the future based on a mapping of the field's history. We discuss issues raised by this view of the future that we expect will affect those who will teach and conduct research in operations management.
A NEW TEACHING PARADIGM: THE INFORMATION/ CONTROL/BUFFER PORTFOLIO
Authors: SCHWARZ LEROY B.
Published: August 2010

A new teaching paradigm, called the information/control/buffer (I/C/B) portfolio is described. The I/C/B portfolio has proven itself effective in introducing students to what managing operations is all about: using information, control, and buffers to manage the production of products and services. Even more important, the I/C/B viewpoint motivates students to think creatively about designing and developing new management systems. The I/C/B portfolio also provides a link between operations management, technology management, and information system management.
BUILDING THE POM CURRICULUM FOR A PRIVATIZING ECONOMY: AN EVALUATION FROM MANUFACTURERS‘ PERSPECTIVES
Authors: EBERT RONALD J. , TANNER GEORGE , TUTUREA MOISE
Published: August 2010

Manufacturing in Eastern European countries is in transition to open‐market competition. One transitional issue is university education for operations managers from the perspective of business practitioners. Survey responses by 203 manufacturing professionals from 83 companies provide recommendations for operations management education at the University of Sibiu in Romania. The recommendations substantially reorient curricula that traditionally prepared students for professions in centrally controlled economies rather than for open‐market competition. The redesigned curriculum has an educational advantage in its integration of production, marketing, and engineering, all under one college of engineering. However, the curriculum is inconsistent with some tenets of quality management and just‐in‐time production. Also, survey data imply a need for coverage of competitive manufacturing strategy that, currently, is underrepresented in the curriculum.
BUILDING THE SERVICE OPERATIONS COURSE AROUND A FIELD PROJECT
Authors: HARVEY JEAN
Published: August 2010

Service operations courses are often too concerned with concepts or techniques and not enough with the solution of real‐world service problems. This article presents a case study of the successful turnaround of such a course by rebuilding it around a field project. The project is presented in some details. It largely dictates the content and paces the delivery of the course. Strategic and tactical aspects in the design of such a course are discussed with the benefits and limitations of the approach.
EXPLORING LINKAGES BETWEEN MANUFACTURING STRATEGY, BUSINESS STRATEGY, AND ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGY
Authors: GUPTA YASH P. , LONIAL SUBHASH C.
Published: August 2010

In recent years there has been an increased emphasis on the development of manufacturing and business strategies. In spite of that high level of emphasis, limited empirical research has been published on the linkage between manufacturing strategy, business strategy, and organizational performance. Our study examines that linkage. Our main contribution lies in (i) building constructs for some important elements of manufacturing strategy and business strategy and (ii) testing the impact of linkage between manufacturing strategy and business strategy on organizational performance. The study is based on 175 responses from senior executives in manufacturing organizations.
INSIGHTS ON SERVICE SYSTEM DESIGN FROM A NORMAL APPROXIMATION TO ERLANG'S DELAY FORMULA
Authors: KOLESAR PETER J. , GREEN LINDA V.
Published: August 2010

We show how a simple normal approximation to Erlang's delay formula can be used to analyze capacity and staffing problems in service systems that can be modeled as M/M/s queues. The numbers of servers, s, needed in an M/M/s queueing system to assure a probability of delay of, at most, p can be well approximated by s ≅ p + z ***I‐ p+, where z 1‐ p, is the (1 ‐ p)th percentile of the standard normal distribution and ρ, the presented load on the system, is the ratio of Λ, the customer arrival rate, to μ, the service rate. We examine the accuracy of this approximation over a set of parameters typical of service operations ranging from police patrol, through telemarketing to automatic teller machines, and we demonstrate that it tends to slightly underestimate the number of servers actually needed to hit the delay probability target—adding one server to the number suggested by the above formula typically gives the exact result. More importantly, the structure of the approximation promotes operational insight by explicitly linking the number of servers with server utilization and the customer service level. Using a scenario based on an actual teleservicing operation, we show how operations managers and designers can quickly obtain insights about the trade‐offs between system size, system utilization and customer service. We argue that this little used approach deserves a prominent role in the operations analyst's and operations manager's toolbags.
EFFECTS OF INTEGRATING ORDER/BACKORDER QUANTITY AND PRICING DECISIONS
Authors: LEE WON JUN , KIM DAESOO
Published: August 2010

We consider a monopolistic situation where the retailer aims to find the profit‐maximizing selling price, and the order and backorder quantity of an item. The price and demand are assumed to be inversely related. We develop a simple optimal approach, the proportion‐balancing algorithm (PBA), which utilizes the proportions of cost components to sales revenue. We demonstrate that the PBA can handle three commonly used demand functions. However, applicability of the PBA depends on how the price‐demand relationship is specified. A sensitivity analysis shows that the effects of changes in cost parameters on the order and backorder quantities can be very different from those of the classical economic order quantity model with backorders.
EXPLODING THE MYTH: DO ALL QUALITY MANAGEMENT PRACTICES CONTRIBUTE TO SUPERIOR QUALITY PERFORMANCE?
Authors: Dow Douglas , Samson Danny , Ford Steve
Published: August 2010

In his landmark article on total quality management, Powell (1995) lamented the lack of large scale studies investigating quality management practices and performance. This study begins to fill that void using a large, random sample of manufacturing sites. The results show that quality practices can be categorized into nine dimensions. However, not all of them contribute to superior quality outcomes. “Employee commitment,” “shared vision,” and “customer focus” combine to yield a positive correlation with quality outcomes. Conversely, other “hard” quality practices, such as “benchmarking,” “cellular work teams,” “advanced manufacturing technologies,” and “close supplier relations” do not contribute to superior quality outcomes.
WHY FIRMS SEEK ISO 9000 CERTIFICATION: REGULATORY COMPLIANCE OR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE?
Authors: Anderson Shannon W. , Daly J. Daniel , Johnson Marilyn F.
Published: August 2010

Proponents of iso 9000 certification claim that it is a low‐cost signal of a firm's commitment to quality and a meaningful component of total quality management (TQM). Critics claim that it has little relation to TQM and is a tariff on international trade. We test the hypothesis that firms obtain ISO 9000 certification to comply with government and customer demands by estimating a probit model of the certification decision. The results support the view of proponents of ISO 9000. After controlling for regulatory and customer pressures to obtain ISO 9000, other factors related to quality management and quality‐based competition explain the adoption decision.
AN OVERVIEW OF TRADEOFF CURVES IN MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS DESIGN
Authors: Bitran Gabriel R. , Morabito Reinaldo
Published: August 2010

In this paper we review the use of tradeoff curves in the design of manufacturing systems that can be modeled as open queueing networks. We focus particularly on the tradeoff between expected work‐in‐process (or product leadtime) and capacity investment in job shops. We review the algorithms in the literature to derive tradeoff curves and illustrate their application in evaluating the efficiency of the system, in deciding how much capacity to have, how to allocate resources between the reduction of uncertainty and the introduction of new technologies, and how to assess the impact of changes in products throughput and product mix. The methodology is illustrated with an example derived from an actual application in the semiconductor industry.
A DYNAMIC PROCESS MODEL OF DISSATISFACTION FOR UNFAVORABLE, NON‐ROUTINE SERVICE ENCOUNTERS
Authors: Dasu Sruran , Rao Jay
Published: August 2010

This paper explores the effect of expectations and information on customer dissatisfaction in unfavorable, nonroutine service encounters. In complex services (e.g., health care) with multiple encounters and wide range of services, customers use some of the services rarely or only once. In such encounters, customers may not have clear expectations regarding the process and/or outcome of the impending service delivery. This may increase the likelihood of the customer to perceive poor service or be dissatisfied. Hypotheses regarding the nature of expectations—levels, uncertainty, consistency—and its affects on customer dissatisfaction are tested using a dynamic process model of customer dissatisfaction.
ADAPTING THE QFD APPROACH TO EXTENDED SERVICE TRANSACTIONS
Authors: Michael Laurette Dubé , Johnson D. , Renaghan Leo Mark
Published: August 2010

This paper proposes an adaptation of quality function deployment (qfd) for services, more specifically extended service transactions. We propose two modifications to service applications of Qfd. One is the inclusion of higher‐level customer needs (consequences, benefits, experiences, and personal values) to incorporate the experiential and personal nature of extended service transactions into the process. The second modification is to use customers' knowledge and expertise regarding service production and delivery as input beyond the house of quality. An interviewing method is proposed for a comprehensive assessment of customer needs at multiple levels. Results from an empirical application of this technique to luxury business hotels support the proposed modifications to Qfd to increase its potential for application to services.
SERVICE TYPOLOGIES: A STATE OF THE ART SURVEY
Authors: Cook David P. , Goh Chon‐Huat , Chung Chen H.
Published: August 2010

Services comprise an ever‐expanding source of employment in the world's economies and are of significant interest to both academicians and practitioners. In this study, historical perspectives from which to view service typologies are provided and four decades of service typologies are chronicled. The interest in services demonstrated by academicians is tracked over time as are the purposes for which typologies have been developed. A unified schematic representation of services is developed in which the common themes underlying service typology development are identified from both a macro and micro level. Based on this study, areas for future research are identified.
EMPIRICAL EVALUATION OF EXPONENTIAL AND INDEPENDENCE ASSUMPTIONS IN QUEUEING MODELS OF MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS
Authors: Inman Robert R.
Published: August 2010

This paper presents actual data (processing times, interarrival times, cycles‐between‐failures, and time‐to‐repair) from two automotive body welding lines. The purpose is twofold. First, to help researchers focus their work on realistic problems, we exhibit the nature of randomness actually found in two industrial manufacturing systems and provide a data source for realistic probability distributions. Second, we assess the validity of two common assumptions regarding this randomness in automotive manufacturing. Many queueing network models assume that certain random variables are independent and exponentially distributed. Though often reasonable, the primary motivation for the independence and exponentiality assumptions is mathematical tractability.
THE PLANT LOCATION DECISION IN MULTINATIONAL MANUFACTURING FIRMS: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS AND MANUFACTURING STRATEGY PERSPECTIVES
Authors: Brush Thomas H. , Marutan Catherine A. , Karnani Aneek
Published: August 2010

The paper combines perspectives from international business and manufacturing to examine multinational plant location decisions. The location choice in manufacturing is between integrated and independent plants, while the international choice is between a foreign and domestic plant relative to their headquarters' country. The study empirically investigates whether these choices have different plant location determinants using data from a survey of plant managers of large, multinational firms. We find more evidence that the manufacturing choices benefit from consideration of international business issues than vice versa. However, managers rank determinants associated with manufacturing strategy considerably higher than those associated with intemational business.
FLEXIBILITY, ADAPTABILITY, AND EFFICIENCY IN MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS
Authors: Bordoloi Sanjeev K. , Cooper William W. , Matsuo Hirofumi
Published: August 2010

There are many different approaches and conceptualizations of flexibility in the present literature. This lends itself to a lack of clarity and can result in confusion on the central concept. Here we identify shortcomings in the existing literature. To clarify some of the important concepts, we distinguish between flexibility (ability to change states), adaptability (ability to change within a state), and efficiency (resources utilized). To illustrate such distinctions, we present a capacity expansion model that takes flexibility and adaptability into consideration. Numerical examples show how the concepts of flexibility and adaptability can be used in manufacturing.
EFFECTS OF OPERATIONAL EMPLOYEE SKILLS ON ADVANCED MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY PERFORMANCE
Authors: PAGELL MARK , HANDFIELD ROBERT B. , BARBER ALISON E.
Published: August 2010

This study employs structured interviews in a field setting to develop an in‐depth understanding of how a specific human resource decision affected manufacturing performance at 30 plants using advanced manufacturing technologies. Initial results suggested that there is no relationship between the skill level of operational employees and the level of performance of the installations. When a measure of “fit” between environmental characteristics and skills was employed, however, there was a significant relationship between the fit measure and performance.
UPSTREAM VOLATILITY IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN: THE MACHINE TOOL INDUSTRY AS A CASE STUDY
Authors: ANDERSON EDWARD G. , FINE CHARLES H. , PARKER GEOFFREY G.
Published: August 2010

Cyclicality is a well‐known and accepted fact of life in market‐driven economies. Less well known or understood, however, is the phenomenon of amplification as one looks “upstream” in the industrial supply chain. We examine the amplification phenomenon and its implications through the lens of one upstream industry that is notorious for the intensity of the business cycles it faces: the machine tool industry. Amplification of demand volatility in capital equipment supply chains, e. g., machine tools, is particularly large relative to that seen in distribution and component parts supply chains.

We present a system dynamics simulation model to capture demand volatility amplification in capital supply chains. We explore the lead‐time, inventory, production, productivity, and staffing implications of these dynamic forces. Several results stand out. First, volatility hurts productivity and lowers average worker experience. Second, even though machine tool builders can do little to reduce the volatility in their order streams through choice of forecast rule, a smoother forecasting policy will lead companies to retain more of their skilled work force. This retention of skilled employees is often cited as one of the advantages that European and Japanese companies have had relative to their U. S. competitors.

Our results suggest some insights for supply chain design and management: downstream customers can do a great deal to reduce the volatility for upstream suppliers through their choice of order forecast rule. In particular, companies that use smoother forecasting policies tend to impose less of their own volatility upon their supply base and may consequently enjoy system‐wide cost reduction.
OPTIMAL AND HEURISTIC SOLUTIONS FOR THE MULTI‐ITEM NEWSVENDOR PROBLEM WITH A SINGLE CAPACITY CONSTRAINT
Authors: ERLEBACHER STEVEN J.
Published: August 2010

This research considers a multi‐item newsvendor problem with a single capacity constraint. While this problem has been addressed in the literature, the focus here is on developing simple, closed‐form expressions for the order quantities. The benefit of such an approach is that the solutions are straightforward to calculate and have managerial appeal. Additionally, we show these expressions to be optimal under a variety of conditions. For more general cases when these optimality conditions do not hold, we use these expressions as heuristic solutions. Via computational studies, we demonstrate that these heuristics are extremely effective when the optimality conditions are not satisfied.
THE STATIONARY BEER GAME
Authors: Chen Fangruo , Samroengraja Rungson
Published: August 2010

This paper presents a variant of the popular beer game. We call the new game the stationary beer game, which models the material and information flows in a production‐distribution channel serving a stationary market where the customer demands in different periods are independent and identically distributed. Different players, who all know the demand distribution, manage the different stages of the channel. Summarizing the initial experience with the stationary beer game, the paper provides compelling reasons why this game is an effective teaching tool.
TEACHING SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT THROUGH GLOBAL PROJECTS WITH GLOBAL PROJECT TEAMS
Authors: Kopczak Laura Rock , Fransoo Jan C.
Published: August 2010

In this article, we describe the Global Project Coordination Course, a course in which project teams composed of three students from each of two overseas universities execute company‐sponsored projects dealing with global supply chain management issues. The $75,000 to $100,00 contributed in total by the three to four sponsoring companies funds all course expenses. We assess the benefits and challenges of the use of cross‐cultural project teams with diverse educational backgrounds. We conclude that the course provides a unique and effective vehicle for furthering students' knowledge of Supply Chain Management and Information Systems, improving understanding of “soft” issues, and training students to work in diverse, global, cross‐cultural project teams.
REVISITING ALTERNATIVE THEORETICAL PARADIGMS IN MANUFACTURING STRATEGY
Authors: Safizadeh M. H. , Ritzman Larry P. , Mallick Debasish
Published: August 2010

Testing and cross‐validation of theories and paradigms are necessary to advance the field of manufacturing strategy. When the findings of one study are also obtained in other studies, using entirely different databases, we become more confident in the results. Replication alleviates concerns about spurious results and is one motivation for this study.

We examine aspects of the tradeoffs concept, production competence paradigm, and a manufacturing strategy taxonomy framework. In regard to the tradeoffs concept, we found evidence of tradeoffs between some, but certainly not all, manufacturing capabilities of quality, cost, delivery, and customization. The relationships get sharper when controlling for process choice. For example, the tradeoff between cost and customization is particularly strong between plants that have different process choices. We find that such tradeoffs can change, or even disappear, however, once the process choice is in place. With respect to the production competence paradigm, our analysis shows a statistically significant correlation between production competence and operations performance in batch shops, but not in plants with other process choices. Finally, using variables similar to those of Miller and Roth, our data produced three similar clusters even though their unit of analysis was much more macro than ours.

Controlling for process choice is consistent with the current manufacturing strategy literature that emphasizes dynamic development of capabilities within the context of path dependencies. A major argument of this strand of research is that operations decisions not only affect current capabilities, but also set the framework for development of capabilities in the future. That being the case, controlling for process choice (or other factors such as industry or markets) should contribute to the understanding of capability‐development paths adopted by different manufacturing plants.

In short, we found at least partial support for each of the theories examined here, even though the theories seem on the surface to be contradictory and mutually exclusive. Controlling for process choice or other measures of dependency goes a long way in uncovering consistency across different theories and empirical studies in operations management.
A COMPARISON OF DIRECT COST SAVINGS BETWEEN FLEXIBLE AUTOMATION AND LABOR WITH LEARNING
Authors: Smunt Timothy L. , Meredith Jack
Published: August 2010

This paper compares flexible automation with labor‐intensive manufacturing processes in a batch production environment and considers learning, forgetting, inventory carrying costs, setup costs, production demand volume, previous production experience, and the proportion of material to labor cost. While flexible automation typically can reduce setup times, and therefore inventory carrying costs through smaller optimal batch sizes, the results of this research show that the effect of forgetting on relative cost savings is difficult to predict in some situations. When using optimal lot sizes in both the automated and labor environments, cost savings from flexible automation may be smaller than expected or may occur in different ways than anticipated.
TOURING A SUPPLY CHAIN WITH STUDENTS: PEDAGOGICAL AND PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Authors: Hanna Mark D.
Published: August 2010

This paper describes the supply chain tour, an expansion of the widely used facility tour pedagogy. A supply chain tour is a tour of facilities sequentially related in the creation of value that is designed to expose critical linkages and illustrate Supply Chain Management concepts and theories. Effectively using the supply chain tour pedagogy requires the instructor to create a standardized approach to managing the facility tour; a checklist is provided for this purpose. An example supply chain tour, used in the author's classes, is described.
AN EMPIRICAL EXAMINATION OF THE UNDERLYING DIMENSIONS OF PURCHASING COMPETENCE
Authors: NARASIMHAN RAM , ARAM JAYANTH JAY , CARTER AND JOSEPH R.
Published: August 2010

The importance of evaluating the effectiveness of the purchasing function in firms along multiple criteria has attracted considerable attention. However, few studies have identified the defining elements that constitute purchasing competence. This paper introduces the construct of purchasing competence using a second‐order factor structure derived from purchasing practices identified from the literature. The validity of the construct (purchasing competence) is tested using data from a sample of 179 firms. The results indicate (1) the construct validity of purchasing competence and (2) the predictive validity of purchasing competence, which has a significant positive influence on total quality management performance and customer satisfaction. The implications of these findings for additional research are discussed.
THE IMPACT OF PRODUCT RECOVERY ON LOGISTICS NETWORK DESIGN
Authors: FLEISCHMANN MORITZ , BEULLENS PATRICK , BLOEMHOF‐RUWAARD JACQUELINE M. , VANWASSENHOVE LUK N.
Published: August 2010

Efficient implementation of closed‐loop supply chains requires setting up appropriate logistics structures for the arising flows of used and recovered products. In this paper we consider logistics network design in a reverse logistics context. We present a generic facility location model and discuss differences with traditional logistics settings. Moreover, we use our model to analyze the impact of product return flows on logistics networks. We show that the influence of product recovery is very much context dependent. While product recovery may efficiently be integrated in existing logistics structures in many cases, other examples require a more comprehensive approach redesigning a company's logistics network in an integral way.
A LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF A SERVICE GUARANTEE ON SERVICE QUALITY
Authors: HAYS JULIE M. , HILL ARTHUR V.
Published: August 2010

This paper develops a theoretical framework that relates a service guarantee to service quality. The framework hypothesizes that a service guarantee can positively affect service quality through its positive effect on both learning through service failure and employee motivation and vision. A longitudinal, empirical study was conducted to test these hypotheses. Surprisingly, the service guarantee was not found to have a direct effect on learning through service failure. However, the service guarantee clearly had a positive effect on service quality primarily through its positive effect on employee motivation and vision. The research strongly supports using a service guarantee to improve service quality.
PLANT‐LEVEL ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT ORIENTATION: THE INFLUENCE OF MANAGEMENT VIEWS AND PLANT CHARACTERISTICS
Authors: KLASSEN ROBERT D.
Published: August 2010

As customers, the public and other stakeholders are increasingly demanding that manufacturing firms improve their approach to environmental management, some plants have moved to develop an orientation that is increasingly proactive. Synthesizing earlier research, environmental management orientation is defined here to include system analysis and planning, organizational responsibility, and management controls. The relationship between a proactive orientation and two sets of internal factors, specifically the personal views of plant managers and plant‐specific characteristics, was tested using survey data from the furniture industry. The production outlook for the plant was critical, with a favorable outlook fostering a more proactive environmental management orientation. After controlling for plant‐specific factors, personal views also were influential; an increasing emphasis on short‐term economic value was related to a more reactive plant‐level orientation. Thus senior corporate management can foster strong plant‐level environmental management through a more balanced emphasis on economic and ethical values and continued investment in a plant's long‐term viability.
COMPARING THE ENVIRONMENTAL AND QUALITY INITIATIVES OF BALDRIGE AWARD WINNERS
Authors: ANGELL LINDA C.
Published: August 2010

Can best‐practice quality firms leverage their quality programs for environmental management? This paper explores this question by comparing the implementation of successful and unsuccessful quality and environmental initiatives in five manufacturing‐ and five service‐sector Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (mbnqa) winners. The results lead to a series of propositions to guide future research. While the literature suggests that quality and environmental programs are closely related, this study finds that drivers of successful environmental initiatives are not the same as those for successful quality initiatives.
THE IMPACT OF ENTERPRISE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION ON OPERATIONAL PERFORMANCE: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION
Authors: MCAFEE ANDREW
Published: August 2010

This paper presents the results of a natural experiment conducted at a U.S. high‐tech manufacturer. The experiment had as its treatment the adoption, at a single point in time, of a comprehensive enterprise information system throughout the functional groups charged with customer order fulfillment. This information technology (it) adoption was not accompanied by substantial contemporaneous business process changes. Immediately after adoption, lead time and on‐time delivery performance suffered, causing a “performance dip” similar to those observed after the introduction of capital equipment onto shop floors. Lead times and on‐time delivery percentages then improved along a learning curve. After several months, performance in these areas improved significantly relative to preadoption levels. These observed performance patterns could not be well explained by rival causal factors such as order, production, and inventory volumes; head count; and new product introductions. Thus, this longitudinal research presents initial evidence of a causal link between IT adoption and subsequent improvement in operational performance measures, as well as evidence of the timescale over which these benefits appear.
FROM BUYER TO INTEGRATOR: THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE SUPPLY‐CHAIN MANAGER IN THE VERTICALLY DISINTEGRATING FIRM
Authors: PARKER GEOFFREY G. , ANDERSON EDWARD G.
Published: August 2010

Using case study data, we describe how a large personal computer manufacturer changed its supply‐chain management strategy after outsourcing the majority of its design and manufacturing activities to a network of focused suppliers. To cope with this new structure, the firm created highly skilled generalists, “supply‐chain integrators,” who coordinate product development, marketing, production, and logistics from product concept to delivery across firm boundaries. We particularly focus on the skill‐set that characterizes these integrators. Finally, we use the case evidence, combined with previous theory, to suggest a specific program of research into coordinating product development across disaggregated supply chains.
PRODUCT OFFERING, PRICING, AND MAKE‐TO‐STOCK/MAKE‐TO‐ORDER DECISIONS WITH SHARED CAPACITY
Authors: DOBSON GREGORY , YANO CANDACE ARAI
Published: August 2010

In an era of mass customization, many firms continue to expand their product lines to remain competitive. These broader product lines may help to increase market share and may allow higher prices to be charged, but they also cause challenges associated with diseconomies of scope. To investigate this tradeoff, we considered a monopolist who faces demand curves, which for each of its potential products, decline with both price and response time (time to deliver the product). The firm must decide which products to offer, how to price them, whether each should be make‐to‐stock (mts) or make‐to‐order (mto), and how often to produce them. The offered products share a single manufacturing facility. Setup times introduce disceonomies of scope and setup costs introduce economies of scale. We provide motivating problem scenarios, model the monopolist's problem as a non‐linear, integer programming problem, characterize of the optimal policy, develop near‐optimal procedures, and discuss managerial insights.
QUANTIFYING THE IMPACT OF INVENTORY HOLDING COST AND REACTIVE CAPACITY ON AN APPAREL MANUFACTURER'S PROFITABILITY
Authors: RAMAN ANANTH , KIM BOWON
Published: August 2010

This paper was motivated by the operational problems faced by Northco, a school uniform manufacturer in the Northeastern United States. Northco was facing high working capital costs while also incurring high stockout and markdown costs. This paper models the impact of inventory holding cost and reactive capacity on Northco's targeted understocking and overstocking cost and offers a solution methodology for such problems. We quantify the impact of varying inventory carrying costs (and hence, high working capital costs) on stockout costs and the value of additional capacity. Our results illustrate that apparel manufacturers with high working capital costs, and hence high inventory carrying costs, should target higher stockout costs and achieve lower capacity utilization. The results presented have application beyond Northco because high working capital cost is endemic to many supply chains.
E‐BUSINESS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT: AN OVERVIEW AND FRAMEWORK
Authors: JOHNSON M. ERIC , WHANG SEUNGJIN
Published: August 2010

The web is having a significant impact on how firms interact with each other and their customers. Past stumbling blocks for supply chain integration such as high transaction costs between partners, poor information availability, and the challenges of managing complex interfaces between functional organizations are all dissolving on the web. In this paper, we examine how the web is changing supply chain management. We present a survey of emerging research on the impact of e‐business on supply chain management including descriptive frameworks, analytical models, empirical analysis, and case studies. We classify the work into three major categories: e‐commerce, e‐procurement, and e‐col‐laboration.
DRIVERS OF INTERNET PURCHASING SUCCESS
Authors: BOYER KENNETH K. , OLSON JOHN R.
Published: August 2010

The development of the Internet as a business tool over the past 5 years has been phenomenal, causing a period of chaos and creative destruction. E‐commerce has been hyped as a catalyst for vast streamlining of the supply chain. Yet, in a time of such phenomenal change, the focus tends to be on the large picture. Many details of how a new technology should be or is employed tend to be unknown or ignored. However, as the technology matures and stabilizes, one of the primary factors that separate winners from losers is the way in which the technology is implemented and operated on a daily basis. This study examines the ways in which companies utilize the Internet to streamline their purchasing process.

A survey of 416 customers of a major Internet retailer of commodity office supplies reveals important relationships between web site design, employee work environments, Internet strategy, and purchasing performance. Our sample of companies consists of firms that have ordered office supplies at least once using the Internet. Our data indicate that companies do realize performance benefits from utilizing the Internet as a purchasing tool. Furthermore, the data suggest factors that facilitate purchasing process improvements. These factors can be utilized by both buying and selling companies to improve their proprietary processes to maximize the benefits of e‐commerce as a purchasing tool.
REALIZATION OF THE VIRTUAL ENTERPRISE PARADIGM IN THE CLOTHING INDUSTRY THROUGH E‐BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY
Authors: TATSIOPOULOS I. P. , PONIS S. T. , HADZILIAS E. A. , PANAYIOTOU N. A.
Published: August 2010

This paper presents a methodology and a case study for supply chain management in the clothing industry that makes extensive use of the virtual enterprise paradigm. The main research goal was to design and implement a prototype e‐business software component and carry out tests in several industrial users. The research effort resulted in the extended production data management system (epms), which supported the business processes of customer order management, subcontractor selection, and multi‐site/multi‐firm production orders release. The enablers of this software application were business‐to‐business (b2b) e‐commerce technologies in the operating context of application service providers (asps).
GUIDELINES FOR IMPLEMENTING PREDICTIVE MAINTENANCE*
Authors: MCKONE KATHLEEN E. , WEISS ELLIOTT N.
Published: August 2010

Recent advances in predictive maintenance technologies have led many manufacturers to abandon traditional periodic maintenance policies and replace them with predictive maintenance policies. The models in this paper explicitly evaluate the decision to utilize both predictive and periodic maintenance when the objective is to minimize expected maintenance costs per unit time. Renewal theory is used to obtain optimal policies as unique solutions of integral equations that depend on the failure distribution and prediction capabilities. Based on this research, we recommend that practitioners do not abandon the traditional maintenance methods but follow our guidelines for utilizing periodic maintenance in conjunction with the new technologies.
COMPONENT COMMONALITY: MODELS WITH PRODUCT‐SPECIFIC SERVICE CONSTRAINTS*
Authors: MIRCHANDANI PRAKASH , MISHRA AJAY K.
Published: August 2010

Common components are used extensively for reasons including product postponement and expediting new product development. We consider a two‐stage assemble‐to‐order system with two products having uniformly distributed demand, one common component, and product‐specific components. We develop optimization models in which the cost‐minimizing inventory of the components must be determined and allocated to products in order to meet product‐specific service level constraints. We compare two different commonality models based on whether or not the products are prioritized. A distinctive feature of our study is the use of product‐specific service levels. We compare our results with models using aggregate service levels.
SERVICE SYSTEM DESIGN FOR THE PROPERTY AND CASUALTY INSURANCE INDUSTRY
Authors: GILONI AVI , SESHADRI SRIDHAR , KAMESAM PASUMARTI V.
Published: August 2010

This paper describes the changes that are forcing property and casualty insurance firms to rethink their service system design and in particular their distribution strategies. A set of questions related to distribution that are uppermost in the minds of executives in this industry are presented along with a literature survey of models that can be used to answer some of these questions. Based on the survey, a normative framework for designing the distribution system is proposed. Qualitative and quantitative analysis based on the proposed framework is presented along with empirical data to demonstrate the usefulness of the framework. The paper concludes with an agenda for further research.
MANAGING PRODUCT VARIETY: AN INTEGRATIVE REVIEW AND RESEARCH DIRECTIONS
Authors: RAMDAS KAMALINI
Published: August 2010

Variety management has emerged as a crucial dimension of successful business practice. In this paper, I first provide a framework for managerial decisions about variety. Variety‐creation decisions determine the amount, type, and timing of end‐product variety, while variety‐implementation decisions focus on the design and operation of internal processes and a supply chain to support a firm's variety‐creation strategy. I organize variety‐related decisions into four key decision themes in variety creation: 1) dimensions of variety, 2) product architecture, 3) degree of customization, and 4) timing; and three key decision themes in variety implementation: 1) process capabilities, 2) points of variegation, and 3) day‐to‐day decisions. I describe each theme and review the relevant literature on each theme, with a focus on research that provides insight to problems faced in practice. Finally, I identify untapped avenues for future research that would be of value to the practicing manager, paying special attention to interdependencies among decision themes.
TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS AND TECHNOLOGY ACQUISITION: STRATEGIC DECISION UNDER UNCERTAINTY
Authors: LI SHANLING , LOULOU RICHARD , RAHMAN ATIQUR
Published: August 2010

We develop a stochastic programming model to aid manufacturing firms in making strategic decisions in technology acquisition. The proposed model maximizes the firm's expected profit under the condition of the uncertainty in technological progress and development. To solve this large‐scale problem, we decompose future uncertainties through scenarios and then develop an algorithm to solve the resulting non‐linear subproblems efficiently. Finally, we develop a heuristic to eliminate the infeasibility in the master problem and obtain best solutions. Numerical results show that our heuristic solutions are very close to the optimal solutions and meaningful insights are derived.
DETERMINISTIC TIME‐VARYING DEMAND LOT‐SIZING MODELS WITH LEARNING AND FORGETTING IN SETUPS AND PRODUCTION
Authors: CHIU HUAN NENG , CHEN HSIN MIN , WENG LI CHING
Published: August 2010

We study the deterministic time‐varying demand lot‐sizing problem in which learning and forgetting in setups and production are considered simultaneously. It is an extension of Chiu's work. We propose a near‐optimal forward dynamic programming algorithm and suggest the use of a good heuristic method in a situation in which the computational effort is extremely intolerable. Several important observations obtained from a two‐phase experiment verify the goodness of the proposed algorithm and the chosen heuristic method.