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Focussing on the manufacturing industry in China, the study explores factors that contribute to possible implementation gaps between companies’ actual practices and the commonly recognized core qua...

This article explores how waste reduction approaches as found in lean thinking can be applied to engineering design in Engineer-To-Order (ETO) projects based on a multiple case study of ten companies over a 2-year period. ETO projects deliver capital goods that are customised to individual customer requirements. Customisation and ultimately value generation are achieved through an iterative engineering design process. Although inevitable, iterative engineering design allows much leeway for waste generation, expressed in higher costs and longer lead times. Accordingly, this paper investigates the iterative nature of engineering design in current practice and discusses how these iterations create wastes. It applies the concept of lean engineering design and elaborates on how this concept can eliminate wastes. The findings extend the literature on lean thinking by demonstrating its applicability to engineering design and provide a unique description of the most common wastes found in ETO projects. Furthermore, this article provides managerial implications on how lean engineering design can eliminate wastes and ultimately improve ETO project performance based on lessons learned from the case companies.

Procurement decisions have a pervasive impact on supply chain performance and market success. This is particularly true in supply chains operating to deliver projects, such as construction and engineer-to-order companies, where a focal firm’s procurement decisions need to be coordinated with production activities to effectively satisfy customer orders. This study focuses on how the procurement department can be organised in order to support the needs of project-based supply chains better. Starting from a review of the procurement organisation literature in the context of project supply chains, we use a multiple case study methodology and discuss the procurement organisational choices in 11 project-based companies. Within and cross-case analyses allow identifying two possible archetypes, i.e. the procurement—focussed and the project-focussed organisations, as extremes on a continuum that also includes hybrid solutions. The characteristics of each model are discussed, and results are articulated in three propositions connecting procurement organisational variables and contingent factors.

Medium enterprises (MEs) form a majority of enterprises in several regions, yet they are underrepresented in the literature. The digital transformation known as Industry 4.0 (I4.0) brings new data ...

This work presents a multiple case study analysis aimed at depicting a managerial perspective for the implementation of a transformation path towards Industry 4.0 (I4.0) in manufacturing value chain. Starting from the analysis of the literature on values and impacts of digitalization and I4.0 in operations and supply chain management, the research investigates three key dimensions to take into account when defining the digital transformation path from a managerial perspective: investments in I4.0 technologies, ability in perceiving the path towards digital transformation, and knowledge sharing. For each dimension, patterns of managerial practices and related challenges for the implementation of the I4.0 paradigm has been identified, building on the insights and experiences of different players of the manufacturing supply chain (companies, service and technology providers, competence centres, ranging from large enterprises to SMEs). The results proposed in terms of key challenges, common mistakes and best practices according to the level of digital implementation, represent an overview of reference that can support companies in understanding which are the most important issues to be addressed when facing the adoption of digital and innovative technologies.

This paper conducts an exploratory case study-based research in three companies to identify the main synergies and misalignments between Lean and Green in the context of a range of distribution networks operating globally, regionally and domestically. The research strategy applied by this study is exploratory multiple case studies in three companies, particularly in the road transport and logistics sector. Semi-structured interviews with fifteen executives from three companies were conducted to identify activities within logistics operations leading to synergies and misalignment between Lean and Green practices. The outcome of the three cases shows that several improvements can be achieved by the simultaneous adoption of Lean and Green. The study contributes to the literature by extending the research in the logistics sector and providing examples from a wide variety of logistics operations on synergies and misalignments between Lean and Green practices. The findings and outcome of this study are a starting point for further research in the logistics sector.

This paper presents the strategies used by manufacturing companies to price service offerings. After reviewing the extant literature on this subject, the paper forwards propositions that are relevant to illustrate the relationships between servitization, pricing strategies, bundling options, revenue models and pricing capabilities. Using multiple case-based research, this study makes three contributions to the literature on servitization of manufacturing firms. It extensively explores the relationship between servitization and pricing practices, it suggests which factors can moderate this relationship and it examines the capabilities demanded to the firm to introduce innovative pricing practices.