Search

VCU Theses and Dissertations

This research presents results from a multi-site field study of 51 Kaizen event teams in six manufacturing organizations. Although Kaizen events have been growing in popularity since the mid 1990s, to date, there has been no systematic empirical research on the determinants of Kaizen event effectiveness. To address this need, a theory-driven model of event effectiveness is developed, drawn from extant Kaizen event practitioner articles and related literature on projects and teams. This model relates Kaizen event outcomes to hypothesized key input factors and hypothesized key process factors. In addition, process factors are hypothesized to partially mediate the relationship between input factors and outcomes. Following sociotechnical systems (STS) theory, both technical and social (human resource) aspects of Kaizen event performance are measured. Relationships between outcomes, process factors and input factors are analyzed through regression, using generalized estimating equations (GEE) to account for potential correlation in residuals within organizations. The research found a significant positive correlation between the two social system outcomes (attitude toward Kaizen events and employee gains in problem-solving knowledge, skills and attitudes). In addition, the research found significant positive correlations between the social system outcomes and one technical system outcome (team member perceptions of the impact of the Kaizen event on the target work area). However, none of the three technical system outcomes (employee perceptions of event impact, facilitator ratings of event success and actual percentage of team goals achieved) were significantly correlated. In addition, the research found that each outcome variable had a unique set of input and process predictors. However, management support and goal difficulty were a common predictors of three out of five outcomes. Unexpected findings include negative relationships between functional diversity, team and team leader Kaizen event experience, and action orientation and one or more outcomes. However, many of the findings confirmed recommendations in Kaizen event practitioner articles and the project and team literature. Furthermore, support for the mediation hypothesis was found for most outcome measures. These findings will be useful both for informing Kaizen event design in practicing organizations and for informing future Kaizen event research. Ph. D.

Systems engineering is clearly a multi-faceted knowledge base system that spans multiple disciplines, and requires the intellectual application of academic and professional regimen that has the responsibility of delivering complex projects that satisfy stakeholder life-cycle requirements. The responsibility of implementing effective systems engineering practices belongs to engineering and project management who are required to apply selective criteria in making risk informed, cost efficient, performance based decisions regarding the extent to which each project may require a systems engineering approach. Typically, engineering and project management look to international standards, industry recommended practices, or organizational guidelines to assist in the decision making process in order to appropriately “tailor” to the systems engineering scope. Unfortunately, there is limited information presented in the commonly used standards which forces engineering management to rely on personal and organizational experience rather than relying on a “systems thinking” decision making knowledge based process. This research develops a technically defendable process to assist systems engineering and project management in the forecasting and control of project resources through the use of a scalable systems engineering ontology for use within the science and technology community in the design and development of unprecedented systems.

In this dissertation, we consider three types of constraints that are frequently used in mixed integer programming (MIP), namely: SOS1, SOS2, and cardinality. We study and develop cutting planes for those types of constraints, and use them within branch-and-cut to solve difficult MIP instances. Our computational results indicate that the cutting planes used are very effective in reducing the solution times of our instances. We also study the effect of other common features present in commercial solvers, such as preprocessing, "standard" cutting planes, and heuristics.

Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of most world economies. The large number of SMEs poses environmental problems as many are not regulated and do not have an environmental management system. They are frequently not proactive and sometimes are not aware of their environmental impact. SMEs face various problems in implementing sustainable practices and being proactive. The common barriers to implementing environmentally sustainable practices are finance, lack of expertise, and lack of information. On the other hand, SMEs have found motivation to implement sustainable practices through legislation, cost reduction, customer demand, and company image. Removal of barriers and enhancing motivation will lead to better and more widespread sustainable practices by SMEs. This research is a case study conducted with manufacturing SMEs located in the West Texas region of the United States. Based on a thorough literature review, an environmental sustainability five-force model was developed, analogous to Porter’s five forces model of industrial competition. Using this theoretical basis, an Environmental Sustainability Index (EnvSI) was developed. A survey of over 800 SMEs was conducted to apply this model. Results were analyzed using factor analysis and regression analysis. As a result, a revised Environmental Sustainability Index (EnvSI) was calculated, in which all factors were valid, reliable, and explained over 70% of the variance each. This revised EnvSI represents a significant tool to explain environmentally sustainable performance. A follow-on open-ended survey provided further understanding and insight into the perceptions that SME owners have with respect to sustainability and green products. This indicates the need to continue the work on an Environmental Sustainability Perception Index (ESPI).

Public policy is no longer just a tool for good governance. It is increasingly a competitive tool given the globalized economy in which competition occurs across national boundaries. Technology policy, like healthcare policy, accounting, and other specialized subject areas, is increasingly complex and requires involvement of subject area experts. The policy literature highlights the need for a more sophisticated specification of the policy process to allow effective subject matter expert involvement. Most established approaches for explaining policy diffusion rely primarily on historical patterns of adoption to generate scores for predicting future adoption dates. This dissertation derives a measure of ease of policy diffusion based on the concept of heat transfer in conduction through a wall. This approach performs a central engineering management function by identifying synthesis between physical and social systems. As the model is refined, the ability to apply laws governing heat transfer to the policy process will provide an increasingly accurate policy diffusion model based on an improved understanding of policy levers. The effect on policy design and subject matter expert involvement in policymaking mirrors that seen in heat transfer from centuries of empirical tests on the behavior of materials as temperature is altered. Diffusivity, defined here as the rate of change in heat level, is used as a measure of the rate of policy change. In heat transfer, the diffusivity is a ratio of conductivity to volumetric heat capacity. Higher diffusivity implies easier thermal transfer and lower diffusivity, the reverse. In heat transfer, conductivity measures the capacity to transfer heat across the barrier between two regions. In policy diffusion, it is equivalent to the resources available to overcome resistance to policy diffusion. Based on literature, institutional capacity is used as a proxy for conductivity. Volumetric heat capacity is a measure of the capacity to resist heat transfer by absorbing heat flow through the barrier. It is the capacity to store thermal energy and resist heat transfer through the material. Based on the literature, culture is an ideal proxy for this measure. The data on culture is, however, inconsistent and cross-sectional in comparison with other annually updated data sets. Affluence disparity, which is also discussed as a retardant to policy diffusion, is used for the policy diffusion model. The literature discusses the use of affluence because of the financial requirements for policy or institutional change. The mapping from heat transfer to policy diffusion is conducted in two stages. The first is a conceptual map of heat transfer parameters to policy diffusion. This is followed by empirical tests – statistical tests and graphical comparisons of the variation of each of the parameters with temperature in heat transfer, and an approximation for temperature in policy diffusion. This approximation is made in compensation for the binary measure for the level of policy implementation – the ideal map for temperature. Kendall’s tau tests of association are used to compare the diffusivity score with an innovativeness score generated from historical policy adoption rates among U.S. states. The factors influencing diffusion of the Bayh Dole act for technology commercialization and intellectual property protection are also discussed in light of the diffusivity scores. From the rank association tests (Kendall’s tau), the adoption pattern expected from the diffusivity score ranks does not significantly match that expected from the innovativeness score ranks for the 34 US states considered. There is also no significant correlation between the diffusivity score and adoption year (tau = -0.17). The negative correlation coefficient at a 0.085 level of significance (though not satisfactory at the 0.05 threshold) suggests the reverse of the pattern expected for adoption based on the diffusivity score – a finding of considerable interest for future study. There was a significant correlation (tau = 0.251) at the 0.05 level of significance, between the innovativeness score and the adoption year, implying that that higher innovativeness scores suggest earlier policy adoption. While the sample size constrains the statistical power of conclusions from this test, the observed correlation suggests a need for further tests with refinements to the model to include additional levers, such as the relative size of policy jurisdictions, demographic differences, proportions of rural-to-urban populations, and the strength and support of issue networks. Graphical analysis is then used to map the diffusivity relationship in heat transfer to the equivalent relationship in the policy diffusion process. Temperature dependence is the basis for such pattern mappings in heat transfer. In policy diffusion, the level of policy implementation (policy level) is the temperature equivalent. This measure is yet to be operationalized. As such, this study uses an approximation based on the heat flow rate equation in heat transfer. This approximation introduces a limitation to the validity of the conductivity mappings. However, it is an essential first step in testing the similarities between heat transfer and policy diffusion levers. Of additional importance, this dissertation highlights measures, such as the policy level, degree of contact and distance between jurisdictions, and the policy flow rate, the operationalization of which are needed for a more sophisticated specification of policy lever interactions. These initial mappings are based on the adoption of a Renewable Portfolio Standard in the United States. Limitations, such as a measure for policy level (the temperature equivalent), compromise the accuracy of mappings and the conclusive power of the model in its present form. However, this study has identified significant conceptual similarity between heat transfer in the physical sciences and policy diffusion in the social sciences. The identification of individual levers and explanation of lever interactions opens a new frontier in physical-to-social science research and begins a process through which the benefits of sophisticated specification from centuries of heat transfer and material science research can be exploited in policy diffusion. Policy researchers, such as Berry and Berry (1992) and Mintrom (1997), stress the need for a more sophisticated specification of the policy process that is not solely reliant on historical events. This dissertation initiates work to address this need. In accordance with the definition of the engineering management profession, the research here is broadly focused with an aim to achieve synthesis between the physical and social concepts of diffusion. The diffusivity model, in its current form, explains conceptual similarity between heat transfer and policy diffusion. Further work is required to support this conceptual synthesis empirically. One such avenue for improvement is the use of additional levers informed by the innovativeness score.

Financial Success of any business is dependent on the amount of value it can deliver to its customers. Before the mid 1900s most organizations had a one dimensional focus as they concentrated on cost only. However rapid growth in technology and market globalization have led to a different scenario altogether and these days, in order to materialize the potential financial gains, businesses are required to focus on other dimensions of value addition as well. The problem lies with the fact that performance improvement with respect to other aspects of value addition like customer service, timely delivery, and functional quality tends to increase cost. And increasing cost will more than likely drive the customer away. This is exactly why supply chains have assumed a critical role in today’s economy because efficient supply chains lead to lower operating costs, which gives management some extra space to invest in improvement initiatives without actually increasing the final price of a product or service. This relationship between supply chain efficiency, cost, and performance improvement has led to a lot of research in this field over the past 15 to 20 years and this is also the primary motivation behind this thesis; where we have attempted to develop a framework for improving supply chain efficiency with respect to product quality and timely delivery by means of synchronization.

Food Service industry is one of the largest employer in the United States and food service in Universities form a considerable part of this. Food service places always face the difficult task of providing high quality of food and at the same time reduce wastes and costs involved with food production. Lean principles and lean tools help in reducing wastes and thereby reducing costs. Lean principles have been widely applied in the manufacturing sector and rarely used in the service industry. This research applies lean principles in reducing wastes and improving productivity of a food service operation in a university setting. The results showed considerable reduction in costs and improvement in productivity while keeping the quality of food at the highest level.

This study contributes to the performance measurement (PM) literature by providing validated measures of PM system use and increased understanding of the impact of PM use on organizational outcomes. The purpose of this study was to articulate and test the relationships between PM system use, organizational learning, and organizational performance by taking into account the effects of PM-related technical factors (namely, PM system maturity and review process (RP) maturity). The concept of PM use was explored through the examination of its underlying processes, as reflected in the literature and two case studies, and a set of practices delineating PM use processes were proposed. Following a scale development approach, a measurement instrument of PM use was developed and validated with empirical data collected through a web-based questionnaire. The results from factor analysis showed the need to revise the initial set of PM use practices into five dimensions: monitoring, problem-finding, problem-solving, validating causal relationships, and validating improvement actions. Additionally, new measures were developed to assess PM and RP maturity factors. The factor analysis results identified four maturity variables: managed RP, optimized RP, PM design and PM implementation. Data from 216 managers participating in RP meetings were used to test the hypothesized relationships via partial least square (PLS). The results provide varying support for the hypotheses defined. First, the results show that monitoring directly impacts organizational performance while problem-finding, problem-solving and validating causal relationships indirectly impact organizational performance through shared vision and team learning. These indirect effects were positive in some cases and negative in others, depending on the direction of the relationship between the use variable and the organizational learning variable. Second, validating improvement actions did not influence organizational outcomes. Finally, the only moderating effect found was managed RP on the relationship between validating causal relationships and financial performance. Because of the weak support for moderating effects, an alternative model was proposed, exploring these maturity variables as antecedents of PM use. The results provided substantial support for this alternate model. Practical implications and areas for future research are also identified and discussed. Ph. D.

A Kaizen event is a focused and structured improvement project, using a dedicated cross-functional team to improve a targeted work area, with specific goals, in an accelerated timeframe. Kaizen events have been widely reported to produce positive change in business results and human resource outcomes. However, it can be difficult for many organizations to sustain or improve upon the results of a Kaizen event after it concludes. Furthermore, the sustainability of Kaizen event outcomes has received limited research attention to date. This research is based on a field study of 65 events across eight manufacturing organizations that used survey data collected at the time of the event and approximately nine to eighteen months after the event. The research model was developed from Kaizen event practitioner resources, Kaizen event literature, and related process improvement sustainability and organizational change literature. The model hypothesized that Kaizen Event Characteristics, Work Area Characteristics, and Post-Event Characteristics were related to Kaizen event Sustainability Outcomes. Furthermore, the model hypothesized that Post-Event Characteristics would mediate the relationship between Kaizen Event and Work Area Characteristics and the Sustainability Outcomes. The study hypotheses were analyzed through multiple regression models and generalized estimating equations were used to account for potential nesting effects (events within organizations). The factors that were most strongly related to each Sustainability Outcome were identified. Work Area Characteristics learning and stewardship and experimentation and continuous improvement and Post-Event Characteristics performance review and accepting changes were significant direct or indirect predictors of multiple Sustainability Outcomes and these findings were generally supported by the literature. There were also some unanticipated findings, particularly regarding the modeling of Sustainability Outcomes result sustainability and goal sustainability, which appear to illustrate potential issues regarding how organizations define and track the performance of Kaizen events over time and present areas for future research. Overall, this study advances academic knowledge regarding Kaizen event outcome sustainability. The findings also present guidelines so that practitioners may better influence the longer-term impact of Kaizen events on their organizations. The research findings may also extend to other improvement activities, thus presenting additional areas for future work. Ph. D.