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This article examines the relationship between lean manufacturing practices and alignment of strategic benchmarking performance measures. A set of nine hypotheses was used to examine the differences between conventional companies and lean manufacturing companies in setting organizational goals and objectives, scanning environmental factors, building core competencies, setting competitive priorities, establishing manufacturing objectives, and alignment of competitive capabilities with competitive priorities. Statistical results indicate compared with conventional companies, lean manufacturing organizations are overall better in setting long term goals and objectives, recognizing external environmental factors, building organizational core competencies, aligning competitive capabilities with competitive priorities, and utilizing a broad range of balanced performance measures. Key Words: Alignment, Performance measurement, Lean manufacturing, INTRODUCTION Benchmarking is an effective improvement tool utilized by organizations for improving aspects of organizational competitive priorities such as cost, quality, delivery, flexibility, and customer service. Benchmarking may be defined [...]

Stephen Ezell's 'Revitalizing U.S. Manufacturing' (Issues, Winter 2012) makes two vital points: The United States must not discount the importance of manufacturing to our economy, and we need to employ [...]

A study was conducted to determine how multinational enterprises (MNEs) select ownership strategies when facing strong uncertainty in foreign market entries. The ownership strategies of over 5,000 new foreign investments in manufacturing industries in China from 2000 to 2006 are examined. The industry boundary conditions of adopting flexible ownership strategies are also discussed.

Dell's supply chain for desktops involves Asian vendors shipping components by sea to several U.S. plants. Although suppliers are responsible for shipping enough inventory to meet total needs across all [...]

A study was conducted to determine how institutional friction and institutional convergence affect companies in their abilities to profit from international diversification. Data on 140 Korean manufacturing multinational firms are used. Findings indicate that market-oriented institutional change should not be viewed as a discrete event.

How the cost of getting caught on the incidence of corporate illegality affects the firm is discussed using a sample of S&P 500 manufacturers. The results have shown that both performances above internal aspirations and external expectations increase the likelihood of illegal activities. The prominence of sample firms enhances the effects of performance above expectations.

Vendor-Managed Inventory (VMI) has attracted a lot of attention due to its benefits such as fewer stock-outs, higher sales, and lower inventory levels at the retailers. Vendor-Managed Availability (VMA) is an improvement that exploits the advantages beyond VMI. This article analyzes the benefits beyond information sharing and assesses the motivation for the manufacturer (vendor) behind joining such a program. It is shown that such vendor-managed systems provide increased flexibility in manufacturer's operations and may bring additional benefits. An analysis is presented on how the system parameters affect the profitability and determine the conditions that make the vendor-managed system a viable strategy for the manufacturer. Keywords: Vertical collaboration, vendor-managed inventory, capacity management, operational flexibility, consignment stock, 1. Introduction Vendor-Managed Inventory (VMI) is a collaborative process between a supplier/manufacturer and a manufacturer/retailer/distributor, where the manufacturer gains access to the demand and inventory information at the retailer and [...]

This article considers a manufacturing system that operates in a high-variety, low-volume environment, with significant setup times. The goal is to determine the optimal Work-In-Process (WIP) inventory levels for operating the system to meet the required demand for each product. The decision variables are the number of pallets (containers) for each product and the number of units in each pallet (lot size). The objective is to minimize the total WIP inventory across all products. To capture congestion in the system, it is modeled as a closed queueing network with multiple product types. However, this leads to a complex nonlinear integer program with a non-convex objective function. A lower bound on the objective function is developed that is used to develop upper and lower bounds on the number of pallets for each product. The bounds on the number of pallets allow the use of exhaustive enumeration within these bounds to obtain the optimal solution to this complex queueing network-based optimization problem. A simple heuristic is developed to further reduce the number of candidate configurations evaluated in the search for the optimal solution. A computational study reveals that the heuristic obtains the optimal solution in many of the test instances. [Supplementary materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of IIE Transactions for supplemental resources containing details on some procedures and heuristics.] Keywords: Job shops, shop floor planning and control, CONWIP, closed queueing networks, multiple chains, non-linear integer program, 1. Introduction Once seen as just another new management fad, lean manufacturing and just-in-time manufacturing concepts are still finding increased application and acceptance, as organizations continue their efforts to remain [...]

Production split and merge operations are widely used in many manufacturing systems to increase production capacity and variety, improve product quality, and carry out scheduling and control activities. This article presents analytical methods to analyze split and merge production systems with exponential machine reliability models, operating under circulate, strictly circulate, priority, and percentage split/merge policies. In addition to developing the recursive procedures for performance analysis, the structural properties of the systems and the impacts of routing policies on system performance are investigated. Keywords: Split, merge, throughput, percentage, priority, circulate, strictly circulate, 1. Introduction In modern manufacturing systems, split and merge structures are often used to increase production capacity and variety, improve product quality, and carry out scheduling and control activities. The [...]

This study investigates the adoption of target costing by Bahraini manufacturing firms by using a mail questionnaire survey to a sample of 80 Bahraini manufacturing firms, the final sample consist of 26 respondents, which corresponds to applicable response rate of 32.5%. The results of the survey show that sixteen respondents of the final sample are applying a similar method to target costing but under different name, which equals a 61.5% adoption rate, eight out of the sixteen firms apply target costing for most of the products, and the remaining eight firms apply it for some of the products. In addition the results show that the sixteen firms have been applying target costing for more than 5 years by using the process-oriented manufacturing method and the assembly-oriented manufacturing method, and ten out of the sixteen firms used target costing technique in redesigning existing products. The results also show that firms not using target costing did not perceive it as beneficial to their firms in the future, also the respondents argued that target costing tends to result in lower quality, as the product has to become cheaper. The analysis reveal that there is no statistically significant relationship between the adoption of target costing and size of Bahraini manufacturing firm, but there is a statistically significant difference between performance of firms using target costing and those do not use target costing, this difference suggests that higher achievement of target costs is usually associated with higher firm performance. Although target costing firms employing the confrontational strategy appeared to perform better than those employing a low cost strategy, the results show that no significant difference between the performance of both. The results also show that the most important benefits of target costing is to assists firms in making the trade-offs between cost and quality and functionality, and it helps launch products that improve on previous generations by having reduced prices or improve quality and functionality. Key Words: Target costing; Adoption, Benefits, Bahraini manufacturing companies, Bahrain, 1. INTRODUCTION Historically, most cost reduction and cost control efforts have focused on the production stage of the product life cycle. However, almost all production capabilities and costs are set [...]

The journal is pleased to publish the abstracts of the six finalists of the 2008 Manufacturing and Service Operations Management Society's student paper competition. The 2008 prize committee was chaired [...]

We consider a manufacturer of complex machines that offers service contracts to her customers, committing herself to repair failed spare parts throughout a fixed service period. The suppliers of spare parts often discontinue the production of some parts as technology advances and ask the manufacturer to place a final order. We address the problem of determining final orders for such spare parts. The parts that we consider are repairable, but they are subject to the risk of condemnation. We build a transient Markovian model to represent the problem for a repairable spare part with a certain repair probability and repair lead time and we present some approximations that allow for further real-life characteristics to be included. Furthermore, an approximate model that can be computed more efficiently is presented, and the sensitivity of the results obtained with respect to the problem parameters is discussed, helping us develop several managerial insights. Keywords: final order; repairable inventory theory; condemnation; spare parts management

We conceptualize strategic decision-making processes within a manufacturing firm as streams of resources allocated to short- and long-term changes. The analogous ecological model, referred to as the Lotka-Volterra model, captures this dynamic tension between decisions made by the firm and its manufacturing operations. This representation leads to evolutionarily stable manufacturing strategies (ESMSs), which contribute to a firm's competitive advantage in different ways. Using a random sample of 30 firms from the U.S. semiconductor industry, we estimate parameters of the model and arrive at four ESMSs or strategic manufacturing groups that reflect theoretically and empirically distinctive adaptation patterns through their dynamic resource allocations. We observe that a majority of the firms were classified in one of the four groups, with relatively fewer firms in the other three. Notably, our classification based on ecology models agrees well with taxonomies in manufacturing and business strategy theory. Furthermore, our analysis shows significant differences among manufacturing practices and competitive capabilities of the four strategic groups. Managerially, these insights could provide the foundation to implement strategic changes that enable firms to leapfrog from one ESMS to another. This study also paves the way for development of a meso theory of the dynamics of manufacturing strategy. Key words: manufacturing strategy; resources; dynamics; competitive capabilities; ecology; complexity History: Received August 18, 2006; accepted November 23, 2008, by Paul H. Zipkin, operations and supply chain management., 1. Introduction In this paper, we study the diversity of manufacturing strategies pursued by firms in an industry by characterizing the dynamics of resource allocation within the firm and its [...]

A study was conducted to examine potential antecedents of the alignment of organizational sub-units' processes and goals with the organization's primary goals. Alignment data of 329 aggregated sub-units in a large U.S. manufacturing company were analyzed. Findings indicate that alignment is positively related to company satisfaction at an individual level.

The association between the work environment compatibility and development of musculoskeletal stress among workers is evaluated. Results indicate that poor working environment resulted in increased musculoskeletal stress and shift duties also had a role to play with the evening shift manifesting the poorest compatibility.

One of the main preoccupations of global value chain (GVC) analysis has been how value chains are governed and by which types of firms. Most current conceptualizations distinguish between different types of GVC governance and see them as effects of given distributions of attributes between firms along chains. The governmentality literature instead sees economic governance primarily in terms of invoked models of practice, and interprets it through economic agents' descriptions of their own governing (or governed) practices. Drawing on the specialized magazines, training manuals and professional journals that served purchasing practitioners in US manufacturing, this article draws attention to the hitherto unexplored role of expert knowledge and practices in GVC governance. At the same time, it highlights that the governmentality literature glosses over problems associated with the actual implementation and effectiveness of expert practices. The article concludes by reflecting on the theoretical implications of such an analysis for both the GVC and the governmentality literatures. Keywords: global value chains; governance; governmentality; performativity; US manufacturing industry; supply chain management.

The journal is pleased to publish the abstracts of the six finalists of the 2007 Manufacturing and Service Operations Management Society's student paper competition. The 2007 prize committee was chaired [...]

A multi-stage production/inventory system with decentralized two-card kanban control policies producing multiple product types is considered. The system involves one-at-a-time processing at each stage, finite target levels in the buffers and batch transfers between production stages. The demand process for each product is assumed to be Poisson and excess demand is backordered. Products have a priority structure and the processor at each stage is shared according to a switching rule. Our objective is to obtain steady-state performance measures such as the average inventory and service levels for each product type. We propose an approximation algorithm based on: (i) characterization of the delay by a product type before receiving the processor's attention at each stage; and (ii) creation of subsystems for all the storage activity and phase-type modeling of the remaining system's behavior. N umerical examples are presented to show the accuracy of the method and its potential use in system design. Keywords: Decentralized systems, multi-product, multi-stage, pull-type, backorders, 1. Introduction Pull systems have become quite common in manufacturing industries, particularly in large-scale companies and in repetitive manufacturing environments (White et al., 1999; Fullerton and McWatters, 2001). The kanban [...]

Analytical models of multi-product manufacturing systems operating under CONWIP control are composed of closed queuing networks with synchronization stations. Under general assumptions, these queuing networks are hard to analyze exactly and therefore approximation methods must be used for performance evaluation. This research proposes a new approach based on parametric decomposition. Two-moment approximations are used to estimate the performance measures at individual stations. Subsequently, the traffic process parameters at the different stations are linked using stochastic transformation equations. The resulting set of non-linear equations is solved using an iterative algorithm to obtain estimates of key performance measures such as throughput, and mean queue lengths. Numerical studies indicate that the proposed method is computationally efficient and yields fairly accurate results when compared to simulation. Keywords: Multi-product systems, CONWIP, pull systems, closed queuing network, fork/join stations, parametric decomposition, two-moment approximations, 1. Background and literature review Manufacturing industries are under increasing pressure to offer a large variety of products to their customers with shorter lead times and at reduced costs. This [...]

In this paper, we distinguish between the internal and external means by which manufacturing plants engage in process technology development. While computerized and equipment-based advanced manufacturing technologies (AMT) are typically sourced from external vendors, plants also develop proprietary process technologies in-house. We present internal process technology development (IPTD) as a construct that captures this internal means of process technology development, and investigate the individual and interaction effects of IPTD and externally sourced computerized and equipment-based AMT on manufacturing plant performance. Our results indicate that IPTD is positively associated with quality, delivery, and process flexibility, but it is not significantly associated with cost efficiency or new product flexibility. The indicated relationships between the use of specific types of AMT (process, design, and planning AMT) and manufacturing plant performance and between IPTD-AMT interactions and manufacturing plant performance suggest context specificity. In addition, the findings suggest the existence of complementarities as well as the redundancies among IPTD-AMT relationships. Index Terms--Empirical modeling (including structural equations, regression, etc.), manufacturing innovations, manufacturing performance, manufacturing process technology, manufacturing strategy.

A report on guidelines and methods for planning two-factor step-stress accelerated life test experiments for models where there is no interaction between the factors is presented.

Manufacturing businesses in today's market are facing immense pressures to react rapidly to dynamic variations in demand distributions across products and changing product mixes. To cope with the pressures requires dynamically integrated manufacturing systems (DIMS) that can manage optimal fulfillment of customer orders while simultaneously considering alternative system structures to suit changing conditions. This paper presents a multiagent approach to DIMS, where production planning and control decisions are integrated with systems reconfiguration and restructure. A multiagent framework, referred to as a Hierarchical Autonomous Agent Network, is proposed to model complex manufacturing systems, their structures, and constraints. It allows the hierarchical structures of complex systems to be modeled while avoiding centralized control in classical hierarchical/ hybrid frameworks. Subsystems interact heterarchically with product orders to carry out optimal planning and scheduling. An agent coordination algorithm, operating iteratively under the control of a genetic algorithm, is developed to enable optimal planning and control decisions for order fulfillment to be made through interactions between agents. This algorithm also allows the structural constraints of systems to be relaxed gradually during agent interaction, so that planning and control are first carried out under existing constraints, but when satisfactory solutions cannot be found, subsystems are allowed to regroup to form new configurations. Frequently used configurations are detected and evaluated for system restructure. The approach also enables Petri-net models of new system structures to be generated dynamically and the structures to be evaluated through agent-based discrete event simulation. Index Terms--Manufacturing systems, multiagent systems (MASs), reconfigurable manufacturing systems, systems modeling and simulation.

A study was conducted to investigate the effects of the dimensions of organizational interdependence on the performance of procurement relationships for manufacturers. Findings indicate that a manufacturer's dependence advantage diminishes its performance, and that a supplier's dependence advantage has a null effect.

With reference to a comparative study on medium-sized manufacturing firms in the United States, United Kingdom, France and Germany, the interrelationship between quality of management practices, quality of work-life balance practices, and firm's productivity is analyzed.

We present a stochastic dynamic programming algorithm for determining the optimal disassembly and recovery strategy, given the disassembly tree, the process-dependent quality distributions of assemblies, and the quality-dependent recovery options and associated profits for assemblies. This algorithm generalizes the one proposed by Krikke et al. (International Journal of Production Research 1998; 36(1):111-39) in two ways. First, there can be multiple disassembly processes. Second, partial disassembly is allowed. Both generalizations are important for practise. Keywords: Disassembly; Recovery; Profit maximization; Dynamic programming, 1. Introduction Disassembly is a systematic method for separating a product into its constituent modules, components, parts, etc. (all to be called assemblies from now on). Since assemblies usually have [...]

A production planning problem in which customers choose their suppliers based on an approved vendor matrix is analyzed.

A study on the impact of manufacturers' offer of price-cut to the retailers and the latter's management of inventory-related costs is discussed.

The impacts caused by the structure of relations among organizational populations on the differences in rates of foundings observed across geographic locales are discussed. The founding rate of instruments manufacturers are shown to rise with the densities of organizational populations having a strong relationship with instruments manufacturers.

ABSTRACT This article summarizes the most recent survey results in regard to forecasting practices and forecasting error of sales for Global Manufacturing Research Group (GMRG) participants. GMRG includes over 200 [...]

Empirical model of response of American manufacturing industries and plants to counter market trends pertaining to tariffs and transportation rates, to maintain labor productivity and create jobs is presented.

A new approach to value systems called value grid is proposed with reference to supplier-manufacturer relations in telecom, pharmaceutical, auto and steel industries.

A new panel data evaluating model RTFA (Recursive Thick Frontier Approach) is introduced for estimating production and cost functions in manufacturing industries.

A study examining the productive performance of four manufacturing sectors, of the Ivorian economy, using econometric production frontier models, is presented. These four sectors are, textiles and garments, metal products, food processing, and wood and furniture.

International systems (IOS) enable manufacturing firms to effectively manage different types of relationships with suppliers. Higher efficiencies and greater levels of external integration are obtained by firms which manufacturers standard products. Contrary to this, enhancing sourcing leverage over suppliers is obtained by firms enabled by IOS breadth and IOS initiation.

Ellison and Glaeser index, which is used to examine the reasons for geographical concentrations of the manufacturing industry in Belgium, is presented.

This paper empirically examines differences between the business environment scanning practices of low, moderate and high growth Australian manufacturing SMEs. It also considers the evolution of such scanning practices as firms grow. Utilising longitudinal data from 871 manufacturing SMEs collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics between 1994 and 1998, this study finds significant differences between the scanning practices of SMEs across the three growth paths identified by McMahon (2001) and provides support for much of the extant literature in this area. However, beyond confirming past research, an important finding is that the stage of managerial development of SMEs needs to be given greater consideration as a key contextual variable in the study of the business scanning practices of SMEs. In addition, as SMEs grow, not only do they evolve towards more formal systems of scanning, but they also evolve away from certain sources of information as a consequence of this., Introduction The business environment scanning practices of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has received little attention from researchers in Australia, despite the fact that such practices are considered critical to [...]

A study analyzing the factors contributing to the efficiency in manufacturing firms from least developed countries like Nepal is presented. For the purpose, stochastic methods and econometric models are used. The study examines the link between efficiency and exports, higher capital outlay, size of the firm, foreign participation, higher protection and intervention etc.