Reference model for implementing an MRP system in a highly diverse component and seasonal lean production environment

Companies are currently choosing to integrate logics and systems to achieve better solutions. These combinations also include companies striving to join the logic of material requirement planning (MRP) system with the systems of lean production. The purpose of this article was to design an MRP as part of the implementation of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) in a company that produces agricultural implements, which has used the lean production system since 1998. This proposal is based on the innovation theory, theory networks, lean production systems, ERP systems and the hybrid production systems, which use both components and MRP systems, as concepts of lean production systems. The analytical approach of innovation networks enables verification of the links and relationships among the companies and departments of the same corporation. The analysis begins with the MRP implementation project carried out in a Brazilian metallurgical company and follows through the operationalisation of the MRP project, until its production stabilisation. The main point is that the MRP system should help the company's operations with regard to its effective agility to respond in time to demand fluctuations, facilitating the creation process and controlling the branch offices in other countries that use components produced in the matrix, hence ensuring more accurate estimates of stockpiles. Consequently, it presents the enterprise knowledge development organisational modelling methodology in order to represent further models (goals, actors and resources, business rules, business process and concepts) that should be included in this MRP implementation process for the new configuration of the production system.     

Strategic change and organisational restructuring: How managers negotiate change initiatives

This study examines the organizational changes and varied response amongst managers to those changes in seven subsidiaries of multinational apparel firms. Because of intensified competition from low wage economies, such firms have been forced to restructure production processes to heighten both their productive efficiency and attain greater flexibility at the plant level. Much of this change has involved the introduction of high performance work practices (HPWP), a central focus of much recent scholarship on post-Fordism. Drawing from several qualitative strategies, this paper focuses on the role of managers as agents of strategy implementation and discusses how they negotiate, accept or resist such changes. We describe the failure to implement HPWP as some firms seek efficiency gains from work restructuring rather than broader effectiveness goals that would have deepened employee participation. In doing so we theorise about structural impediments to organisational innovation, the operational constraints that render some managers change recipients rather than change agents, and what this might tell us about micro-political strategies within large organisations as key actors negotiate a new organisational reality.     

Knowledge retention in ERP implementations: the context of UK SMEs

Abstract

Knowledge retention (k-retention) is vital for various enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementations in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), though it is a highly demanding and challenging task. The aim of this paper is to investigate different types of approaches to k-retention and factors influencing k-retention in SMEs. Our study adopts a grounded theory approach with cases based on 12 ERP implementations in UK SMEs. We analyze our data using thematic analysis. The findings reveal specific elements that support the k-retention of ERP package knowledge and business process knowledge. These elements are: k-retention tools, documentation, human capital and the understanding of k-retention challenges. In addition to insights from these aspects, our study reveals two additional factors (project management and organizational culture) that influence ERP package k-retention and business process k-retention. Based on these findings, we develop an ERP k-retention (EKR) framework that can be utilized by SMEs which are considering implementing ERP systems, to facilitate knowledge retention during implementation.     

面向电子商务的企业资源计划:进化与实施

在电子商务时代,ERP面临着应用环境的变革和挑战,如何认识并应对这些挑战以使ERP与企业电子商务有机融合是目前首要的问题。本文认为在电子商务时代,企业所面临的竞争规则、商务模式、管理重心都已发生了重要变化,ERP必须满足基于虚拟集成的合作性价值创造管理、基于事前、事中、事后的商业智能管理、基于SCM、CRM和KM为核心的集约管理以及灵活的体系结构以适应变化的要求和挑战,为此,ERP必须提供集成供应链资源和能力的管理、个性化客户信息服务、知识管理、实时的业务在线分析处理、多层次的实时决策支持的功能。同时认为,改进战略规划、变革管理模式、优化组织结构、重组业务流程、加强知识和人力资源管理几个方面是成功实施ERP,支持电子商务的关键。     

An integrated approach to evaluation and planning of best practices

This paper develops a new integrated evaluation and planning approach for implementing a given set of best practices in a prioritized and phased manner. The best practices are implemented for achieving lower-level business unit objectives and higher-level strategic goals of an organization. With a multiattribute decision making algorithm under the balanced scorecard (BSC) framework, a new evaluation model is developed to effectively measure the relationship between lower-level objectives and higher-level goals, and to give each best practice a relative priority value. A new adjustment method is also developed to address potential biases in the self-assessment process at the business unit level. The evaluation model enables the prioritization and implementation planning of best practices in terms of their importance and achievability from the viewpoints of the organization, four BSC strategic perspectives, individual business units, and the overall implementation planning zone. An empirical study is conducted to demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of the integrated evaluation and planning approach.     

A real option theoretic fuzzy evaluation model for enterprise resource planning investment

The high failure rate of ERP implementation is due to a common pitfall that ERP projects are often enacted as merely investment into installation of IT infrastructure, rather than systematic planning of operation changes, business process re-engineering and a paradigm shift for the operation and management. To manage ERP investment in a changing environment for high payoff, this paper adopts a real option theoretic method. Fuzzy payoff valuation is introduced to deal with uncertainties in order to minimize the risk of failure. The proposed ERP evaluation model is geared towards small and medium enterprises. A case study is presented to validate the proposed fuzzy real options. The results indicate the potential of modeling ERP investment as “Expand”, “Contain” and “Abandon” options in different scenarios. The fuzzy real option model bestows a novel ex-ante cost analysis for justifying ERP investment in the implementation cycle.     

Diffusion in the Face of Failure: The Evolution of a Management Innovation

Recent work has questioned the institutional model of management innovation by highlighting interactions between the field‐level actors engaged in diffusing innovations and implementation of the innovation at organization level. Focusing on the adaptation of management innovations to their context, rather than their creation, we review this work and use it to analyse the global diffusion of resource planning (RP), counter posing this case with the widely studied example of total quality management. Both of these innovations experienced a high level of failure when implemented by organizations. Total quality management's diffusion was characterized by a ‘boom and bust’ cycle. RP, however, has continued to spread globally in the form of its variants: MRP, MRPII and ERP. Our analysis seeks to account for the long‐run diffusion of RP through a processual model which highlights the interplay between RP's discursive framing at field level, the affordances of the innovation itself and its adaptation within organizations. This demonstrates how objectifying RP in software not only helped to spread the innovation but also allowed field‐level actors to differentiate its development as a successful innovation from the many failures experienced by organizations attempting to adapt it.     

Business model in IPO prospectuses: insights from Italian Innovation Companies

How do companies to be listed deal with the voluntary disclosure of their business model? Is it true that firms with greater intellectual capital resources and technological innovation endowments are less prone to full disclosure? This paper aims to examine the choices of voluntary disclosure of the business model made by three Italian manufacturing companies in initial public offering prospectuses. The objective is to explore whether any differences exist and may be related to the type of innovation underlying the firms’ business model. A series of interviews with the top management allows to deeply understand the business model of each company. A content analysis allows to measure the level of disclosure and identify the strategic concepts of the business model and their relevance. The study provides evidence that companies with a business model based on technology-push and design-driven innovation have a lower propensity to the full disclosure of their intangible resources, particularly of those based on knowledge as some could be also invisible. The paper contributes to the ongoing debate on the role of business and financial reporting.     

Transnational Diaspora and Civil Society Actors Driving MNE Internationalisation: The Case of Grameenphone in Bangladesh

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) are viewed as proactive global economic actors that enter new and emerging markets with intentional strategies, building on their inherent resources and firm-specific advantages. However, an international joint venture involves numerous actors in the market entry process. While emerging markets tend to feature complex institutional contexts and idiographic entry challenges, our study with a focus on emerging market presents two under-examined types of stakeholders as distinct social actors' that affect internationalisation process: the transnational diaspora and civil society actors. It provides evidence of the reactive internationalisation of an MNE, showing how the transnational diaspora drove the MNE's internationalisation and how a civil society actor, in conjunction with a diaspora member, facilitated the creation of an international joint venture (IJV) in Bangladesh. This case study analyses and describes the stages of development, documenting how Norwegian Telenor, American Gonophone, Japanese Marubeni and Bangladeshi Grameen Bank created an IJV named Grameenphone in Bangladesh, and how diaspora and civil society actors made up the prime movers and organisational capability base for this process, which would not have happened without their market-driving and enabling influence. The findings illustrate the central role of transnational diaspora entrepreneurship and the related innovation, motivation, contextual intelligence, networking and funding that supported this emerging-market IJV development. The study contributes to research on international joint ventures, transnational diaspora entrepreneurship and civil society actors and the internationalisation of MNEs.     

整合能力与企业绩效：商业模式创新的中介作用

经济全球化的背景下,企业为了构建竞争优势,获取更好的绩效,开始利用整合能力和商业模式创新应对多变的外部环境。然而,当前研究对于两者之间存在何种联系的认识是模糊的。针对理论研究的缺陷,基于动态能力的理论视角,通过分析商业模式创新对整合能力与企业绩效的中介作用,揭示企业整合能力和商业模式创新促进企业绩效提高的内在机制,采用中国6省1市319个企业样本数据,运用线性回归的统计方法对理论假设进行实证检验。研究结果表明,整合能力和商业模式创新都对企业绩效具有正向的促进作用,同时整合能力与企业绩效之间存在着一定的中间机制。整合能力通过提高组织变革和价值创造效率两个方面促进商业模式创新,而商业模式创新作为中间纽带将整合能力与企业绩效联系起来。企业的整合能力越高,越有利于开展商业模式创新,进而促进企业绩效的提高。研究揭示了整合能力和商业模式创新共同促进企业绩效提高的内在理论机制,打开了能力与绩效间关系的“黑箱”,对于中国企业开展商业模式创新具有重要的实践指导意义。     

A standard-based business repository for on-demand manufacturing execution systems

In manufacturing execution system (MES) projects, knowledge is heterogeneous and is applied partially in each software package. Consistency is therefore critical. Some standard business reference models exist, such as the IEC/ISO 62264 standard for MESs (also known as ISA S95), or the Supply Chain Operations Reference model for supply chain planning (SCP) and execution (SCE). These reference models have some overlaps. For example, traceability is part of both MES and SCE packages. A consortium of manufacturing software editors for industry has launched an ‘MES on demand’ platform using services from different packages. This paper presents the enriched business repository model built to facilitate business heterogeneity. It is used to align different business repositories (B–B alignment) and different business and software packages (B–S alignment). It likewise serves to align customer requirements with the repository (B–C alignment). The consortium platform is then ‘S95 compliant’ when knowledge supported by the different actors is included.     

The impact of organisational politics and trust in the top management team on strategic decision implementation success: A middle-manager's perspective

The implementation of strategic decisions is a complex and demanding process that requires an open and lateral communication of free-flowing information to make sense of and champion a firm's intended changes. For the process to be effective, middle managers need to operate within an environment that nurtures a pro-social mindset and helps to cope with stressors caused by the possibility of harm done by the intended changes to their vested interests. Drawing from the job demands-resources model, we argue that organisational politics represent an organisational demand, which may hinder the implementation of strategic decisions. To cope with this demand, implementers recruit organisational resources (i.e. trust in the top management team) that may moderate the negative effects of dysfunctional politics. To test our hypotheses, we drew on a sample of 228 middle managers from 114 private Greek firms with more than 100 employees across various industries. We found that when organisational politics were high during the implementation process, implementation success diminished. However, their negative impact was reduced when trust in the top management team was high. Conversely, when organisational politics were low, middle managers reported a higher implementation success regardless of how highly the top management team was trusted. Our study is the first to test the influence of organisational politics on the success of the implementation process from a middle manager's perspective. In addition, we show that implementation success can be viewed through a demands-resources lens, which provides a meaningful contribution to research on strategy implementation.     

数字货币时代的商业模式讨论--基于双案例的比较研究

本文运用对比案例分析法,选取Steemit论坛和知乎论坛作为分析对象,探究了使用数字货币与否对同一行业组织的商业模式及其创新有什么影响。本文以商业模式画布为蓝本,通过对比数字货币背景下商业模式在价值主张、价值创造、价值传递、价值网络和价值实现五个方面的差异,探究数字货币时代下商业模式的创新影响,以及商业模式不同价值元素间新的构成秩序。本研究分析了选取案例商业模式中的不同对应元素,并给出了以下三个针对数字货币和商业模式的新命题:第一,数字货币在价值创造过程中联结利益主体;第二,数字货币起到了模糊价值网络边界的作用,从而促进构成新的治理模式;第三,使用数字货币可以在价值实现过程中完成利润重新分配。最后,文章认为数字货币情景下商业模式中不同价值元素的交互关系,呈现出以客户关系为核心的共同价值创造和共同价值实现的新秩序。     

Resilience of organisations and territories: The role of pivot firms

How can organisations and territories contribute to maintain a high level of innovation while at the same time adapting to a turbulent environment? We give an answer to this question by mobilizing the concept of resilience. In order to do this, we develop a conception of resilience based on two dimensions. First, an organisational dimension which refers to the capacity of an organisation to manage a disturbance to its environment and to develop a new pathway and, a territorial dimension which refers to the collective capacity of the actors to contribute to facilitate the development of territorial responses to external disturbances. We illustrate this double dimension of resilience by focusing on the role of pivot firm as major actor in a territory.     

Key success factors when implementing a green-manufacturing system

This study proposes a three-layer assessment model to evaluate the performance of a green-manufacturing system (GMS) and identify the key success factors of its real-world implementation. The top layer of the model includes three dimensions – green design, green-manufacturing process and green packaging. The second and third layers include ten strategic subjects and 74 assessment factors, respectively. The weights in each layer are collected via a questionnaire and calculated using the analytical network process (ANP). Based on the ANP, the five key success factors for implementing the GMS in a company are proportion of non-toxic materials, compliance with eco-ordinances, proportion of biodegradable materials, environmental pollution per product and extent of process pollution. The practicality of the proposed model is demonstrated by evaluating three companies that produce similar products and share similar business models. The proposed model provides a valuable reference for real-world implementation of the GMS.     

Green supply chain performance measurement using fuzzy ANP-based balanced scorecard: a collaborative decision-making approach

The purpose of this paper is to delineate a green supply chain (GSC) performance measurement framework using an intra-organisational collaborative decision-making (CDM) approach. A fuzzy analytic network process (ANP)-based green-balanced scorecard (GrBSc) has been used within the CDM approach to assist in arriving at a consistent, accurate and timely data flow across all cross-functional areas of a business. A green causal relationship is established and linked to the fuzzy ANP approach. The causal relationship involves organisational commitment, eco-design, GSC process, social performance and sustainable performance constructs. Sub-constructs and sub-sub-constructs are also identified and linked to the causal relationship to form a network. The fuzzy ANP approach suitably handles the vagueness of the linguistics information of the CDM approach. The CDM approach is implemented in a UK-based carpet-manufacturing firm. The performance measurement approach, in addition to the traditional financial performance and accounting measures, aids in firm’s decision-making with regard to the overall organisational goals. The implemented approach assists the firm in identifying further requirements of the collaborative data across the supply-cain and information about customers and markets. Overall, the CDM-based GrBSc approach assists managers in deciding if the suppliers’ performances meet the industry and environment standards with effective human resource.     

家族企业接班人的胜任—绩效建模——基于越商代际传承的实证分析

接班人的选择与培养对于家族企业的生存发展至关重要。本文通过文献回顾、深度访谈和问卷调查方式,采用探索性和验证性因子分析方法构建了家族企业接班人的胜任—绩效模型。结果显示,模型具有较好的拟合度,家族企业接班人胜任能力包括社会网络、政府关系、发现机会、承担风险、资源整合、战略决策、学习创新和科学管理八个因子,其中,前四个因子和后四个因子可以分别归属于管理素质和管理技能两个一级因子;家族企业的继承绩效包括客观绩效和主观绩效两个因子,其中,客观绩效包括人才结构、产品技术、品牌形象、市场份额、利润增长和企业规模六个二级因子,而主观绩效主要包括家族满意和员工满意两个二级因子;社会网络、学习创新、政府关系、资源整合等因子对于家族企业的继承绩效具有更显著的相关性关系,而社会网络和政府关系对于企业继承的影响颇具中国特色。     

Determinants of innovativeness in SMEs: disentangling core innovation and technology adoption capabilities

This paper studies innovativeness in SMEs from a set of innovation indicators at the firm level, capturing various types of innovation (product, process, organisational, and marketing innovations) and the level of innovativeness in these firm’s developments. The article identifies two separate dimensions in the innovativeness of Spanish SMEs, using factor analysis techniques. One dimension is associated with the capabilities for core/internal innovation and the other with the capabilities for the adoption of technology. The paper shows that significant differences exist in the personal and organisational factors that favour these two dimensions. The entrepreneur’s motivation, business planning, and cooperation in R&D activities constitute significant factors when considering the core dimension of a firechnology adoption. However, the use of external consultancy services seems to have no significant effect on the core dimension of the innovativeness of an SME, whereas it is a relevant factor for its technology adoption. Furthermore, it is shown that the entrepreneur’s education plays a more significant role in the core dimension of a firm’s innovativeness than in its capabilities for technology adoption. Depending on the policy objectives, these differences should lead to the application of specific policy approaches when an attempt to stimulate innovation in SMEs is made.     

Integration of the information systems in the production process: a case study

This paper evaluates the execution of an ERP – enterprise resource planning in a production process. The changes that were made to processes to make them compatible with ERP modules and adaptations that were required by the ERP implementation are presented. The presented study is different from the normal patterns of a vertical implementation, since its application is not direct. In order to use the standard modules of the ERP system, the internal processes were embellished and the data collection steps were integrated into the production process (production orders, inventory, production, daily consumption, daily output). The case study shows that the ERP implementation caused an improvement of the processes in the areas adjacent to production (purchasing, logistics, distribution, supply and sales). In conclusion, this paper presents the main advantages and disadvantages of the ERP system implementation, as well as some considerations and recommendations for the future ERP implementations.