Optimal Acquisition of FMS Technology Subject to Technological Progress*

In order to gain competitive advantage, a firm must link its technology choice to its total manufacturing strategy and business unit's goals. A dynamic model is presented to examine the strategic decision concerning the acquisition of flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) technology. A major contribution of this model is its ability to capture the strategic benefits of FMS with respect to economies of scope and technological progress. Decisions such as the timing and size of new technology acquisition and the scrapping of conventional capacity are explored as a firm plans for the upgrading of its facility to meet future dynamic strategic goals. This model may be used to assist with strategic planning because it identifies the critical relationships and trade-offs between various exogenous forces (such as market growth or decay, the cost of acquiring flexible manufacturing systems, and the rate of technological progress) and the decision variables considered.     

经济增长和环境质量相容性政策条件——环境技术进步方向视角下的政策偏向效应检验

现有文献关注政策规制的经济与环境绩效,却并未重视不同类型政策的技术偏向,以及技术偏态情境中经济增长和环境质量相容发展的政策条件。本文扩展Acemoglu等(2012)的环境技术进步方向模型,数理演绎不同性质政策的技术偏向,以及技术进步方向转变时经济增长和环境质量的动态演化过程,再结合我国经济数据进行政策效果评价。研究结果发现:(1)环境技术进步方向是技术研发效率和环境政策累积作用的结果,环境政策会通过影响不同类型技术创新激励的方式,改变环境技术进步方向。(2)异质性政策转变技术进步方向,影响经济增长和环境质量,其作用存在不同的着力点和偏向性。其中,研发补贴政策的清洁技术偏向和产出激励效果明显,而规制类政策的环境质量效应优于研发补贴,但其对经济增长的作用表现出非线性U型特征。(3)单一政策干预往往难以破除经济增长和环境质量的两难困境,而政策组合的效果明显优于单一政策,特别是在碳排放权交易试点地区实施研发补贴政策,以及在碳排放权交易试点地区同时实行环境税与研发补贴,效果明显优于实施单一政策。但最优的政策组合并非固定不变,而往往处于动态变化过程中。     

Strategic management in major Japanese hightech companies

Since the early 1980s, there has been remarkable progress in advanced technology in Japan and in leading Western countries. What is the present situation in technological development in major Japanese industries and what are the implications for strategic management? The author describes how Japanese industries have harnessed new technologies and suggests a number of concepts which underly these trends. Given the imperatives of advanced technology, he emphasizes the importance of positioning the technology development strategy in the context of strategic management paying particular attention to developing an open organizational culture through a flexible corporate planning system.     

Deus ex machina? Career progress and the contingent benefits of knowledge management systems

Knowledge management (KM) systems are increasingly common in firms which promote self-managed careers and autonomy, such as professional service firms. Yet, whether or not KM systems provide real benefits is underexplored. Our focus is on the impact of KM use on the career progress of service professionals. We use recorded logs of employee KM system use and career progress data over a two-year period within a strategy consultancy to study the effect of KM use on career advancement speed. We present a contingency-based model to KM use effectiveness, showing that, although KM use generally boosts career progress speed, (a) benefits vary by seniority (more junior employees benefit more), (b) benefits vary by knowledge type (encyclopedic vs. social), with social knowledge use mattering more to career progress, and (c) those service professionals who tap a wider range of knowledge sources progress faster in their careers. We also find mediating effects, specifically that KM system use operates partly by accelerating the development of task-related skills. We draw the conclusion that KM systems contain neither a magical Deus ex machine for boosting employee performance and progress but nor do they warrant excessive skepticism, rather their impact on careers is contingent on employee needs.     

Implementing an RFID-based manufacturing process management system: Lessons learned and success factors

A growing number of organisations are using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to improve their manufacturing processes. A case study approach is used to explore the development of an RFID-based manufacturing process management system in a garment factory in China. The results indicate that both technology push and need pull factors influence the garment factory's intention to adopt RFID technology. The technology push factors include relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, extendibility and the cost of the technology, whereas the need pull factors include competitor and customer pressure. We identify eight factors for the successful implementation of an RFID-based manufacturing process management system, namely, vendor selection, organisational motivation, cost/benefit evaluation, top management support, user involvement, the extent of progress supervision, staff competence and training, and policy, structure and operating process compatibility. This in-depth case study details the organisation's experience and identifies the challenges it faces and important issues in the development and implementation of the system. Implications for academics and practitioners are discussed.     

The strategy for organized technology in the light of hard-, soft-, and org-ware interaction

The construction of ‘Orgware’ as a component of technological systems is discussed. The trends in technological changes from conventional organized technology towards advanced-systems-integrated organized technology are shown. Evidence of Hardware, Software and Orgware interactions and their role in future science-technological progress are demonstrated.     

Technology, progress and economic growth

Robert Ayres asks a number of questions relating to technology, progress and economic growth. How far is human welfare attributable to science and technological progress rather than to economic growth, or vice versa? Can technological progress negatively impact on economic growth and employment? What kind of technology is needed for a truly sustainable future?The answers are critically important for producers, managers and governments. Increasing welfare is due primarily to science and technology, and only secondarily to economic growth. Scientific and technological progress generated economic growth, not vice versa. In its present form, economic growth can hinder technological progress (through increasing returns to scale reducing the rate of innovation). But current technological progress can negatively impact economic growth, and especially in the field of information technology. The falling price of manufacturing goods will lower the economic growth rate.Sustainability is the number one question. We are experiencing decreasing resource quality, increasing demand, and environmental constraints. The industrial world must cut material consumption, change its structure of demand, and sharply increase its productivity of materials and energy.The author advocates a completely new economic strategy - ‘radical dematerialism’, in which there is a massive reverse substitution of human labor for fossil energy and physical substances extracted from the environment. The sustainability of economies of the future will be based almost entirely on services - leasing will become the norm for products - and firms must learn to sell services, not products.     

The future of computers in financial institutions

An examination of the development of computer usage in financial institutions reveals two reasons for this use. First, the pressure of growth e.g. cheque clearing, where irrespective of cost justification, business volumes were growing at such a rate that it would have been impossible to exist without automation. Secondly, those uses which were cost justified, usually in saving labour but which were constrained in their implementation by the answers to the justification equation e.g. centralized accounting systems in banks and building societies. Only so much was implemented because the technology was relatively expensive. More recently, however, technology has advanced in power, complexity and price-performance terms to the point where the user is no longer constrained either by the capability of the system to carry out the task, or by the expense of the system in relation to the cost of the job as currently performed.     

基于改进策略的混合型制造/再制造系统分析

在制造和再制造并存的混合型系统中,制造商需要同时协调新产品生产过程和旧产品再制造过程,这种双向物流的集成运作使得传统的生产规划和库存管理方式不再适用,如何构建一种有效的控制策略来协调生产过程和再制造过程就显得十分关键。本文在优化库存信息的基础上提出了一种适用于混合系统的改进策略,同时考虑到系统复杂性,主要采用控制理论中的传递函数技术构建了系统模型。仿真结果表明,本文提出的改进策略不仅可以有效协调新产品生产过程和旧产品再制造过程,而且还可以显著改善系统性能。     

B2C电子商务模式下多渠道分销系统研究综述

随着网络技术及电子商务的迅速发展,众多企业在保持传统零售渠道的同时,开辟电子市场直接向终端消费者出售产品。B2C电子商务模式下多渠道分销系统问题的研究近几年引起企业界和学术界的重视。本文针对近几年B2C电子商务模式下多渠道分销系统的研究成果进行了跟踪,主要从多渠道结构安排和定价、多渠道冲突与协调、多渠道运作管理等问题对国内外研究现状进行了综述,最后提出了该领域未来的研究方向。     

Expert knowledge,expert systems and commercial interests

Experience to date in building expert systems has brought a general realization of the complexity of the effort required for producing systems capable of operating on ‘real-world’ problems. The most successful knowledge-based/expert systems built to date, e.g. DENDRAL, MYCIN, PROSPECTOR and R1 have demonstrated that a considerable investment in time and dedication on the part of systems designers and experts is required to create a fully operational system. The great majority of development projects attempting to harness this new programming technology do not extend beyond creation of a prototype system largely due to lack of necessary resources, i.e. time, money and know-how. The purpose of this paper is to discuss some of the more important issues associated with development of expert systems and to provide an overview of the commercial and industrial efforts of putting expert systems to work. This paper should be of interest to those who have gained their knowledge of expert systems from the reading of non-specialist publications and thus may have been exposed to somewhat over enthusiastic accounts of the subject.     

混合分销渠道结构下短生命周期产品供应链库存策略分析

随着竞争的加剧,产品生命周期日渐缩短。信息和网络技术的不断进步,使得网络作为一种特殊的分销渠道出现。传统分销渠道和网上直销渠道并存的混合分销渠道结构给理论研究和管理实践提出了新的挑战,本文针对混合分销渠道结构下短生命周期产品供应链,运用报童问题的框架,分析了两种不同运作模式下生产商和零售商库存策略,并通过数值实验研究了需求不确定性对生产商和零售商最优库存策略的影响。最后,根据数值实验的计算结果,总结了本研究的管理启示。     

Layered supervisory control architecture for reconfigurable automation

The development of control systems and supporting software remains one of the greatest obstacles to the widespread implementation of highly adaptive reconfigurable automation technology. This paper will present the structure of a modular automation control system designed to support rapid reconfiguration and redeployment of automation components. The paper will first present the concept of a layered system architecture and the use of modular automation components to support the construction of a wide variety of automated systems. This layered system architecture is then applied to the proposed modular supervisory control system responsible for configuring and driving automated production resources. Each of the control components comprising this modular control system will be presented.     

The Taiwan system of innovation in the tool machine industry: a case study

Recent evidence suggests that the Taiwan’s machine tool industry as a whole is prominent in the world, ranking sixth in output and fifth in exports. This paper explores the current status and features of Taiwan’s national systems of innovation (NSI) for its machine tool industry. It is suggested that five major elements of the NSI explain the extensive diffusion of new technologies in the industry, namely: industry clusters, educational system, bridging institutions, government policy, and global business environment. Further, the structural and institutional problems of the innovation system are identified. Future directions of technology development are also discussed.     

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.     

Measuring progress and evolution in science and technology – I: The multiple uses of bibliometric indicators

Science and technology development have become critical instruments in the public policy arena given their demonstrated impact on economic progress. As a consequence, a vast array of indicators for measuring and mapping scientific and technological activity, their progress and their outcomes, has been developed over recent decades (see for instance, the EU Commission, 2nd Report on S&T Indicators 1997). The majority of them relate to measuring and mapping the published journal and patent literature. The first part of this review paper focuses on a state–of–the–art overview of bibliometric indicators and their multiple uses in supporting the development of science and technology policy. The limitations and the pitfalls related to their use are also discussed.     

我国可耗竭能源资源最优开采模型研究

可耗竭能源资源是我国经济社会可持续发展和国家安全的重要保障。综合考虑资源储量、技术进步、资源价格、开发成本、市场结构、政策等不确定性因素,以最终产品生产部门和资源供给部门收益最大化以及消费者效用最大化为目标,构建了考虑各部门同时最优的一体化模型,求解出稳态下可耗竭和可再生能源资源价格和产量的增长率,进行了数值模拟和敏感性分析。结果表明：技术进步是影响可耗竭和可再生能源资源价格和产量增长率变化的关键因素;最终产品生产部门规模报酬和跨期替代弹性影响可耗竭和可再生能源资源产量增长率;最终产品生产部门规模报酬不变,则可耗竭和可再生能源资源产量均无增长。据此,提出政策建议为：规范我国可耗竭能源资源价格和开采路径,应突破可耗竭能源资源勘探和开采技术;为实现节能目标,应提高我国最终产品生产部门的规模报酬;未来一段时间内,可耗竭能源资源价格会继续下跌,政府应提前做好战略部署,合理配置能源资源,推进企业转型升级速度。     

政府电子服务使用意向决定因素实证研究——以企业网上纳税系统为例

公众对政府电子服务的低接受率成为了制约电子政务发展的瓶颈.政府电子服务使用意向决定因素的研究对于实践中如何解除这个瓶颈具有重要的理论指导意义.本文以企业网上纳税系统为例.基于技术接受度模型和潮流压力等理论,探讨了政府电子服务使用意向的决定因素.基于浙江省93家企业的问卷调查数据的实证研究表明:感知价值、社会影响、企业对政府的信任是企业网上纳税系统使用意向的主要决定因素;而感知易用性、管理就绪度、企业对网络安全的信任和外部压力对使用意向没有影响.     

Client/Server System Success: Exploring the Human Side

Client/server systems (CSS) are emerging as the new paradigm for systems development, replacing or integrating legacy applications with systems that provide higher quality user interfaces on the client component and substantial user-transparent data processing capability on one or more servers. Due to the dramatically different CSS development approach and the CSS emphasis on user friendliness, research findings based on non-CSS should be retested in the CSS context. Using a relatively well-established theoretical foundation, this study focuses on the human aspects of CSS implementation. Specifically, four major factors important to success with this emerging technology are studied: the degree of end-user involvement in the CSS development process, end-user characteristics, developer skills, and management support for the CSS project. The measures of CSS success are end-user satisfaction with the CSS, system usage, and its impact on end-users' jobs. The results indicate that the four independent variables explain a significant percentage of the variance in the dependent variables. Based on the results, recommendations are made for the management of CSS implementation and for further research on this important emerging technology.     

Measuring progress and evolution in science and technology – II: The multiple uses of technometric indicators

Science and technology development have become critical instruments in the public policy arena given their demonstrated impact on economic progress. As a consequence, a wide array of indicators for measuring and mapping scientific and technological activity, their progress and their outcomes, has been developed over recent decades (see for instance, European Commission, 2nd Report on S&T Indicators, 1997). The majority of these indicators relate to measuring and mapping the published journal and patent literature. In the second part of this review, we focus on a state-of-the-art overview of patent indicators and their multiple uses in supporting the development of science and technology policy. We also discuss the limitations and the pitfalls related to their use.