Intermediate Performance Impacts of Advanced Manufacturing Technology Systems: An Empirical Investigation*

A large-scale random sample is used to empirically examine the relationships between implementation of Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT) and three organization-level measures that have historically been attributed to AMT, but not fully tested along the AMT spectrum: market-oriented flexibility of the production process, organizational integration of production processes, and administrative intensity of the organization. Results indicate that as an organization moves along the technology scale from stand-alone AMT (e.g., CNC machines) through functionally oriented AMT (FMS and CAM) toward CIM, not only do its production processes become more integrated with each other, but those processes become more integrated with other functional systems of the organization, and the quality and timeliness of production information increase. Furthermore, this relationship becomes stronger as companies increase their level of implementation for the latter two technologies. Conversely, market-oriented flexibility decreases and administrative intensity is not observed to change as companies move along the technology spectrum. Future research should examine how organizational redesign and implementation strategies that accompany AMT implementation can concomitantly enhance organizational integration of the production process and market-oriented flexibility.     

The diffusion of advanced manufacturing technology in multiplant,multidivisional corporations

This study examines several factors which act as significant predictors of successful intra-firm advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) diffusion. Our findings suggest that the following factors positively impact the diffusion process: previously successful AMT implementations, advanced manufacturing centers, AMT workshops, informal networks, simultaneous R&D of products and processes, and the significance of the impact of AMT on operating performance. One factor—cost and time overruns with previous implementation projects—emerged as a deterrent to successful AMT diffusion. Our results also indicate that the use of an outside consultant as a major source of transfer expertise significantly contributes to AMT diffusion success.     

Improving supply chain responsiveness through Advanced Manufacturing Technology: the mediating role of internal and external integration

Abstract

Responsiveness is one of the key performance factors that firms need to face up to the challenges posed by today’s markets. Many manufacturing firms are investing in advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) with a view to improving competitiveness. However, empirical evidence shows that investments in AMT alone do not lead to improvements in performance. In this study, a model that links AMT implementation and responsiveness through internal integration and external integration is proposed. A sample of 441 Spanish industrial companies was used to test the model through structural equation modelling. The findings highlight that internal integration needs to be supplemented with external integration in order to ensure that the implementation of AMT will result in improved responsiveness. Supply chain managers should focus on integration within the supply chain – firstly internal and later external – to obtain returns on investments in AMT in the form of improved flexibility and more reliable and faster deliveries.     

Information Systems Adaptation and the Successful Implementation of Advanced Manufacturing Technologies*

Few plants have initial success with advanced manufacturing technologies (AMTs), and adaptations are commonly required after installing new technologies. We especially know little about the outcomes of adaptations that manufacturers regularly employ in the context of AMTs. Sociotechnical theory and the technology literature suggest that AMTs commonly require four types of adaptations including those to process technologies, human resources, operational structures, and information systems. This study investigates which of these four adaptations and their interactions lead to improved operational performance. Data were collected on 104 plants that implemented a single type of manufacturing AMT. Findings indicate that information systems (IS) adaptation during the course of AMT implementation was the most important action. Surprisingly, human resource and process technology adaptations were linked to lower performance, and no interactions had any clear effects. The results also show that practitioners underestimated the relevance of IS adaptations during contemporary or “second-generation” AMT implementation projects and overemphasized the need for shop floor changes.     

组织学习与技术转移绩效的关系研究

选择珠江三角洲地区157家制造型企业为研究对象,构建结构方程模型,深入探讨技术授收双方互动和知识创新分别对组织学习与技术转移绩效关系的调节与中介作用。结果显示:组织学习对技术转移绩效具有显著的正向影响;技术授收双方的互动在组织学习对技术转移绩效的影响中起调节作用;知识创新在组织学习对技术转移绩效的影响中起部分中介作用。这些结论有助于理解组织学习影响技术转移绩效的机理,使组织学习理论能够更好地指导技术转移实践。     

Technological distinctive competencies and organizational learning: Effects on organizational innovation to improve firm performance

This paper analyzes how top management support of technology influences the generation of technological skills, technological distinctive competencies and organizational learning. The research also examines the effects of technological distinctive competencies and organizational learning on organizational innovation and reflects how all of these variables impact organizational performance. The results of our empirical analysis, based on a sample of 201 Spanish technological firms, suggest that: (1) top management support positively influences the generation of technological skills, technological distinctive competencies and organizational learning; (2) technological distinctive competencies and organizational learning positively affect organizational performance, directly and indirectly through organizational innovation.     

组织学习模式转变与后发企业技术能力提升研究——以永光集团为例

通过对永光集团的案例研究,回答了在不断变化的技术和市场环境下,后发企业如何根据不同发展阶段的战略目标和技术基础选择组织学习的主导模式,以促进技术能力提升这一问题。分析表明,组织学习是一个不断深化的动态过程。组织学习模式的选择与技术基础有着很强的内在联系,后发企业技术能力发展水平、技术基础和发展战略目标影响组织学习主导模式的选择,而组织学习的主导模式又从知识积累和知识应用2个方面影响后发企业技术能力的形成。     

基于学习曲线的ERP实施培训时间决策模型

通过分析ERP项目的特点,将学习曲线引入到ERP实施的研究中,基于学习曲线理论刻画企业的工作效率随项目时间变化的规律.在此基础上,将ERP项目抽象为前期的培训和后期的具体实施两个阶段,以项目实施周期和咨询成本最小为目标,建立ERP实施培训时间决策模型,通过培训时间控制并预测ERP项目的整体周期,进一步利用遗传算法对模型进行优化求解.为区分信息化基础不同的企业在项目初期工作效率的差异,在模型中加入初始工作效率这一变量,通过企业的信息化基础水平间接地测算企业的初始工作效率;结合行为导向的实证研究结果,在模型中限定培训时间的取值范围,解决多个近似解之间的取舍问题.案例研究表明,模型在实际应用中可以起到较好的优化和预测效果,能够为企业制定ERP项目计划和投资预算提供决策支持.     

Perception of learning culture and concerns about the innovation on its use: a question of level of analysis.

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between organizational members' perception of learning culture and the concerns about the innovation, and the influence of these factors on the use of one innovation (ISO 9000) in the Malaysian public sector. This study was guided by the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) (Hall and Hord 1987) and the dimensions of the learning organization (Watkins and Marsick 1993, 1996b). The study involved 628 people from eleven government agencies that had been using the new system for at least a year. The study provided a model for operationalizing the assertions and theories of both organizational development and learning organization scholars especially that a more adaptive learning-oriented culture would facilitate the implementation of change. The examination of learning culture facilitated the understanding of how members within the organization perceived their learning culture, and subsequently its relationship to their use of the innovation. The analysis of concerns illustrated the fit between the innovation and feelings and perceptions of the individual members about the innovation. On an individual organizational basis, the regression analyses showed that the model was able to explain the variance in use of innovation in each organization. However, a comparison of regression weights across the organizations told a very different story. The results showed that the combination of variables that explained the use of innovation varied radically from organization to organization. The findings raised questions about appropriate levels of analyses for such studies. The study suggests that theories that try to explain organizational innovation implementation be tested across organizations and take into account organizational context. Otherwise, they could lead to inaccurate conclusions.     

Productive organizational energy mediates the impact of organizational structure on absorptive capacity

The ability of an organization to cope with radical technological change is regarded to be heavily dependent on its ability to absorb and apply knowledge from its environment. This study investigates the role of organizational structure in driving absorptive capacity and uncovers the role of the emergent phenomenon of organizational energy as the enabler of this relationship. A field study was conducted among firms that are challenged by the disruptive nature of Cloud computing. Our results show that organizational design affects the degree of mobilization of an organization's affective, cognitive and behavioral resources, which in turn influence the effectiveness of learning processes related to the absorption and exchange of knowledge within the organization. Furthermore, they reveal the positive relationship between the enactment of absorptive capacity and the successful adoption of Cloud technology for incumbent firms. The findings contribute to our understanding of the micro-foundations of absorptive capacity and how positive organizational phenomena facilitate effective adoption and implementation of emerging technologies.     

组织学习、技术合作与跨国公司在华突破性创新

考察了组织学习和技术合作对跨国公司在华突破性创新的驱动机制,基于165家在华跨国公司中高层管理者填写的调查问卷,采用因子分析、路径分析和结构方程模型对研究假设进行检验。结果表明,组织学习同时促进了跨国公司在华的突破性产品创新和过程创新;技术合作则对创新绩效产生了负向影响;过程创新对产品创新具有正向驱动效应。     

A Step in the Right Direction? Investors in People and the Learning Organization

Investors in People (IiP), the state‐sponsored workplace training initiative, has been interpreted as a tool which managers can apply towards developing a learning organization. In this paper we seek to evaluate the validity of this claim on the basis of a qualitative study of six case‐study organizations which explores the social and micro‐political aspects of IiP from the viewpoints of senior managers, personnel and line managers and employees involved with the standard. We suggest that implementation of IiP involves negotiating a central paradox – the tension between the hard, content‐focused nature of the IiP framework and the softer, process‐focused nature of much workplace learning. In particular, the administrative aspects of implementation associated with the standard can obscure the social processes of sense‐making and collective negotiation of meaning, which are integral aspects of organizational learning. This can lead to an objectification of learning and may not allow for the participatory negotiation of meaning crucial to forming a community of practice. IiP continues to form a central part of the British government’s workplace learning agenda and it is now also being developed as an international standard. We conclude, however, that this institutionalization of practice has the potential to inhibit organizational learning.     

An empirical investigation of advanced manufacturing technology investment patterns: Evidence from a developing country

Advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) investment patterns in developing countries is in need of further investigation, particularly in the light of the conflicting evidence from the literature. This paper provides new evidence on AMT investment patterns from the Turkish automotive industry and develops a taxonomy by exploring the relationships between AMT investment patterns, ownership structure, firm size and performance. Analysis of industry survey data suggests the existence of three groups with different AMT investment strategies. Results suggest that AMT investment patterns are not only significantly correlated with firm performance or ownership, but also reveals significant differences in manufacturing performance across investment patterns.     

Strategic adoption of a flexible manufacturing system: Case study of an Indian electronics enterprise

In recent years, strategic considerations relating to manufacturing management in the electronics industry have undergone transformation at a very rapid rate. They are being driven by pluralistic customer demands and influenced by technological innovations and competitive interventions. This paper reports on the strategic adoption and implementation of advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) in an Indian electronics enterprise which has collaborative alliance with a multinational corporation (MNC) in the USA. A hybrid model has been formulated using the nominal group technique (NGT) and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to evaluate various alternative AMTs.     

基于知识管理的敏捷组织学习二维度模型框架

如何在知识管理先进思想的基础上,充分利用信息技术来促进组织学习,是当前企业管 理的主要研究问题之一. 在剖析了两个具有代表性的组织学习模型基础上,提出了一种基于知 识管理的敏捷组织学习二维度模型框架. 在该模型框架中,充分考虑了组织学习的核心内容, 并围绕学习主体和学习工具的互动关系,对组织学习过程进行了构建. 文章不仅详细给出了该 模型框架的建立过程以及实施要素、原则和方法,而且通过一个案例具体说明了该模型框架在 企业项目建设中的实际意义和应用价值.     

The impact of emotion on organizational learning

This paper addresses an aspect of organizational learning that has not been extensively developed - the impact of emotion on organizational learning. The study of emotion in organizations is seen as an important part of the development of organizational learning. The paper argues that attention to the emotional dynamics of organizing, and to the links between emotion and organizational politics, will increase the possibilities for understanding organizational learning. Awareness of the impact of emotion on organizational learning can be developed through an investigation of two areas. First, organizational learning is more than a product of organizational responses to individual learning. Emotion contributes to a broader understanding of systemic learning. Second, emotion is important to strategic aspects of organizational learning. There is a link between the emotional and the political within organizations. The paper contains a discussion of these themes using brief case examples to illustrate and develop the issues.     

Mixed Results, Lousy Process: the Management Experience of Organizational Change

This paper reports the findings of a survey of 92 managers, from 14 public and 14 private-sector organizations. The aim was to explore the experience of change, extending the findings of a previous study (Buchanan, Claydon and Doyle, 1999). The survey addressed six themes: communication, evaluation, learning, attitudes and relationships, implementation and change and continuity. Overall, the results present a bleak picture of the process and outcomes of contemporary change. Most managers claim that change responsibility affords valuable personal learning. However, recent change has also been accompanied by stress, work intensification, command and control and management–employee distrust. A comparison of public and private–sector responses suggests that the experience of change in the public sector has been more pressured than in the private sector. Comparison of responses by management level indicates that senior managers are more likely to hold positive views of the change process and its outcomes. Explanations for these differences in experience and perception are considered, along with the implications. It is concluded that an adequate theory of organizational change must address the contradictions and tensions in the lived experience of those implicated, and that effective practice should consider the linkage of change implementation with organizational learning mechanisms which, on this evidence, are absent.     

组织学习的模型、案例与实施方法研究

本文应用作者提出的组织学习过程模型,分析评估了北京华翔电子有限公司组织学习的现状和障碍,并给出了改进的建议。最后,文章初步提出了组织学习的实施过程和方法。     

变化环境下组织中多层次学习及整体协调优化的仿真研究

本文以个人学习的多层次来源为视角,基于agent计算机仿真模型对组织中多层次学习之间的协调优化机制进行探索,研究当组织处于不同变化速度的环境中时,组织应如何将有限的资源在个人学习、团队学习以及组织学习间分配,以形成最优的学习策略,从而提高整体组织学习效率,最终更好地适应环境的变化。结果表明:在环境变化快时,加强个人向个人学习和个人向团队学习、减弱个人向组织学习有助于提高整体组织学习效率;在环境变化中等时,适度个人向个人学习、减弱个人向团队学习和个人向组织学习有助于提高整体组织学习效率;在环境变化慢时,加强个人向个人学习和个人向组织学习、减弱个人向团队学习有助于提高整体组织学习效率。