Modelling end-of-life product recovery chains - a case study

European Union legislation, and existing national legislation of many European countries, mandates that manufacturers take back and recover their electronic and electrical equipment. If manufacturers are to comply with legislation, models need to be developed for these activities. Whilst infrastructural and technological deficits exist and must be addressed, so too must the organization of recovery, from a business perspective. In this paper, models of resource recovery are presented and a case study described.     

The changing structure of food retailing in europe: the implications for strategy

European food retailers have increased their scale and scope while concentrating sales into large stores. Strategic implications include the need for scale to compete and organisational relationships to move from supply push to demand pull retailing. Consequences are different for private label and for branded manufacturers, who must respond to the demands of retail supply chains whilst retaining control of product development. Further concentration in both sectors is likely. Consumers are more mobile, but more captive to the retailer in store. Public policy makers are challenged to find new measures of retail power and both allow for innovation and ensure equitable shopping opportunities.     

Planning for manufacturing technology

It is charged that many U.S. and European manufacturers have neglected to invest in new manufacturing technology. Consequently, these manufacturers have sacrificed their long-range competitiveness. This problem has occurred partly due to the lack of a normal planning process for investment in manufacturing technology that can alert managers to the need for the modernization of manufacturing technology before it is overdue.This article recommends the use of a new approach for manufacturing technology planning based on a process that monitors the deterioration of manufacturing technology over time.     

Strategic planning for internationalization—The European dilemma and some possible solutions

The crux of the European dilemma in international corporate planning lies in the frequent European fate as a way-station for manufacturers that begin their commercial lives in North America and end them in the Less Developed Countries. Thus, it is the companies in middle income countries like Europe (and Japan) that are going to have to be fastest on their feet. By and large, they have neither the first markets nor the last production sites. If they wish to survive, they will have to plan to take up and cast off products. Unless, of course, we wish to go back to the negotiated interwar, no or low growth environment. Fortunately, however, there probably is no going back. The cost to consumers of protected markets would be far too high to be acceptable.     

Computer integrated manufacturing: a complex information system

To be successful in today's competitive global environment, manufacturers must be able to respond quickly to changes in the manufacturing environment. Automation technology makes it possible for manufacturers to have this essential capability. A conceptualized information system that integrates the programmable design of a product and its manufacture with both planning activities and the manufacturing process is described. The information system integrates the programmable automation technologies used in computer integrated manufacturing with engineering and business databases. The computer integrated manufacturing concept is expended to the concept of a computer integrated economy. The technological difficulties that arise when implementing a computer integrated economy are identified.     

Pan-European groupings: A case study in paint manufacture

This complete Case Study, including Teaching Notes, won the 1991 EFMD Case Writing Competition Prize on a European theme, as well as receiving much praise from the judges. The Case concerns a group of four different European paint manufacturers co-operating in an EC Economic Interest Grouping to improve their economic position in European markets. The co-ordination of raw material purchasing policies was the first area of joint action; they obtained significant discounts straight away. Then they could begin to think about competing together against the big paint multinationals established in Europe. Later, talks started on joint investment and technology transfer.Lluis Renart and Francesco Parés have written a stimulating Case Study with Teaching Notes of value to business students and managers wishing to test out their analytical abilities.     

Quality Risk Ratings in Global Supply Chains

Extended enterprises face many challenges in managing the product quality of their suppliers. Consequently characterizing the quality risk posed by value‐chain partners has become increasingly important. There have been several recent efforts to develop frameworks for rating the quality risk posed by suppliers. We develop an analytical model to examine the impact of such quality ratings on suppliers, manufacturers, and social welfare. While it might seem that quality ratings would benefit high‐quality suppliers and hurt low‐quality suppliers, we show that this is not always the case. We find that such quality ratings can hurt both types of suppliers or benefit both, depending on the market conditions. We also find that quality ratings do not always benefit the most demanding manufacturers who desire high‐quality suppliers. Finally, we find that social welfare is not always improved by risk ratings. These results suggest that public policy initiatives addressing risk ratings must be carefully considered.     

Motor vehicle recalls: Trends,patterns and emerging issues

This paper examines patterns and trends in motor vehicle safety recalls using a dataset based on 23.1 million vehicles registered in the UK between 1992 and 2002. A safety recall occurs when vehicle manufacturers call vehicles that have been sold and are in use back to their dealerships for safety-related remedial work. Safety recalls can be a strategic concern for car makers, having the potential to damage brand value, reduce stock price as well as resulting in significant direct costs. The data from this study show that the incidence of vehicle recalls is increasing—between 1998 and 2002 there was an average of over 120 recall incidents per annum in the UK, compared to less than 50 per annum between 1992 and 1994. Total numbers of vehicles recalled show no clear trend over time, but the absolute level of recalls year on year is very high: in the UK, 10.8 million vehicles were recalled during 1992–2002, representing 47% of all vehicle UK registrations in the period. Moreover, there are substantial differences in recall rates between different car manufacturers, suggesting that recall rates may be a useful indicator of process performance in the automotive design-and-production value chain. European and American producers have recall rates that are nearly three times greater than their East Asian counterparts. This paper concludes with some ideas that may explain these patterns and suggests an agenda for further research.     

The influence of retailing trends on the food industry

This article is concerned with retailing trends and the food industry with reference to countries of the EEC, Sweden and the U.S.A. The author examines trends in various sectors of the food market, relating U.S. and European activity and considers the influences of the future growth of mass merchandisers on manufacturers and suppliers.     

An outsourcing model for lead users: an empirical investigation

Product development costs have been increasing constantly over the past few decades. Outsourcing some or all of the new product development (NPD) activities to external parties is increasingly becoming a popular option in the quest to reduce costs. Lead users (LUs), a special group of users that experience needs earlier than the public, have been identified as an important source of innovative ideas. In this article, we explore and compare the cost impact of outsourcing activities to LUs relative to in-house NPD. Using survey data from 376 European manufacturers, we show that LUs’ impact on cost reduction is higher than that achieved through higher performing in-house NPD teams. The unique attributes of LUs make them a favourable outsourcing partner of NPD activity that can help reduce costs whilst increasing an organisation's innovative ability. The reduction in costs is a combination of the information sharing benefits achieved through in-house NPD and the outsourcing of NPD activities to LUs.     

Trade-offs among the elements of flexibility: a comparison from the automotive industry

Flexibility has long been recognized as a manufacturing capability that has the potential to impact the competitive position and the business performance of an organization ([1]: Cox Jr, T. Toward the measurement of manufacturing flexibility. Production and Inventory Management Journal 1989; First Quarter:68–72, [2]: De Meyer A, Nakane J, Miller JG, Ferdows K. Flexibility: the next competitive battle. Strategic Management Journal 1989;10:135–144). This recognition, however, has not led to a unanimous approach to flexibility. For example, Japanese manufacturers emphasize flexibility more than North American or European manufacturers ( [2]: De Meyer A, Nakane J, Miller JG, Ferdows K. Flexibility: the next competitive battle. Strategic Management Journal 1989;10:135–144). While this finding provides insight into the strategic choices made by these organizations in these countries, it does not provide an in-depth comparison of specific aspects of flexibility that are leveraged and emphasized differently. Such a comparison is necessary, however, if flexibility is to be more fully understood.This paper takes a step in that direction by first breaking down the concept of flexibility into its constituent elements and dimensions. Then we introduce the notion of looking at flexibility as a capability that must be planned for and built by a firm over a period of time along these constituent elements and dimensions. Questions are subsequently raised regarding whether trade-offs occur among different elements for a given flexibility dimension. We use industry wide as well as firm-specific qualitative data from the automotive industry to answer these questions, and show that several key aspects of manufacturing flexibility have been acquired and leveraged differently by American and Japanese producers. While linkages to business performance are not directly explored, our analysis reveals that even within the same industry, firms from different countries do indeed follow different strategies to developing their flexibility capability. Implications of these results for managerial practice, along with avenues for further research in this area, are also presented.     

Technical innovation and international competitiveness in the television industry

The television industry has undergone significant changes in competitive structure internationally. In the past the industry was characterised by rapid growth as first black and white and then colour television diffused throughout developed countries. More recently, recessions and market saturation have constrained growth and competition has grown more intense. Competition has intensified further with the introduction of new television-based products, such as video recorders, dises and home information systems. All the major Japanese consumer electronics firms have invested in the US and Europe in both component manufacture and set assembly. This has threatened the established US and European manufacturers. Innovation has played a major role in international competitiveness. Innovation in products and manufacturing processes has changed the nature of competition in the industry. Japanese firms have been the most successful innovators. By applying advanced automation in assembly, testing and handling to large production volumes, the Japanese have achieved dramatically superior performance in terms both of productivity and of quality. European and US firms have only responded to the challenge belatedly.     

Evolution of product quality in European,Japanese and US automotive firms: An exploratory longitudinal analysis

For years we have been hearing that US automobile manufacturers have been losing market share to their Japanese rivals who are reputed to make better quality vehicles. Most such reports are based on the initial quality surveys on new automobiles. In this paper we address two exploratory questions: (1) how does the quality of an automobile change with its age, and, (2) can firm level variables help explain differences quality. To answer these questions, we collected Consumer Reports’ reliability ratings on approximately 300 automobile models made by European, Japanese and US automotive firms during the 1998–2007; and approximately 240 models made by these firms over period of 2008–2015. For both periods we found that not only do automobiles made by Japanese firms have higher initial quality, but, as automobiles get older the difference in the product quality between Japanese versus European and US firms increases. We also found that the more generalist a European or US automobile firm, i.e., the wider is the firm׳s product offering in the marketplace, the lower its overall automobile quality during the 1998–2007 period. Conversely, Japanese generalist firms were found to have higher quality than specialist firms over the same period. The result is partly explained by the fact that Japanese firms have taken a different path to broadening their product variety – they have ensured a high level of quality of their initial offerings before entering newer market segments. The rate of reliability decline was found to be slower for all firms, and the differences in reliability across the 3 groups of firms were much less pronounced during the 2008–2015 period. This improvement may be as result of restructuring done by US automobile firms.     

The integration of information systems in manufacturing

The large majority of modern production companies have at their disposal a multitude of computer systems. The immediate challenge for these companies consists of integrating these computer systems and databases. How will one arrive at this integration? On the basis of a questionnaire administered among a group of 174 large European manufacturers, one comes to the conclusion that this integration is one of the immediate priorities for this group of companies. They do not intend to implement turnkey systems, but instead will integrate the different databases and computer systems gradually. One can see emerging islands of integration, which will be connected later on through the materials requirements planning function. This has of course important consequences for the management of the company's information function and the market position of software suppliers.     

System reform in integrated health systems

As the debate progresses on health care reform and the ultimate form of the U.S. system, important lessons can be drawn from examinations of other health care systems. From the U.S. perspective, European health systems appear to have a certain homogeneity about them. Americans tend to look at all European arrangements as single-source financing systems. Because these systems all provide universal coverage, the assumption is that there must be a strong cohesion and similarity among them. Viewed from the European perspective, the reality appears to be rather different. In this article, the health cae systems of Nordic countries are analyzed in terms of their differences both from other European systems and from the United States approach.     

Flexible manufacturing in Europe

Considerable interest has been shown in computer-integrated systems as a means of dealing with some of the competitive challenges facing European manufacturers in the 1990s. In this paper, John Bessant and Bill Haywood review some experience with one example of such technology-flexible manufacturing systems - drawing particularly on research in the UK, the Federal Republic of Germany and Sweden.     

German,French and British manufacturing strategies compared: A growth towards each other

Manufacturing has gained over the last years in attention as a tool to create competitive advantage. For fou years now a survey has been carried out by a research team at Insead to build a database on the manufacturing strategies as they are defined and implemented by large European companies. In this paper some of the 1987 data are presented, and a comparison of manufacturing strategies of large companies in the three most important European countries is made. Though the most important conclusion is that there are only slight differences between the three countries, one can see some difference in emphasis. The French companies seem to invest heavily to catch up with respect to quality, the German manufacturers invest heavily in technology, and the British seem to pay more attention to the improvement of the labour/management relations. The data on the manufacturing strategies of these groups of companies is also analysed in function of an increased need for flexibility, as it was perceived in previous surveys.     

碳税政策下制造商竞争的供应链定价策略和社会福利研究

本文在考虑消费者环境意识下，探讨了制造商竞争情形下基于碳税政策的供应链成员定价策略和社会福利问题。研究表明，碳税政策的实施均会使得普通产品和低碳产品的批发价格和零售价格上升，且普通产品的价格变化总是较低碳产品更加明显；实施碳税政策前后，清洁型制造商面临的产品需求和利润变化总是较普通制造商更具有相对优势；制造商竞争有利于碳税政策引导制造商降低单位产品的碳排放量，实现绿色转型；碳税政策下，不论是清洁型制造商还是普通制造商，他们降低自身产品的单位碳排放量对提升自身产品在需求上的优势或减少自身产品在需求上的劣势都是有益的。当制造商之间的竞争性较小时，实施最优的碳税政策可以显著改善社会福利；特别是当消费者环境意识水平较低时，实施最优的碳税政策更为必要。当制造商之间的竞争强度较大时，不论消费者环境意识高低，直观税率值1可以作为一个近似最优的碳税政策，用以改善社会福利。     

The Role of Contract Negotiation and Industry Structure in Production Outsourcing

Despite the spread of cost‐driven outsourcing practices, academic research cautions that suppliers' cost advantage may weaken manufacturers' bargaining positions in negotiating outsourcing agreements, thereby hurting their profitability. In this study, we attempt to further understand the strategic impact of low‐cost outsourcing on manufacturers' profitability by investigating the contractual form of outsourcing agreements and the industry structure of the upstream supply market. We consider a two‐tier supply chain system, consisting of two competing manufacturers, who have the option to produce in‐house or to outsource to an upstream supplier with lower cost. To reach an outsourcing agreement, each manufacturer engages in bilateral negotiation with her supplier, who may be an exclusive supplier or a common supplier serving both manufacturers. Our analysis shows that wholesale‐price contracts always mitigate the competition between manufacturers regardless of whether they compete with price or quantity. In contrast, two‐part tariffs intensify the competition when the manufacturers compete with quantity, but soften it when they compete with price. As a result, when outsourcing with two‐part tariffs, the manufacturers may earn lower profits than they would from in‐house production, although the suppliers are more cost efficient. This suggests that managers have to be wary about the downside of using coordinating contracts such as two‐part tariffs when pursuing low‐cost outsourcing strategies. Our analysis also sheds some light on the profitability of using an exclusive supplier for outsourcing. When outsourcing with wholesale‐price contracts, the competing manufacturers are better off outsourcing to an exclusive supplier. However, when outsourcing with two‐part tariffs, the manufacturers may earn higher profits by outsourcing to a common supplier than to an exclusive one when the manufacturers' bargaining power is sufficiently strong (weak) under quantity (price) competition.     

碳配额交易体系下闭环供应链网络的生产与碳交易策略研究

人类的生产和消费等活动引起温室气体增加,已造成气候恶化等环境问题,在生产、消费等相关活动中减少碳排放量是业界、学界和政府等相关主体的普遍共识。针对高排放和低排放两类制造商、多个需求市场和一个碳交易中心组成的闭环供应链网络,在碳配额交易体系下,研究了企业的生产与碳减排策略。两类制造商基于政府分配的碳配额在碳交易中心进行碳排放权的买卖形成一个碳交易子网,同时,产品的买卖形成一个产品交易子网。针对所有企业成员的利润最大化目标,利用变分不等式把含约束的利润最大化非线性规划问题转化为变分不等式问题,并利用互补关系与变分不等式的等价性把需求市场消费者的购买行为转化为变分不等式,得到闭环供应链网络系统中产品交易量、生产量和碳交易策略满足的均衡条件,进一步获得闭环供应链网络达到Nash均衡状态时的条件。利用投影收缩算法求解所建模型,并给出了相关数值算例,通过比较静态分析得到了管理学启示。结果表明：供应链网络中存在企业利润目标与政府减排目标一致的情况,两类制造商间的碳交易额多数情况下是一致的,政府对不同类型制造商应设置不同的回收率。本研究可为政府和企业减排目标的实现提供指导和决策参考。