A review of analytical models in strategic planning

Strategic management is a process that deals with the entrepreneurial work of the organisation, with organisational renewal and growth, and more particularly, with developing and utilising the strategy which is to guide the organisation's operations. Strategic management approaches emphasise the processes of strategic decision-making and adaptation to change. The paper reviews the literature to date and the modern strategic management paradigm and examines strategy formulation from an analytic perspective.     

Smart cities: implications of urban planning for human resource development

This paper looks at creative or smart city experiments around the world that are aimed at nurturing a creative economy through investment in quality of life which in turn attracts knowledge workers to live and work in smart cities. It highlights the need for and broad nature of human resource/talent development initiatives at the intermediate level, that is regional and city level, as opposed to organizational and national level. Using the literature on economic geography, it provides a useful theoretical framework to cross organizational boundaries and look for factors that influence the decision of knowledge workers in choosing a location to live and work. The implications of urban planning on the theory and practice of human resource development are explored.     

A modelling system for local government resource planning

A major problem in local government is how to maximise the effectiveness of resource allocation. Senior officers and members concerned with corporate and strategic issues must take account of contemporary information of considerable variety and combine this with estimates of the future in their attempts to achieve rational resource allocation. This article describes the development of an experimental computer based corporate modelling system at Clwyd County Council which was designed to support allocation decisions pertaining to a 5 year planning period. It is concluded that a firm basis was achieved for progress towards a comprehensive operational system.     

A review of international human resource management: Integration,interrogation, imitation

International human resource management (IHRM) represents an important dimension of international management. Over the past three decades, there has been considerable growth in research and practice in IHRM. While there have been extensive developments in this field, numerous scholars have identified aspects requiring review and revision. Hence, this paper reviews and interrogates the progress in IHRM's theoretical development. The review leads to the conclusion that research in IHRM has tended to emphasize integration over other forms of progress. In response, and in provocation, imitation rather than integration is suggested as an approach for the development of future theoretical and conceptual directions in IHRM.     

Developing planning models

Mr. Holloway joined the Gulf Oil Corporation in 1939. His previous publications are in the fields of chemical engineering, statistics and computing.He is now the Senior Adviser on Planning Systems and member of Gulf's European Planning Council.The paper presents the author's view that linear programming is an efficient vehicle for long range planning, that it is more comprehensive and when properly structured requires no more computer time than the perhaps more conventional simulation models.Further, that it has the great advantage that the planner himself can control not only the data content of his model, but can also control the way in which the data is treated within the model even to the extent of making drastic matrix changes.     

The formulation of mathematical programming models

Aims which a formulator has when building a Linear or Integer Programming model are suggested. Ways of achieving and resolving these aims are surveyed with a number of practical examples.     

Centralized resource planning and Yardstick competition

Multidivisional and decentralized firms often operate inefficiently. In most cases, central management's instruments to influence its branches' behavior are limited. Although relative performance evaluation has been argued to be of great use in defining incentive mechanisms, such approaches cannot be transferred easily to internal performance management. We approach this issue by changing the perspective of performance evaluation. Based on the recently introduced CRA-DEA model, we develop a new super-efficiency measure that enables to establish purposive intra-organizational incentive mechanisms. By means of a numerical example, analyzing the performance of a German retail bank, the applicability of our measure is shown and compared to standard DEA models. Centralized super-efficiency seems able to suit the specific needs of intra-organizational performance management.     

Cash flow models: A review

Cash flow management is concerned with the efficient use of the company's cash and short-term investments. Under stable economic conditions, this is a matter of deciding when to transfer assets and how much. The development of models designed to answer these questions is reviewed. More recently, emphasis has been placed on decisions concerned with operating conditions with the object of maintaining a level of cash flow in accordance with unstable conditions, in particular with a high rate of inflation.     

Centralized resource allocation BCC models

In two recent papers, Lozano and Villa [Centralized resource allocation using data envelopment analysis. Journal of Productivity Analysis 2004;22:143–61. [1]] and Lozano et al. [Centralized target setting for regional recycling operations using DEA. OMEGA 2004;32:101–10. [2]] introduce the concept of “centralized” data envelopment analysis (DEA) models, which aim at optimizing the combined resource consumption by all units in an organization rather than considering the consumption by each unit separately. This is particularly relevant for situations where some variables are controlled by a central authority (e.g. Head Office) rather than individual unit managers. In this paper we reconsider one of the centralized models proposed by the above-mentioned authors and suggest modifying it to only consider adjustments of previously inefficient units. We show how this new model formulation relate to a standard DEA model, namely as the analysis of the mean inefficient point. We also provide a procedure that can be used to generate alternative optimal solutions, enabling a decision maker to search through alternate solution possibilities in order to select the preferred one. We then extend the model to incorporate non-transferable as well as strictly non-discretionary variables and illustrate the models using an empirical example of a public service organization.     

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.     

Computer models for corporate planning

This paper presents results of a survey of corporate modelling in 65 U.K. companies. It shows that corporate models were already used in a wide range of industries by 1973 and analyses the characteristics of these models, the uses to which they were put, the background of the model builders, approaches to development of models that were adopted, costs of development, and indications of success or failure. It is, for instance, shown that many corporate models are relatively small and simple, and have been built by accountants, planners and other ultimate users, using special facilities for corporate modelling offered by computer bureaux and consultants.     

Assessment of aircraft logistics planning models

An assessment of military logistics planning models offers a great deal of information about the modelling state of art. Such tools include both analytic and simulation model types. They can deal with both static and dynamic characteristics of the environment. They require highly detailed data for their operation and can compute over a large number of interacting variables. Unfortunately, these models do not satisfy adequately the requirements of the particular logistics issue for which they were assessed, which is whether such models can be used in early logistics planning for new weapon systems. One difficulty is that such planning must make extensive use of tradeoffs and sensitivity analysis to take account of the flexibility and uncertainties existing at the early stages. Another is that the existent models call for detailed data which is usually not available at that time. Therefore, although the models do fulfill a particular useful planning function, they must be replaced or augmented by a new class of models that will much more closely satisfy the planning need. This new capability requires a serious research effort that will benefit not only the military logistics planners, but also other planners dealing with large capital development programs.     

Computational complexity of algorithms for MRP and JIT production planning problems in enterprise resource planning systems

An enterprise resource planning system (ERP) is the information backbone of many manufacturing companies. At the core of ERP is a conventional material requirements planning (MRP) production planning system or a variation of MRP when just-in-time (JIT) principles are used in manufacturing. MRP and JIT both organize production planning into a hierarchy of long-, medium- and short-range problems. In all there are eight different problems. Some are common to MRP and JIT, others are specialized for a particular system. This paper analyses the computational requirements of these problems. This is important for ERP because it plans for large numbers of products (e.g. 50 000 products at 3M Company and 44 000 products at States Industries in Oregon) at large numbers of locations (e.g. 82 locations in 21 countries for Visteon Automotive Systems of Michigan and 19 locations at Boeing). We show that adequate algorithms exist for some problems, but better algorithms are needed for other problems if ERP is to provide useful production plans.     

Manufacturing resource planning: An information systems model

This paper presents Manufacturing Resource Planning, an information system that will enable the developing and monitoring of strategic plans. Incorporation proven material and capacity requirements planning techniques, strategic planners can determine readily the impact of their plans on the manufacturing resources of the company. Decision making is more coordinated because all managers work from a common data base. However, the attainment of this level of planning sophistication is costly not only in capital outlays for computer software and hardware but also in the time to train users. But those firms who have successfully incorporated this integrated approach to strategic planning feel strongly that the end results justify the expenditures.     

A review of capacity planning techniques within standard software packages

This paper gives a review of capacity planning techniques from which today's standard software packages for production control make their choice. The following techniques are discussed in the paper: four variants of the rough cut capacity check, capacity requirements planning with infinite and finite loading, input/output planning without and with individual work orders, and a number of sequencing techniques. An important issue throughout the paper is the concept of robustness and nervousness of planning techniques, Aspects of interaction between techniques and human planners arc given. The human planner is still an important factor in capacity planning.     

Future of European human resource management: A contingent approach

The ability to cope with an increasingly open European Market, enhanced mobility between nation states and the threat of competition from the Far East will be highly prized organisational skills in the third millenium. Many commentators have argued that ‘Europeanisation’ (broadly defined) is an irreversible process and companies will have to cope proactively with this or perish. However, in this article we argue that many of these predictions are based on an uncritical acceptance of the ‘internationalisation’ thesis, and on subjective assessments of possible future trends — rather than on sound empirical research within strong theoretical frameworks. Accordingly, this article takes a critical look at some widely-held assumptions about internationalisation, Europeanisation and the (potential) development of European Human Resource Management (EHRM). It then goes on to suggest a framework of research which will be more able to capture future developments in EHRM and thereby facilitate more robust exchanges on strategic HRM with those companies operating in a European setting.     

Putting the individual and context back into national human resource development research: A systematic review and research agenda

Conceptualization of national human resource development (NHRD) emphasizes that it is an ongoing development process of the individual that is shaped by context. However, the extant literature has focused primarily on describing and evaluating NHRD policies and interventions in different countries with limited consideration of NHRD across the lifespan and the interaction of life stage with context. Using ecological systems theory (EST) and a lifespan development perspective (LDP), we present a systematic review of the NHRD literature based on 310 sources. We identify key themes and gaps in research across the lifespan and at distinct levels of the ecological system. We build on this review to suggest future research informed by both EST and an LDP. We propose a future research agenda focused on several key areas, including: the developing individual as the primary focus of NHRD; the dynamic relationship between NHRD microsystems and how this evolves over time; the exosystem and macrosystem, which provide the context of the NHRD development experience for the individual over their lifespan; and the imperatives of directing research attention to top-down and bottom-up influences within the ecological system. We also propose three methodological innovations to address many of the questions raised by our review, drawing on national archive databases, the use of historical methods and a focus on longitudinal data analysis. Finally, we highlight the practical implications of our analysis for ecosystem and microsystem NHRD actors.