Integrated approach for optimizing quality control in international manufacturing networks

Abstract

This article aims at providing an integrated approach for optimizing quality control in International Manufacturing Networks (IMN) which can be characterized by consisting of numerous plants acting autonomously according to an individual target system. A key challenge is to ensure the overall process quality despite distributed value creation processes and differing target systems in dynamic environments. Hence, the developed approach allows for identifying potentials in the quality control strategy using a value stream-based method to visualize quality characteristics and procedures in the production process chain. Furthermore, the approach contains a framework for identifying possible improvement measures and a simulation-based evaluation concept to evaluate the effects of different measures with respect to individual target systems. The simulation combines elements of a discrete-event simulation in order to depict the value stream with agent-based modelling for realizing different target systems by considering distinctive plant roles. The article concludes with a case study of a globally operating automotive supplier to apply the approach. A forward research agenda is proposed that evaluates the approach in multiple cases, deriving patters across companies or industries.     

An Exploratory Study of Procurement Strategies for Multi‐Item RFQs in B2B Markets: Antecedents and Impact on Performance

This research explores procurement strategies for multi‐item requests for quotation (RFQs) in business‐to‐business (B2B) markets using responses from 825 purchasing professionals. The study first establishes procurement strategies that differ based on their level of strategic emphasis, i.e., the importance that is placed on the pursuit of four strategic objectives. Underlying objectives, which are obtained via factor analysis, include the focus on price, security of supply, internal procurement efficiencies, and bundle building. Next, cluster analysis is used to derive prototypical strategic approaches. The three cluster groups that emerge possess the same relative ranking of the four objectives, but differ based on the intensity with which these objectives are pursued. The clusters are labelled as the three strategic groups of strategists, opportunists, and responders. The research then explores, using an industrial buyer behavior lens, the impact of environmental antecedents in determining a particular strategy. Environmental variables include purchase importance, market uncertainty, supply base availability, buyer bargaining power, item experience, and supply base experience. Finally, the study tests the impact of procurement strategy on the buyer's perceived performance, suggesting that strategists, placing more emphasis on the pursuit of strategic sourcing objectives, achieve better performance than opportunists and responders.     

Communication About Micropollutants in Drinking Water: Effects of the Presentation and Psychological Processes

This study investigates how people change their risk perception, trust, and behavior as a consequence of being informed about the occurrence of micropollutants in drinking water. Micropollutants are substances present in extremely low concentrations that might be dangerous in higher concentrations. Data were gathered in the city of Zurich, Switzerland in 2013 using a questionnaire in which the information on micropollutants was presented differently to 12 experimental groups. Data of the key constructs were gathered before and after this information, so that causal effects could be quantified by regression analyses. Affective reactions to the information turned out to be the critical mediator of changes in risk perception (operationalized as the perceived change of quality due to pollution), which is an important determinant of changes in behavior and trust. Also, direct effects of affective reactions on behavior and trust were observed. Trust before appraising risks reduces negative affective reactions; however, it also reduces perceived quality (i.e., increases risk perception) and trust after risks are appraised. The different forms of information mainly influenced the participants’ affective reactions, but they also influenced perceived quality. The presentation with the least negative effects was a comparison of the intake of the substance by water with intake by food. The experimental design with repeated measurement that considers trust as a determinant and consequence of risk perception uncovered positive and negative effects of trust before appraising risks on changes of risk perception and trust due to appraising risks.     

Linking Maternal Warmth and Responsiveness to Children's Self‐regulation

The present study demonstrated that a more differentiated view of positive parenting practices is necessary in the study of children's acquisition of self‐regulation. Here, the unique contributions of maternal warmth and responsiveness to distress to children's self‐regulation were tested in a sample of 102 German mothers and their kindergarten children (51 girls and 51 boys). Behavior regulation and internalization of rules of conduct were examined as specific components of children's self‐regulation. As expected, maternal warmth was positively related to the child's behavior regulation. Responsiveness to distress was positively linked to the child's internalization of rules of conduct. No significant interactions between maternal parenting and either the child's gender or effortful control were found. The results are discussed with regard to the unique functions that different parenting practices have for children's self‐regulation.     

Coaching bei Konflikten in der ?ffentlichen Verwaltung

This paper discusses conflicts in teams working in the public administration. It starts with a definition of conflicts and the discussion of special terms and conditions, which determine conflicts within the public administration. As such conditions, the shortage of resources, the high degree of specialisation of the employees and the low degree of fluctuation are examined. Finally, a case study is described.     

Immigration and Identity in Britain

This article explores responses to modernity and the challenge it poses to identity in Japan through the works of the poet Hagiwara Sakutaro?. It concludes by arguing that, inspired by Sakutaro?'s call to ‘return to Japan’, the Japanese Romantics transformed Japan into a spiritual project of overcoming the modern and the West – thus being superior – through the nostalgic construction of a cultural essence.     

Ethnocentrism versus group-specific stereotyping in immigration opinion: cross-national evidence on the distinctiveness of immigrant groups

While widespread resistance to immigration is well established in advanced democracies around the world, the role of group-specific stereotyping in anti-immigration sentiment has received limited attention. We derive a novel measurement model to assess stereotyping in three Anglo-Saxon democracies – the US, Canada, and the UK – of the modal outgroup in each country (Hispanics in the US and South Asians in Canada and the UK) and Middle Easterners/Muslims. We show that considerable variation exists in degree of stereotyping against the two major immigrant groups. In the US case, we additionally document over-time variation in group stereotyping. In a final step, we demonstrate a relationship between group antipathies and immigration policy views, akin to other policy domains in which public support varies by the ethnic characteristics of policy beneficiaries. To our knowledge, this study is the first to map stereotypes of Muslims in the US in a comparative setting and over time after 09/11, and amongst the first to link views on immigration policies to group-based stereotypes.     

Generalization and efficient computation of the box-meyer analysis for orthogonal designs

Box and Meyer (1986) [1] proposed a Bayesian analysis for saturated orthogonal dedigns, based on the widely-used method of examining normal plots of effects estimates. Stephenson, Hulting, and Moore (1989) [5] give an algorithm for computing this analysis, but it can be quite slow for even 2⁵ designs. In this paper we extend the technique to cover all orthogonal factorial designs, rather than just saturated ones, and we show how the computational algorithm can be greatly improved, both in terms of accuracy and speed. With these extensions and improvements the Box-Meyer method becomes viable as a technique for interactive analysis of any orthogonal factorial design, not just small, saturated ones.     

Win statistics (win ratio,win odds,and net benefit) can complement one another to show the strength of the treatment effect on time-to-event outcomes

Conventional analyses of a composite of multiple time-to-event outcomes use the time to the first event. However, the first event may not be the most important outcome. To address this limitation, generalized pairwise comparisons and win statistics (win ratio, win odds, and net benefit) have become popular and have been applied to clinical trial practice. However, win ratio, win odds, and net benefit have typically been used separately. In this article, we examine the use of these three win statistics jointly for time-to-event outcomes. First, we explain the relation of point estimates and variances among the three win statistics, and the relation between the net benefit and the Mann–Whitney U statistic. Then we explain that the three win statistics are based on the same win proportions, and they test the same null hypothesis of equal win probabilities in two groups. We show theoretically that the Z-values of the corresponding statistical tests are approximately equal; therefore, the three win statistics provide very similar p-values and statistical powers. Finally, using simulation studies and data from a clinical trial, we demonstrate that, when there is no (or little) censoring, the three win statistics can complement one another to show the strength of the treatment effect. However, when the amount of censoring is not small, and without adjustment for censoring, the win odds and the net benefit may have an advantage for interpreting the treatment effect; with adjustment (e.g., IPCW adjustment) for censoring, the three win statistics can complement one another to show the strength of the treatment effect. For calculations we use the R package WINS, available on the CRAN (Comprehensive R Archive Network).     

Boundedly rational banks’ contribution to the credit cycle

We investigate how banks’ boundedly rational learning influences their views about default risks over the business cycle. Our analysis details the direction and the magnitude of these effects assuming that banks update probability in a Bayesian way. With a limited experience span lenders are liable to overestimate (underestimate) losses from defaulting loans early (late) in the boom. Depending on their experience span, banks turn over-optimistic and underprice default risk 3–5 years into the boom. During recessions an overpricing of risk begins just quarters into the recession. Our simulations are calibrated with U.S. data and provide evidence for the view that banks contribute to excessive lending during the upswing and to credit crunches in recessions.