Measuring servitization progress and outcome: the case of ‘advanced services’

The purpose of this paper is to establish a framework for assessing the progress and outcome of a manufacturer’s transformation towards becoming a provider of ‘advanced services’ – a complex bundling of products and services, whereby manufacturers offer capabilities and outcomes instead of products alone. ‘Advanced services’ represent the most complex offering in the current servitization trend amongst manufacturers. However, current performance measures lack the breadth and focus to assess progress or outcomes, and so support research and practice of organisational transformation efforts required. To address this gap the paper investigates how a manufacturer’s efforts to become an ‘advanced services’ provider can be comprehensively measured, and develops a framework for assessing the transformation journey towards becoming an ‘advanced services’ provider. The research method is based on (1) a systematic literature review process to create a comprehensive set of service-related performance measures that are available to assess a manufacturer’s servitization efforts, followed by (2) an engagement with an expert panel to synthesise the identified measures and create a set of ‘advanced services’ performance measures. The proposed framework is presented as a scorecard that can be used in practice to assess the progress and outcome of a manufacturer’s transformation towards becoming a provider of ‘advanced services’.     

Performance management practices in lean manufacturing organizations: a systematic review of research evidence

This paper provides the first systematic look into the existing research on performance management (PM) practices employed in lean manufacturing organisations (LMOs). It adopts a systematic review method to examine the evidence generated in the period 2004 – 2015 and uses a comprehensive PM framework to synthesise the findings. The results suggest that PM practices that have the most prominent role in LMOs are those that, firstly, are located closest to front-line actions and, secondly, explicitly address operational realities. This calls into question the primacy of accounting-driven controls in LMOs, suggesting that operational controls may be more effective than top-down accounting-based PM practices. The results also confirm the bias towards operational-level issues but suggest that LMOs may integrate the operational and the strategic levels by using PM practices that drive organisational learning through employee involvement and engagement.     

制造企业服务业务扩展及其认知因素研究

制造企业的竞争越来越激烈,几乎所有的企业都要面对快速反应多变市场和应对价格压力的要求,面对越来越小的产品利润空间和越来越复杂的客户需求,本文从对工业服务管理文献分析和制造企业的调查研究入手,揭示了制造企业从纯粹的产品生产者向客户支持方案提供者发展的转移趋势.通过对瑞士和德国30多家机器和设备制造企业进行的调查研究,说明了服务业务对制造企业在开发财务、营销和战略机会上的重要作用,并对转移过程中服务业务的扩展过程进行了总结.结合具体企业实践,本文对制约制造企业扩展服务业务中在管理动机上的认知因素进行了分析和研究.结合中国加入WTO后,中国制造企业将全面融入国际竞争的背景,本文期望对中国制造企业的发展和竞争地位的提高提供理论和实践上的指导.     

Elaborating the Contingency Theory of Organizations: The Case of Manufacturing Flexibility Strategies

What determines which manufacturing flexibility strategies are feasible and which are not? In this paper, I build both theoretical and empirical understanding of task‐environmental contingencies that may either enable or constrain the selection of various flexibility strategies. The special emphasis is on the various plant‐level actions that are used to seek manufacturing flexibility. Demand uncertainty and variability, technology, and competitive strategy emerge as the most important contingencies, although not in ways that are immediately apparent. Finally, managerial implications at both the corporate as well as manufacturing unit levels are discussed.     

制造柔性的期权特征及其经济价值度量方法

本文分析了制造柔性的内涵,对其从生产状态变化的目标和产生来源进行了分类,并对制造柔性从期权的视角重新加以了表述.然后提出当存在市场需求、产品价格和可变成本三种不确定源的情形下制造柔性的多阶段期权定价模型,最后结合蒙特卡洛法实现了对项目投资决策阶段柔性经济价值的度量.     

Joint Ordering and Pricing Strategies for Managing Substitutable Products

Starr and Rubinson (1978) develop a model to establish the relationship between product demand and relative prices. The notion of relative prices motivates us to consider a situation in which a retailer would either charge the same retail price for all products if he adopts a ‘fixed’ pricing strategy or charge different prices for different products if he adopts a ‘variable’ pricing strategy. In this paper, we develop a base model with deterministic demand that is intended to examine how a retailer should jointly determine the order quantity and the retail price of two substitutable products under the fixed and variable pricing strategies. Our analysis indicates that the optimal retail price under the variable pricing strategy is equal to the optimal retail price under the fixed pricing strategy plus or minus an adjustment term. This adjustment term depends on product substitutability and price sensitivity. We also present two different extensions of our base model. In the first extension, our analysis indicates that the underlying structure of the optimal retail price and order quantity is preserved when there is a limit on the total order quantity. The second extension deals with the issue of retail competition. Relative to the base case, we show that the underlying structure of the optimal retail price and order quantity is preserved in a duopolistic environment. Moreover, our analysis suggests that both retailers would adopt the variable pricing strategy at the equilibrium.     

从MRPⅡ看销售核算子系统的未来发展

MRPII为制造业提供了一种科学的管理思想和有效的信息处理手段 ,它的有效利用可为企业获得良好的经济效益 ,值得注意的是 :供、销是实现MRPII思想的同时又是维持生产平衡的两大“咽喉”环节。本文从MRPII系统的角度论述了销售核算子系统的重要地位 ,同时论述了销售核算子系统与其他模块之间的关系 ,就MRPII的发展、管理的发展、计算机技术的发展、电子商务的兴起等方面探讨了未来我国销售核算子系统的设计     

机械设计制造及其自动化专业人才培养模式的创新实践

在新的历史条件下,深化高等教育改革、提高专业人才培养质量,关键是必须改革和创新专业人才培养模式。围绕专业人才培养目标和基本要求,从制订专业人才培养方案、建立基于课程群的完整的人才培养课程体系、创新人才培养模式等方面,阐述了我校机械设计制造及其自动化专业进行综合改革的具体做法,这对其他高校相关专业的教学改革及人才培养,具有一定的启发。     

现代服务业的发展:决定因素与政策

现代服务业主要是作为商品和服务生产过程中的中间投入而在经济增长中发挥知识资本、人力资本和技术资本的功能。它基于制造业的基础、从制造业中逐渐分离出来并发展成为推动现代制造业迅速成长的独立的产业部门。专业化、市场化、物质化、标准化、迂回化以及信息化,是决定现代服务业发展深化的主要因素。我国“十一五”期间,推进现代服务业发展必须从认识、理论、政策、体制、机制、策略、模式等方面同时努力。     

中国建设“世界制造业强国”背景下的制造业技能人才研究

处于后工业化经济时代的当代世界,技能人才对推动国家经济的发展具有举足轻重的作用,因此,确保“质优量足”的技能人才成为制造业强国广泛关注的一个焦点,这加速造成了全球技能人才的激烈争夺,进而引发世界范围内大面积的“技能荒”现象.由此,文章在中国建设“世界制造业强国”的背景下,基于对制造业中心国家——英国、美国和日本制造业技能人才短缺现状和成因探讨的基础上,深入分析三国政府和企业采取的措施以及效果,以期为中国有效应对技能人才短缺提供参考.