Co-creation strategy – Udemy case study
https://servicedesignblog.com/service-design-analytical-tools/co-creation-strategy-udemy-case-study/
July 30, 2023
Design of Services and Products - Nigel Slack - Chapter Summary
Key questions
❯ How does innovation impact on design?
❯ Why is good service and product design important?
❯ What are the stages in service and product design?
❯ What are the benefits of interactive design?
Design evaluation and improvement
The purpose of this stage in the design activity is to take the preliminary design and see if it can be improved before the service or product is tested in the market. There are a number of methods and techniques that are used at this stage to improve various dimensions of performance. Quality function deployment (QFD) improves quality and value engineering (VE) included in product industrial engineering by Narayana Rao improves value by reducing cost.
Value engineering
The purpose of value engineering is to try to reduce costs, and prevent any unnecessary costs, before producing the service or product. It tries to eliminate any costs that do not contribute to the value and performance of the service or product. Value-engineering programmes are usually conducted by project teams consisting of designers, purchasing specialists, operations managers and financial analysts. The chosen elements of the package are subject to rigorous scrutiny, by analysing their function and cost, then trying to find any similar components that could do the same job at lower cost. The team may also attempt to reduce the number of components, or use cheaper materials, or simplify processes. It requires innovative and critical thinking to redesign. It is carried out using a formal procedure that examines the purpose of the service or product, its basic functions and its secondary functions.
Taking the example of the remote mouse:
● The purpose of the remote mouse is to communicate with the computer.
● The basic function is to control presentation slide shows.
● The secondary function is to be plug-and-play compatible with any system.
Team members would then propose ways to perform the functions by alternative designs that cost less. All ideas would then be checked for feasibility, acceptability, vulnerability and their contribution to the value and purpose of the service or product.
Service Blueprinting - The Process
Service Blueprinting - The Process
"Service Blueprinting: A Practical Technique for Service Innovation"
Bitner M., Ostrom A., Morgan F.
2 Presentation Flow
Service Innovation Challenges
Evolution of Service Blueprinting
Components of Service Blueprints
Steps in building a blueprinting
Blueprinting use cases
Insights for Service Innovation Practice
3. Introduction
Innovation in services is less disciplined and less creative than in the manufacturing and technology sectors.
Reasons: fascination with tangible products and hard technologies as a source of product innovation and a belief that services have no tangible value
The current focus of many businesses on creating value through customer experiences suggest a need for innovative methods
The purpose of this article is to describe one such technique—service blueprinting—a customer-focused approach for service innovation and service improvement
4. Blueprinting fundamentals
Given the intangible nature of services and their complexity, discussing them verbally can be challenging
Service blueprinting is a customer-focused approach for service innovation and service improvement
Blueprinting helps create a visual depiction of the service process that highlights the steps in the process, the points of contact that take place, and the physical evidence that exists, all from a customer’s point of view.
Blueprinting helps those within an organization identify failure points, areas for improvement, and innovation opportunities as well as opportunities to enhance profit.
It gets participants updated in terms of how a service currently works or how a new service process might be designed.
5. Service Innovation Challenges
There are a number of service characteristics and related management challenges that underlie the need for an innovation technique like service blueprinting.
Services as processes
Services as Customer Experiences
Service Development and Design
6
Services as Processes
The service process can be viewed as a chain of activities that allow the service to function effectively.
Developing a deeper understanding of the way customers experience and evaluate service processes is one of the challenges faced by firms that undertake the design, delivery, and documentation of a service offering.
Service blueprinting is a flexible approach that helps managers with the challenges of service process design and analysis.
7
Services as Customer Experiences
A main issue for managers is whether the company has the capability to systematically manage that experience, or whether it is simply left to chance.
Service blueprints allow all members of the organization to visualize an entire service and its underlying support processes, providing common ground from which critical points of customer contact, physical evidence, and other key functional and emotional experience clues can be planned.
8.
Service Development and Design
A well-designed service that is pleasing to experience can provide the firm with a key point of differentiation from competitors.
Because services are intangible, variable, and delivered over time and space, people frequently resort to using words alone to specify them, resulting in oversimplification and incompleteness.
Service blueprinting results in a visual description of the service process and underlying organizational structure that everyone can see, it is highly useful in the concept development stage of service development.
9. Evolution of Service Blueprinting
Initially introduced as a process control technique for services that offered several advantages: it was more precise than verbal definitions; it could help solve problems in advance; and it was able to identify failure points in a service operation.
It has evolved to become more customer-focused.
Service blueprinting was further developed to distinguish between onstage and backstage activities.
Its most important feature is illuminating the customer’s role in the service process.
It provides an overview so that employees and internal units can relate what they do to the entire, integrated service system.
Blueprints also help to reinforce a customer-orientation among employees as well as clarify interfaces across departmental lines.
Service blueprints are relatively simple and their graphical representations are easy for all stakeholders involved – customers, managers, front-line employees – to learn, use, and even modify to meet a particular innovation’s requirements.
10 Components of Service Blueprints
There are five components of a typical service blueprint
Customer Actions
Onstage/Visible Contact Employee Actions
Backstage/Invisible Contact Employee Actions
Support Processes, and
Physical Evidence
11
“Customer actions” include all of the steps that customers take as part of the service delivery process. What makes blueprinting different from other flowcharting approaches is that the actions of the customer are central to the creation of the blueprint
The next critical component is the “onstage/visible contact employee actions,” separated from the customer by the line of interaction.
The next significant component of the blueprint is the “backstage/invisible contact employee actions,” separated from the onstage actions by the very important line of visibility.
12
Below the line of visibility, all of the other contact employee actions are described, both those that involve non-visible interaction with customers (e.g., telephone calls) as well as any other activities that contact employees do in order to prepare to serve customers
The fourth critical component of the blueprint is “support processes” separated from contact employees by the internal line of interaction. -Vertical lines from the support area connecting with other areas of the blueprint show the inter-functional connections and support that are essential to delivering the service to the final customer.
Finally, for each customer action, and every moment of truth, the physical evidence that customers come in contact with is described at the very top of the blueprint. These are all the tangibles that customers are exposed to that can influence their quality perceptions.
15 Steps in building a blueprinting
Decide on the company’s service or service process to be blueprinted and the objective
Determine who should be involved in the blueprinting process
Modify the blueprinting technique as appropriate
Map the service as it happens most of the time
Note disagreements to capture learning
Be sure customers remain the focus
Track insights that emerge for future action
Develop recommendations and future actions based on blueprinting goals
If desired, create final blueprints for use within the organization
16 Blueprinting use cases
Yellow Transportation: It has relied on service blueprinting for designing new services and service improvement, and for driving customer-focused change through the sales, operating, and customer service functions of the company.
ARAMARK Parks and Resorts: Using the blueprinting methodology helped people within the parks division to develop more of a customer focus
IBM: identify some important lessons to use for future service innovations. Specifically, it became clear that creating the innovation itself was a relatively small part of the overall process.
Marie Stopes International Global Partnership: The goal of this ongoing blueprinting initiative is to improve service quality in MSI centers. In this context, namely health clinics in developing countries where virtually all of the service is onstage, modifications to the blueprint were deemed necessary.
17 Insights for Service Innovation Practice
Providing a Platform for Innovation
Service blueprinting provides a common platform for everyone – customers, employees, and managers – to participate in the service innovation process.
Blueprinting provides a common point of discussion for new service development or service improvement (a picture is worth a thousand words).
The service blueprint gives employees an overview of the entire service process so they can gain insight as to how their roles fit into the integrated whole.
18
Recognizing Roles and Interdependencies
The process of blueprinting and the document itself generate insights into various role and relational interdependencies throughout the entire organization.
The customer’s actions and interactions are highlighted, revealing points at which he or she experiences quality.
The blueprint reveals all of the touch-points that are critical in meeting customer needs and helps in identifying likely points of service failure.
Utilizing the visual language of service blueprints puts everyone involved in the service design process on the same page, creating more communication efficiency and informational precision during the service development process.
19
Facilitating Both Strategic and Tactical Innovations
Service blueprints can be modified to suit any level of analysis desired.
Successive functions including marketing, sales, and operations were introduced to the blueprinting process with the express purpose of addressing discrete, tactical challenges that crossed functional areas.
Transferring and Storing Innovation Knowledge
Service blueprints can be printed out or be stored electronically and made available to everyone involved.
Blueprints being developed can be posted on a collaborative website, providing all participating parties with access to an editable form of the document. Suggestions and edits can be posted, which can then be further discussed, blogged about, incorporated or nixed.
Clarifying Competitive Positioning
Service blueprinting allows firms to clarify competitive positioning by facilitating the comparison of the desired service and actual service, or company and competitor processes.
Mapping dual processes for the identification of key service quality gaps is a highly useful application of blueprinting.
Other, Creative Uses of Blueprinting
It is easy to incorporate technological components and interfaces into the appropriate “physical evidence,” “onstage,” and “backstage” sections of the blueprint for such services.
In this era of firm specialization, strategic partnering, networks, and outsourcing, a particular capability of service blueprinting that allows the mapping of processes that extend across organizations will be valuable.
21 Conclusions
Despite the dominance of services in modern economies, little research and few techniques exist to address the unique challenges of service innovation.
Service blueprinting is useful for organizations of all sizes
The uniqueness of the technique when compared to other process techniques is its unrelenting focus on the customer as the center and foundation for innovation, service improvement, and experience design.
That doesn’t mean that customers are the source of innovation, but rather that value to the customer is the central purpose of innovation.
https://slideplayer.com/slide/1526101/
July 29, 2023
Product Design and Process Selection—Services - Review Notes
Services are different from manufacturing, with the key service difference being the interaction of the customer in the delivery process. Service design is no longer considered to be an art form as logical approaches to better design and management of service systems are emerging.
In a facilities-based service, the customer must go to the service facility. In contrast, in a field-based service, the production and consumption of the service takes place in the customer's environment. Internal services refer to services required to support the activities of the larger organization. There is a blurring of manufacturing and service firms since the manufacturer product always has a certain percentage of service content. Services are also seen as the next source of competitive advantage for firms.
The Nature of Services - Seven Generalizations
Chase et al (11th Edition)
1. Everyone is an expert on services.
It means many more people understand how services are delivered and have an opinion how they should be delivered.
2. Services are idiosyncratic.
People want services done differently at different times and places.
3. Quality of work alone is not quality of service.
Time spent is also a parameter.
4. Most services have tangible and intangible attributes.
5. High contact services are experienced.
6. Effective management of services requires understanding of marketing aspects, operations aspects as well as aspects of service personnel involved.
7. Services often take different forms of encounters involving face-to-face, telephone, electromechanical, and mail interactions.
In services we also consider the amount of customer contact or the physical presence of the customer in the system. Service systems range from those with a high degree of customer contact to those with a low degree of customer contact.
Service encounters can be configured in a number of different ways. The service-system design matrix includes six common alternatives. Flowcharting, like in manufacturing process design, is the standard tool for service process design. The flowchart, or service blueprint, emphasizes the importance of design. Poka-yoke systems applied to services prevent mistakes from becoming service defects.
Approaches to services include the production line approach, the self-service approach, and the personal attention approach. Service guarantees are not only a marketing tool for services but, from an operations perspective, these guarantees can be used as an improvement incentive and can focus the firm's delivery system on things it must do well to satisfy the customer. Finally the case on Pizza USA provides an example of design of services.
Waiting Lines
Understanding waiting lines or queues and learning how to manage them is one of the most important areas in operations management. Queuing theory is used in both manufacturing and service organizations to understand queues and to arrive at solutions to eliminate or minimize them.
The waiting line system consists of six major components: the source population, the way customers arrive at the service facility, the physical waiting line itself, the way customers are selected from the line, the characteristics of the service facility, and the condition of the customer exiting the system.
Arrivals at a service system may be drawn from a finite or limited customer pool or from a population that is large enough in relation to the service system so that changes do not significantly affect the system probabilities.
Another determinant of waiting line formation is the arrival characteristics of the queue members. The arrivals are far more controllable than normally recognized. Coupons, discounts, sales, and other methods can control demands on a system.
Queue lines can vary in length, in the number of lines used, and in the queue discipline or rules used for determining the order of service to customers. First come, first serviced is the most common priority rule. The service facility itself, with its particular flow and configuration can influence the queue. Computer spreadsheets are used to arrive at answers to waiting line problems. Computer simulations can also be used to arrive at solutions of more complex or dependent waiting line situations. Waiting line problems present challenges to management to attempt to eliminate them.
In a facilities-based service, the customer must go to the service facility. In contrast, in a field-based service, the production and consumption of the service takes place in the customer's environment. Internal services refer to services required to support the activities of the larger organization. There is a blurring of manufacturing and service firms since the manufacturer product always has a certain percentage of service content. Services are also seen as the next source of competitive advantage for firms.
The Nature of Services - Seven Generalizations
Chase et al (11th Edition)
1. Everyone is an expert on services.
It means many more people understand how services are delivered and have an opinion how they should be delivered.
2. Services are idiosyncratic.
People want services done differently at different times and places.
3. Quality of work alone is not quality of service.
Time spent is also a parameter.
4. Most services have tangible and intangible attributes.
5. High contact services are experienced.
6. Effective management of services requires understanding of marketing aspects, operations aspects as well as aspects of service personnel involved.
7. Services often take different forms of encounters involving face-to-face, telephone, electromechanical, and mail interactions.
In services we also consider the amount of customer contact or the physical presence of the customer in the system. Service systems range from those with a high degree of customer contact to those with a low degree of customer contact.
Service encounters can be configured in a number of different ways. The service-system design matrix includes six common alternatives. Flowcharting, like in manufacturing process design, is the standard tool for service process design. The flowchart, or service blueprint, emphasizes the importance of design. Poka-yoke systems applied to services prevent mistakes from becoming service defects.
Approaches to services include the production line approach, the self-service approach, and the personal attention approach. Service guarantees are not only a marketing tool for services but, from an operations perspective, these guarantees can be used as an improvement incentive and can focus the firm's delivery system on things it must do well to satisfy the customer. Finally the case on Pizza USA provides an example of design of services.
Waiting Lines
Understanding waiting lines or queues and learning how to manage them is one of the most important areas in operations management. Queuing theory is used in both manufacturing and service organizations to understand queues and to arrive at solutions to eliminate or minimize them.
The waiting line system consists of six major components: the source population, the way customers arrive at the service facility, the physical waiting line itself, the way customers are selected from the line, the characteristics of the service facility, and the condition of the customer exiting the system.
Arrivals at a service system may be drawn from a finite or limited customer pool or from a population that is large enough in relation to the service system so that changes do not significantly affect the system probabilities.
Another determinant of waiting line formation is the arrival characteristics of the queue members. The arrivals are far more controllable than normally recognized. Coupons, discounts, sales, and other methods can control demands on a system.
Queue lines can vary in length, in the number of lines used, and in the queue discipline or rules used for determining the order of service to customers. First come, first serviced is the most common priority rule. The service facility itself, with its particular flow and configuration can influence the queue. Computer spreadsheets are used to arrive at answers to waiting line problems. Computer simulations can also be used to arrive at solutions of more complex or dependent waiting line situations. Waiting line problems present challenges to management to attempt to eliminate them.
Service Blueprinting - The Process
https://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2023/07/service-blueprinting-process.html
Chapter outline
The Nature of Services
Service Businesses and Internal Services
Facilities-Based Services Defined
Field-Based Services Defined
A Customer-Centered View of Service Management
An Operational Classification of Services
High and Low Degree of Customer Contact Defined
Designing Service Organizations
Service Strategy: Focus and Advantage
Structuring the Service Encounter: Service-System Design Matrix
Strategic Uses of the Matrix
Service Blueprinting and Fail-Safing
Service Blueprint Defined
Poka-Yokes Defined
Three Contrasting Service Designs
The Production-Line Approach
The Self-Service Approach
The Personal-Attention Approach
Applying Behavioral Science to Service Encounters
New Service Development Process
Service Guarantees as Design Drivers
Service Guarantee Defined
Conclusion
Case: Pizza U.S.A.: An Exercise in Translating Customer Requirements into Process Design Requirements.
Case: Contact Centers Should Take a Lesson From Local Businesses
Outline of the technical notes on Waiting lines
Queues Defined
Economics of the Waiting Line Problem
Cost-Effectiveness Balance
The Practical View of Waiting Lines
The Queuing System
Queuing System Defined
Customer Arrivals
Arrival Rate Defined
Exponential Distribution Defined
Poisson Distribution Defined
Distribution of Arrivals
The Queuing System: Factors
Service Rate Defined
Exit
Waiting Line Models
Approximating Customer Waiting Time
Computer Simulation of Waiting Lines
Conclusion
MBA Core Management Knowledge - One Year Revision Schedule
Sources
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072983906/student_view0/technical_note7/
Summaries of all Chapters of Operation Management
Chapter outline
The Nature of Services
Service Businesses and Internal Services
Facilities-Based Services Defined
Field-Based Services Defined
A Customer-Centered View of Service Management
An Operational Classification of Services
High and Low Degree of Customer Contact Defined
Designing Service Organizations
Service Strategy: Focus and Advantage
Structuring the Service Encounter: Service-System Design Matrix
Strategic Uses of the Matrix
Service Blueprinting and Fail-Safing
Service Blueprint Defined
Poka-Yokes Defined
Three Contrasting Service Designs
The Production-Line Approach
The Self-Service Approach
The Personal-Attention Approach
Applying Behavioral Science to Service Encounters
New Service Development Process
Service Guarantees as Design Drivers
Service Guarantee Defined
Conclusion
Case: Pizza U.S.A.: An Exercise in Translating Customer Requirements into Process Design Requirements.
Case: Contact Centers Should Take a Lesson From Local Businesses
Outline of the technical notes on Waiting lines
Queues Defined
Economics of the Waiting Line Problem
Cost-Effectiveness Balance
The Practical View of Waiting Lines
The Queuing System
Queuing System Defined
Customer Arrivals
Arrival Rate Defined
Exponential Distribution Defined
Poisson Distribution Defined
Distribution of Arrivals
The Queuing System: Factors
Service Rate Defined
Exit
Waiting Line Models
Approximating Customer Waiting Time
Computer Simulation of Waiting Lines
Conclusion
MBA Core Management Knowledge - One Year Revision Schedule
Sources
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072983906/student_view0/technical_note7/
Summaries of all Chapters of Operation Management
Ud. 30.7.2023
Pub. 7.12.2014
Process Design - A Note - Nigel Slack et al.
Chapter 4 in 7th edition
10.5.2022
All operations managers are designers, because design is the process of satisfying people’s requirements through shaping or configuring products, services and processes.
Definition of ‘design’, we take it to mean ‘the process by which some functional requirement of people is satisfied through the shaping or configuration of the resources and/or activities that comprise a product, or a service, or the transformation process that produces them’. All operations managers are designers. When they purchase or rearrange the position of a piece of equipment, or when they change the way of working within a process, it is a design decision because it affects the physical shape and nature of their processes.
WHAT IS PROCESS DESIGN?
To ‘design’ is to conceive the looks, arrangement, and workings of something before it is created . In that sense it is a conceptual exercise. Yet it is one which must deliver a solution that will work in practice.
At the start of the process of design activity it is important to understand the design objectives, especially at first, when the overall shape and nature of the process is being decided. The most common way of doing this is by positioning it according to its volume and variety characteristics. Eventually the details of the process must be analysed to ensure that it fulfils its objectives effectively. Yet, it is often only through getting to grips with the detail of a design that the feasibility of its overall shape can be assessed. But don’t think of this as a simple sequential process. There may be aspects concerned with the objectives, or the broad positioning of the process, that will need to be modified following its more detailed analysis.
WHAT OBJECTIVES SHOULD PROCESS DESIGN HAVE?
The whole point of process design is to make sure that the performance of the process is appropriate for whatever it is trying to achieve. For example, if an operation competed primarily on its ability to respond quickly to customer requests, its processes would need to be designed to give fast throughput times.
Similarly, if an operation competed on low price, cost-related objectives would be likely to dominate its process design.
More ‘micro’ and detailed set of objectives.
These are largely concerned with flow through the process. When whatever are being ‘processed’ enter a process they will progress through a series of activities where they are ‘transformed’ in some way. Between these activities they may dwell for some time in inventories, waiting to be transformed by the next activity. This means that the time that a unit spends in the process (its throughput time) will be longer than the sum of all the transforming activities that it passes through. Also the resources that perform the process’s activities may not be used all the time because not all items will necessarily require the same activities and the capacity of each resource may not match the demand placed upon it. So neither the items moving through the process, nor the resources performing the activities may be fully utilized. Because of this the way that items leave the process is unlikely to be exactly the same as the way they arrive at the process. It is common for more ‘micro’ performance flow objectives to be used that describe process flow performance. For example:
● Throughput rate (or flow rate) is the rate at which items emerge from the process, i.e. the number of items passing through the process per unit of time.
‘Paced’ processes like moving belt assembly lines. It is the ‘beat’, or tempo, of working required to meet demand.
● Throughput time is the average elapsed time taken for inputs to move through the process and become outputs.
● The number of items in the process (also called the ‘work in progress’, or in-process inventory), as an average over a period of time.
● The utilization of process resources is the proportion of available time that the resources within the process are performing useful work.
Standardization is also an important objective in the design of some services and products, for similar reasons. The practical dilemma for most organizations is how to draw the line between processes that are required to be standardized, and those that are allowed to be different.
There is a continuum from low volume/high variety through to high volume/low variety, on which we can position processes. For each operation to be done in a process there could be processes with very different positions on this volume–variety spectrum.
Process types
Project processes
Jobbing processes
Batch processes
Mass and Bulk processes
Mass and Lean Processes
Continuous processes
● Cycle time, or takt time, is the reciprocal of throughput rate – it is the time between items emerging from the process. The term ‘takt’ time is the same, but is normally applied to
The product–process matrix
The most common method of illustrating the relationship between a process’s volume– variety position and its design characteristics is the ‘ product– process’ matrix. It can be used for any type of process whether producing products or services. The underlying idea of the product–process matrix is that many of the more important elements of process design are strongly related to the volume–variety position of the process. So, for any process, the tasks that it undertakes, the flow of items through the process, the layout of its resources, the technology it uses, and the design of jobs, are all strongly influenced by its volume–variety position.
DETAILED PROCESS DESIGN
After the overall design of a process has been determined, its individual activities must be configured. At its simplest, this detailed design of a process involves identifying all the individual activities that are needed to meet the objectives of the process, and deciding on the sequence in which these activities are to be performed and who is going to do them. There will, of course, be some constraints to this. Some activities must be carried out before others and some activities can only be done by certain people or equipment. Nevertheless, for a process of any reasonable size, the number of alternative process designs is usually large. Because of this, process design is often done using some simple visual approach, such as process mapping.
Process mapping
Process mapping simply involves describing processes in terms of how the activities within the process relate to each other. There are many techniques which can be used for process mapping (or process blueprinting, or process analysis, as it is sometimes called).
Different levels of process mapping
For a large process, drawing process maps at this level of detail can be complex. This is why processes are often mapped at a more aggregated level, called high-level process mapping, before more detailed maps are drawn.
At the highest level the process can be drawn simply as an input–transformation–output process with materials and customers as its input resources and lighting services as outputs. No details of how inputs are transformed into outputs are included. At a slightly lower or more detailed level, what is sometimes called an outline process map (or chart) identifies the sequence of activities but only in a general way.
At the more detailed level, all the activities are shown in a ‘detailed process map’ Although not shown in Figure 4.8, an even more micro set of process activities could be mapped within each of the detailed process activities. Such a micro-detailed process map could specify every single motion involved in each activity.
Some activities, however, may need mapping in more detail to ensure quality or to protect the company’s interests. For example, the activity of safety-checking the customer’s site to ensure that it is compliant with safety regulations will need specifying in some detail to ensure that the company can prove it exercised its legal responsibilities.
Throughput time, cycle time and work in progress
So far we have looked at the more conceptual (process types) and descriptive (process mapping) aspects of process design. We now move on the equally important analytical perspective.
Little’s law
This mathematical relationship (throughput time = work-in-progress * cycle time) is called Little’s law. It is simple but very useful, and it works for any stable process. Little’s law states that the average number of things in the system is the product of the average rate at which things leave the system and average time each one spends in the system. Or, put another way, the average number of objects in a queue is the product of the entry rate and the average holding time.
Throughput efficiency
This idea that the throughput time of a process is different from the work content of whatever it is processing has important implications.
Percentage throughput efficiency = [Work content/Throughput time] * 100
Value-added throughput efficiency restricts the concept of work content to only those tasks that are literally adding value to whatever is being processed. This often eliminates activities such as movement, delays and some inspections.
Workflow
When the transformed resource in a process is information (or documents containing information), and when information technology is used to move, store and manage the information, process design is sometimes called ‘workflow’ or ‘workflow management’.
SUMMARY - KEY QUESTIONS
What is process design?
What objectives should process design have?
How do volume and variety affect process design?
How are processes designed in detail?
Proposed Procedure for Process Design and Communication
1. First Specify the output required. Find out indicated volume for annual production.
2. Determine possible inputs.
3. For each input determine the material transformation stages (Find out the best machine available in the market for various volume levels. Incorporate existing machines in the company also in the proposal. Incorporate pure manual method also as an alternative).
4. Subject the initial proposal to technical feasibility analysis.
5. Do cost analysis for each alternative.
6. Select techno-economically feasible alternative for each operation in the process.
7. Decide quality related inspection activities for each material transformation operation.
8. Find out the best possible instruments for the inspection and related data processing. Incorporate existing instruments and pure manual alternatives also.
9. Subject the initial proposal to technical feasibility analysis.
10. Do cost analysis for each alternative.
11. Select techno-economically feasible alternative for each operation in the process.
12. Determine tentative batch quantity for manufacture.
13. Determine working process storage provision required. Determine the storage facility after techno-economic analysis including best facility currently available and existing facilities.
14. Determine the transport of material required between machine, inspection station and storage location.
15. Indicate the equipment to be used for transportation. Incorporate best possible equipments, existing equipments, and pure manual alternatives also.
16. Subject the initial proposal to technical feasibility analysis.
17. Do cost analysis for each alternative.
18. Select techno-economically feasible alternative for each operation in the process.
19. Present the complete process as a flow process chart.
This flow process chart is still a high level chart.
Each operation has to be designed and documented further. At the lowest level each element of machine work and manual motion are to be specified and even the motion patter needs to be specified.
SELECTED FURTHER READING
Chopra, S. , Anupindi, R. , Deshmukh, S.D. , Van Mieghem, J.A. and Zemel, E. ( 2012 ) Managing
Business Process Flows, 2nd edn , Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. An excellent, although
mathematical, approach to process design in general.
Hammer, M. ( 1990 ) Reengineering Work: Don’t automate, obliterate, Harvard Business Review , July–August. This is the paper that launched the whole idea of business processes and process management in general to a wider managerial audience. Slightly dated but worth reading.
Hopp, W.J. and Spearman, M.L. ( 2001 ) Factory Physics, 2nd edn, McGraw-Hill, New York. Very technical so don’t bother with it if you aren’t prepared to get into the maths. However, some fascinating analysis, especially concerning Little’s law.
Smith, H. and Fingar, P. ( 2003 ) Business Process Management: The Third Wave , Meghan-Kiffer Press, Tampa, FL. A popular book on process management from a BPR perspective.
The Basics of Process Mapping, 2nd Edition
By Robert Damelio
https://books.google.co.in/books?id=I6O_Z-dTap8C
Design and management of service processes
by Ramaswamy, Rohit,
Publication date 1996
Includes bibliographical references (pages 411-414) and index
Ch. 1. Designing Services -- an Introduction -- Ch. 2. The Service Design and Management Model -- A Methodological Overview -- Ch. 3. Developing Design Specifications -- Part 1: Defining Design Attributes -- Ch. 4. Developing Design Specifications -- Part 2: Setting Design Performance Standards -- Ch. 5. Generating and Evaluating Design Concepts -- Ch. 6. Performing Detailed Process Design -- Part 1: Generating Design Alternatives -- Ch. 7. Performing Detailed Process Design -- Part 2: Evaluating and Testing Alternatives -- Ch. 8. Implementing the Design -- Ch. 9. Measuring Performance -- Ch. 10. Assessing Customer Satisfaction -- Ch. 11. Improving Service Performance -- Ch. 12. Conclusion
Essentials Of Service Design
November 2011Journal of Service Science (JSS) 4(2):43
Jr. Harry Katzan
A Collection of Service Essays: A Practical Approach
Harry Katzan Jr
iUniverse, 23-Feb-2018 - Business & Economics - 248 pages
This book is a collection of papers written by the author on the subject of service. They all have been peer reviewed and written for a diverse variety of reasons. Some papers have been modified to suit a general audience, and others have simply been improved. There are some formatting differences due to the basic requirements of the various venues. The subject matter can be viewed as three separate sections: introductory, foundational, and applicative. The introductory papers are quite simple and give a gentle introduction to what the discipline of service is all about. The foundational papers provide a basis for the study of the concepts and methods of the service discipline. The applicative papers are general in nature so as to provide insight to what does and can go on in the world of service. Papers 1 and 2 fall into the first category. Papers 3, 4, and 5 are in the second category, and the remainder are in the third group. The table of contents is unique in that the entries give an abstract to the respective paper. This is an aid to a selection and gives a summary of the subject matter. The papers were assembled to support two recent books on the subject of service.
Bitner, M., Ostrom, A., and F. Morgan. 2007. Service Blueprinting: A Practical Technique for Service
Innovation. Center for Service Leadership, Arizona State University.
Service blueprinting: A practical technique for service innovation
M J Bitner, Amy Ostrom, Felicia N. Morgan
JournalCalifornia Management Review
Volume50
Issue number3
StatePublished - 2008
Ud. 30.7.2023, 11.7.2023
Pub 10.5.2022
July 28, 2023
Lean and Agile Manufacturing - Bibliography
LEAN MANUFACTURING IMPLEMENTATION Presentation
Ronald Turkett
1999
LEAN AND AGILE MANUFACTURING: THEORETICAL, PRACTICAL AND RESEARCH FUTURITIES
By S. R. DEVADASAN, V. SIVAKUMAR, R. MURUGESH, P. R. SHALIJ
https://books.google.co.in/books?id=ECC3D6dtvOcC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
https://www.slideshare.net/EmeraldPolytechnic/agile-manufacturing-71517416
Very good explanation of agile manufacturing - Gunasekharan
https://books.google.co.in/books?id=5gbDeVqJPB8C&pg=PA25&lpg=PA25#v=onepage&q&f=false
Ud. 29.7.2023
Pub. 17.7.2023
Business Ethics – Introduction
Business ethics is applied ethics. It is the application of our understanding of what good and right to that assortment of institutions, technologies, transactions, activities, and pursuits which we call "business"
First we need to understand what is meant by the terms "good" and "right" to discuss the implications of these for the business world.
A dictionary meaning of ethics is "the study of morality." Just as chemistry refers to a study of the properties of chemicals, ethics studies morality. It is not quiet the same as morality. Ethics is investigation of scientific study and the results of that investigation. Morality is the subject of investigation.
What is morality?
Morality
Morality can be defined as the standards that an individual or a group has about what is right and wrong or good and evil.
How to distinguish moral standards from standards that are not moral?
Ethicists suggested five characteristics to identify moral standards.
1. Moral standards deal with matters which people think can seriously injure or seriously benefit human beings.
2. Moral standards are not established or changed by political or legal authoritative bodies. The validity of moral standards rests on the adequacy of the reasons.
3. Moral standards are preferred to other standards including even self-interest when choice is there.
4. Moral standards are impartial. They are based on impartial reasons that an impartial observer would accept.
5. Moral standards are associated with special emotions. When people act in violation of a moral standard, they feel guilty, ashamed and remorseful.
(More detailed essay: The Definition of Morality https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/morality-definition/ )
Ethics
Ethics is the activity of examining the moral standards of a society or of an individual. Whether the standards are reasonable or not and how to apply the standard in particular situations are examined by ethicists. The aim of ethics is develop a body of moral standards that a person feels reasonable to hold based on careful thought.
Business Ethics
Business ethics is an enquiry of ethics in the field of business. It concentrates on moral standards that the system of business, business organizations, and individuals with in the business organizations and individuals who deal with business organizations have to evaluate and follow in their day to day dealings and decisions.
Business ethics can be studied at three levels: systemic, corporate and individual. Systemic issues deal with economic, political, legal and other related systems within which production and distribution activities are carried out. Questions related to the morality of capitalism, regulation of business etc. fall into this level. Corporate level issues deal with actions of corporate concerns or corporate citizens.
Individual levels issues deal with every individual working in a business firm and it can include customers/consumers.
Do Moral Standards Apply to Corporations?
While some people do argue that corporations have no moral standards to adhere to and only people have. Velasquez concludes that as corporate citizens they have moral standards to live up to but at the same time they are mainly acted upon by people. People are behind corporate decisions.
Moral Development
Some people believe that a person's values are formed during childhood and then do not change.But psychological research reveals that as persons mature, they change values in very deep and profound ways.
Lawrence Kohlberg proposed that a person’s ability to deal with moral issues develops in six identifiable stages.
Level 1. Preconventional stages
As a child
Stage 1: For child, the physical consequences determine the goodness or badness of an act. It means, he will not things for which his parents impose physical punishment. They are bad things.
Stage 2: Right activities are those that satisfy the needs of the child or the needs of persons he cares about.
Level 2. Conventional stages
As adolescent
Stage 3: Good behavior is living up to the expectations of the group of people one loves or trusts such as family or friends.
Stage 4: At more mature stage law is followed for determining right or wrong acts.
Level 3. Postconventional, autonomous, or principles stages
Stage 5: Conflicting personal views are recognized.Stage 6: Moral principles are chosen because of their logical comprehensiveness in ethics enquiry.
Carol Gilligan, a psychologist who worked under Kohlberg, became of a critic of his theory. She argued that Kohlberg observed only males and developed the theory. When females are observed, we realize that they they tend to see themselves as part of a "web" of relationships with family and when they encounter moral issues they are concerned with sustaining these relationships. In this role, morality is primarily a matter of "caring" and "being responsible" for others with whom one is involved in personal relationships, and not a matter of adhering to impartial and impersonal rules.
Subsequent research, agrees that moral issues can be dealt with from a perspective of impersonal partiality, or from a perspective of caring for persons, and these two perspectives are distinct.
From more on Gilligan's theory
http://humangrowth.tripod.com/id2.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3381683
http://highered.mheducation.com/sites/dl/free/0073010189/228359/diffvoice2.html
Moral Reasoning
Moral reasoning is the process by which actions are judged with reference to moral standards. It involves knowledge of moral standard and whether a situation has arisen wherein moral standard needs to be applied.
Moral reasoning has to be logical. The factual evidence regarding the situation must be accurate, relevant and complete. The set of moral standards invoked has to be consistent.
(For more detailed essay see: Moral Reasoning https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/reasoning-moral/)
Arguments For and Against Business Ethics
Arguments against Business Ethics
1. The pursuit of profit will by itself ensure social responsible behavior in perfectly competitive markets.
2. Managers are loyal agents and they should pursue the interests of their firms and should ignore ethical considerations.
3. It is sufficient if business firms obey law.Arguments for Expecting Ethical Behavior from Business Concerns
1. Businesses cannot survive unless moral standards exist in business concerns and outside.
2. Ethical concerns are consistent with profits of businesses.
2. Ethical concerns are consistent with profits of businesses.
3. Analogy to Prisoners’ dilemma problem reveals that in repeated interactions, cooperation is the best solution and ethical behavior is the best solution.
4. Most people value ethical behavior and punish business men and organizations that are not ethical. In organizations, where people feel there is no fair play, there is more absenteeism, avoidance of work and lack of respect. In organizations where people feel there is fair play, there is enthusiasm, cooperation and trust.
Main source:
Manuel G. Velasquez, Business Ethics: Concepts and Cases,
Fourth Edition, Prentice Hall Inc., Upper Saddle River, N.J., 1998,Business Ethics by Manuel G. Velasquez - Book Information and Review
References
Business Ethics: The new bottom line
Full view Google book http://books.google.co.in/books?id=SgNtH27P5PcCA Contemporary Look at Business Ethics
Ronald R. Sims
IAP, 01-Jul-2017 - Business & Economics - 579 pages
A Contemporary Look at Business Ethics provides a ‘present day’ look at business ethics to include the challenges, opportunities and increased need for ethical leadership in today’s and tomorrow’s organizations. The book discusses current and future business ethics challenges, issues and opportunities which provides the context leaders and their organizations must navigate. The book includes an in?depth look at lessons learned about the causes of unethical behavior by examining a number of real?world examples of ethical scandals from around the world that have taken place over the past few decades. The analysis of the various ethical scandals focuses on concepts like ethical versus unethical leadership, received wisdom, the bottom?line mentality, groupthink and moral muteness, all of which contribute to the kind of organizational culture and ethical behavior one finds in an organization. The book discusses ethical decision making in general and the increased role of religion and spirituality, in confronting unethical behavior in contemporary organizations. The book also takes an in?depth look at the impact ethical scandals have on employees and more specifically the psychological contract and person?organization ethical fit with the goal of identifying, along with other things, what leaders can do to restore relationships with employees and rebuild the organization’s reputation in the eyes of various stakeholders.
Related Articles in this blog
Moral Standards and Moral Judgments – Approaches
Updated 29.7.2023. 26 July 2021
15 May 2019, 7 Sep 2015
First published in blog 20 Dec 2011
Originally posted inFirst published in blog 20 Dec 2011
http://knol.google.com/k/narayana-rao/business-ethics-introduction/ 2utb2lsm2k7a/ 1373#
July 23, 2023
Spring Airlines - China's Low Cost Airline - Case Story
2007
https://aviationstrategy.aero/newsletter/Apr-2007/3/Spring-Airlines:China's-self-styled'first-LCC'
Wang Zhenghua of Spring Airlines: Making a Low-Cost Strategy Fly High
October 26, 2011
How can Chinese low-cost carriers become successful and profitable
Author(s)
Zhan, Yu, S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Thesis: S.M. in Management Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2015.
https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/98985
2022
Spring Airlines offers $1.30 flight tickets.
11/03/2022
2023
March 2023
Spring: International demand only 20% of precovid demand
Domestic demand reached 80% of precovid demand
May 2023
Spring Airlines has become the first major Chinese carrier to return to profitability in the 2023 first quarter (Q1), reflecting a strong domestic rebound following the relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions Jan. 8.
https://aviationweek.com/air-transport/airlines-lessors/spring-airlines-first-chinese-carrier-return-profitability
Ud. 23.7.2023
pub. 18.7.2023
Case Study Method - What do You Learn? How do You Learn?
https://hbr.org/2021/12/what-the-case-study-method-really-teaches
Business Education
What the Case Study Method Really Teaches
by Nitin Nohria
December 21, 2021
Summary.
It’s been 100 years since Harvard Business School began using the case study method. The case study method excels in instilling meta-skills in students. Prof. Nitin Norhia, of Harvard, specially highlighted the seven skills: preparation, discernment, bias recognition, judgement, collaboration, curiosity, and self-confidence.
Alumni of Harvard, highlighted a personal quality or skill like “increased self-confidence” or “the ability to advocate for a point of view” or “knowing how to work closely with others to solve problems” due to case method.
Cases expose students to real business dilemmas and decisions. Cases teach students to size up business problems included in the case in the context of the broader organizational, industry, and societal context. Cases explain students how decision were made in the businesses and ask them to induce theory from practice. The case method cultivates the capacity for critical analysis, judgment, decision-making, and action.
Meta-skills are a benefit of case study instruction. Educators define meta-skills as a group of long-lasting abilities that allow someone to learn new things more quickly. When parents encourage a child to learn to play a musical instrument, the child derives the benefit from deliberate, consistent practice. This meta-skill is valuable for learning many other things beyond music.
In the same vein, seven vital meta-skills students gain from the case method:
1. Preparation
The case method creates an environment for students to prepare. Students typically spend several hours reading, highlighting, and debating cases before class, sometimes alone and sometimes in groups.
Learning to be prepared — to read materials in advance, prioritize, identify the key issues, and have an initial point of view — is a meta-skill that helps people succeed in a broad range of professions and work situations. We have all seen how the prepared person, who knows what they are talking about, can gain the trust and confidence of others in a business meeting. The habits of preparing for a case discussion can transform a student into that person.
2. Discernment
Many cases are long. A typical case may include history, industry background, a cast of characters, dialogue, financial statements, source documents, or other exhibits. Some material may be digressive or inessential. Cases have critical pieces of information that are missing.
The case method forces students to identify and focus on what’s essential, ignore the noise, skim when possible, and concentrate on what matters, meta-skills required for every busy executive confronted with the paradox of simultaneous information overload and information paucity.
3. Bias Recognition
Students often have an initial reaction to a case stemming from their background or earlier work and life experiences. For instance, people who have worked in finance may be biased to view cases through a financial lens. However, effective general managers must understand and empathize with various stakeholders, and if someone has a natural tendency to favor one viewpoint over another, discussing dozens of cases will help reveal that bias. Armed with this self-understanding, students can correct that bias or learn to listen more carefully to classmates whose different viewpoints may help them see beyond their own biases.
Recognizing and correcting personal bias can be an invaluable meta-skill in business settings when leaders inevitably have to work with people from different functions, backgrounds, and perspectives.
4. Judgment
Cases put students into the role of the case protagonist and force them to make and defend a decision. The format leaves room for nuanced discussion. Teachers push students to choose an option, knowing full well that there is rarely one correct answer.
Indeed, most cases are meant to stimulate a discussion rather than highlight effective or ineffective management practice. Across the cases they study, students get feedback from their classmates and their teachers about when their decisions are more or less compelling. It enables them to develop the judgment of making decisions under uncertainty, communicating that decision to others, and gaining their buy-in — all essential leadership skills. Leaders earn respect for their judgment. It is something students in the case method get lots of practice honing.
5. Collaboration
It is better to make business decisions after extended give-and-take, debate, and deliberation. People get better at working collaboratively with practice. Discussing cases in small study groups, and then in the classroom, helps students practice the meta-skill of collaborating with others. Our alumni often say they came away from the case method with better skills to participate in meetings and lead them.
Orchestrating a good collaborative discussion is attempted in each case study. It is an art that students of the case method internalize and get better at when they get to lead discussions.
6. Curiosity
Cases expose students to lots of different situations and roles. Across cases, they get to assume the role of entrepreneur, investor, functional leader, or CEO, in a range of different industries and sectors. Each case offers an opportunity for students to see what resonates with them, what excites them, what bores them, which role they could imagine inhabiting in their careers.
Cases stimulate curiosity about the range of opportunities in the world and the many ways that students can make a difference as leaders. This curiosity serves them well throughout their lives. It makes them more agile, more adaptive, and more open to doing a wider range of things in their careers.
7. Self-Confidence
Students must inhabit roles during a case study that far outstrip their prior experience or capability, often as leaders of teams or entire organizations in unfamiliar settings. “What would you do if you were the case protagonist?” is the most common question in a case discussion. Even though they are imaginary and temporary, these “stretch” assignments increase students’ self-confidence that they can rise to the challenge.
Speaking up in front of 90 classmates feels troublesome at first, but students become more comfortable doing it over time. Knowing that they can hold their own in a highly curated group of competitive peers enhances student confidence. Often, alumni describe how discussing cases made them feel prepared for much bigger roles or challenges than they’d imagined they could handle before their MBA studies. Self-confidence is difficult to teach or coach, but the case study method seems to instill it in people.
Nitin Nohria is a professor at Harvard Business School and the chairman of Thrive Capital, a venture capital firm based in New York.
July 20, 2023
API Audit
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/annual-audits-coming-api-monogram-program-barrett-smith/
https://www.qualifiedspecialists.com/training-services/api-lead-auditor-training/
July 17, 2023
SCM - Analytical Framework - Why It is a Separate Discipline - Simon Croom et al.
SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT: AN ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK FOR CRITICAL LITERATURE REVIEW
Dr. Simon Croom1 , Pietro Romano2 and Mihalis Giannakis1
1 Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK
2 Department of Management and Engineering, University of Padua, Vicenza, Italy
Operations Management: Critical Perspectives on Business and Management, Volume 4
Michael Lewis, Nigel Slack
Taylor & Francis, 2003 - Production management - 576 pages
Page 3 of the file, page 77 in the book
https://books.google.co.in/books?id=LrdF0Pito8MC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
SCM Definitions
AUTHOR - DEFINITION
Tan et al. (1998)
Supply chain management encompasses materials/supply management from the supply of basic raw materials to final product (and possible recycling and re-use). Supply chain management focuses on how firms utilise their suppliers’ processes, technology and capability to enhance competitive advantage. It is a management philosophy that extends traditional intra-enterprise activities by bringing trading partners together with common goal of optimisation and efficiency.
Berry et al. (1994)
Supply chain management aims at building trust, exchanging information on market needs, developing new products, and reducing the supplier base to a particular OEM (original equipment manufacturer) so as to release management resources for developing meaningful, long term relationship.
Jones and Riley (1985)
An integrative approach to dealing with the planning and control of the materials flow from suppliers to end-users.
Saunders (1995)
External Chain is the total chain of exchange from original source of raw material, through the various firms involved in extracting and processing raw materials, manufacturing, assembling, distributing and retailing to ultimate end customers.
Ellram (1991)
A network of firms interacting to deliver product or service to the end customer, linking flows from raw material supply to final delivery.
Christopher (1992)
Network of organisations that are involved, through upstream and downstream linkages, in the different processes and activities that produce value in the form of products and services in the hands of the ultimate consumer.
Lee and Billington (1992)
Networks of manufacturing and distribution sites that procure raw materials, transform them into intermediate and finished products, and distribute the finished products to customers.
Kopczak (1997)
The set of entities, including suppliers, logistics services providers, manufacturers, distributors and resellers, through which materials, products and information flow.
Lee and Ng (1997)
A network of entities that starts with the suppliers’ supplier and end with the customers’ customers for the production and delivery of goods and services.
July 15, 2023
Resilience - Strategic Implications
We might think of resilience as the ability to go beyond simply responding and recovering from un-expected challenges, to growing and evolving in ways that create more value in the future. Rather than merely ‘bouncing back’ to where we were before, we should look for new ways to interconnect our activities and thrive. This means looking ahead, challenging our basic assumptions about what business we are really in and anticipating opportunities that no one has yet seen.
https://www.deloitte.com/global/en/issues/resilience/resilient-strategy.html
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rendezvous-resilience-research-note-business-leaders-policy-karajagi/
July 14, 2023
Resilience - Self Management
18 November 2019
Resilience is the ability to suffer unexpected negative events without damaging the oneself mentally and physically to a significant extent and then bounce back to normal condition.
People with resilience also feel distress when the negative event happens and their hopes and plans for a different outcome do not materialise. But failure in many walks of life are possible and can happen at the worst expected moment.
In Mayo Clinic's article on resilience there is a tip.
Make every day meaningful.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/resilience-training/in-depth/resilience/art-20046311
You had an awful day till now. You feel sick because of what others have done and what you have done in response. But still if you want to do something to get of our of that sick feeling try and make your day still meaningful. Do something now different that may make you feel happy. Focus on something else. Try forget the day's transactions and relationships. They happened earlier. Still you achieved somethings. Today again try to do something good.
https://www.apa.org/helpcenter/road-resilience
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rendezvous-resilience-research-note-business-leaders-policy-karajagi/
Ud. 15.7.2023
Pub. 18.11.2019
Agile Manufacturing
Agility is a quality of timely response to changing conditions. For an organization, it is quickly and successfully adapting to change which may be in any area such as market, regulation, or technological advancement (Vernadat, 2001).
In the year 1991 the Iacocca Institute (in its vision document titled 21st Century Manufacturing Enterprise Strategy primarily created for the US industry) highlighted the need for an agile enterprise, which could operate efficiently and effectively in a rapid and unpredictable change environment. Such business environments are constantly changing and highly competitive (Bruce et al., 2004). The ultimate objective of the vision document was to encourage a transition from mass production to AM in pursuit of regaining the manufacturing leadership by the US industry (Küçük & Güner, 2014; Nagel & Dove, 1991).
In his book, Agile Manufacturing: The 21st Century Competitive Strategy, Gunasekaran (2001) describes AM as the capability of surviving and prospering in a competitive environment of continuous and unpredictable change by reacting quickly and effectively to changing markets, driven by customer-designed products and services. Critical to accomplishing AM are a few enabling technologies such as the standard for the exchange of products, concurrent engineering, virtual manufacturing, component-based hierarchical shop floor control system, and information and communication infrastructure (Gunasekaran, 2001).
According to Christopher and Towill (2001), “Agility is a business-wide capability that embraces organizational structures, information systems, logistics processes and in particular, mindsets.” Being flexible is a key characteristic of an agile enterprise. Hence, the roots of agility lie in the concept of flexible manufacturing systems (Christopher & Towill, 2001).
Initially, the manufacturing flexibility was limited in scope, and the key focus was on automation and rapid changeovers only enabling the manufacturing of orders with product mix or volume. In later years the concept of agility (flexibility) was extended to a larger business context (Nagel & Dove, 1991).
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/agile-manufacturing-systems
Agility
Judging operations in terms of their agility has become popular. Agility is really a combination of all the five performance objectives, but particularly flexibility and speed. In addition, agility implies that an operation and the supply chain of which it is a part (supply chains are described in Chapter 6 ) can respond the uncertainty in the market. Agility means responding to market requirements by producing new and existing products and services fast and flexibly. (Nigel Slack, 7th ed., Ch.2, p54)
Lean and agile manufacturing: external and internal drivers and performance outcomes
Mattias Hallgren, Jan Olhager
International Journal of Operations & Production Management
ISSN: 0144-3577
Article publication date: 18 September 2009
Abstract
Purpose
Lean and agile manufacturing are two initiatives that are used by manufacturing plant managers to improve operations capabilities. The purpose of this paper is to investigate internal and external factors that drive the choice of lean and agile operations capabilities and their respective impact on operational performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Lean and agile manufacturing are each conceptualized as a second‐order factor and measured through a bundle of distinct practices. The competitive intensity of industry and the competitive strategy are modeled as potential external and internal drivers, respectively, and the impact on quality, delivery, cost, and flexibility performance is analyzed using structural equations modeling. The model is tested with data from the high performance manufacturing project comprising a total of 211 plants from three industries and seven countries.
Findings
The results indicate that lean and agile manufacturing differ in terms of drivers and outcomes. The choice of a cost‐leadership strategy fully mediates the impact of the competitive intensity of industry as a driver of lean manufacturing, while agile manufacturing is directly affected by both internal and external drivers, i.e. a differentiation strategy as well as the competitive intensity of industry. Agile manufacturing is found to be negatively associated with a cost‐leadership strategy, emphasizing the difference between lean and agile manufacturing. The major differences in performance outcomes are related to cost and flexibility, such that lean manufacturing has a significant impact on cost performance (whereas agile manufacturing has not), and that agile manufacturing has a stronger relationship with volume as well as product mix flexibility than does lean manufacturing.
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/01443570910993456/full/html
Seven steps to a more resilient, agile manufacturing supply chain
2022 PWC Report
Published in European Journal of Management and Business Economics. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
1. Introduction
In the work of Abshire (1996), the concept was introduced. The concept of strategic agility has been used across a series of industries, and authors have related this research line with several topics and organisational areas.
Agility entails rapid responses to changes in the market.
Weill et al. (2002, p. 64) define agility as “the set of business initiatives an enterprise can readily implement”;
Sambamurthy et al. (2003, p. 238) describe agility as “the ability to detect and seize market opportunities with speed and surprise”;
Cohen et al. (2004) argue that being agile means delivering quickly and changing quickly and often; Da Silva et al. (2011) mention that agile methods help deal with growing complexity while reducing time to market;
Aronsson et al. (2011) assert that the focus of agility is being able to compete in a state of constant change and that agile organisations are those that swiftly respond to changes in demand.
Abshire discussed “a strategy of agility” around the US policy and how to maintain the country’s leadership in the world. This author explained that the strategic landscape after the Cold War was characterised by an information age that was unpredictable and unstable. Thus, the US needed to use a strategy that was agile enough to seize opportunities and protect against threats (Abshire, 1996).
some authors used the terminology “business agility” in relation to strategy and the competitive advantage of a firm.
Mathiassen and Pries-Heje (2006) assert that agility is fundamental when planning business strategy and, to be properly implemented, agility must be aligned with the information technology (IT) strategy. These authors highlight the idea that the main path to maintain the competitive strategy is designing an agile business.
Van Oosterhout et al. (2006) focus their research on explaining how the business environment is highly dynamic and that businesses need to be not only flexible but also agile. Thus, business agility is defined as the capability of a firm to rapidly transform business models and processes beyond regular “flexibility” to respond to unpredictable external threats with successful internal changes.
Hendriyani and Raharja (2019) even use the expression “business agility strategy” to define the capacity of a Fintech start-up to detect opportunities and threats and develop an appropriate response.
Doz and Kosonen (2010) similarly relate strategic agility to the ability to transform and renew business models.
Ekman and Angwin (2007) refer to strategic agility as an acknowledgement of “the ever-increasing complexity and turbulence of their environments by developing requisite capabilities of flexibility and responsiveness”;
Lewis et al. (2014, describe it as “flexible, mindful responses to constantly changing environments”;
Weber and Tarba (2014, p. 5) pertain to strategic agility as the “ability to remain flexible in facing new developments, to continuously adjust the company's strategic direction, and to develop innovative ways to create value”;
Denning (2018, p. 119) argues that “strategic agility is generating innovations that create entirely new markets by turning non-customers into customers”;
Clauss et al. (2020, p. 3) refer to strategic agility as “a firm's ability to renew itself continuously and to maintain flexibility without compromising efficiency”.
Sambamurthy et al. (2003) relate agility with ambidexterity,
Ananthram and Nankervis (2013) argue that strategic agility is synonymous with other topics such as dynamic capabilities.
Ambidexterity pertains to the organisation’s ability to exploit its current capabilities while simultaneously exploring new competencies (Raisch et al., 2009; O'Reilly and Tushman, 2013; Pasamar, 2019; Vargas et al., 2021).
Regarding dynamic capabilities, they are defined as the firm’s ability to integrate, build and reconfigure internal competencies to address changes in the business environment (Teece, 2017; Schilke, 2018). Accordingly, strategic agility is considered a meta-capability that combines several dynamic capabilities (Ahammad et al., 2021; Shams et al., 2021; Nyamrunda and Freeman, 2021).
In this sense, Doz and Kosonen (2010) and Clauss et al. (2021) propose that strategic agility is formed as a combination of strategic sensitivity, leadership unity and resource fluidity;
Hock et al. (2016) and Ivory and Brooks (2018) also include strategic sensitivity, resource fluidity but considers collective commitment as the third dynamic capability that forms part of strategic agility.
The purpose of this study is to analyse the evolution of strategic agility over the 1996–2021 period, attempting to identify a comprehensive definition and the key themes in this field, which have drawn the attention of the research community, and the gaps in the literature.
The objective of our paper is threefold. First, we aim to understand the level of maturity of the topic of study. In other words, we intend to ascertain whether this topic is a growing one in the literature or whether it has started to plateau. We also seek to verify the degree of homogeneity of the distributions of authors and journals to explore for other authors the feasibility of publishing on this topic.
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/EJMBE-05-2021-0160/full/html
Agility of a Business Organization and Its Performance - McKinsey & Other Top Management Consultants
Dimensions of Business Agility
According to a new report from Forrester Research, there are 10 dimensions that define business agility, and companies can use them to effectively measure their maturity in the space. These dimensions span three main areas — market, organizational, and process — and include: channel integration, market responsiveness, knowledge dissemination, digital psychology, change management, business intelligence, infrastructure elasticity, process architecture, software innovation, and sourcing and supply chain.
https://www.bainstitute.org/resources/articles/four-dimensions-business-agility
4 Dimensions and 12 Aspects of Business Agility – A Structured Approach To Help Teams Succeed
https://www.scrum.org/resources/4-dimensions-and-12-aspects-business-agility-structured-approach-help-teams-succeed
Enterprise agility: Buzz or business impact?
March 20, 2020 | Article
https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/enterprise-agility-buzz-or-business-impact
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/tswj/2015/297850/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0925527398002199
http://www.cse.lehigh.edu/~rnn0/bio/summary.html
July 13, 2023
Enterprise Manufacturing Intelligence System (EMI)
Enterprise manufacturing intelligence (EMI) connects, organizes and aggregates manufacturing data from across your manufacturing enterprise.
https://plm.sw.siemens.com/en-US/opcenter/enterprise-manufacturing-intelligence-capabilities/
https://sageclarity.com/solutions/manufacturing-intelligence/
3.5 Million Page Views - Management Theory Review Blog - 14 July 2023
14 July 2023
The blog registered cumulative page views 3.5 million+
Thank you readers. You continued support helps to maintain the blog.
-----------------
Nigel Slack et al. Operations Management - 7th Edition - Detailed Chapters Contents
Operations Management - Summaries - Chapters, Topics, Sub-Sections,Concepts
https://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2019/03/operations-management-summaries.html
Operations Management - Important Points for Quick Revision
https://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2019/03/operations-management-important-points.html
Management Definition – Narayana Rao
https://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2018/01/management-definition-narayana-rao.html
Nigel Slack et al. Operations Management - 7th Edition - Detailed Chapters Contents
Part 1
INTRODUCTION 3
Chapter 1 Operations management 4
Introduction 4
What is operations management? 6
Operations management is important in all types of organization 8
The input–transformation–output process 13
The process hierarchy 18
Operations processes have different characteristics 23
What do operations managers do? 26
Summary answers to key questions 30
Case study: Design house partnerships at Concept Design Services 31
Problems and applications 34
Selected further reading 34
Useful websites 35
https://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2014/10/introduction-to-operations-management.html
Industrial Engineering and Operations Management - Distinction and Combination
https://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2019/04/industrial-engineering-and-operations.html
AIIE
“Industrial engineering is concerned with the design, improvement, and installation of integrated systems of men, materials, and equipment. It draws upon specialized knowledge and skill in the mathematical, physical, and social sciences together with the principles and methods of engineering analysis and design, to specify, predict, and evaluate the results to be obtained from such systems.” (AIIE, 1955). [4]
AIIE (Revised)
"Industrial engineering is concerned with the design, improvement and installation of integrated systems of people, materials, information, equipment and energy. It draws upon specialized knowledge and skill in the mathematical, physical, and social sciences together with the principles and methods of engineering analysis and design, to specify, predict, and evaluate the results to be obtained from such systems." [7]
Narayana Rao (2017)
Industrial engineering is system efficiency engineering.
Top 1% of Publications on Academia.Edu
INTRODUCTION TO MODERN INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING by Narayana Rao Kvss.
121 Pages. Free Download.
https://www.academia.edu/103626052/INTRODUCTION_TO_MODERN_INDUSTRIAL_ENGINEERING_Version_3_0
Chapter 2 Operations performance 36
Introduction 36
Operations performance is vital for any organization 38
Why is quality important? 46
Why is speed important? 47
Why is dependability important? 49
Why is flexibility important? 52
Why is cost important? 55
Trade-offs between performance objectives 60
Summary answers to key questions 62
Case study: Operations objectives at the
Penang Mutiara 64
Problems and applications 65
Selected further reading 66
Useful websites 67
What is Operational Excellence in Manufacturing and Supply Chain?
https://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2015/03/what-is-operational-excellence-in.html
KPIs
Procurement KPIs : Accuracy, Operational, Supplier and Financial level Procurement Key performance indicators
Important Key Performance Indicators(KPIs) for Strategic Human Resource(HR) management
Analytics-Based Enterprise Performance Management (EPM)
Webinar on 18 June 2023
Registration link
Chapter 3 Operations strategy 68
Introduction 68
What is strategy and what is operations strategy? 70
The ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ perspectives 73
The market requirements and operations resources perspectives 77
How can an operations strategy be put together? 86
Summary answers to key questions 89
Case study: Long Ridge Gliding Club 91
Problems and applications 92
Selected further reading 93
Useful websites 93
https://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2023/06/operations-strategy-nigel-slack-et-al.html
Part 2
DESIGN 95
Chapter 4 Process design 96
Introduction 96
What is process design? 97
What objectives should process design have? 98
Process types – the volume–variety effect on process design 101
Detailed process design 109
Summary answers to key questions 120
Case study: The Action Response Applications Processing Unit (ARAPU) 121
Problems and applications 123
Selected further reading 124
Useful websites 124
Process Design - A Note - Nigel Slack et al.
https://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2022/05/process-design-note-nigel-slack-et-al.html
Production Process Planning - Sub-Module of Process Industrial Engineering
https://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2020/07/production-process-planning-sub-module.html
Process Strategy and Analysis - Important Points - Summary - Krajewski - 12th Edition
https://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2019/08/process-strategy-and-analysis-important.html
Product Design and Process Selection—Services - Review Notes
https://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2011/12/product-design-and-process.html
Little’s Law, a fundamental tool to define supply chain metrics
Sangdo (Sam) Choi
Harry F. Byrd, Jr. School of Business, Shenandoah University, Winchester, VA 22601, USA
Abstract
We review Little's Law to define inventory turnover and other asset-turnovers. We relate Little's Law
with EOQ model and turnovers. We suggest a new definition of cash-to-cash cycle for manufacturers,
because the current one is for retailers. We analyze several industries using an earns-turns matrix based
on Little's Law.
Chapter 5 Innovation and design in services and products 125
Introduction 125
How does innovation impact on design? 127
Why is good design so important? 130
The stages of design – from concept to specification 131
What are the benefits of interactive design? 141
Summary answers to key questions 147
Case study: Chatsworth – the adventure playground decision 148
Problems and applications 150
Selected further reading 150
Useful websites 151
Design of Services and Products - Nigel Slack - Chapter Summary
https://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2023/07/design-of-services-and-products-nigel.html
Product Design and Process Selection—Services - Review Notes (Chase et al. Book)
https://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2011/12/product-design-and-process.html
Chapter 6 Supply network design 152
Introduction 152
The supply network perspective 153
Configuring the supply network 155
Where should an operation be located? 160
Long-term capacity management 168
Break-even analysis of capacity expansion 174
Summary answers to key questions 175
Case study: Disneyland Resort Paris (abridged) 176
Problems and applications 180
Selected further reading 182
Useful websites 182
Supplement to Chapter 6
Forecasting 183
Introduction 183
Forecasting – knowing the options 183
In essence forecasting is simple 184
Approaches to forecasting 185
Selected further reading 190
Chapter 7 Layout and flow 191
Introduction 191
What is layout? 193
The basic layout types 193
What type of layout should an operation choose? 200
How should each basic layout type be designed in detail? 204
Summary answers to key questions 217
Case study: North West Constructive Bank (abridged) 218
Problems and applications 220
Selected further reading 222
Useful websites 222
Chapter 8 Process technology 223
Introduction 223
Operations management and process technology 225
What do operations managers need to know about process technology? 225
How are process technologies evaluated? 237
How are process technologies implemented? 242
Summary answers to key questions 246
Case study: Rochem Ltd 247
Problems and applications 249
Selected further reading 249
Useful websites 250
IoT and Supply Chain Management
2017
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321131587_Internet_of_things_and_supply_chain_management_a_literature_review/link/5e3fb9d892851c7f7f27ee14/download
Free Access
Good article
Introduction to the special issue on “Technology management in a global context: From enterprise systems to technology disrupting operations and supply chains”
Gregory R. Heim, Xiaosong (David) Peng
First published: JOM, 21 September 2022 https://doi.org/10.1002/joom.1216
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/joom.1216
Chapter 9
People, jobs and organization 251
Introduction 251
People in operations 253
Human resource strategy 253
Organization design 256
Job design 259
Allocate work time 271
Summary answers to key questions 273
Case study: Service Adhesives try again 274
Problems and applications 276
Selected further reading 277
Useful websites 277
Supplement to Chapter 9
Work study 279
Introduction 279
Method study in job design 279
Work measurement in job design 282
https://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2023/06/people-jobs-and-organization-operations.html
Part Three
DELIVER – PLANNING AND CONTROLLING OPERATIONS 287
Chapter 10 The nature of planning and control 288
Introduction 288
What is planning and control? 290
The effect of supply and demand on
planning and control 293
Planning and control activities 299
Controlling operations is not always routine 314
Summary answers to key questions 316
Case study: subText Studios,
Singapore (abridged) 317
Problems and applications 320
Selected further reading 321
Useful websites 321
Chapter 11 Capacity management 322
Introduction 322
What is capacity management? 324
How is capacity measured? 326
Coping with demand fluctuation 334
How can operations plan their capacity level? 343
How is capacity planning a queuing problem? 348
Summary answers to key questions 353
Case study: Blackberry Hill Farm 354
Problems and applications 358
Selected further reading 360
Useful websites 360
Supplement to Chapter 11
Analytical Queuing Models 361
Introduction 361
Notation 361
Variability 361
Incorporating Little’s law 363
Types of queuing system 363
Chapter 12
Inventory management 368
Introduction 368
What is inventory? 370
Why should there be any inventory? 372
How much to order – the volume decision 376
When to place an order – the timing decision 388
How can inventory be controlled? 392
Summary answers to key questions 398
Case study: supplies4medics.com 400
Problems and applications 401
Selected further reading 402
Useful websites 402
Chapter 13
Supply chain management 404
Introduction 404
What is supply chain management? 406
The activities of supply chain management 409
Single- and multi-sourcing 413
Relationships between operations
in a supply chain 419
How do supply chains behave in practice? 424
How can supply chains be improved? 426
Summary answers to key questions 433
Case study: Supplying fast fashion 434
Problems and applications 437
Selected further reading 438
Useful websites 438
Chapter 14
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) 439
Introduction 439
What is ERP? 440
How did ERP develop? 441
Implementation of ERP systems 449
Summary answers to key questions 451
Case study: Psycho Sports Ltd 452
Problems and applications 454
Selected further reading 455
Useful websites 455
Supplement to Chapter 14
Materials requirements planning (MRP) 456
Introduction 456
Master production schedule 456
The bill of materials (BOM) 458
Inventory records 459
The MRP netting process 459
MRP capacity checks 461
Summary 463
Chapter 15
Lean synchronization 464
Introduction 464
What is lean synchronization? 465
How does lean synchronization
eliminate waste? 471
Lean synchronization applied throughout the supply network 484
Lean synchronization compared with other approaches 486
Summary answers to key questions 489
Case study: The National Tax Service (NTS) 490
Problems and applications 492
Selected further reading 493
Useful websites 494
Chapter 16
Project management 495
Introduction 495
What is project management? 497
How are projects planned and controlled? 500
What is network planning? 514
Summary answers to key questions 526
Case study: United Photonics Malaysia Sdn Bhd 527
Problems and applications 531
Selected further reading 532
Useful websites 533
Chapter 17 Quality management 534
Introduction 534
What is quality and why is it so important? 536
How can quality problems be diagnosed? 540
Conformance to specification 541
Achieving conformance to specification 541
Total quality management (TQM) 548
Summary answers to key questions 556
Case study: Turnround at the Preston plant 557
Problems and applications 559
Selected further reading 560
Useful websites 560
Supplement to Chapter 17
Statistical process control (SPC) 562
Introduction 562
Control charts 562
Variation in process quality 563
Control charts for attributes 568
Control chart for variables 569
Process control, learning and knowledge 573
Summary 574
Selected further reading 574
Useful websites 574
Part Four
IMPROVEMENT 577
Chapter 18 Operations improvement 578
Introduction 578
Why is improvement so important in operations management? 580
The key elements of operations improvement 584
The broad approaches to managing improvement 588
What techniques can be used for improvement? 598
Summary answers to key questions 603
Case study: GCR Insurance 605
Problems and applications 608
Selected further reading 609
Useful websites 609
Chapter 19 Risk management 610
Introduction 610
What is risk management? 612
Assessing the potential causes of and
risks from failure 613
Preventing failure 624
How can operations mitigate the effects of failure? 631
How can operations recover from the effects of failure? 632
Summary answers to key questions 635
Case study: Slagelse Industrial
Services (SIS) 636
Problems and applications 638
Selected further reading 638
Useful websites 639
Chapter 20 Organizing for improvement 640
Introduction 640
Why the improvement effort needs organizing 642
Linking improvements to strategy 643
What information is needed for improvement? 645
What should be improvement priorities? 652
How can organizational culture affect improvement? 657
Key implementation issues 659
Summary answers to key questions 664
Case study: Re-inventing Singapore’s
libraries 666
Problems and applications 667
Selected further reading 668
Useful websites 668
Part 5
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY 671
Chapter 21 Operations and corporate social responsibility (CSR) 672
Introduction 672
What is corporate social responsibility? 674
The wider view of corporate social responsibility 679
How can operations managers analyse CSR issues? 686
Summary answers to key questions 689
Case study: CSR as it is presented 690
Problems and applications 691
Selected further reading 691
Useful websites 691
Notes on chapters 693
Glossary 700
Index 713
Sustainability
IJOPM Vol. 43, Issue 4, 2023: Speical Issue Applying operations and supply chain management theories in the circular economy context
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ijopm-vol-43-issue-4-2023-si-applying-operations/
Issue Link
https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/0144-3577/vol/43/iss/4
June - July - August 2023
Top 0.5% of Publications on Academia.Edu -
INTRODUCTION TO MODERN INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING by Narayana Rao Kvss.
1172 Views - 121 Pages.
Free Download.
https://www.academia.edu/103626052/INTRODUCTION_TO_MODERN_INDUSTRIAL_ENGINEERING_Version_3_0
#IndustrialEngineering #Productivity #CostReduction
For links of slides of various chapters
Nigel Slack et al. Operations Management - 7th Edition - Detailed Chapters Contents
https://mbarevision.blogspot.com/2023/07/operations-management-nigel-slack-et-al.html
Ud. 6.7.2023
Pun 29.6.2023
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)