Cooperatives Quality: evidence from Greece

The study of the role and contribution of ISO 9000 QMS to the corporate strategic development and organisational change and performance improvement of the Greek Agrocoops, as well as the identification and analysis of the drivers and constraints of this system’s effective implementation and efficient use has and/or should have been the subject of increased attention in recent times, as the majority of these organisations face increasing financial and business operating problems over the last three decades, as it was identified in a collective work of Papageorgiou et al, published in “Syneteristiki Poreia” (volumes of years 2000-2003) and the re-configuration of their organisational practices and activities, referring to any management system adapted and applied – e.g. the ISO 9000 QMS, is considered a must for their business survival in the words of Arvanitoyiannis (2001). As a result of the aforementioned facts and due to his current professional status, the researcher decided to focus his DBA research on issues relating to the role and contribution of the quality management systems - and more particularly of the ISO 9000 Quality Management Systems - to the achievement of Greek Agricultural Cooperatives’ corporate strategic goals and organisational performance improvement through the improvement of their business processes. The critical examination of the ISO 9000 – QualityManagement Systems’ implementation process and use purpose by the Agricultural Cooperatives sector in Greece is the broad and general Topic of my Doctorate Research. It is mainly connected with the following two current issues: - on one hand, with the reanimation of the ongoing dialogue and debate concerning the perspectives of the Agricultural Cooperatives in Greece and the future status of the 15% of the country’s active population, which is occupied in the broader agricultural sector (Bank of Greece, 2002), and - on the other hand, with the ever increasing public concern, interest and demand for safer, healthier and quality enhanced food products and services all over the world (ICAP, 2002 and Arvanitoyiannis, 2000)

Critical success factors of business process management:investigating the coverage of business process (management) maturity models

Business Process Management (BPM) aims to improve the quality of business processes by consolidating the concepts of modelling, reengineering, automation, management, and innovation. Tailoring multi-faceted BPM to specific contexts of organizations on the ground of fast-growing information technology is the challenge of the current decade. A considerable number of critical success factors (CSFs) for BPM has been proposed by various studies in the scientific literature to provide insight into the process of achieving BPM. However, only few of these studies propose guidelines/practices for addressing the CSFs. This study is intended to provide a state-of-the-art of CSFs of BPM by a systematic review of scientific literature and to investigate content coverage of business process maturity models as a potential enabler of realization of these CSFs. We searched the studies between the years 2000 and 2015 in established digital libraries and identified 14 CSF categories from 18 studies out of 242 studies retrieved initially. Following that, we searched for evidence on the existence of each CSF category in five maturity models, namely Business Process Management Capability Framework (BPM-CF), Business Process Orientation Maturity Model (BPO-MM), Business Process Orientation Maturity Framework (BPO-MF), Business Process Maturity Model (OMG-BPMM), and Process and Enterprise Maturity Model (PEMM). The findings from our investigation show that, despite the variance in degree of coverage of CSF categories by selected BPMMs, maturity models stand as a promising reference for organizations to start their BPM efforts.\u3cbr/\u3

EVOLUTIONS AND STRATEGIES ON THE FUTURES MARKET AT SIBEX

The emergence and formation of stock exchange commodities is the result of anatural evolutionary process, which began approximately 2000 years ago in Greece andAncient Rome and continues today, too. Over time, through a management focused onoptimizing the institutional activities and on the efficient communication of its offer in thefinancial and business environment, Sibiu Stock This paper aims at pointing out certainindicators regarding the stock exchange organisations through which the efficiency of resultscan be analyzed and exemplified, having as object of study Sibiu Stock Exchange and theevolution of futures contracts on the regulated market in Sibiu during 2007-2010. Theirpresence has materialized into the continuous growth of the number of contracts, thediversification of strategies and the multiplication of winning chances, so that the exposure ofthe stock exchange in Sibiu has increased substantially.stock exchange, evolution, derivates, Sibex, management

Improving purchasing performance by implementation of QMS process management approach in a manufacturing company

Process oriented approach in quality management system has been introduced with ISO9001:2000. The international standard promotes the adoption of a process approach when developing, implementing and improving the effectiveness of a QMS to enhance customer satisfaction by meeting customer requirement. The advantage of process approach is to link all parties in scope of business of the organization from suppliers, internal departments of organization to gather to make B2B communication and integration. In this paper, the process approach is defined based on QMS requirement. Supply department was proposed for implementation of process. Purchasing process was designed as a linkage between supplier and internal company departments. Performance indicators were developed and measured accordingly. It shows that process management can improve delivery capability, quality and monitor price of supplied parts by suppliers

Studi Implementasi Iso 9000 : 2000 Pada Perusahaan Konstruksi Di Makassar

. Systematic quality management could reduce cost of defect of product and service. Therefore a standard is required to do efficient work by creating quality consistency. In the year 2004, LPJK released a regulation that large construction company or categorized as B grade have to apply system of quality management of ISO 9000:2000. Context of this study is to analyze quality management that employ in construction firms in Makassar and to identify processes which can be improved to obtain optimal customer satisfaction and continuous improvement. This research cover tools and system of quality management, quality document, quality system, quality activity in company, quality dimension, culture of quality, and process approach in quality system. Research show that construction firms in Makassar have accommodated quality system in their business, its indicated by most of construction company have special unit on quality, quality document, system of quality and quality activity that supporting process for quality management. Level of Quality system at company applying ISO 9000:2000 is laid on steps of quality assurance. Spearman Correlation test show quality cultures and activities have significantly affected quality processes within construction firms

Integrating Project Management and Change Management in an IS Curriculum

Because many new information systems (IS) projects involve business process reengineering, project managers need the necessary skills to manage development projects and organizational change. These concepts are inter-related. The MIS 2000 curriculum calls for them to be taught as a single course. The purpose of this paper is review the fundamental principles of project management and change management and show how these concepts can be integrated and taught in this IS course. The paper first presents a broad overview of current project management and change management trends and practices and then provides guidance for developing an integrated IS project and change management course

Determining the essential characetristics of Six Sigma Black Belts

A Six Sigma Black Belt (SSBB) plays the role of a full-time team leader responsible for implementing process improvement projects using the Six Sigma methodology (Define-Measure-Analyse-Improve-Control) within the business to drive up customer satisfaction levels and business productivity. Black Belt projects are typically defined so that they can be completed in less than 6 months, and are generally focused on high-priority business issues and are targeted to add $175,000 to$250,000 to the bottom-line of organisations (Snee, 2004). A fully trained BB will be expected to deliver a minimum of $500,000 to well over$1,000,000 in direct cost savings to the bottom-line of an organisation per year (Harry and Schroeder, 2000). Moreover, a BB is expected to complete between 4 to 6 projects per annum depending on the scope of the project, complexity of the project and availability of data. The BB program of study focuses on an understanding of the Six Sigma philosophy, key principles and concepts, tactics, application of tools and techniques, project management skills, etc. So,why the martial arts terminology? The sole function of a BB is to focus on disciplined problem solving using the DMAIC (Define-Measure-Analyse-Improve-Control) methodology and a specific set of tools and techniques with speed (i.e. project completion in a short period of time). The purpose here is to defeat the enemy – variation in processes which lead to customer dissatisfaction (Brue and Howes, 2006)

Fehr foods: a step forward in Nutresa’s expansion plan

In 2009, Grupo Nutresa, Colombia’s largest food company set an ambitious and challenging growth plan for the years to come -- Bearing in mind the competitiveness and potential of its business units overseas, since the year 2000 the company defined the internationalization process as a key objective for its business model development and sustainable growth (Grupo Nutresa, Informe anual y de sostenibilidad, 2013) -- As part of it, the Americas were defined as the strategic region to continue on with its market enlargement and penetration plan -- In 2009, the Investment Banking Firm McColl Partner, LLC (which had recently carried out an investment process for Grupo Nutresa’s sister company, Grupo Argos), came into contact with Nutresa suggesting them the acquisition of Fehr Foods, a leading value-priced retail packaged cookie manufacturing company in the U.S. -- Known today as Abimar Foods, this acquisition was consistent with the company’s previously defined expansion plan to enter the U.S. market -- According to Grupo Nutresa Biscuits Business Unit perspective, it was aligned with their management and business policies, and their sales were supported through a local facility (Grupo Nutresa, personal communication, April, 25th, 2015) -- The purchasing process was relatively quick and in 2010 Fehr Foods was incorporated to Grupo Nutresa Biscuits Business Unit. About a year later, Mr. 4M, who was the financial manager of the Cookies Business, was designated as Fehr Foods’ CE

Effective Knowledge Management (KM) strategy within a business organization

A cohesive Knowledge Management (KM) strategy is found at the cornerstone of every successful business enterprise\u27s overall business strategy. The full benefit of this strategy can only be achieved through a dynamic, technology-enabled framework that encourages best and better practices to capture the outputs of human innovation and creative knowledge. Competitive pressures and technological convergence, most prevalent in high technology business sectors, have demonstrated the critical need for an information strategy that can harness and discern the continual amass of intellectual property. The continual accumulation of information and knowledge critical to the sustained viability of many business organizations, presents significant and complex management challenges. The dynamic changes in economic conditions and technical innovation and advance, coupled with the need to manage the outputs of human innovation and creative capacity, continues to present a paradigm shift from the traditional management approaches to more adaptive, dynamic, non-traditional management approaches and technology solutions. A major KM challenge many organizations continue to face is no longer just how to capture and manage their intellectual property, but how to identify and discern between true intellectual content and simple information, the real knowledge of their business. A successful KM strategy becomes synonymous with the overall business strategy, and includes the requirement for a process model that provides a framework that can be adapted to an ever-changing business model. This framework must provide the ability to identify and discern between static data or information and dynamic intellectual property, which the latter is often the direct output of human creativity and innovation.1 Accordingly, one important aspect of KM as a practice is the development of knowledge transfer systems. However, the one-size-fits-all approach to the technical solution is only part of the success equation.2 The other critical element in the equation is the approach to integrate it into the related business process framework. The means of specific process improvement may vary based on business requirements and scope of technical solution, but the underlying basis of need for change or improvement remains a constant. A foundational framework for business process strategy and execution takes on much greater significance as part of the overall business strategy. Thomas A. Stewart, a member of the board of editors at Fortune Magazine, says Because knowledge has become the single most important factor of production, managing intellectual assets has become the single most important task of business. This paper will focus on the discipline of knowledge management and associated knowledge transfer practices in a pragmatic context to illustrate its importance as an integral component of a successful business strategy. This includes the perspectives of both as strategic asset in the management of intellectual capital, and as an enabling technology to leverage the intellectual capital for business fulfillment. The assertions and discussions put forth, while centered on knowledge management, can be paralleled for several IT-centric business disciplines. However, the analysis of the research and case studies referenced in this paper will illustrate the growing breadth and importance of knowledge assets as the primary cornerstone in a broad spectrum of business disciplines. More importantly, it will clearly demonstrate the critical need to effectively manage and control knowledge assets for competitive advantage as part of the overall business strategy. 1 Yogesh Malhotra, Knowledge Management for E-business Performance: Advancing Information Strategy to Internet Time ; Information Strategy, The Executive\u27s Journal. Summer 2000, vol. 16 (4), pp. 5-16 2 James Conlan, Improving Business Processes , KMWorld, November/December 2001, pp. S13