Time to be responsive in the process industry: a literature-based analysis of trends of change, solutions and challenges

The current uncertain and volatile business context is challenging firms worldwide, leading to the need to be responsive at a competitive cost. This trend is so substantial that it even affects industries traditionally competing in rather stable contexts, such as the process industry. Although the process industry includes multiple sectors with different technologies and processes, these share several aspects that make the industry as a whole distinctive to the discrete manufacturing industry. Based on a literature review, this study identifies and describes trends leading the process industry to the need for responsiveness, corresponding solutions to accommodate the need, and related challenges hindering the industrialization and diffusion of solutions in this industry. This study shows that trends, such as the uncertainty and volatility of market requirements, are challenging the process industry to develop reconfigurability solutions across multiple production levels. The development of reconfigurability solutions is hindered by modularity, integrability, co-ordination and collaboration challenges

IT-Driven Divestments: Towards Theoretical Multiplicity Through A Configurational Approach

The ongoing digitization, IT advancements, and innovative business models disrupt many industries. They pressure established organizations to adjust their organizational structures and procedures within their own business. So far, IT-driven divestments have received less attention in IS research. Following the configurational approach to two theoretical perspectives – (1) the resource-based view and (2) the concept of ambidexterity – we derive two causal configurations to ground IT-driven divestments theoretically. Thereby, we contribute to theory by illustrating the suitability of a configurational approach to investigate the theoretical multiplicity of IT-driven divestments. We discuss our insights against the theory of path dependence. We conclude by outlining our contribution to theory and practice and suggesting steps for future research

Dynamic Organizations: Achieving Marketplace and Organizational Agility with People

Driven by dynamic competitive conditions, an increasing number of firms are experimenting with new, and what they hope will be, more dynamic organizational forms. This development has opened up exciting theoretical and empirical venues for students of leadership, business strategy, organizational theory, and the like. One domain that has yet to catch the wave, however, is strategic human resource management (SHRM). In an effort to catch up, we here draw on the dynamic organization (DO) and human resource strategy (HRS) literatures to delineate both a process for uncovering and the key features of a carefully crafted HRS for DOs. The logic is as follows. DOs compete through marketplace agility. Marketplace agility requires that employees at all levels engage in proactive, adaptive, and generative behaviors, bolstered by a supportive mindset. Under the right conditions, the essential mindset and behaviors, although highly dynamic, are fostered by a HRS centered on a relatively small number of dialectical, yet paradoxically stable, guiding principles and anchored in a supportive organizational infrastructure. This line of reasoning, however, rests on a rather modest empirical base and, thus, is offered less as a definitive statement than as a spur for much needed additional research

The pursuit of responsiveness in production environments: from flexibility to reconfigurability

Many production plants are pursuing responsiveness (i.e., timely purposeful change guided by external demands) as one of their main performance priorities and are looking for ways for their responsiveness to be improved. One of the ways that they are currently trying to do this is through the flexibility provided by production practices. On the other hand, other systems are also being now developed based on reconfigurability (such as reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMSs)) which can enhance a company’s technological ability to respond to market requirements by reconfiguring its products and processes. This paper analyses how current production programmes can be a prior step to achieving reconfigurability. The analysis uses a holistic framework that considers a number of linkages or combinations of practices (technology, JIT, TQ, HR, TPM and production strategy) and how these enhance performance in terms of cost, quality and responsiveness. The framework is tested with data collected from a survey of 314 plants worldwide using a series of canonical correlation analyses. The results confirm not only the importance of practice linkages that do not only include technology as the launch pad for reconfigurability, but also that in their pursuit of responsiveness it is vital for plants to implement practices in the technology programme as well as to link them to organisational programmes. The framework presents a contribution to both theory and practice. It offers novel insights into the programme and production practices involved in transitioning from flexibility to reconfigurability in the pursuit of responsiveness and provides a basis for future research.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación DPI-2009-11148Junta de Andalucía P08-SEJ-0384

The Effect of Application Ambidexterity on Firm Agility

Firm agility is quickly becoming an essential capability for companies to effectively compete in hypercompetitiveenvironments. At the same time, firms are using applications that enable close integration coupled with an increased ability toreconfigure processes. Such applications should manifest a balance between integration and reconfigurability. This is theconcept of applications ambidexterity. The IS literature has selectively focused on either integration or reconfigurability. Byfocusing on only one characteristic we have been unable to understand the IT - agility relation. Research suggests thatintegration and reconfigurability alone cannot explain the true nature of the IT - agility relation. This conceptual paperattempts to understand the complementary effects of integration and reconfigurability on firm agility. It contributes to theliterature by theorizing the role of IT application ambidexterity on firm agility through the mediating variables of knowledgeexploration, knowledge exploitation and process adaptability

Conceptualizing Supply Chain Resilience in Exogenous Crisis Times: Toward a Holistic Definition

Supply chain resilience has become increasingly crucial in today’s scenario in response to major disruptions that generated huge exogenous crises. This paper investigates the current SCR-related academic literature related to SCR to develop a new holistic definition. A total amount of 214 scientific contributions the last 5 years (i.e., between 2018 and 2022) have been analyzed. Findings revealed four important issues to achieve SCR, i.e., Key resilience attributes, Technology-aided visible SC, Sustainable and measurable SCR practices, and Relationship between SC partners. Leveraging insights gleaned from these critical issues, we have meticulously crafted an updated and comprehensive definition of SCR, by considering the multi-faceted facets that contribute to its holistic understanding. In light of our emerging insights, we suggest a novel approach to fortify organizational supply chain resilience, emphasizing a more holistic perspective. Our recommendations for future research include (1) exploring the integration of emerging technologies like blockchain and artificial intelligence for real-time monitoring to enhance adaptive decision-making in post-COVID-19 supply chains, (2) investigating the strategic role of collaborative networks and information sharing among supply chain partners to enhance agility and responsiveness amidst post-pandemic uncertainties, and (3) analyzing the impact of sustainable and circular supply chain practices on resilience. Findings of the paper and the new holistic definition of SCR have several implications for both academics and managers that are listed at the end of the paper along with limitations of the study and future research avenues

The Rolodex model: understanding relationship complexity as a precursor to the design of organizational forms for chaotic environments

The emerging business environment is increasingly complex, characterized by hypercompetition, compound interdependence, and electronic webs This heightened complexity is triggering a slew of new organizational forms and shifts in the underlying logics of organizational forms These new organizational forms are not only more complex, but they have new kinds of complexity - increasingly hybrid and heterarchical, more flexible, and dynamically reconfigurable. The report argues that in such new conditions we need to rethink how we conceive the structural dimensions of organizational form and base them on a process model of inter-organizational relationships. This report examines relationship complexity as a structural topology that underlies organizational form It identifies three structural dimensions of relationship complexity reach, range, and reciprocity and combines them in a model that allows dynamic reconfigurability. The model is based on the primacy of perspective of practicing managers and we have termed it the Rolodex Model as it has overtones of an organizational version of a manager's card file of contacts. Using the concepts of energy and phase space from physics to enrich the Rolodex Model, the report shows how it can be used to explain existing archetypes of organizational forms, to identity new organizational forms, and to provide insights for organizational design The report then argues that further elaboration of energy concepts and relationship complexity may be necessary before we can fully respond to, and anticipate, the complex, dynamic, hypercompetitive organizational environment of today , much less that likely to exist tomorrow.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited