Challenges in the industrialization process of low-volume production systems

A critical part of new product development projects is the industrialization process of new products which affects both time and the cost. The industrialization of new products or variants in low-volume production systems has some specific challenges which are caused by characteristics of low-volume products and production systems. Therefore, an exploratory case study is made within two Swedish manufacturing companies to understand these challenges and compare the industrialization process in high and low volume production systems. The results of the multiple case studies indicate four challenges including knowledge transfer from the projects into production, development of the work instructions, the need for a higher level of training of the operators and production system design and the obligatory tailoring of the new products to the existing production systems

HIERARCHICAL EXAMINATION OF SUCCESS FACTORS ACROSS ERP LIFE-CYCLE

This study investigates critical success factors (CSF) in implementing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. It reviews 94 such factors discussed in journals, conference proceedings and books, published for the most part in the last decade, covering the full lifecycle of ERP systems. Questionnaires exploring these 94 factors were submitted to hundreds of respondents, divided into five groups. The authors of the study hypothesize that the 94 success factors can be grouped, in overall and in each phase of ERP life cycle, under several extracted construct emerged from a statistical extraction method accompanied by business logic coming up with a term that best describes the content domain of the attributes that weight highly on relevant construct. This study presents an examination process of validity, principal component, similarity, reliability and multicollinearity analyses for hierarchical formations of success factors for the entire ERP life cycle and for each one of the six ERP life cycle phases (planning, implementation, stabilization, backlog, new module and major upgrade). This research exhibits for each ERP life cycle phase the main sub factors that explain the main themes of ERP implementation for the most. Special attention is given to: (a) earlier research on CSFs for ERP implementations, (b) hierarchical formation of parent and sub-factors in overall and in each phase of ERP life cycle and (c) representative meanings of critica

Electronic Commerce Issues in the Australian Manufacturing Industry

This paper reports on findings into the benefits, challenges and success factors of electronic commerce in the Australian manufacturing industry among the top 500 Australian publicly listed companies. The paper investigates anticipated and identified challenges, benefits and success factors of electronic commerce, and possible relationships between them. The results showed that manufacturing industry encountered similar challenges, identified similar success factors and achieved similar benefits as the other sectors of Australian economy. Although this research addresses well-established business enterprises in Australia, the nature of electronic commerce is such that it is global and the findings should be applicable to large organizations over a much wider scope. Some of the findings could as well be applicable to small and medium size businesses/organizations

Modus Vivendi of E-Business

This paper reports on an investigation into relationships between challenges and success factors in e-business, from the perspective of the acknowledged benefits achieved by large organizations operating within the Australian context. To enable organisations to achieve benefits from e-business, it is imperative for companies to recognise challenges before them as well as to identify critical success factors necessary for their success. The outcome of the research reported in this paper is a key set of critical success factors, challenges and benefits that can be used as a modus vivendi to overcome problems by applying appropriate solutions in order to achieve benefits in this area

The application of concurrent engineering philosophy to the construction industry

The research explores the rationale of applying Concurrent Engineering (CE) philosophy to the construction industry. CE was considered based on its successful implementation in other industries. In the manufacturing industry it is used to overcome problems similar in nature to those of the construction industry, resulting from the practice of the traditional 'over the wall' processes in product design and manufacturing (construction). During the initial stage, the research evaluated current problems faced by the industry, such as the high degree of fragmentation of industry structure and work processes, adversarial elationships among project participants' lack of communication, etc., and its effort to achieve improvement. The research also investigated the theoretical background of CE philosophy, its application in other industries especially in manufacturing, the rationale for its application to construction, and current practices within the construction industry similar to those encompassed within the CE philosophy. CE consists of several basic principles, of which the teamwork was the main focus of this research and is used as the main strategy to achieve CE implementation for construction industry. By using both quantitative and qualitative evaluation, the research determined that there was no evidence to support that CE has been practised in construction as a complete process, as it has in other industries. The research also established a number of factors that support and inhibit collaborative teamwork in construction, and rank them according to their relative importance. The rankings indicate the priorities for the industry in order to achieve collaborative working, which is critical to CE implementation. The main output of the research was the establishment of 'guidelines' for implementing a Cross Functional Project Team (CFPT), i.e. the cross functional teamwork concept based on CE principles, forming the main strategy to implement CE in construction. The 'guidelines' were developed based on the consensus opinion of industry experts using the Delphi study technique. The findings from case studies were used to validate these 'guidelines'. The research also developed a tool known as the Matrix Measurement Guidelines - 'Toward CE in Construction' (MMG-TCEiC) to help the industry to map the process toward achieving a collaborative teamwork concept based on CE environments within construction projects

Cross-functional teams in Digital transformation projects What are the benefits and challenges of using cross-functional project teams in digital transformation projects?

Master thesis in Business Administration (BE501

Some practical points on organizing ETD consortia

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) digital libraries are being developed worldwide. Higher education organizations commonly collaborate in these efforts by forming consortia. Some of the existing consortia are at the national level while others are at regional levels. NDLTD (Networked Digital Library for Thesis and Dissertations) is an initiative that is creating an international consortium which includes organizations or other ETD consortia in various countries. Consortia are important because they create an opportunity to collaborate, to share experiences, and to establish or adopt standards that guarantee interoperability among participant ETD digital libraries. However, developing consortia is challenging since it requires a strong degree of coordination while at the same time preserving existing organizational identities and functions. this makes the role of consortium coordinator complex. Implementation and operation of information services that integrate the participants\u27 initiatives are the ultimate goal of a consortium. These services are of paramount importance and need to be clearly established in order to operate effectively. This paper addresses some of the issues mentioned above including solutions that have been implemented. It also points to problems that might occur during the organization and operation of consortia