Dynamic process improvement

Bibliography: p. [25].by Charles H. Fine and Evan L. Porteus

Developing a manufacturing science for designing and managing systems for total quality commitment

Vitae.by Charles H. Fine ... [et al.]

The Copy-Exactly Ramp-Up Strategy: Trading-Off Learning With Process Change

Production ramp-up is the period of time during which a manufacturing process is scaled up from a small laboratory-like environment to high-volume production. During this scale-up, the firm needs to overcome the numerous discrepancies between how the process is specified to operate as written in the process recipe and how it actually is operated at large volume. The reduction of these discrepancies, a process that we will refer to as learning, will lead to improved production yields and higher output. In addition to its learning effort, however, the firm also attempts to change the process recipe itself, which can be in direct conflict with the learning objective. We formalize this intertemporal tradeoff between learning and process change in the form of a dynamic optimization problem. Our model explains the idea of a copy-exactly ramp-up, which freezes the process for some time period, i.e., does not allow for any change in the process. Mathematically, this corresponds to a process improvement policy which delays process changes, thereby exhibiting a nonmonotone trajectory, which we show to be optimal if the initial knowledge level is low, the lifecycle short and demand growth is steep, and learning is difficult

New manufacturing technologies

"To appear in: Strategic manufacturing : dynamic new directions for the 1990's"--p. 1.Includes bibliographical references.by Charles H. Fine

Towards Dynamic Contract Extension in Supplier Development

We consider supplier development within a supply chain consisting of a single manufacturer and a single supplier. Because investments in supplier development are usually relationship-specific, safeguard mechanisms against the hazards of partner opportunism have to be installed. Here, formal contracts are considered as the primary measure to safeguard investments. However, formal contracts entail certain risks, e.g., a lack of flexibility, particular in an ambiguous environment. We propose a receding horizon control scheme to mitigate possible contractual drawbacks while significantly enhancing the supplier development process and, thus, to increase the overall supply chain profit. Our findings are validated by a numerical case study

A minőség és termelési hatékonyság párhuzamos fejlesztésének vizsgálata gazdaságmatematikai modellekkel = Analyzing the simultaneous development of quality and efficiency with the management science

A kutatás keretében három A és egy B nemzetközi kategóriás (a Bécsi Egyetem lapklasszifációja szerint), továbbá hazai A kategóriás hazai publikációk jelentek meg. Bessenyei István megvédte PhD értekezését. A témavezető elnöke volt a Pécsett megrendezett 17th EURO Mini Conferenc-nek (2005, június 29-július 1), továbbá meghivott track chair-je volt a 16th Annual Conference of the Operations Management Society-nek, melyet Chicagoban rendeztek, 2005 április 28-majus 2 között. A kutatás tagjai tobb hazazi és nemzetkozi konferencián tartottak eloadást. | Under the umbrella of the research project we published three papers in category A and one in category B acoording to the journal classification of the Vienna University. We also published papers in Hungarian journals in top category. Our young researcher, Istvan Bessenyei received his PhD degree. The head of the program was the chair of the 17th EURO Mini Conference on Coontinuous Optimization in Industry, held in Pécs, June 29-July 1, 2005. He was also an invited track chair at the 16th Annual Conference of the Operations Management Society held in Chicago, April 28- May 2. In the track two session was organized under the title: The Operations Marketing Interface. The members of the projects had presentations on both international and domestic conferences

Az optimális ár meghatározásának módszere az értékteremtés szolgálatában (The method of determining the optimal price for the service of value creation)

A tanulmány a mikroökonómia eszközrendszerét és a hazai gépjárműpiac 2013-as adatait segítségül hívva egy új módszert mutat be az ármeghatározás területén. A kutatás központi kérdése az, hogy hol található az a pont, amikor a fogyasztó elégedett a kínált minőséggel és árral – lehetőleg megfelelő időben – és a vállalat is elégedett a megszerzett profittal. A tanulmányban tehát az ármeghatározás során központi szerepet játszik a minőség és az idő, mint értékteremtő funkció. Az elemzés egyik legfőbb következtetése, hogy a profitmaximumból levezetett optimális ár a minőség és az idő különböző paraméterei mellett meghatározható. A módszer segítségével a vállalatok közgazdasági eszközrendszer segítségével kapnak egy új szemléletet működési paramétereik és egyben versenyprioritásaik (ár, költség, minőségszint, idő) felállításához. _____ The study points to a new method for determining price with the tools of microeconomics and data of the Hungarian car market. The focus of the research is on where to find the point where the consumer is satisfied with the quality and price offered – preferably right time – and the company is satisfied with the profit achieved. In this study, therefore, in setting prices plays a central role the quality and time as a value-added feature. One of the main conclusions of the analysis is that the optimal price can be determined by various parameters of the quality and time. The method of using the economic tools help companies get a new perspective and to set up their optimal operating parameters (price, cost, quality level, time)

Applying modern software development methodologies to eLearning

Modern rapid application and agile development methodologies have been key to getting software to market quickly and ensuring that it meets customer needs. The improvements brought about by these methodologies are not limited to the product, but also improve the development process through the feedback approach integral to the methodology. eLearning, the content and technology that enables learning via the Internet, has been adopted by businesses based on its advantages in lower costs, increased productivity, and flexibility when compared to traditional training approaches. This has resulted in a growth in this area. eLearning has been developed following tradition Instructional Design methods. This project sets out to examine eLearning content development and undertake the development of an eLearning lesson using a modern development methodology to comment and reflect on the practical use of this approach. This project identifies that expected benefits of early start, earlier first product release, responsiveness to change and issues along with the advantages of process improvement and reflective examination were seen. This project also calls to attention the importance of the design element of Instructional Design when using the Scrum approach. This project concludes that the Scrum approach is a valid and valuable method to produce an eLearning lesson

The Effectiveness of Management-By-Walking-Around: A Randomized Field Study

Management-By-Walking-Around (MBWA) is a widely adopted technique in hospitals that involves senior managers directly observing frontline work. However, few studies have rigorously examined its impact on organizational outcomes. This paper examines an improvement program based on MBWA in which senior managers observe frontline employees, solicit ideas about improvement opportunities, and work with staff to resolve the issues. We randomly selected 19 hospitals to implement the 18-month long MBWA-based improvement program; 56 work areas participated. We find that the program, on average, had a negative impact on performance. To explain this surprising finding, we use mixed methods to examine the impact of the work area's problem-solving approach. Results suggest that prioritizing easy-to-solve problems was associated with improved performance. We believe this was because it resulted in greater action taking. A different approach was characterized by prioritizing high-value problems, which was not successful in our study. We also find that assigning to senior managers responsibility for ensuring that identified problems get resolved resulted in better performance. Overall, our study suggests that senior managers' physical presence on their organizations' frontlines was not helpful unless it enabled active problem solving