The Factors Affecting Innovative Behavior: An Employee Assessment System Based on Knowledge Creation

Organizations thrive on the innovative behavior of their personnel, but the specific factors that influence such behavior are not widely established, especially in the Thai context. An examination of the literature reveals that the knowledge management (KM) process, which has its basis in the process of knowledge creation known as the SECI process, serves to promote innovative behavior and is a key driver of competitive advantage within innovative organizations. This research study sought to determine which factors account for success in innovation, and to establish an assessment system to evaluate employee innovation. The study sample comprised 500 employees from companies operating in the technology sector. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was carried out, and an eight-factor model was formulated on the basis of the available data. The eight factors in the model were determined to have a significant influence on the success of innovative behavior observed in Thai companies. The relevant factors comprised Sharing of knowledge (SK), Self-efficacy (SE), Problem solving skills (PS), Collaboration ability (CA), Culture of innovation (CI), Organizational support (OS), Culture of learning (CL), and Executive leadership (EL). Within the organizational context, the findings reveal the statistically significant contribution of Sharing of knowledge, Culture of innovation, Organizational support, and Self-efficacy in the promotion of innovative behavior. The study results may prove helpful for organizations wishing to assess the innovative capabilities of their staff, while the success factors may be implemented within organizations through the practical application of an assessment system. Also, by filling a research gap in the literature review, this work will be beneficial to academics and researchers in order to better promote innovative behavior. Doi: 10.28991/HIJ-2023-04-01-012 Full Text: PD

Adakah pemindahan pengetahuan menjadi moderator terhadap pelaksanaan pengurusan lean dan prestasi organisasi?

Globalisasi pasaran, tahap persaingan antara syarikat-syarikat pengeluar produk dan perkhidmatan, serta pelbagai krisis ekonomi adalah beberapa faktor yang paling kritikal pada masa kini. Keadaan tersebut telah mendorong pengurus-pengurus syarikat untuk melaksanakan pelbagai strategi yang berkesan seperti pelaksanaan sistem pengurusan lean dalam organisasi mereka. Namun, konsep yang diadaptasi dari negara luar yang mempunyai latar belakang yang berbeza, ada kalanya sukar untuk berjaya. Kebanyakan syarikat yang gagal melaksanakan pengurusan lean bermula dengan kekurangan kefahaman dan pengetahuan serta kesedaran pekerja tentang pengetahuan lean. Walaupun terdapat banyak kajian yang telah dilakukan terhadap pelaksanaan sistem pengurusan lean, namun tidak banyak kajian yang dilakukan terhadap peranan pemindahan pengetahuan lean dalam organisasi bagi meningkatkan prestasi organisasi. Oleh sebab itu kajian ini mencadangkan pemindahan pengetahuan sebagai moderator terhadap hubungan pengurusan lean dan prestasi organisasi. Selain itu, kajian ini juga akan membangunkan sebuah model pemindahan pengetahuan lean bagi membantu organisasi melaksanakan pengetahuan lean dalam organisasi mereka. Data yang di kumpul menerusi kaedah kuantitatif melalui soal-selidik akan dihantar kepada syarikat-syarikat pembuatan yang melaksanakan pengurusan lean. Kajian ini dapat mengenal pasti pendekatan yang perlu diambil oleh semua pihak terutama pihak pengurusan organisasi dalam membentuk program pelaksanaan pengurusan lean yang lebih efektif

Synthesising knowledge for lean product development process of a low noise jet engine

The product development process is one of the most challenging stages of a product life cycle due to several reasons. Having the right knowledge environment during the design process may eliminate the waste of cost and time. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate a case study where designers can investigate the conflicting parameters about a product and make their decisions based on an accurate knowledge environment that is created by trade-off curves. The product in consideration is a turbofan jet engine with a requirement of noise reduction during takeoff while keeping up with high quality standards

Lean product development: nothing new under the sun?

The concept of lean product development has attracted the attention of many scholars since its inception in the 1990s derived from practices at Toyota Motor Company. Key to this approach to new product development (NPD) are a few methods derived from lean production as well as longer established practices such as concurrent engineering. This makes one wonder whether lean product development is a new practice, a new method or an encapsulation of already existing methods at the time; this quest for the roots and tenets of lean product development, also in comparison with other methods for NPD, is the focus of this paper. This journey takes this propositional paper not only to the roots of lean product development and the context of its era of conception, but also to what this concept adds to other extant methods for NPD. In particular, this comparison draws out that other methods are trying to achieve the same objectives: the creation of products and services with value to the customer, the reduction of time-to-market and the efficient use of resources. This inference implies that managers of new product (and service) development can choose from a wider pallet of methods and approaches to enhance the performance of R&D and to connect better to manufacturing (including supply chains). Inevitably, this has implications for research on (lean) product and service development; hence, this paper sets out a research agenda based on the deliberations and gaps that have been uncovered in the discourse

Deoxy technologies: a medical technology startup project: business plan for UK market

L26, O32DEOXY Technologies is a seed-stage medical technology project whose future core business will be based on an innovative Gene Expression profiling (GEP) nanotechnology, developed and patented at Harvard University. The project is located at Ludwig-Maximilian University (Germany) and its goal is to develop diagnostic tests for clinical market where price, speed and automation are competitive advantages. DEOXY Technologies intends to become a global and "lean" company focused on development and manufacturing of molecular tests (in vitro medical devices). This is a strategic analysis and a feasibility study for the breast cancer market. Breast cancer is the most frequent female cancer affecting 12% of women, worldwide and is seen as a paradigm of precision medicine success. The promoter identifies a clinical application for the GEP technology and proposes an alliance with an USA biomarker-focused company whose assets are complementary to the technology. The strategic analysis was based on a macroenvironmental analysis for the entrance market: United Kingdom, where regulatory and reimbursement contexts were systematized, and for Germany the country of development and manufacturing, where the impact of governmental support and the integration in a biotechnology cluster are critical favorable factors. In the microenvironmental analysis the high barriers to entrance and the importance of planning an exit strategy were underlined. The economic and financial viability analysis revealed that governmental funding is a critical success factor, as demonstrated by the positivity of the APV and emphasized the importance of a market expansion plan before starting operations. The scenario analysis explored how reimbursement and healthcare policies may impact the economic and financial viability of the project.A DEOXY Technologies é um projeto, baseado numa nanotecnologia inovadora de análise perfis de expressão genética (APEG), descoberta e patenteada na Universidade de Harvard. O projeto está integrado na Universidade de Ludwig-Maximilians, (Alemanha) e é candidato a fundos de investimento governamentais. A DEOXY Technologies acredita que por possuir uma tecnologia inovadora pode desenvolver máquinas de APEG e testes moleculares para o mercado clínico, onde o preço, automatização e rapidez serão vantagens competitivas. A DEOXY Technologies planeia tornar-se uma empresa global e "lean", focada no desenvolvimento e produção de testes moleculares "in vitro". Este plano de negócios contém a análise estratégica e económico-financeira para o mercado do cancro da mama, em Inglaterra (Reino Unido). O cancro da mama é o cancro mais frequente na mulher, afetando 12% desta população, e é paradigmático do sucesso da medicina de precisão. O promotor identifica uma necessidade clínica e para sua concretização propõe uma aliança com uma empresa biotecnológica detentora de ativos intelectuais complementares aos da DEOXY Technologies. A estratégia proposta baseia-se na análise PEST para o Reino Unido, contendo a regulamentação e etapas-chave para obter reembolso, e análise PEST para Alemanha, destacando-se a relevância do apoio governamental e da inserção num cluster biotecnológico como fatores críticos de sucesso. Da análise micro-ambiental salientam-se as barreiras à entrada e a importância da estratégia de saída nesta indústria. O estudo de viabilidade económico-financeira revelou que os fundos governamentais são um fator critico para a exequibilidade e viabilidade económico-financeira do projeto, sendo o valor atualizado ajustado o único indicador positivo. A análise de cenários demonstra como as políticas de cuidados de saúde influenciam a estratégia e a viabilidade económico-financeira do projeto

Lean Thinking For Lead-Time Reduction And Efficient Knowledge Creation In Product Development

There are many distinct differences between manufacturing process and Product Development (PD) process, so lean tools have to be customized to deliver results in the later domain. The main focus of this dissertation is to extend them to manage and improve the PD process in order to develop the product faster while improving or at least maintaining the level of performance and quality. For aforesaid purpose, value stream mapping (VSM) method is used to explore the wastes, inefficiencies, non-valued added steps in a single, definable process out of complete PD process. Besides numerous intangible benefits, VSM framework will help the development team to reduce the lead-time by over 50%. Next, a set of ten lean tools and methods is proposed in order to support and improve efficiency of the knowledge creation (KC) process. The approach establishes a KC framework in PD environment, and systematically demonstrates how these lean tools and methods conceptually fit into and play a significant role in enhancing the performance of KC process. Following this, each of them is analysed and appropriately positioned in a SECI (socialization-externalization-combination-internalization) mode depending on the best fit. Quick and correct KC at the right time aids in further improving the development lead-time and product quality. Such successful innovation is often associated with adoption and execution of all SECI modes within any PD phase. This dissertation attempts to argue with this general notion and to distinguish different PD phases\u27 affinity corresponding to distinct SECI mode. In this regard, an extended Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (EFAHP) approach to determine the ranking in which any PD phase is influenced from SECI modes is proposed. In the EFAHP approach, the complex problem of KC is first itemized into a simple hierarchical structure for pairwise comparisons. Next, a triangular fuzzy number concept is applied to capture the inherent vagueness in linguistic terms of a decision-maker. This dissertation recommends mapping the triangular fuzzy numbers (TFNs) with normal distributions about X-axis when the pessimistic value of one TFN is less than the optimistic value of other TFN (t23 ≤ t11). This allows us to develop a mathematical formulation to estimate the degree of possibility of two criteria as opposed to zero resulted by the use of the current technique in the literature. In order to demonstrate the applicability and usefulness of the proposed EFAHP in ranking the SECI modes, an empirical study of development phase is considered. After stringent analysis, we found that the combination mode was the mode that highly influenced the development phase

Evaluation and Improvement of the Design Process within Henrob Ltd

Henrob is a large engineering organisation that specialises in the manufacture of joining technology for use in the automotive sector. The company has recently been acquired by the large industrial organisation Atlas Copco Group. As part of this acquisition, Henrob has been tasked with the implementation of lean manufacturing methods to firstly evaluate and then improve product development lead time within the UK design team. The role of lean management methods within manufacturing organisations is very well understood. However, the role of lean within new product development is less well so. If Henrob could employ the well-known benefits of lean thinking like waste reduction and information flow and be aware of the complex and intangible nature of the product development stage, leading to reduced product lead times and improved process efficiency, then this could represent a substantial competitive advantage over its competitors. This research is a quantitative cross-sectional study using the experimental research method to test a series of hypotheses. The research initially used process mapping to uncover inefficiencies within the design process that were subsequently addressed by further research. The research experiments were based around the use of new CAD templates designed to reduce errors and improve work flow through the design office. The research was partially successful with regards to lead time reduction and increasing design output. However, improved information flow and higher quality, more cost-effective designs were considered more important outcomes of the research