Performance Measurement Systems, Competitive Priorities, and Advanced Manufacturing Technologies: Some Evidence from the Aeronautical Sector

Purpose – When acquiring advanced manufacturing technologies (AMT), the greatest caution should be taken regarding the performance measurement system to be used: the decision regarding new investments should not be conditioned by the excessive use of financial indicators to the detriment of the strategic objectives that motivated the investments. It is intended to analyze the aeronautical sector, for which the purchase of AMT is qualifying criteria, with two intentions: first, to identify the performance measurement systems that are used, and second, to test their correspondence with the objectives that motivated the investments. Design/methodology/approach – A survey of the 20 plants in the population was conducted via a postal questionnaire plus a structured interview. The unit of analysis has been maintained through the triangulation of data sources. Findings – The findings suggest that both financial and non-financial indicators are used, with the latter gaining predominance over the former on some occasions, even though there is no clear correspondence between strategy and the measurement of performance. In the light of the findings, the question of what inspires a company’s performance measurement system is still open, especially in those cases where there is no explicit strategy. With regard to practical implications, what seems to be indispensable is an improvement in the determination of the critical variables that should be used to measure performance. Research limitations/implications – Being valuable for academics and practitioners, this contribution relies, rather, on the possibility of a logical extrapolation to circumstances where the findings might apply, and researchers can judge whether the particular findings would be valid. Originality/value – Provides new evidence on the adaptation of the make-up and combination of the type of performance measures currently used by plants in the aeronautical industry, one of the sectors in which technological innovation is of the utmost importance.Publicad

Adopting and Implementing AMT: New Data on Key Factors from the Aeronautical Industry.

The objective of this paper is to take a greater in-depth look at which factors might be considered to be key to the performance of investments made in advanced manufacturing technologies (AMT), given their supposed positive effects, and on the influence that the time these factors are taken into account during the adoption and implementation process can have on that relationship. It provides a specially devised empirical analysis in the aeronautical sector in the south of Spain. A survey of the 20 plants in the population was conducted via a postal questionnaire between July 1999 and April 2001, with a structured interview being held at a later date. The testing of hypotheses was performed by applying the t-test to independent samples. The results show that the only factor that has a clear and positive effect on performance is the training of personnel. It can also be seen that a lack of strategic planning contributes to dampening the effects of investments. These results may be of some help to management staff and public administrators in charge of promoting the process of technological innovation, by indicating actions that need to be taken in order to successfully adopt and implement AMT.

Comparing the use of different domestic wastewaters for coupling microalgal production and nutrient removal.

The streams from municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) have been considered a valuable medium for mass cultivation of algal biomass. The aim of this work is to test and compare the performance of Chlorella vulgaris on several streams from five stages, from two different WWTP. The results showed biomass yields ranging from 39 to 195 mg dry-weight l−1 days−1. The best performance as biomass production was obtained with the centrate (effluent from drying the anaerobic sludge). After testing a wide range of N/P ratios with centrate, the highest productivity and growth rates were obtained with the original N/P ratio (2.0) of this stream. The highest removal rates were of 9.8 (N) and 3.0 (P) mg l−1 days−1, in the centrate. Finally, this research also suggests that microalgal production seems to be a promising process when coupled to wastewater treatment

From waste to energy: microalgae production in wastewater and glycerol.

The present work aimed to evaluate the auto/mixotrophic growth of microalgae using domestic wastewater (WW) amended with glycerol aiming biofuels production. The best results were obtained with the highest glycerol supplementation (50 mM). In such condition, Chlorella vulgaris and Botryococcus terribilis showed a biomass productivity of 118 and 282 mg l−1 d−1, which produced about 18 and 35 mg l−1 d−1 of lipids, respectively. Thus, if scaled-up (200 m3 d−1 of WW, 240 working days y−1) biomass and lipid yields may be about 5.6 tons y−1 and 894.2 kg y−1 or 13.5 tons y−1 and 1.6 tons y−1 for C. vulgaris and B. terribilis, respectively. The mixotrophic production of lipids can generate high quality biodiesel according to estimations using their fatty acids profiles. The whole process can be advantageously combined with the production of other biofuels (e.g. methane and bio-ethanol) in a biorefinery scenario. This combination of algal biomass production with waste treatment (WW amended with glycerol) can have a significant impact in the water treatment sector and local markets

Adopting and Implementing AMT: New Data on Key Factors from the Aeronautical Industry

The objective of this paper is to take a greater in-depth look at which factors might be considered to be key to the performance of investments made in advanced manufacturing technologies (AMT), given their supposed positive effects, and on the influence that the time these factors are taken into account during the adoption and implementation process can have on that relationship. It provides a specially devised empirical analysis in the aeronautical sector in the south of Spain. A survey of the 20 plants in the population was conducted via a postal questionnaire between July 1999 and April 2001, with a structured interview being held at a later date. The testing of hypotheses was performed by applying the t-test to independent samples. The results show that the only factor that has a clear and positive effect on performance is the training of personnel. It can also be seen that a lack of strategic planning contributes to dampening the effects of investments. These results may be of some help to management staff and public administrators in charge of promoting the process of technological innovation, by indicating actions that need to be taken in order to successfully adopt and implement AMT.Publicad

Triple-A and competitive advantage in supply chains: Empirical research in developed countries

[EN] Based on his own experience in a number of companies, Lee (2004) posits that the Triple-A (agility, adaptability and alignment) is essential for supply chain (SC) management to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage (CA). However, there is a lack of empirical research that analyzes the Triple-A SC and its impacts on CA. The objective of the present work is to address this omission and to provide empirical evidence on this topic using a multiple-informant, international sample from eight developed countries. A consistent partial least squares structural equation model (PLSc) is used on data for 151 manufacturing plants in three industrial sectors to determine whether agility, alignment and adaptability have individual and/or joint effects on achieving a CA in SCs. In relation to the individual effects, different CAs are achieved by each of the Triple-A variables. SC adaptability has been shown to have a significant positive relationship with all the dimensions of CA. SC alignment affects most of these dimensions, but SC agility only affects financial CA and flexibility CA. This research does, however, confirm the positive relationship for the joint effect of the Triple-A SC variables and CA. The effects are significant on all the CA measures except quality. Important implications can be drawn for managers by showing how SC levers can be set to improve performance indicators.This study has been conducted within the frameworks of the following projects: Accion especial SGUIT-2015 (SBAPA2015-06) HPM(Project 2015/148 U.S.)-Junta de Andalucia (Spain); PAIDI Excellence Project P08-SEJ-0384-Junta de Andalucia (Spain); and DPI2009-11148Spanish National Program of Industrial Design and ProductionAlfalla-Luque, R.; Dominguez Machuca, JA.; Marin-Garcia, JA. (2018). Triple-A and competitive advantage in supply chains: Empirical research in developed countries. International Journal of Production Economics. 203:48-61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2018.05.020S486120