A Market-based Approach to Multi-factory Scheduling

In this paper, we report on the design of a novel market-based approach for decentralised scheduling across multiple factories. Specifically, because of the limitations of scheduling in a centralised manner -- which requires a center to have complete and perfect information for optimality and the truthful revelation of potentially commercially private preferences to that center -- we advocate an informationally decentralised approach that is both agile and dynamic. In particular, this work adopts a market-based approach for decentralised scheduling by considering the different stakeholders representing different factories as self-interested, profit-motivated economic agents that trade resources for the scheduling of jobs. The overall schedule of these jobs is then an emergent behaviour of the strategic interaction of these trading agents bidding for resources in a market based on limited information and their own preferences. Using a simple (zero-intelligence) bidding strategy, we empirically demonstrate that our market-based approach achieves a lower bound efficiency of 84%. This represents a trade-off between a reasonable level of efficiency (compared to a centralised approach) and the desirable benefits of a decentralised solution

Performance measurement of cross-culture supply chain partnership: a case study in the Chinese automotive industry

This study explores a performance measurement system for a dynamic supply chain partnership in a cross-cultural context. An initial framework is constructed by reviewing the existing literature, followed by an in-depth case study in the Chinese automotive industry, where the framework is refined to address the multi-cultural setting. A performance measurement, system which includes the relationship strategy and operational measurement criteria for a supply chain partnership, has been developed. The relationship strategy contains elements of strategy orientation, management style, interdependence, mutual organisational characteristics and common goals. The operational measurement criteria consist of commitment, trust, communication behaviour, information sharing, participation decision, quality, production performance, delivery, cost, supplier strength, attitude, compromise and loyalty. The last three operational measurement criteria are found to be particularly relevant to the cross-cultural feature. While existing studies tend to focus on either specific measures or individual organisations, this paper for the first time proposes a comprehensive framework to measure the performance of supply chain partnerships. The cross-cultural perspective provides a further unique view on how a performance measurement system can be responsive to the dynamics in practice

A realist analysis of hospital patient safety in Wales:Applied learning for alternative contexts from a multisite case study

Background: Hospital patient safety is a major social problem. In the UK, policy responses focus on the introduction of improvement programmes that seek to implement evidence-based clinical practices using the Model for Improvement, Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle. Empirical evidence that the outcomes of such programmes vary across hospitals demonstrates that the context of their implementation matters. However, the relationships between features of context and the implementation of safety programmes are both undertheorised and poorly understood in empirical terms. Objectives: This study is designed to address gaps in conceptual, methodological and empirical knowledge about the influence of context on the local implementation of patient safety programmes. Design: We used concepts from critical realism and institutional analysis to conduct a qualitative comparative-intensive case study involving 21 hospitals across all seven Welsh health boards. We focused on the local implementation of three focal interventions from the 1000 Lives+ patient safety programme: Improving Leadership for Quality Improvement, Reducing Surgical Complications and Reducing Health-care Associated Infection. Our main sources of data were 160 semistructured interviews, observation and 1700 health policy and organisational documents. These data were analysed using the realist approaches of abstraction, abduction and retroduction. Setting: Welsh Government and NHS Wales. Participants: Interviews were conducted with 160 participants including government policy leads, health managers and professionals, partner agencies with strategic oversight of patient safety, advocacy groups and academics with expertise in patient safety. Main outcome measures: Identification of the contextual factors pertinent to the local implementation of the 1000 Lives+ patient safety programme in Welsh NHS hospitals. Results: An innovative conceptual framework harnessing realist social theory and institutional theory was produced to address challenges identified within previous applications of realist inquiry in patient safety research. This involved the development and use of an explanatory intervention–context–mechanism–agency–outcome (I-CMAO) configuration to illustrate the processes behind implementation of a change programme. Our findings, illustrated by multiple nested I-CMAO configurations, show how local implementation of patient safety interventions are impacted and modified by particular aspects of context: specifically, isomorphism, by which an intervention becomes adapted to the environment in which it is implemented; institutional logics, the beliefs and values underpinning the intervention and its source, and their perceived legitimacy among different groups of health-care professionals; and the relational structure and power dynamics of the functional group, that is, those tasked with implementing the initiative. This dynamic interplay shapes and guides actions leading to the normalisation or the rejection of the patient safety programme. Conclusions: Heightened awareness of the influence of context on the local implementation of patient safety programmes is required to inform the design of such interventions and to ensure their effective implementation and operationalisation in the day-to-day practice of health-care teams. Future work is required to elaborate our conceptual model and findings in similar settings where different interventions are introduced, and in different settings where similar innovations are implemented. Funding: The National Institute for Health Research Health Services and Delivery Research programme

From Research to Practice via Consultancy and Back Again:: A 14 Year Case Study of Applied Research

The article will examine an extended case study (over 14 years) of the challenges of operating a mode 2 academic research project (which generated a unique diagnostic tool for use in business to business relationships) and then of converting academic theory into a practical application which has been used successfully in over 150 companies. The research process will be discussed and the difficulties of managing the operational management agendas along with the need to do rigorous academic work will be examined.Mode 2 Academic research Operations management

Emergent strategy in managing cooperative supply chain change

There is much debate about the nature of strategy formulation as content or process. This paper takes a process view informed from insights from non-linear dynamics, complexity and chaos theory and applies it to a well tested management of change process in cooperative supply chain management to draw illustrations from two case examples which reinforce the utility of this use of complexity in formulating emergent strategies