The Influence of Critical Factors on Business Model at a Smart Factory: A Case Study

Background: The crucial elements of a smart factory, employees, machines, and products, have an important effect on current business models. Objectives: The main aim of our study is to present a case study of the impact of Industry 4.0 on the business model in a smart factory. The paper discusses the changes of business models of the organisation and determines critical factors that influence the business models in a knowledge society. Methods/Approach: Our sample included managers, from the company TPV, who are in charge of implementing a digital business model, and who are the most knowledgeable informants on the topic of our study. Data was obtained from, most widely used method for data collection in qualitative research, semi-structured interviews with managers. Content analysis was conducted for the purpose of our study. Results: Results of our study show that the major change will be that machines will have a "mind" of their own, whose main goal will be to work in production, and the role of employees will be primarily in expressing their creativity, carrying out urgent interventions and performing custody of processes. The key critical factors influencing business models in a smart factory are top management and leadership orientations, motivation of employees, collective wisdom, creativity and innovations. Conclusions: The study represents useful guidelines for strategic management of innovative companies in the earliest stages of the process of decision-making process

Relationship between stress coping strategies and absenteeism among middle-level managers

The main purpose of the study is to identify the symptoms of stress, strategies for coping with stress, and absenteeism among Slovenian middle management. The survey covered 211 middle-level managers employed in large and medium-sized enterprises in Slovenia. The data was collected by using two questionnaires. The first questionnaire was used in order to determine stress coping strategies (questionnaire of coping with stress CRI). The second questionnaire was used to identify stress loads and symptoms of stress among managers. Statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS 17.0, which showed that managers who use problem-focused coping strategies are significantly less absent from work and experience lower levels of stress than managers who use emotion-focused stress coping strategies. Based on the results of the analysis, suggestions are outlined for more problem-focused approaches of stress coping strategies in Slovenian large and medium-sized enterprises

Managerial early warning system as best practice for project selection at a Smart factory

The purpose of the paper is to contribute to the development of best practices at emerging factories of the future, i.e. smart factories of Industry 4.0. Smart factories need to develop effective managerial early warning systems to identify and respond to subtle threats or opportunities, i.e. weak signals, in order to adapt to an ever-changing environment in a timely manner and thus gain or maintain a competitive advantage on the market. These factories need to develop and implement a several-stage early warning system that is specific to their industry. The aim of our study is, with the help of semi-structured group interviews, to examine which stages of a managerial early warning system are present in the case of a global innovative supplier in the automotive industry. As such, a four-stage managerial early warning system model for a knowledge-based automotive smart factory is proposed, in which aggregate activities and management decision-making strategies are defined for each stage, with the importance of intuition being taken into consideration. We found that managers rely on intuition and extensive analysis for satisficing strategies and teamwork for optimizing strategies, when using their managerial early warning system

CORRELATION BETWEEN EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTUITIVE DECISIONMAKING STYLE AMONG TOP AND MIDDLELEVEL MANAGERS IN SLOVENIAN AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

A high level of dynamics in automotive industry requires a high level of skillsfrom its managers to deal with the surprising and unexpected new challenges.According to the testimony of scientific evidence through the use of intuition and intime limited resources, decision-making can improve the time needed to solve them,as well as improve the quality of decisions. The main purpose of the study is toidentify possible correlation between level of emotional intelligence and intuitivedecision-making among top and middle-level managers in Slovenian automotiveindustry. The study included 150 managers in Slovenian automotive industry. Thedata was collected by using two questionnaires. The first questionnaire was used inorder to determine emotional intelligence (SSEIT questionnaire) and the secondquestionnaire was used to identify decision-making style (GDMS questionnaire)among researched managers. Statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS forWindows 17.0, which showed high correlation between level of emotionalintelligence and intuitive decision-making style among top and middle-level managersin Slovenian automotive industry

The Influence of Critical Factors on Business Model at a Smart Factory: A Case Study

Background: The crucial elements of a smart factory, employees, machines, and products, have an important effect on current business models. Objectives: The main aim of our study is to present a case study of the impact of Industry 4.0 on the business model in a smart factory. The paper discusses the changes of business models of the organisation and determines critical factors that influence the business models in a knowledge society. Methods/Approach: Our sample included managers, from the company TPV, who are in charge of implementing a digital business model, and who are the most knowledgeable informants on the topic of our study. Data was obtained from, most widely used method for data collection in qualitative research, semi-structured interviews with managers. Content analysis was conducted for the purpose of our study. Results: Results of our study show that the major change will be that machines will have a “mind” of their own, whose main goal will be to work in production, and the role of employees will be primarily in expressing their creativity, carrying out urgent interventions and performing custody of processes. The key critical factors influencing business models in a smart factory are top management and leadership orientations, motivation of employees, collective wisdom, creativity and innovations. Conclusions: The study represents useful guidelines for strategic management of innovative companies in the earliest stages of the process of decision-making process

Factors of Knowledge Management and the impact of employee turnover in activity and performance in scientific and technological parks in Slovenia

Technology parks provide infrastructure for the creation and developmentof knowledge-based organizations, which are associated with centers oftechnological excellence, mainly universities. This research addresses thequestion of management and skills acquisition in member organizations oftechnology parks in Slovenia. As means and lever for development organizations,we recognize the values and organizational culture, which cannot be achievedwithout employees who possess good knowledge. We associated knowledgemanagement with employee turnover factor. The central purpose of this researchis to focus on exploring the impact of movements in knowledge management on theturnover in organizations, which are members of technology parks. By usingmultivariate regression methods we confirmed that the required skills,knowledge acquisition and knowledge transfer channels, have a statisticallysignificant effect on employee turnover in technology parks

Relationship between stress coping strategies and absenteeism among middle-level managers

The main purpose of the study is to identify the symptoms of stress, strategies for coping with stress, and absenteeism among Slovenian middle management. The survey covered 211 middle-level managers employed in large and medium-sized enterprises in Slovenia. The data was collected by using two questionnaires. The first questionnaire was used in order to determine stress coping strategies (questionnaire of coping with stress CRI). The second questionnaire was used to identify stress loads and symptoms of stress among managers. Statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS 17.0, which showed that managers who use problem-focused coping strategies are significantly less absent from work and experience lower levels of stress than managers who use emotion-focused stress coping strategies. Based on the results of the analysis, suggestions are outlined for more problem-focused approaches of stress coping strategies in Slovenian large and medium-sized enterprises