Macroergomonics’ contribution to the effectiveness of collaborative supply chains

This article presents a conceptual model that combines Macroergonomics and Supply chain. The authors combine their expertise on these individual topics, building on their previous research. The argument of the paper is that human factors are key to achieve effective supplier-customer collaboration. A conceptual model is presented, its elements and their interactions are explained. The Content-Context-Process is applied as a departing point to this model. Macroergonomics aspects considered are: a systemic approach, participatory ergonomics, formation of ergonomics teams and evaluation of ergonomics projects. The expected outcomes are: (a) improvement of production and productivity levels, (b) improvement of the product quality, (c) Reduction of absenteeism, (d) Improvement in the quality of work life (from the employees’ perspective), and (e) increase in the employees’ contribution rate of ideas for improvement. A case study was carried out at a vitroplant production organisation incorporating environmental aspects to obtain sustainable benefits

Serving the World: Which interests do operations management academic journals serve?

We apply Social Network Analysis (SNA) to editorial review board membership data of 38 journals in the Operations and Technology Management list of the Academic Journal Quality Guide of the (UK) Association of Business Schools. The journals are grouped in to seven interest groups (communities) based on their network connections and attributes examined for the groups. Review board members are shown to be overwhelmingly male, affiliated to business schools and USA-based institutions. A key network feature is the strong connections between eight journals belonging to the logistics and supply chain area that surprisingly includes the Journal of Operations Management

Quantifying High Value Manufacturing characteristics: Two case studies in the UK manufacturing sector

Porter and Ketels (2003) highlighted the urgency “to move up the value chain and to reap the benefits of high-skilled, knowledge-intensive manufacturing operations”. This debate around UK competitiveness has focused on how manufacturing can be enhanced and sustained over time. This paper investigates “to what extent can High Value Manufacturing (HVM) characteristics be quantified?” To do so, the interface between Operations and Marketing was explored regarding the meaning of ‘value to customer’. In this vein, Addis and Holbrook (2001) assert that there are three main types of products from the customer’s perspective: utilitarian, balanced and hedonic products. They arrived at these types by combining the objective features of the product and the subjective responses of the customers. Therefore, customers perceive ‘value’ as emerging from the experience they have in relation to the product (Pine and Gilmore, 1998)

Macroergonomics evaluation of a beer distribution process

The evaluation of the logistic processes and supply chains is carried out generally without taking into account the main users, i.e. the human resources that execute them. The objective of this study was to ascertain an index that would allow the evaluation of a beer distribution process, integrating both logistics and macroergonomics factors. The use of check lists, the review and analysis of official documents, interview questionnaires and the use of weights and averages permitted determining an index of macroergonomics evaluation of a beer distribution process. The calculation of the index of macroergonomics evaluation (IEMaE) also permitted to determine the range in which improvements could be implemented and the priority order according to the weighted average within the index calculated

Third Sector and performance

This topical special issue brings together a set of complementary papers that present and examine research findings on the issue of performance in the Third Sector from a variety of theoretical and practical viewpoints. It also identifies topics for future research. It builds on the work presented in a previous IJPPM special issue in 2010 on a similar topic (Manville and Greatbanks, 2010) in order to capture significant additional research that has been more recently conducted. The call for papers for this special issue was motivated by discussions from an “Operations Management in the Third Sector” conference held at Leeds University Business School last year (20th March 2013) and put forward some key questions on Third Sector and performance. A range of strong publications which address some of these questions from an international perspective, and which are summarised below, have been selected for publication in this special issue

Complexity transfer in supply chains: Further evidence from the field

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the theoretical and applied understanding of complexity transfers in supply chains through cross-case analysis of seven in-depth case studies conducted in UK manufacturing companies in the last ten years. An informationtheoretic methodology was followed in all cases, using entropy as a measure of complexity, internally – within the focal firm, and at the interface – with its suppliers and customers. This research paper reports on the experiences, quantitative results and qualitative insights from a diverse range of UK manufacturing companies on the measurement and management of complexity. In this paper the authors bring together over ten years of findings on manufacturing complexity research, with the main aim of contributing to a theoreticallygrounded understanding of complexity transfers in supply chains. In terms of theoretical development, the case studies are combined and extended into a theoretical framework of complexity transfer according to their exporting/importing and generating/absorbing properties. In terms of practical implications, the findings of this paper can be used as a predictive tool for companies to configure and manage their relationships with suppliers and customers within their supply chain, or to better understand their existing ones. Furthermore, the patterns of complexity transfer could be used as a means to guide the distribution of cost and benefits between partners in the supply chain