Contextual factors for suppier and customer integration on product performance

The beneficial impacts of supplier and customer integration are widely acknowledged in new product development. Despite this, prior empirical studies have not adequately addressed what integration processes lead an organization to achieve better product performance, nor which contextual factors for such integration are. This paper examines the impact of environmental (i.e. market certainty) and internal (i.e. internally integrated product development) factors on key supplier and customer integration processes (i.e. information sharing and product co-development with supplier and customer respectively) and in turn testifies the impact of them on product innovativeness and product performance

Factors influencing the relationship between product modularity and supply chain integration

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between product modularity (PM) and supply chain integration (SCI), and to identify factors influencing this relationship. Design/methodology/approach: A case study approach involving in-depth interviews on three modular and two non-modular design projects in the Hong Kong and Pearl River Delta region was conducted. Within and cross-case analyses were adopted. Findings: Results support the current view that modular design is related to a loosely coordinated supply chain, whereas integrated design is associated with a tightly coordinated supply chain. However, this relationship is affected and explained by four contingency factors: new module/component development, technological knowledge leakage and creation, project team size and supply chain efficiency. Research limitations/implications: The paper used a case study approach so the generalizability of the study is limited. This approach, however, enabled us to examine explicitly the relationship between PM and SCI, where empirical research was lacking. The rich content of each case suggested how and why modular design affects supply chain management. Originality/value: The findings of this paper increase the understanding of the dynamics of modular product design and supply chain management. The paper also explores four contingency factors affecting the relationship. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Dynamic availability assessment and optimal component design of multi-state weighted k-out-of-n systems

10.1016/j.ress.2013.10.002Reliability Engineering and System Safety12357-62RESS

Virtual Enterprise Process Management: An Application to Industrial Maintenance

Part 2: Behaviour and CoordinationInternational audienceThe paper firstly reviews the relevant concepts on virtual enterprise operations as well as industrial maintenance processes. Then a virtual enterprise enabling platform is presented. The architecture of the platform and its main modules are briefly introduced. Within this platform, a smart object extension is highlighted. This smart object is used to collect data from remote equipment and pass it to the Virtual Enterprise Management Platform (VEMP) through a gateway. The data collected by the smart object will be aggregated and monitored, using the business intelligence tools of the platform, enabling the implementation of maintenance strategies, rising fault conditions that will trigger a repair business process. In the final part of the paper, it is discussed a business case for a SME with worldwide operations