Operations management in high value manufacturing

This paper explores the issue of high value manufacturing from an operations management perspective and discusses the critical role that the operations management community must play in moving manufacturing organisations to 'higher value ground'. An exploratory study was carried out in two phases. In Phase 1 existing literature was examined following a systematic review process. This was followed by a stakeholder analysis that included manufacturing companies, government agencies and consultancies and case studies of three organisations that had recently repositioned their businesses. Phase 2 comprised of a focus group based industry consultation exercise. The aim of the second phase was to validate and refine the findings from the initial phase and to generate the key ideas that would inform a future research agenda. This paper provides the foundation for further research by identifying those operational issues that are affecting industry as it seeks to move to higher value ground

Towards a mixed method approach for the multidisciplinary investigation of management processes

This paper presents the development of a mixed methods approach by a multidisciplinary group of academics to understand and so model management processes with a view to enabling informed management decision making. Considering management processes as one of three categories of business processes (CIMOSA Standards Committee, 1989), the literature in this area is reviewed to identify current management modelling techniques. The researchers conclude that these do not adequately address both the 'hard' and 'soft' characteristics of management processes as well as the methodological viewpoints of the group. The development of a mixed method approach designed to address these issues is presented, along with an explanation of its application in practice. The paper concludes with a critical evaluation of the method and outlines future developmental work planned by the research group. The value in this approach is that it informs both academia and the business community by proposing a transparent and repeatable method of understanding the subjective topics of management practices and processes that is grounded in both a priori theory and practical data

The missing link between high value manufacturing and service

This paper discusses the missing link between hight value manufacturing and service

The organic roadmap of knowledge management in innovative companies

The Knowledge management (KM) field has been both extensively researched by academics and widely discussed by practitioners, but most of the research is limited to the case studies of one-time KM initiatives in large organisations. In this paper we propose to look at KM as a process, as a journey that a company undertakes, going through natural phases of managing explicit knowledge, knowledge sharing and creating new knowledge, which overlap, are interconnected and mutually reinforcing. The model was derived from a multiple case study of innovative companies from the energy sector and its components fit the specifics of these companies, which are shaped by their organisational characteristics and business processes

Gamifying the process of innovating

Gamification is a new, rapidly growing trend impacting many areas of business such as learning and marketing. It has also been predicted to revolutionise the process of innovating. However, there have been very few examples of gamification supporting the innovating process within the academic literature. The starting point for this thought piece is whether this prediction can ever be fulfilled. We intend to open a discussion about the ways in which gamification and innovating may intertwine and how the mindset and the toolset of gamification can support the process of innovating. In particular, we showcase and review a set of examples of gamifying innovating activities from both research and practice. Coupling this review of practice with academic evidence from innovation literature, we highlight some gaps and explore potential directions for further research

Using simulation to evaluate e-business process implementations

E-business adoption within companies appears to be driven by high level justification and 'me too' attitudes rather than from detailed investigation and assessment of the operational benefits. This paper argues the need to perform this detailed investigation and proposes the use of discrete event simulation as a tool for this analysis. Case studies from two small to medium enterprises illustrate features of simulation tools required that could improve the evaluation of e-business process implementations. Results from the case studies show the effect of e-business process implementations on the dynamics of the business whilst demonstrating the greater understanding of the dynamic performance that can be gained

Maturity models as an appropriate approach for knowledge management?

Maturity models have been successfully used in a number of areas, such as software development and supply chain management, and their success has made them appealing for other areas, including knowledge management. This study questions the validity of the existing maturity models in knowledge management and attempts to build one using a transparent development process. However, the research leads to unexpected results; it demonstrates that building a maturity model for knowledge management is problematic, and questions the very framework and the hierarchy of parameters of the process maturity as well. These findings were enabled by employing a combination of two methods: machine learning using knowledge-based expert system (also referred to as inductive or case-based reasoning, CBR) and correlation analysis, of which the former is new to this type of research

A business process approach to human resource management

The initial objective of the research presented in this paper was to investigate human resource management (HRM) practices from a business process perspective. The paper first demonstrates the level of inconsistency in the field with respect to HRM models. The paper then develops the need for a more formal systems engineering-based approach for modelling HRM practices from a business process viewpoint. The paper then goes on to describe the model developed for the HRM business process together with the methodology used to validate the model. The paper concludes with a discussion on the validity of the model, which further demonstrates the differing points of view in this complex and multidisciplinary field