Managing innovative manufacturing

Editorial: The Managing Innovative Manufacturing (MIM) conference series started in 1993 in the UK. The first MIM conference was held at Keele University and, as from the second MIM at Leicester University in 1996, it became a biennial event with the University of Nottingham and Aston University hosting, respectively, the third and fourth conferences. The main areas of interest of the MIM conference series are: Manufacturing Strategy; Technology & Innovation Management; Human Resource Management; Organisation of Work; Product Design; Operations Planning and Control; Supply Chain Management; Performance Management. This special issue of the International Journal of Technology Management is based on selected papers from MIM2000 at Aston University, where it was organised by Aston Business School. The special theme of the Aston conference was Responsive Production and the Agile Enterprise. Altogether 82 papers were presented in parallel sessions. The eight papers included here were selected from the ‘Technology and Innovation’ stream. They have all been independently reviewed and revised before being accepted for publication. The authors of these papers are from the UK, Ireland, Turkey, the USA, the Netherlands and Hong Kong. They address a wide range of issues within the overall scope of Technology and Innovation with some papers having a geographical or sector focus and others being more general in nature. Participation in the MIM conferences has become increasingly international and to reflect this, the 2002 event is leaving the UK and being held at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, in the USA. It is planned to hold the following MIM at the University of Aalborg, Denmark, in 2004.

The future of manufacturing

Anyone who looks at the title of this special issue will agree that the intent behind the preparation of this volume was ambitious: to predict and discuss “The Future of Manufacturing”. Will manufacturing be important in the future? Even though some sceptics might say not, and put on the table some old familiar arguments, we would strongly disagree. To bring subsidies for the argument we issued the call-for-papers for this special issue of Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, fully aware of the size of the challenge in our hands. But we strongly believed that the enterprise would be worthwhile. The point of departure is the ongoing debate concerning the meaning and content of manufacturing. The easily visualised internal activity of using tangible resources to make physical products in factories is no longer a viable way to characterise manufacturing. It is now a more loosely defined concept concerning the organisation and management of open, interdependent, systems for delivering goods and services, tangible and intangible, to diverse types of markets. Interestingly, Wickham Skinner is the most cited author in this special issue of JMTM. He provides the departure point of several articles because his vision and insights have guided and inspired researchers in production and operations management from the late 1960s until today. However, the picture that we draw after looking at the contributions in this special issue is intrinsically distinct, much more dynamic, and complex. Seven articles address the following research themes: 1.new patterns of organisation, where the boundaries of firms become blurred and the role of the firm in the production system as well as that of manufacturing within the firm become contingent; 2.new approaches to strategic decision-making in markets characterised by turbulence and weak signals at the customer interface; 3.new challenges in strategic and operational decisions due to changes in the profile of the workforce; 4.new global players, especially China, modifying the manufacturing landscape; and 5.new techniques, methods and tools that are being made feasible through progress in new technological domains. Of course, many other important dimensions could be studied, but these themes are representative of current changes and future challenges. Three articles look at the first theme: organisational evolution of production and operations in firms and networks. Karlsson's and Skold's article represent one further step in their efforts to characterise “the extraprise”. In the article, they advance the construction of a new framework, based on “the network perspective” by defining the formal elements which compose it and exploring the meaning of different types of relationships. The way in which “actors, resources and activities” are conceptualised extends the existing boundaries of analytical thinking in operations management and open new avenues for research, teaching and practice. The higher level of abstraction, an intrinsic feature of the framework, is associated to the increasing degree of complexity that characterises decisions related to strategy and implementation in the manufacturing and operations area, a feature that is expected to become more and more pervasive as time proceeds. Riis, Johansen, Englyst and Sorensen have also based their article on their previous work, which in this case is on “the interactive firm”. They advance new propositions on strategic roles of manufacturing and discuss why the configuration of strategic manufacturing roles, at the level of the network, will become a key issue and how the indirect strategic roles of manufacturing will become increasingly important. Additionally, by considering that value chains will become value webs, they predict that shifts in strategic manufacturing roles will look like a sequence of moves similar to a game of chess. Then, lastly under the first theme, Fleury and Fleury develop a conceptual framework for the study of production systems in general derived from field research in the telecommunications industry, here considered a prototype of the coming information society and knowledge economy. They propose a new typology of firms which, on certain dimensions, complements the propositions found in the other two articles. Their telecoms-based framework (TbF) comprises six types of companies characterised by distinct profiles of organisational competences, which interact according to specific patterns of relationships, thus creating distinct configurations of production networks. The second theme is addressed by Kyläheiko and SandstroÍm in their article “Strategic options based framework for management of dynamic capabilities in manufacturing firms”. They propose a new approach to strategic decision-making in markets characterised by turbulence and weak signals at the customer interface. Their framework for a manufacturing firm in the digital age leads to active asset selection (strategic investments in both tangible and intangible assets) and efficient orchestrating of the global value net in “thin” intangible asset markets. The framework consists of five steps based on Porter's five-forces model, the resources-based view, complemented by means of the concepts of strategic options and related flexibility issues. Thun, GroÍssler and Miczka's contribution to the third theme brings the human dimension to the debate regarding the future of manufacturing. Their article focuses on the challenges brought to management by the ageing of workers in Germany but, in the arguments that are raised, the future challenges associated to workers and work organisation in every production system become visible and relevant. An interesting point in the approach adopted by the authors is that not only the factual problems and solutions are taken into account but the perception of the managers is brought into the picture. China cannot be absent in the discussion of the future of manufacturing. Therefore, within the fourth theme, Vaidya, Bennett and Liu provide the evidence of the gradual improvement of Chinese companies in the medium and high-tech sectors, by using the revealed comparative advantage (RCA) analysis. The Chinese evolution is shown to be based on capabilities developed through combining international technology transfer and indigenous learning. The main implication for the Western companies is the need to take account of the accelerated rhythm of capability development in China. For other developing countries China's case provides lessons of great importance. Finally, under the fifth theme, Kuehnle's article: “Post mass production paradigm (PMPP) trajectories” provides a futuristic scenario of what is already around us and might become prevalent in the future. It takes a very intensive look at a whole set of dimensions that are affecting manufacturing now, and will influence manufacturing in the future, ranging from the application of ICT to the need for social transparency. In summary, this special issue of JMTM presents a brief, but undisputable, demonstration of the possible richness of manufacturing in the future. Indeed, we could even say that manufacturing has no future if we only stick to the past perspectives. Embracing the new is not easy. The new configurations of production systems, the distributed and complementary roles to be performed by distinct types of companies in diversified networked structures, leveraged by the new emergent technologies and associated the new challenges for managing people, are all themes that are carriers of the future. The Guest Editors of this special issue on the future of manufacturing are strongly convinced that their undertaking has been worthwhile.

The growing importance of inter-company collaboration

Guest editorial: This special issue has been drawn from papers that were published as part of the Second European Conference on Management of Technology (EuroMOT) which was held at Aston Business School (Birmingham, UK) 10-12 September 2006. This was the official European conference for the International Association for Management of Technology (IAMOT); the overall theme of the conference was “Technology and global integration.” There were many high-calibre papers submitted to the conference and published in the associated proceedings (Bennett et al., 2006). The streams of interest that emerged from these submissions were the importance of: technology strategy, innovation, process technologies, managing change, national policies and systems, research and development, supply chain technology, service and operational technology, education and training, small company incubation, technology transfer, virtual operations, technology in developing countries, partnership and alliance, and financing and investment. This special issue focuses upon the streams of interest that accentuate the importance of collaboration between different organisations. Such organisations vary greatly in character; for instance, they may be large or small, publicly or privately owned, and operate in manufacturing or service sectors. Despite these varying characteristics they all have something in common; they all stress the importance of inter-organisational collaboration as a critical success factor for their organisation. In today's global economy it is essential that organisations decide what their core competencies are what those of complementing organisations are. Core competences should be developed to become a bases of differentiation, leverage and competitive advantage, whilst those that are less mature should be outsourced to other organisations that can claim to have had more recognition and success in that particular core competence (Porter, 2001). This strategic trend can be observed throughout advanced economies and is growing strongly. If a posteriori reasoning is applied here it follows that organisations could continue to become more specialised in fewer areas whilst simultaneously becoming more dependent upon other organisations for critical parts of their operations. Such actions seem to fly in the face of rational business strategy and so the question must be asked: why are organisations developing this way? The answer could lie in the recent changes in endogenous and exogenous factors of the organisation; the former emphasising resource-based issues in the short-term, and strategic positioning in the long-term whilst the later emphasises transaction costs in the short-term and acquisition of new skills and knowledge in the long-term. For a harmonious balance of these forces to prevail requires organisations to firstly declare a shared meta-strategy, then to put some cross-organisational processes into place which have their routine operations automated as far as possible. A rolling business plan would review, assess and reposition each organisation within this meta-strategy according to how well they have contributed (Binder and Clegg, 2006). The important common issue here is that an increasing number of businesses today are gaining direct benefit from increasing their levels of inter-organisational collaboration. Such collaboration has largely been possible due to recent technological advances which can make organisational structures more agile (e.g. the extended or the virtual enterprise), organisational infra-structure more connected, and the sharing of real-time information an operational reality. This special issue consists of research papers that have explored the above phenomenon in some way. For instance, the role of government intervention, the use of internet-based technologies, the role of research and development organisations, the changing relationships between start-ups and established firms, the importance of cross-company communities of practice, the practice of networking, the front-loading of large-scale projects, innovation and the probabilistic uncertainties that organisations experience are explored in these papers. The cases cited in these papers are limited as they have a Eurocentric focus. However, it is hoped that readers of this special issue will gain a valuable insight into the increasing importance of collaborative practices via these studies.

A conceptual framework for enterprise management

This paper reports on the theoretical foundations and the practical reasons for the increasing popularity of the enterprise management perspective. Theoretical foundations are given that discuss vertically integrated, virtual and extended enterprises in terms of endogenous and exogenous factors, and the tensions that these create. An exploratory study in the German automotive industry using inductive grounded theory was conducted, involving data collection via 28 semi-structured interviews with 16 companies and data validation via a questionnaire survey receiving 110 responses from 52 companies. The research delivers a conceptual framework to show how enterprise structures emerge, depending on the prevailing type of core competencies that they use. Furthermore, it proposes contingency-planning recommendations to facilitate managing the change from one structure to another as the demands placed upon the enterprise change.

Tool support for integrating extended enterprises

A current EPSRC project, product introduction process: a simulation in the extended enterprise (PIPSEE) is discussed. PIPSEE attempts to improve the execution of the product introduction process (PIP) within an extended enterprise in the aerospace sector. The modus operandi for accomplishing this has been to develop process understanding amongst a core team, spanning four different companies, through process modelling, review and improvement recommendation. In parallel, a web-based simulation capability is being used to conduct simulation experiments, and to disseminate findings by training others in the lessons that have been learned. It is intended that the use of the PIPSEE simulator should encourage radical thinking about the ‘fuzzy front end’ of the PIP. This presents a topical, exciting and challenging research problem.

Minority enterprise in the clothing industry: an analysis of Asian jeans manufacturers in Birmingham

This thesis discusses and assesses the resources available to Asian entrepreneurs in the West Midlands' clothing industry and how they are used by these small businessmen in order to address opportunities in the market economy within the constraints imposed. The fashion industry is volatile and is dependent upon flexible firms which can respond quickly to shortrun production schedules. Small firms are best able to respond to this market environment. Production of jeans presents an interesting departure from the mainstream fashion industry. It is traditionally gared towards longrun production schedules where multinational enterprises have artificially diversified the market, promoting the 'right' brand name and have established control of the upper end of the market, whilst imports from Newly Developing Countries have catered for cheap copies at the lower end of the market. In recent years, a fashion element to jeans has emerged, thus opening a market gap for U.K. manufacturers to respond in the same way as for other fashion articles. A large immigrant population, previously serving the now declining factories and foundries of the West Midlands but, through redundancy, no longer a part of this employment sector, has ~5ponded to economic constraints and market opportunities by drawing on ethnic network resources for competitive access to labour, finance and contacts, to attack the emergent market gap. Two models of these Asian entrepreneurs are developed. One being somecne who has professionally and actively tackled the market gap and become established. These entrepreneurs are usually educated and have personal experience in business and were amongst the first to perceive opportunities to enter the industry, actively utilising their ethnicity as a resource upon which to draw for favorable access to cheap, flexible labour and capital. The second model is composed of later entrants to jeans manufacturing. They have less formal education and experience and have been pushed into self-employment by constraints of unemployment. Their ethnicity is passively used as a resource. They are more likely confined to the marginal activity of 'cut make and trim' and have little opportunity to increase profit margins, become estalished or expand.

Evaluating design implementation strategies using enterprise simulation

Concurrent engineering and design for manufacture and assembly strategies have become pervasive in use in a wide array of industrial settings. These strategies have generally focused on product and process design issues based on capability concerns. The strategies have been historically justified using cost savings calculations focusing on easily quantifiable costs such as raw material savings or manufacturing or assembly operations no longer required. It is argued herein that neither the focus of the strategies nor the means of justification are adequate. Product and process design strategies should include both capability and capacity concerns and justification procedures should include the financial effects that the product and process changes would have on the entire company. The authors of this paper take this more holistic view of the problem and examine an innovative new design strategy using a comprehensive enterprise simulation tool. The results indicate that both the design strategy and the simulator show promise for further industrial use. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Design of an expandable manufacturing simulator through the application of object-oriented principles

In analysing manufacturing systems, for either design or operational reasons, failure to account for the potentially significant dynamics could produce invalid results. There are many analysis techniques that can be used, however, simulation is unique in its ability to assess detailed, dynamic behaviour. The use of simulation to analyse manufacturing systems would therefore seem appropriate if not essential. Many simulation software products are available but their ease of use and scope of application vary greatly. This is illustrated at one extreme by simulators which offer rapid but limited application whilst at the other simulation languages which are extremely flexible but tedious to code. Given that a typical manufacturing engineer does not posses in depth programming and simulation skills then the use of simulators over simulation languages would seem a more appropriate choice. Whilst simulators offer ease of use their limited functionality may preclude their use in many applications. The construction of current simulators makes it difficult to amend or extend the functionality of the system to meet new challenges. Some simulators could even become obsolete as users, demand modelling functionality that reflects the latest manufacturing system design and operation concepts. This thesis examines the deficiencies in current simulation tools and considers whether they can be overcome by the application of object-oriented principles. Object-oriented techniques have gained in popularity in recent years and are seen as having the potential to overcome any of the problems traditionally associated with software construction. There are a number of key concepts that are exploited in the work described in this thesis: the use of object-oriented techniques to act as a framework for abstracting engineering concepts into a simulation tool and the ability to reuse and extend object-oriented software. It is argued that current object-oriented simulation tools are deficient and that in designing such tools, object -oriented techniques should be used not just for the creation of individual simulation objects but for the creation of the complete software. This results in the ability to construct an easy to use simulator that is not limited by its initial functionality. The thesis presents the design of an object-oriented data driven simulator which can be freely extended. Discussion and work is focused on discrete parts manufacture. The system developed retains the ease of use typical of data driven simulators. Whilst removing any limitation on its potential range of applications. Reference is given to additions made to the simulator by other developers not involved in the original software development. Particular emphasis is put on the requirements of the manufacturing engineer and the need for Ihe engineer to carrv out dynamic evaluations.

An integrated process for forming manufacturing technology acquisition decisions

The right manufacturing technology at the right time can enable an organisation to produce products that are cheaper, better, and made faster than those of the competition. Paradoxically, the wrong technology, or even the right technology poorly implemented, can be disastrous. The decision process through which practitioners acquire manufacturing technologies can significantly impact on their eventual capabilities and performance. This complete process has unfortunately received limited attention in previous studies. Therefore, the work presented in this paper has investigated leading research and industrial practices to create a formal and rational decision process, and then evaluated this through an extended and in-depth case study of a manufacturing technology acquisition. An analysis of previous literature, industrial practices, and the resulting decision process are all presented in this paper.

Capabilities and competitiveness of Chinese state owned manufacturing enterprises:what has been learned over 20 years and what remains to be learned

Technological capabilities in Chinese manufacturing have been transformed in the last three decades. However, the extent to which and how domestic market oriented state owned enterprises (SOEs) have developed their capabilities remain important questions. The East Asian latecomer model has been adapted to study six Chinese SOEs in the automotive, steel and machine tools sectors to assess capability levels attained and the role of external sources and internal efforts in developing them. All six enterprises demonstrate high competence in operating established technology, managing investment and making product and process improvements but differ in innovative capability. While the East Asian latecomer model in which linking, leveraging and learning explain technological capability development is relevant for the companies studied, it needs to be adapted for Chinese SOEs to take account of types of external links and leverage of enterprises, the role of government, enterprise level management motives and means of financing development.

Capability development in Chinese manufacturing:a quasi-biotic perspective of knowledge evolution

A quasi-biotic model of knowledge evolution has been applied to manufacturing technology capability development which includes product design and development and manufacturing process/workflow improvement. The concepts of “knowledge genes” and “knowledge body” are introduced to explain the evolution of technological capability. It is shown that knowledge development within the enterprise happens as a result of interactions between an enterprise’s internal knowledge and that acquired from external sources catalysed by: (a) internal mechanisms, recources and incentives, and (b) actions and policies of external agencies. A matrix specifying factors contributing to knowledge development and types of manufacturing capabilities (product design, equipment development or use, and workflow) is developed to explain technological knowledge development. The case studies of Tianjin Pipe Corporation (TPCO) and Tianjin Tianduan Press Co. are presented to illustrate the application of the matrix.

Enterprise strategy development:a three-dimensional approach to the role of SCM

The Irish economy has grown strongly in recent years. This, combined with other factors in the international trading environment, has sharpened the focus on the need for innovative strategies at a national level which can contribute positively from an enterprise strategy development perspective. As traditional manufacturing activity has migrated to lower labour cost economies questions have been raised concerning the role of supply chain management (SCM) in the evolving Irish business environment. This article describes some of the main drivers in terms of both SCM and the changing economic and business environment. It goes on to propose a three-dimensional approach to understanding the potential role of SCM in the new scenario. This in turn informs the logistics and SCM research agenda from a national policy point of view.