Realising competitive advantage:bicycle manufacture - manufacturing engineering and management

Students at Cranfield Manufacturing Systems Centre helped Brompton Bikes formulate a strategy to meet rapid sales growth. The students took up Operations Excellence MSc, a two-year part-time programme based on the Cranfield MSc in Engineering and Management of Manufacturing Systems, include the Realising Competitive Manufacture module, which is set out to consolidate and embed the knowledge and skills developed throughout the two-year programme. Guided by StratNav process, the students analysed the product families of Brompton, established the basis on which they compete in the market place, and then benchmarked against key competitors. The top five developments identified to be needed by Brompton are: the formation of group technology cells, creation of a robotic brazing facility, and training and recruitment initiatives for production staff.

Competitive interactions between four foliose lichen species with and without nutrient enrichment

Competition between four foliose lichen species, common on slate rock surfaces in South Gwynedd, Wales, UK, was studied in experimental plots with and without nutrient enrichment by bird droppings. Fragments of the four lichens were glued to pieces of slate on horizontal boards in monoculture and in two-, three- and four-species mixtures in a factorial experimental design. In monoculture, nutrient enrichment increased thallus area of Parmelia conspersa (Ehrh. ex. Ach.) Ach., decreased thallus areas of Parmelia saxatilis (L.) Ach. and Parmelia glabratula ssp. fuliginosa (Fr. ex. Duby) Laundon, and did not affect thallus area of Phaeophyscia orbicularis (Necker) Moberg compared with untreated thalli. In the mixtures, P. conspersa and Ph. orbicularis were equally effective competitors in plots with and without nutrient enrichment. Addition of bird droppings, however, altered the ability of P. saxatilis and P. glabratula ssp. fuliginosa, to compete with the other species, the competitive ability of both species being reduced in some mixtures but increased in others. The results suggest that nutrient enrichment may alter the competitive balance between the four lichen species and this may be a factor determining their relative abundance on rock surfaces in South Gwynedd.

Supplier competitive advantage in inter-firm business relationships:is Keiretsu really a source of competitive advantage for Japanese automotive suppliers?

This paper explores how firms create and sustain competitive advantage in the inter-firm business relationships from a supplier’s perspective. Ultimately, this paper draws its attention to keiretsu partnerships and how it is perceived by Japanese automotive suppliers. Four main theoretical perspectives (resource based view, industrial organisation, transaction cost economics, and relational network) were considered when developing a conceptual framework based on competitive capability, market diversification, and level of engagement. The framework was examined against two best-practice automotive component suppliers. Later, primary data was also gathered through an interview with a CEO and a survey questionnaire with 11 Japanese companies. As a result, this paper classified these 11 companies into four supplier groups based on tier level (1 and 2) and affiliation condition. Findings propose that there may be little benefit in being an affiliated tier 1 supplier, and that independent tier 2 suppliers may be more competitive than affiliated ones.

Creating and sustaining competitive advantage in collaborative systems:the what and the how

Initially this paper asks two questions: In order to create and sustain competitive advantage through collaborative systems WHAT should be managed? and HOW should it be managed? It introduces the competitive business structure and reviews some of the global trends in manufacturing and business, which leads to focus on manage processes, value propositions and extended business processes. It then goes on to develop a model of the collaborative architecture for extended enterprises and demonstrates the validity of this architecture through a case study. It concludes that, in order to create and sustain competitive advantage, collaborative systems should facilitate the management of: the collaborative architecture of the extended enterprise; the extended business processes and the value proposition for each extended enterprise through a meta level management process. It also identifies areas for further research, such as better understanding of: the exact nature and interaction of multiple strategies within an enterprise; how to manage people/teams working along extended business processes; and the nature and prerequisites of the manage processes.

The influence of age and trait attributions on recruitment selection

The role of interpersonal attraction into the recruitment selection is gaining research attention. Early work in the domain of the influence of attraction in organisations suggested that men are given more resources, such as higher salaries and promotions. However, recent research has found women have an automatic in-group bias. It was suggested that female interviewers are more likely to hire another female. In contrast, male interviewers were found to be equally as likely to hire men as women. To resolve these two conflicting findings a behavioural experiment was set up looking at gender, attractiveness and recruitment selection. Forty participants, twenty male and twenty female, of varying ages (18-65) were recruited through age stratified sampling. Participants took on the role of manager of a medium sized company and were shown twenty photographs of faces previously rated for attractiveness. On initial viewing participants were asked to decide whether they would firstly hire the person and secondly give as many reasons for their decision. Findings from this research show that in all age groups male and female participants gave females (especially attractive females) more jobs, except in the case of the 18-21 year old females who gave attractive males more jobs. On examining the reasons behind the participant’s decisions, it was evident that if you appeared confident, friendly, youthful and attractive you were 46% more likely to receive the job. However, if you were perceived to be untrustworthy, lazy, arrogant and unintelligent you were 49% more likely not to receive the job. These findings shed light on the various processes that may underpin human resource decisions in an organisational setting.

Marketing strategy and competitive positioning

Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning deals with the process of developing and implementing a marketing strategy. The third edition focuses on competitive positioning at the heart of marketing strategy and includes in-depth discussion of the processes used in marketing to achieve competitive advantage.