Benefits of Implementing Lean Practices and the Impact of the Lean Aerospace Initiative in the Defense Aerospace Industry and Government Agencies

In the 1980’s, many United States industrial organizations started developing new production processes to improve quality, reduce cost, and better respond to customer needs and the pressures of global competition. This new paradigm was coined Lean Production (or simply “Lean”) in the book The Machine That Changed The World published in 1990 by researchers from MIT’s International Motor Vehicle Program. In 1993, a consortium of US defense aerospace firms and the USAF Aeronautical Systems Center, together with the AFRL Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, started the Lean Aircraft Initiative (LAI) at MIT. With expansion in 1998 to include government space products, the program was renamed the Lean Aerospace Initiative. LAI’s vision is to “Significantly reduce the cost and cycle time for military aerospace products throughout the entire value chain while continuing to improve product performance.” By late 1998, 23 industry and 13 government organizations with paying memberships, along with MIT and the UAW were participating in the LAI.

The Benefits of Re-Evaluating Real-Time Fulfillment Decisions

At the time of a customer order, the e-tailer assigns the order to one or more of its order fulfillment centers, and/or to drop shippers, so as to minimize procurement and transportation costs, based on the available current information. However this assignment is necessarily myopic as it cannot account for all future events, such as subsequent customer orders or inventory replenishments. We examine the potential benefits from periodically re-evaluating these real-time order-assignment decisions. We construct near-optimal heuristics for the re-assignment for a large set of customer orders with the objective to minimize the total number of shipments. We investigate how best to implement these heuristics for a rolling horizon, and discuss the effect of demand correlation, customer order size, and the number of customer orders on the nature of the heuristics. Finally, we present potential saving opportunities by testing the heuristics on sets of order data from a major e-tailer.

Logistics Network Design with Differentiated Delivery Lead-Time: Benefits and Insights

Most logistics network design models assume exogenous customer demand that is independent of the service time or level. This paper examines the benefits of segmenting demand according to lead-time sensitivity of customers. To capture lead-time sensitivity in the network design model, we use a facility grouping method to ensure that the different demand classes are satisfied on time. In addition, we perform a series of computational experiments to develop a set of managerial insights for the network design decision making process.

Customer satisfaction and organisational justice

Applies organisational justice theory to facilities management with the aim of increasing customer satisfaction with the service received. Provides an overview of organisational justice theory, and reviews the numerous different forms that this may take. Although there is strong theoretical support for participative decision making, in practice it often leads to conflict and delays. Two-way communication appears to represent the most effective form. The conclusions are based upon theoretical support as well as semi-structured interviews and observations in an organisational setting. The conclusions drawn do not have the benefits of more objective quantitative research methods. Contributes to practical understanding of how to maintain customer satisfaction in the facilities management industry and the theoretical reasons why the proposed methods will be effective. Argues that the impact of organisational justice on employee satisfaction can be applied to customer satisfaction with specific reference to facilities management.

Benefits of the ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 standards: a literature review

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine the similarities and differences between the benefits derived from implementing the ISO 9001 and the ISO 14001 standards. Methodology/Approach: The paper reviews the literature using an electronic search in the ScienceDirect, ABI/Inform, Emerald databases to identify papers focusing on the adoption of the ISO 9001 and 14001 standards and the benefits derived from implementing them. Findings: The paper identifies 82 articles about ISO 9001 and 29 about ISO 14001. Although some differences can be observed between the benefits considered by ISO 9001 and 14001, there is a great degree of coincidence in the benefits studied. The review suggests 13 benefits as the most usually analyzed (including environmental performance for the case of the ISO 14001 standard) by scholars. It is suggested that both standards have clear benefits on operational, people and customer results and that the effects on financial performance are inconclusive. Limitations/implications: One limitation of this paper is that the works identified are conditioned by the search strategy used. In addition, other key words could be included in future studies such as operational, market, quality, financial performance, and customer satisfaction in order to expand this search. Originality/Value: The main contribution is that the paper identifies the literature gap and future research proposals with regard to the benefits of the ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 standards.

Understanding service failure and recovery: A customer-based phenomenographic approach

To date, researchers have largely considered service failure and recovery as a combination of individual constructs, often in isolation, rather than viewing failure and recovery holistically. Consequently, our understanding is fragmented. Furthermore, while some attempt has been made to gain a better understanding of service failure and recovery from both the customer and the employee’s perspective (cf. Bitner et al.1990; McColl-Kennedy and Sparks 2003), no study has employed an interpretative perspective that potentially offers a rich, in-depth approach to this important area of research. Given this gap, our paper presents the value of taking a customer-based interpretive approach to obtaining a fuller understanding of the way customers view service failure and recovery. In this paper we report the findings of our phenomenography study of twenty in-depth interviews. Not only do we argue the benefits of adopting this fresh approach to studying service failure and recovery, we also present an innovative conceptual framework derived from our phenomenographic research findings, which has significant theoretical and practical implications.

Optimization of facility location-allocation problem in customer-driven supply chain

This paper develops and applies an integrated multiple criteria decision making approach to optimize the facility location-allocation problem in the contemporary customer-driven supply chain. Unlike the traditional optimization techniques, the proposed approach, combining the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and the goal programming (GP) model, considers both quantitative and qualitative factors, and also aims at maximizing the benefits of deliverer and customers. In the integrated approach, the AHP is used first to determine the relative importance weightings or priorities of alternative locations with respect to both deliverer oriented and customer oriented criteria. Then, the GP model, incorporating the constraints of system, resource, and AHP priority is formulated to select the best locations for setting up the warehouses without exceeding the limited available resources. In this paper, a real case study is used to demonstrate how the integrated approach can be applied to deal with the facility location-allocation problem, and it is proved that the integrated approach outperforms the traditional costbased approach.

Spillover effects of service failures in coalition loyalty programs:the buffering effect of special treatment benefits

Coalition loyalty programs are on the rise, yet few studies investigate the impact of service failures in such programs. Using data from a retail context, the authors show that a program partner deemed responsible for a service failure suffers negative customer responses. However, customers' perceptions of the benefits of the coalition loyalty program buffer these consequences. Perhaps most importantly, when customers perceive the program's special treatment benefits as low, direct and indirect spillover effects occur, such that a service failure by one program partner has a negative effect on customer loyalty toward the program itself. © 2013 New York University.

Internet technologies, ECRM capabilities, and performance benefits for SMEs:An exploratory study

Research on large firms suggests that dedicated customer relationship management (CRM) software applications play a critical role in creating and sustaining customer relationships. CRM is also of strategic importance to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), but most of them do not employ dedicated CRM software. Instead they use generic Internet-based technologies to manage customer relationships with electronic CRM (eCRM). There has been little research on the extent to which the use of generic Internet technologies contributes to SME performance. The present study fills the gap, building upon the literature on organizational capabilities, marketing, and SMEs to develop a research model with which to explore the relationships between generic Internet technologies, eCRM capabilities, and the resulting performance benefits in the SME context. A survey across 286 SMEs in Ireland finds strong empirical evidence in support of the hypotheses regarding these benefits. The study contributes to managerial decision making by showing how SMEs can use generic Internet technologies to advance their customer relationships and contributes to theory development by conceptualizing eCRM capabilities in an SME context.

Knowledge transfer in website design:exploring the processes and benefits of design collaboration for non-creative Micros

This thesis explores the interaction between Micros (<10 employees) from non-creative sectors and website designers ("Creatives") that occurred when creating a website of a higher order than a basic template site. The research used Straussian Grounded Theory Method with a longitudinal design, in order to identify what knowledge transferred to the Micros during the collaboration, how it transferred, what factors affected the transfer and outcomes of the transfer including behavioural additionality. To identify whether the research could be extended beyond this, five other design areas were also examined, as well as five Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) engaged in website and branding projects. The findings were that, at the start of the design process, many Micros could not articulate their customer knowledge, and had poor marketing and visual language skills, knowledge core to web design, enabling targeted communication to customers through images. Despite these gaps, most Micros still tried to lead the process. To overcome this disjoint, the majority of the designers used a knowledge transfer strategy termed in this thesis as ‘Bi-Modal Knowledge Transfer’, where the Creative was aware of the transfer but the Micro was unaware, both for drawing out customer knowledge from the Micro and for transferring visual language skills to the Micro. Two models were developed to represent this process. Two models were also created to map changes in the knowledge landscapes of customer knowledge and visual language – the Knowledge Placement Model and the Visual Language Scale. The Knowledge Placement model was used to map the placement of customer knowledge within the consciousness, extending the known Automatic-Unconscious -Conscious model, adding two more locations – Peripheral Consciousness and Occasional Consciousness. Peripheral Consciousness is where potential knowledge is held, but not used. Occasional Consciousness is where potential knowledge is held but used only for specific tasks. The Visual Language Scale was created to measure visual language ability from visually responsive, where the participant only responds personally to visual symbols, to visually multi-lingual, where the participant can use visual symbols to communicate with multiple thought-worlds. With successful Bi-Modal Knowledge Transfer, the outcome included not only an effective website but also changes in the knowledge landscape for the Micros and ongoing behavioural changes, especially in marketing. These effects were not seen in the other design projects, and only in two of the SME projects. The key factors for this difference between SMEs and Micros appeared to be an expectation of knowledge by the Creatives and failure by the SMEs to transfer knowledge within the company.

"Customer" knowledge management in healthcare

This paper reports on a work-in-progress project on the management of patient knowledge in a UK general hospital. Greater involvement of patients is generally seen as crucial to the effective provision of healthcare in the future. However, this presents many challenges, especially in the light of the ageing population in most developed countries and the consequent increasing demand for healthcare. In the UK, there have been many attempts to increase patient involvement by the systematisation of patient feedback, but typically they have not been open to academic scrutiny or formal evaluation, nor have they used any knowledge management principles. The theoretical foundations for this project come first from service management and thence from customer knowledge management. Service management stresses the importance of the customer perspective. Healthcare clearly meets the definitions of a service even though it may also include some tangible elements such as surgery and provision of medication. Although regarding hospital patients purely as "customers" is a viewpoint that needs to be used with care, application of the theory offers potential benefits in healthcare. The two main elements we propose to use from the theory are the type of customer knowledge and its relationship to attributes of the quality of the service provided. The project is concerned with investigating various knowledge management systems (KMS) that are currently in use (or proposed) to systematise patient feedback in an NHS Trust hospital, to manage knowledge from and to a lesser extent about patients. The study is a mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative) action research investigation intended to answer the following three research questions: • How can a KMS be used as a mechanism to capture and evaluate patient experiences to provoke patient service change • How can the KMS assist in providing a mechanism for systematising patient engagement? • How can patient feedback be used to stimulate improvements in care, quality and safety?

Development of ``HealthServe'': A measure of customer service orientation in healthcare

An assessment tool designed to measure a customer service orientation among RN's and LPN's was developed using a content-oriented approach. Critical incidents were first developed by asking two samples of healthcare managers (n = 52 and 25) to identify various customer-contact situations. The critical incidents were then used to formulate a 121-item instrument. Patient-contact workers from 3 hospitals (n = 102) completed the instrument along with the NEO-FFI, a measure of the Big Five personality factors. Concurrently, managers completed a performance evaluation scale on the employees participating in the study in order to determine the predictive validity of the instrument.^ Through a criterion-keying approach, the instrument was scaled down to 38 items. The correlation between HealthServe and the supervisory ratings of performance evaluation data supported the instrument's criterion-related validity (r =.66, p $<$.0001). Incremental validity of HealthServe over the Big Five was found with HealthServe accounting for 46% of the variance.^ The NEO-FFI was used to assess the correlation between personality traits and HealthServe. A factor analysis of HealthServe suggested 4 factors which were correlated with the NEO-FFI scores. Results indicated that HealthServe was related to Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness and negatively related to Neuroticism.^ The benefits of the test construction procedure used here over the use of broad-based measures of personality were discussed as well as the limitations of using a concurrent validation strategy. Recommendations for future studies were provided. ^

Restaurant Customer Loyalty: A Qualitative Assessment of Niche Brands

Using the Loyalty Triangle framework developed by Lewis and Shoemaker (1999) and focus group methodology, the study examined how a niche brand restaurant best achieved long-term loyalty. Results indicate that customers are loyal to a niche brand because of the unique characteristics inherent to the brand. Customers have higher perceptions of such qualities as the presentation of service, consistency of product, and the benefits offered by the loyalty program than characteristics that are shared across all brands. Niche brand restaurants can be more effective in developing these qualities to promote customer loyalty.

Application of meta-analytical probabilistic approach for reliability benefits reflective optimal transmission costing – the case of India

In the deregulated Power markets it is necessary to have a appropriate Transmission Pricing methodology that also takes into account “Congestion and Reliability”, in order to ensure an economically viable, equitable, and congestion free power transfer capability, with high reliability and security. This thesis presents results of research conducted on the development of a Decision Making Framework (DMF) of concepts and data analytic and modelling methods for the Reliability benefits Reflective Optimal “cost evaluation for the calculation of Transmission Cost” for composite power systems, using probabilistic methods. The methodology within the DMF devised and reported in this thesis, utilises a full AC Newton-Raphson load flow and a Monte-Carlo approach to determine, Reliability Indices which are then used for the proposed Meta-Analytical Probabilistic Approach (MAPA) for the evaluation and calculation of the Reliability benefit Reflective Optimal Transmission Cost (ROTC), of a transmission system. This DMF includes methods for transmission line embedded cost allocation among transmission transactions, accounting for line capacity-use as well as congestion costing that can be used for pricing using application of Power Transfer Distribution Factor (PTDF) as well as Bialek’s method to determine a methodology which consists of a series of methods and procedures as explained in detail in the thesis for the proposed MAPA for ROTC. The MAPA utilises the Bus Data, Generator Data, Line Data, Reliability Data and Customer Damage Function (CDF) Data for the evaluation of Congestion, Transmission and Reliability costing studies using proposed application of PTDF and other established/proven methods which are then compared, analysed and selected according to the area/state requirements and then integrated to develop ROTC. Case studies involving standard 7-Bus, IEEE 30-Bus and 146-Bus Indian utility test systems are conducted and reported throughout in the relevant sections of the dissertation. There are close correlation between results obtained through proposed application of PTDF method with the Bialek’s and different MW-Mile methods. The novel contributions of this research work are: firstly the application of PTDF method developed for determination of Transmission and Congestion costing, which are further compared with other proved methods. The viability of developed method is explained in the methodology, discussion and conclusion chapters. Secondly the development of comprehensive DMF which helps the decision makers to analyse and decide the selection of a costing approaches according to their requirements. As in the DMF all the costing approaches have been integrated to achieve ROTC. Thirdly the composite methodology for calculating ROTC has been formed into suits of algorithms and MATLAB programs for each part of the DMF, which are further described in the methodology section. Finally the dissertation concludes with suggestions for Future work.

A Rosetta Stone For Nature's Benefits To People.

After a long incubation period, the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is now underway. Underpinning all its activities is the IPBES Conceptual Framework (CF), a simplified model of the interactions between nature and people. Drawing on the legacy of previous large-scale environmental assessments, the CF goes further in explicitly embracing different disciplines and knowledge systems (including indigenous and local knowledge) in the co-construction of assessments of the state of the world's biodiversity and the benefits it provides to humans. The CF can be thought of as a kind of Rosetta Stone that highlights commonalities between diverse value sets and seeks to facilitate crossdisciplinary and crosscultural understanding. We argue that the CF will contribute to the increasing trend towards interdisciplinarity in understanding and managing the environment. Rather than displacing disciplinary science, however, we believe that the CF will provide new contexts of discovery and policy applications for it.