Cross country comparison of careers in logistics management in Australia and Britain

Purpose – The aim of this research was to ascertain the current roles and responsibilities of logistics managers in two countries, how they compare their situation with other managers and to identify the types of knowledge and experience that would assist them to develop their careers. Design/methodology/approach – This paper compares the results of a postal survey of 303 Australian and 161 British logistics managers. Findings – The study indicates that logistics managers in both countries share many similar experiences, responsibilities and perceptions of their career situations. They take considerable pride and satisfaction from these careers but recognise the need for continuing professional development in their present and future roles. Research limitations/implications – The research is limited to the respondents to the surveys. Further research in other countries including less well-developed economies would add to the generalisation of results. Practical implications – It is argued that for successful international supply chain management, there is a need to review both current and future provision in higher education and continuing professional development, in order to strengthen strategic competences and increase understanding of the significance of interdisciplinary awareness in global markets. Originality/value – This paper represents the first attempt to understand the roles, responsibilities, career pathways and future needs of logistics managers in the two countries. Its results should provide guidance to top managers for the future success of the logistics function in their organisations.

Innovation in project management practices:a case of Indian organization in the petroleum industry

The Indian petroleum industry is passing through a very dynamic business environment due to the liberalisation of many government policies, vertical integration among organisations and the presence of multinational companies. This caused a competitive environment among the organisations in the Indian petroleum industry in the public sector. Effective project management for developing new infrastructures and maintaining the existing facilities has been considered one of the means for remaining competitive in this business environment. However, present project management practices suffer from many shortcomings, as time, cost and quality non-achievements are part and parcel of almost every project. This study focuses on identifying the issues in managing projects of the organisation in the Indian petroleum sector with the involvement of the executives in a workshop environment. This also suggests some remedial measures for resolving those issues through identifying critical success factors and enablers. The enablers not only resolve the present issues but also ensure superior performance. These are analysed in a quantitative framework to derive improvement measures in project management practices.

Management development within the construction industry:building on success?

This article explores the notion that the workplace is a learning environment, and that the line manager is a key player determining its effectiveness. The work discusses how performance management systems may be used to clarify expectations made of line managers with regard to employee development. The work, in addition, suggests that line manager people management expertise may be a factor inhibiting workplace development for subordinates, and makes a number of suggestions about how to prepare the line manager for effective employee development. Key issues are illustrated by reference to a case study example. The case demonstrates that a high profile management development programme within a major international organisation failed to meet all objectives because of the unwillingness of the line management team to participate in the development of subordinates back in the workplace.

A configuration framework of manufacturing strategy paradigm in state owned enterprises within China's petrochemical industry:building context-embedded configurations for the paradigm of strategic manufacturing management from exploratory case studies

The role of the production system as a key determinant of competitive performance of business operations- has long been the subject of industrial organization research, even predating the .explicit conceptua1isation of manufacturing, strategy in the literature. Particular emergent production issues such as the globalisation of production, global supply chain management, management of integrated manufacturing and a growing e~busjness environment are expected to critically influence the overall competitive performance and therefore the strategic success of the organization. More than ever, there is a critical need to configure and improve production system and operations competence in a strategic way so as to contribute to the long-term competitiveness of the organization. In order to operate competitively and profitably, manufacturing companies, no matter how well managed, all need a long-term 'strategic direction' for the development of operations competence in order to consistently produce more market value with less cost towards a leadership position. As to the long-term competitiveness, it is more important to establish a dynamic 'strategic perspective' for continuous operational improvements in pursuit of this direction, as well as ongoing reviews of the direction in relation to the overall operating context. However, it also clear that the 'existing paradigm of manufacturing strategy development' is incapable of adequately responding to the increasing complexities and variations of contemporary business operations. This has been factually reflected as many manufacturing companies are finding that methodologies advocated in the existing paradigm for developing manufacturing strategy have very limited scale and scope for contextual contingency in empirical application. More importantly, there has also emerged a deficiency in the multidimensional and integrative profile from a theoretical perspective when operationalising the underlying concept of strategic manufacturing management established in the literature. The point of departure for this study was a recognition of such contextual and unitary limitations in the existing paradigm of manufacturing strategy development when applied to contemporary industrial organizations in general, and Chinese State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in particular. As China gradually becomes integrated into the world economy, the relevance of Western management theory and its paradigm becomes a practical matter as much as a theoretical issue. Since China markedly differs from Western countries in terms of culture, society, and political and economic systems, it presents promising grounds to test and refine existing management theories and paradigms with greater contextual contingency and wider theoretical perspective. Under China's ongoing programmes of SOE reform, there has been an increased recognition that strategy development is the very essence of the management task for managers of manufacturing companies in the same way as it is for their counterparts in Western economies. However, the Western paradigm often displays a rather naive and unitary perspective of the nature of strategic management decision-making, one which largely overlooks context-embedded factors and social/political influences on the development of manufacturing strategy. This thesis studies the successful experiences of developing manufacturing strategy from five high-performing large-scale SOEs within China’s petrochemical industry. China’s petrochemical industry constitutes a basic heavy industrial sector, which has always been a strategic focus for reform and development by the Chinese government. Using a confirmation approach, the study has focused on exploring and conceptualising the empirical paradigm of manufacturing strategy development practiced by management. That is examining the ‘empirical specifics’ and surfacing the ‘managerial perceptions’ of content configuration, context of consideration, and process organization for developing a manufacturing strategy during the practice. The research investigation adopts a qualitative exploratory case study methodology with a semi-structural front-end research design. Data collection follows a longitudinal and multiple-case design and triangulates case evidence from sources including qualitative interviews, direct observation, and a search of documentations and archival records. Data analysis follows an investigative progression from a within-case preliminary interpretation of facts to a cross-case search for patterns through theoretical comparison and analytical generalization. The underlying conceptions in both the literature of manufacturing strategy and related studies in business strategy were used to develop theoretical framework and analytical templates applied during data collection and analysis. The thesis makes both empirical and theoretical contributions to our understanding of 'contemporary management paradigm of manufacturing strategy development'. First, it provides a valuable contextual contingency of the 'subject' using the business setting of China's SOEs in petrochemical industry. This has been unpacked into empirical configurations developed for its context of consideration, its content and process respectively. Of special note, a lean paradigm of business operations and production management discovered at case companies has significant implications as an emerging alternative for high-volume capital intensive state manufacturing in China. Second, it provides a multidimensional and integrative theoretical profile of the 'subject' based upon managerial perspectives conceptualised at case companies when operationalising manufacturing strategy. This has been unpacked into conceptual frameworks developed for its context of consideration, its content constructs, and its process patterns respectively. Notably, a synergies perspective towards the operating context, competitive priorities and competence development of business operations and production management has significant implications for implementing a lean manufacturing paradigm. As a whole, in so doing, the thesis established a theoretical platform for future refinement and development of context-specific methodologies for developing manufacturing strategy.

Collaborative enterprise governance : sustainable management of inter-firm R&D relationships in the German car industry

This research reports on the appropriate governance, i.e. design and management, of inter-firm R&D relationships in order to achieve sustainable competitive success for the whole partnership as well as its individual members. An exploratory study in the German automotive industry using inductive Grounded Theory was conducted. This involved data collection via 28 semi-structured interviews with 16 companies in order to form a set of 35 tentative propositions that have been validated via a questionnaire survey receiving 110 responses from 52 companies. The research has resulted in the consolidation of the validated propositions into a novel concept termed Collaborative Enterprise Governance. The core of the concept is a competence based contingency framework that helps decision makers in selecting the most appropriate governance strategy (i.e. sourcing strategy) for an inter-firm R&D relationship between a buyer and its supplier. Thereby, the concept does not draw on whole company-to-company connectivity. It rather conceptualises an inter-firm relationship to be composed of autonomous cross-functional units of the individual partner companies that contribute value to a particular joint R&D project via the possession of task specific competencies. The novel concept and its elements have been evaluated in a focus group with industrial experts of the German automotive industry and revealed positive effects on the sustainable competitive success of the whole partnership and the individual partner companies. However, it also showed that current practice does not apply the right mechanisms for its implementation and hence guidelines for practitioners and decision makers involved in inter-firm R&D collaboration in the automotive industry are offered on how to facilitate the implementation and usage of the Collaborative Enterprise Governance philosophy.

Some aspects of system design for production management in the rolling-mill industry

Case studies in copper-alloy rolling mill companies showed that existing planning systems suffer from numerous shortcomings. Where computerised systems are in use, these tend to simply emulate older manual systems and still rely heavily on modification by experienced planners on the shopfloor. As the size and number of orders increase, the task of process planners, while seeking to optimise the manufacturing objectives and keep within the production constraints, becomes extremely complicated because of the number of options for mixing or splitting the orders into batches. This thesis develops a modular approach to computerisation of the production management and planning functions. The full functional specification of each module is discussed, together with practical problems associated with their phased implementation. By adapting the Distributed Bill of Material concept from Material Requirements Planning (MRP) philosophy, the production routes generated by the planning system are broken down to identify the rolling stages required. Then to optimise the use of material at each rolling stage, the system generates an optimal cutting pattern using a new algorithm that produces practical solutions to the cutting stock problem. It is shown that the proposed system can be accommodated on a micro-computer, which brings it into the reach of typical companies in the copper-alloy rolling industry, where profit margins are traditionally low and the cost of widespread use of mainframe computers would be prohibitive.

A comparison of U.S. and Japanese management systems and their transferability to Singapore industry

This research compares U.S. and Japanese management systems and evaluates their transferability to the Singaporean manufacturing industry. The objectives were:- a) To determine the effectiveness of U.S. and Japanese management systems when applied to Singapore. b) Determine the extent of transferability of U.S. and Japanese management systems to Singapore. c) Survey general problems ecountered in the application of U.S. and Japanese management systems to the Singapore industry. The study using questionnaire survey and interviews covered a total of eighty companies from four groups of firms in four industrial sectors comprising of U.S. and Japanese subsidiaries based in Singapore and their respective parent companies. Data from the questionnaires and interviews were used to investigate environmental conditions, management philosophy, management functions/practices, management effectiveness, and firm productivity. Two-way analysis of variance was used to analyse the questionnaire data. The analysis of the perceptual data from the questionnaire survey and interviews suggested that both U.S. and Japanese parent companies performed better in almost all the management variables studied when compared to their subsidiaries in Singapore. U.S. subsidiaries have less difficulty in adjusting to the Singapore environmental conditions and obtained better results than the Japanese subsidiaries in management functions/practices and management philosophy than the U.S. subsidiaries. In addition, the firm productivity (in terms of labour and capital productivity) of U.S. subsidiaries in Singapore was found to be higher than those of the Japanese subsidiaries. It was found that the Japanese parent companies returned the highest score among the four groups of firms in all the four industrial sectors for all the four management variables (i.e. environmental conditions, management philosophy, management functions/practices, and management effectiveness) surveyed using questionnaires. In contrast, the average score for Japanese subsidiaries in Singapore was generally the lowest among the four groups of firms. Thus the results of this study suggest that the transfer of U.S. management system into the Singapore industry is more successful than the Japanese management system. The problems encountered in the application of U.S. and Japanese management in Singapore were identified and discussed by the study. General recommendations for the Singaporean manufacturing industry were then made based on the findings of the questionnaire survey and interview analysis.

The interaction between the implementation of an occupational health and safety management system and safety culture:a case study in the rubber industry

A prominent theme emerging in Occupational Health and Safety (OSH) is the development of management systems. A range of interventions, according to a prescribed route detailed by one of the management systems, can be introduced into an organisation with some expectation of improved OSH performance. This thesis attempts to identify the key influencing factors that may impact upon the process of introducing interventions, (according to B88800: 1996, Guide to Implementing Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems) into an organisation. To help identify these influencing factors a review of possible models from the sphere of Total Quality Management (TQM) was undertaken and the most suitable TQM model selected for development and use in aSH. By anchoring the aSH model's development in the reviewed literature a range ofeare, medium and low level influencing factors were identified. This model was developed in conjunction with the research data generated within the case study organisation (rubber manufacturer) and applied to the organisation. The key finding was that the implementation of an OSH intervention was dependant upon three broad vectors of influence. These are the Incentive to introduce change within an organisation which refers to the drivers or motivators for OSH. Secondly the Ability within the management team to actually implement the changes refers to aspects, amongst others, such as leadership, commitment and perceptions of OSH. Ability is in turn itself influenced by the environment within which change is being introduced. TItis aspect of Receptivity refers to the history of the plant and characteristics of the workforce. Aspects within Receptivity include workforce profile and organisational policies amongst others. It was found that the TQM model selected and developed for an OSH management system intervention did explain the core influencing factors and their impact upon OSH performance. It was found that within the organisation the results that may have been expected from implementation of BS8800:1996 were not realised. The OSH model highlighted that given the organisation's starting point, a poor appreciation of the human factors of OSH, gave little reward for implementation of an OSH management system. In addition it was found that general organisational culture can effectively suffocate any attempts to generate a proactive safety culture.

Asthma management : implementation of short-acting beta agonist guidelines in Western Australia:a unique collaboration

Background: The Respiratory Health Network in Western Australia developed the Asthma Model of Care in 2010 which incorporates best practice guidelines. At the same time short-acting beta agonist guidelines (SABA) were developed by stakeholder consensus at University of Western Australia (UWA) and incorporated the use of an Asthma Action Plan Card. Objective: To report on the implementation of a key component of the WA Asthma Model of Care, the SABA guidelines that incorporate the Asthma Action Plan card. Methods: Implementation strategies included lectures, direct pharmacy detailing, media releases, and information packs (postal and electronic). Groups targeted included pharmacists, consumers and medical practitioners. Results: State-based (n=18) and national (n=6) professional organisations were informed about the launch of the guidelines into practice in WA. In the four-month implementation period more than 47,000 Asthma Action Plan Cards were distributed, primarily to community pharmacies. More than 500 pharmacies were provided with information packs or individual detailing. More than 10,000 consumers were provided with information about the guidelines. Conclusions and implications: The collaboration of stakeholders in this project allowed for widespread access to various portals which, in turn, resulted in a multifaceted approach in disseminating information. Ongoing maintenance programs are required to sustain and build on the momentum of the implementation program and to ultimately address patient outcomes and practice change, which would be the longer-term goals of such a project. Future research will seek to ascertain the impact of the card on patient outcomes in WA.

Measurement of project management performance:a case study in the Indian oil industry

Eight steps for projectizing continuous improvement to deliver desired change

Quality management (QM) implementation in the Kuwaiti Oil Industry:An empirical study and a proposed generic framework

In an Arab oil producing country in the Middle East such as Kuwait, Oil industry is considered as the main and most important industry of the country. This industry’s importance emerged from the significant role it plays in both country’s national economy and also global economy. Moreover, Oil industry’s criticality comes from its interconnectivity with national security and power in the Middle East region. Hence, conducting this research in this crucial industry had certainly added values to companies in this industry as it investigated thoroughly the main components of the TQM implementation process and identified which components affects significantly TQM’s implementation and its gained business results. In addition, as the Oil sector is a large sector that is known for its richness of employees with different national cultures and backgrounds. Thus, this culture-heterogeneous industry seems to be the most appropriate environment to address and satisfy a need in the literature to investigate the national culture values’ effects on TQM implementation process. Furthermore, this research has developed a new conceptual model of TQM implementation process in the Kuwaiti Oil industry that applies in general to operations and productions organizations at the Kuwaiti business environment and in specific to organizations in the Oil industry, as well it serves as a good theoretical model for improving operations and production level of the oil industry in other developing and developed countries. Thus, such research findings minimized the literature’s gap found the limited amount of empirical research of TQM implementation in well-developed industries existing in an Arab, developing countries and specifically in Kuwait, where there was no coherent national model for a universal TQM implementation in the Kuwaiti Oil industry in specific and Kuwaiti business environment in general. Finally, this newly developed research framework, which emerged from the literature search, was validated by rigorous quantitative analysis tools including SPSS and Structural Equation Modeling. The quantitative findings of questionnaires collected were supported by the qualitative findings of interviews conducted.

Surviving the global economic crisis in the automotive industry through sustainable supplier management

This chapter looks at how the current global economic crisis has impacted upon the global automotive industry from an operations and supply chain perspective. It presents an empirical and theoretical background to help long and short term planning for organisations experiencing adverse trading conditions. The empirical research study (conducted between 2004-07 primarily in Germany) revealed that organisations are able to make short term improvements to performance by reducing costs and making process and structural improvements, but in the long term the deeper rooted causes of the industry can in part only be dealt with by improving interfirm R&D collaborations based upon competencies rather than cost related issues. A new approach known as Collaborative Enterprise Governance is presented which supports the design and management of competitive sustainable enterprises; it consists of a data capture tool, a body of knowledge and a dynamic reference grid to show how many part-to-part company relationships can exist simultaneously to make up productprocess focused enterprises. Examples from the German automotive industry are given, impact upon the overall product development lifecycle and the implications for organisational strategists are discussed. © 2010 Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

Sustainable supplier management in the automotive industry:leading the 3rd revolution through collaboration

The omnipresent global economic crisis has had a particularly dramatic effect on the global automotive industry. It has increased the need for a 3rd revolution and the move towards mass-collaboration between all industrial players that may ultimately lead to a governance model based on partnership-focused collaborative relationships. The first two revolutions were led by the US and Japan respectively, but we propose that this time, the European automotive industry will lead the way in the 3rd revolution. This new book provides an operations and supply chain management perspective while focusing on the issue of sustainable supplier management. © 2010 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All Rights Reserved.