Aligning supplier evaluation with manufacturing competitive priorities. Results of an international survey in manufacturing and assembly industries

The aim of our research is to investigate a company’s purchasing and manufacturing competitive priorities jointly in order to uncover any relationships between them and also their effect on the supply chain tools implemented by the company. We assume that the supplier selection criteria of the companies reflect the true goals of the purchasing function and we take the purchasing function’s point of view to examine the aforementioned relationships. We use a multinational database for our empirical analysis which contains almost 700 companies from 20 countries and data that were acquired in 2009. We identified four different clusters which reflect a different level of supply chain tool implementation.

Environmental management in Brazil: is it a completely competitive priority?

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Environmental management in Brazil: is it a completely competitive priority?

Current studies indicate a need to integrate environmental management with manufacturing strategy, including topics like cross-functional integration, environmental impact, and waste reduction. Nevertheless, such studies are relatively rare, existing still a need for research in specific regional contexts. At the same time, the results found are not unanimous. Due to these gaps, the objective of this article is to analyze if environmental management can be considered a new competitive priority for manufacturing enterprises located in Brazil. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with Brazilian companies certified by ISO 14001. Sixty-five valid questionnaires were analyzed through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The first conclusion is that environmental management presents a preventive approach in the sample analyzed, focused on eco-efficiency, what potentially do not to create a competitive advantage. This preventive approach inhibits environmental management from being regarded as a new competitive manufacturing priority, in the full sense as defined by the literature. Another important result is that environmental management, although following a preventive focus, may influence positively the four manufacturing priorities: cost, quality, flexibility and delivery. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Práticas de gestão da cadeia de suprimentos e seus eventuais relacionamentos com as prioridades competitivas da produção: evidências empíricas do setor eletroeletrônico à luz de modelagem de equações estruturais

Este artigo tem como objetivo identificar as práticas de gestão da cadeia de suprimentos que estão sendo adotadas no setor eletroeletrônico brasileiro e verificar se as prioridades competitivas da produção das empresas desse setor se relacionam com a adoção de tais práticas. Desenvolveu-se uma pesquisa empírica, de cunho quantitativo, a partir da realização de uma pesquisa survey por e-mail com gerentes de empresas do setor eletroeletrônico da Associação Brasileira da Indústria Elétrica e Eletrônica. Técnicas estatísticas descritivas e multivariadas de segunda geração (modelagem de equações estruturais) foram empregadas para analisar os dados obtidos. Como principais resultados deste artigo destacam-se: a) as práticas de gestão da cadeia de suprimentos que estão sendo mais implantadas são voltadas à integração e apoio das atividades de desenvolvimento de produtos com os clientes; e b) não foram verificadas relações significativas entre as prioridades competitivas das empresas estudadas e a adoção de práticas de gestão da cadeia de suprimentos.

Factors affecting the adoption of supply chain management practices: Evidence from the Brazilian electro-electronic sector

This study on the factors affecting the adoption of supply chain management (SCM) practices develops four hypotheses based on a literature review, and tests them using survey data of Brazilian electro-electronic firms. The results reveal the big picture of the SCM practices in the sector and suggest that contextual factors such as size, position and bargaining power affect the adoption of SCM practices, which are also more customer oriented. Sector characteristics are very important in analysing SCM practices. Contrary to the findings of literature, the relationship between competitive priorities and SCM practices was not supported statistically. © 2011.

Estudo da competitividade em empresas industriais: o caso do arranjo produtivo local (APL) de Votuporanga

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Uma análise dos modelos de consórcio modular e condomínio industrial na indústria automobilística brasileira sob a perspectiva de estratégia de operações

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Estudo da influência da adoção das práticas de manufatura enxuta na definição de prioridades competitivas: uma pesquisa survey em empresas da região de Bauru-SP

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Análise do alinhamento estratégico em empresas do APL Moda Sudoeste

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Proposta de uma abordagem metodológica para analisar como os fatores posicionais influenciam as prioridades competitivas

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Análise de prioridades competitivas e suas influências nas práticas de gestão da cadeia de suprimentos: um estudo de caso

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Contribuições da implantação da tecnologia de informação MES - Manufacturing Execution System - para a melhoria das dimensões competitivas da manufatura: estudo de caso Novelis Brasil Ltda

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

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.

Úton a megoldásalapú gondolkodás felé – szolgálatosodási jellemzők magyarországi termelővállalatoknál (Towards solution-based thinking: characteristics of servitization at Hungarian manufacturing companies)

A cikk fő célja a magyarországi termelővállalatok szolgálatosodási folyamatának jellemzése a versenyképesség- kutatás adatainak felhasználásával. Relevanciáját az adja, hogy a nemzetközi szakirodalom a jelenséget inkább a fejlett országokban vizsgálja. A szerzők kutatásukban körüljárták, hogy a szolgálatosodás nemzetközi szakirodalom által elfogadott jellemzői mennyiben tekinthetők érvényesnek a magyarországi viszonyok közepette. A szolgálatosodást három szinten vizsgálták: stratégia, működés és pénzügyi eredményesség. Vizsgálatuk eredményei azt mutatják, hogy a nemzetközi szakirodalommal összhangban a szolgáltatások stratégiai szerepe még alacsony a magyarországi termelővállalatoknál a termelési stratégia többi versenycéljához képest. Ugyanakkor mintájukban már megtalálhatók azok a vállalatok, amelyek mind stratégiai, mind működési szinten jelentősebb hangsúlyt fektetnek a szolgáltatások nyújtására. Fontos eredmény ugyanakkor, hogy a szolgálatosodástól elvárt pénzügyi előnyök még ezeknél a vállalatoknál sem realizálódnak. _______ The main purpose of the authors is to describe the servitization process of Hungarian manufacturing companies based on data of the Competitiveness research. The relevance of this article is given by the fact that international literature analyzes this phenomenon mainly in developed countries. In the present paper they analyze to what extent characteristics of the servitization process, generally accepted in the literature, are also applicable in a developing macroenvironment, i.e. Hungary. They approach servitization from three different perspectives: strategy, operations and financial payoffs. Results of their analysis show that, in concordance with the literature, the strategic role of services at the Hungarian manufacturing companies is still lower than other manufacturing competitive priorities. However, their sample contains a number manufacturing companies that place a greater emphasis on offering services both on strategic and operational level. An important conclusion of their study is that in case of these companies financial benefits attributable to higher levels of servitization do not yet seem to materialize.