Hoshin Kanri – the Japanese way of piloting : An exploratory study of a Japanese strategic management system

Strategy is a highly topical subject among managers and since the world is constantlychanging it is also an important subject for companies’ competitive advantage and survival.At the same time experts in the field of strategic management describe western techniques ascomplex and ineffective while the Japanese techniques have been seen as unambiguous andcharacterized by focus on quality, productivity and teamwork. This calls for greaterknowledge in the Japanese management systems. Hoshin Kanri is a collection of Japanesebest strategic management practices and therefore an interesting target for our study. Thus, onthe one hand this study investigates the theory of Hoshin Kanri in order to give structure to itand provide a way for practitioner into the management system. On the other hand this studyinvestigates Hoshin Kanri in order to reveal how Japanese subsidiaries based in Sweden haveimplemented this strategic management system. This is firstly done by reviewing the existingliterature on the subject and secondly by a collective case study with in-depth interviewsconducted with managers at Japanese owned subsidiaries based in Sweden. There are somelimitations in this study. One is that the results of the study do not include all Japanesesubsidiaries in Sweden as not all companies participated in the study. Moreover, the study islimited by one individuals’ knowledge and perception of Hoshin Kanri in each of the threecompanies. The study contributes to the existing literature on the topic of Hoshin Kanri by;(1) structuring the literature and the existing models under one of two categories, namelycyclical or sequential; (2) providing a model that aims at making it more understandable andattractive for practitioner to apply; (3) initiating the mapping of the spread of Hoshin Kanriamong Japanese subsidiaries in Sweden and (4) providing a Swedish model for theapplication of HK in Japanese subsidiaries.

Document Management System: Strategic Plan, 1996

This Strategic Plan provides the Iowa Department of Transportation with guidelines for defining the acquisition and implementation of a document management system to automate current manual methods of document handling and distribution. In preparation for the production of the Strategic Plan, the USI Team conducted a series of user interviews at the DOT Ames and East Central Iowa Transportation Region facilities, and reviewed various documents relating to day-to-day operations.

Municipal solid waste management system: decision support through systems analysis

Thesis submitted to the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Environmental Engineering

Organizational configurations of strategic choices and strategic management accounting

This is the first study to adopt a configurational paradigm in an investigation of strategic management accounting (SMA) adoption. The study examines the alignment and effectiveness of strategic choice and strategic management accounting (SMA) system design configurations. Six configurations were derived empirically by deploying a cluster analysis of data collected from a sample of 193 large Slovenian companies. The first four clusters appear to provide some support for the central configurational proposition that higher levels of vertical and horizontal configurational alignments are associated with higher levels of performance. Evidence that contradicts the theory is also apparent, however, as the remaining two clusters exhibit high degrees of SMA vertical and horizontal alignment, but low performance levels. A particular contribution of the paper concerns its demonstration of the way that the configurational paradigm can be operationalised to examine management accounting phenomena and the nature of management accounting insights that can derive from applying the approach.

Environmental requirements and environmental management system of boiler plant supplier

Työn tärkeimpänä tavoitteena oli edistää ympäristöjärjestelmän laatimista Kvaerner Pulping, Power divisioonan Kattilat-liiketoimintayksikölle. Lisäksi tavoitteena oli tarkastella yritykseen kohdistuvia ympäristövaatimuksia ja niiden vaikutusta yrityksen toimintaan. Aluksi työssä tarkasteltiin ympäristöjärjestelmästandardien sisältöjä ja niiden eroja. Työssä käsiteltiin myös erilaisia elinkaarijohtamisen malleja, joita voidaan hyödyntää yrityksen kokonaisvaltaisessa ympäristöjärjestelmässä. Työssä tarkasteltiin myös sidosryhmien vaikutusta yrityksen ympäristötoimintaan. Kattilalaitostoimittajan tärkeimpiä asiakkaita ovat sellu- ja paperiteollisuus. Näihin yrityksiin on kohdistunut runsaan kymmenen vuoden aikana paineita ympäristötoiminnan tehostamiseksi. Tämän kehityksen seurauksena vastaavat tehostamispaineet ovat siirtymässä myös alihankkijoille, kuten kattilaitostoimittajille. Tehokkaan ympäristöjohtamisen takaamiseksi työssä määriteltiin ympäristövastuut ja –valtuudet sekä ympäristöpäämäärät ja –tavoitteet. Lisäksi tunnistettiin yrityksen toimintaan liittyvät ympäristönäkökohdat ja –riskit. Työn yhteydessä laadittiin ympäristöjärjestelmän luonnos, ja se sisältää jatkuvan parantamisen periaatteen. Työn yhteydessä laadittiin lisäksi Kvaerner Pulping Oy:n koelaitokselle ympäristölupahakemus. Työssä on kuvattu koelaitosta ja sen ympäristölupahakemukseen liittyviä asioita esimerkkinä parantuneesta ympäristöasioiden hoidosta.

Integrating Financial Perspective to Quality Orientated Management System. Case: ALSTOM Finland Oy

Tutkimuksen päätavoitteena on tutkia taloudellisen näkökulman integroimista laatuajatteluun pohjautuvaan johtamisjärjestelmään esimerkkiyrityksessä. Johtamisjärjestelmän tulee tuottaa tietoa johdon strategiselle päätöksenteolle ja lisäksi täyttää laatujärjestelmän (ISO 9001:2000) asettamat vaatimukset. Tutkimuksen kohteena oleva työkalu on balanced scorecard (tasapainotettu tuloskortti). Työn tarkoituksena on ehdottaa balanced scorecard- talouden tunnuslukuja esimerkkiyritykselle. Tutkimuksen tavoitteisiin päästään empiiristä tutkimusta varten tehdyn teoreettisen viitekehyksen avulla. Empiiristä tutkimustietoa kerätään osallistuvan havainnoinnin, haastattelujen ja keskustelujen avulla. Tutkimusmenetelmänä on laadullinen case -tutkimus. Balanced scorecardin eri näkökulmille ehdotettiin tunnuslukuja empiirisen tutkimuksen pohjalta. Lisäksi talouden näkökulmaa tutkittiin tarkemmin. Tutkimuksen johtopäätöksenä esitettiin, että taloudelliset tunnusluvut mittaavat ensisijaisesti strategiaa eivätkä laatua. Lisäksi huomioitiin, että tuloskorttien tulisi olla koekäytössä ennen bonuspalkkauksen ja balanced scorecardin yhdistämistä.

Future pandemic influenza control (FPIC) related strategic management plan based on the 2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza review of health policy decisions, their practice and implications

This cross-sectional study is based on the qualitative and quantitative research design to review health policy decisions, their practice and implications during 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic in the United States and globally. The “Future Pandemic Influenza Control (FPIC) related Strategic Management Plan” was developed based on the incorporation of the “National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza (2005)” for the United States from the U.S. Homeland Security Council and “The Canadian Pandemic Influenza Plan for the Health Sector (2006)” from the Canadian Pandemic Influenza Committee for use by the public health agencies in the United States as well as globally. The “global influenza experts’ survey” was primarily designed and administered via email through the “Survey Monkey” system to the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic experts as the study respondents. The effectiveness of this plan was confirmed and the approach of the study questionnaire was validated to be convenient and the excellent quality of the questions provided an efficient opportunity to the study respondents to evaluate the effectiveness of predefined strategies/interventions for future pandemic influenza control.^ The quantitative analysis of the responses to the Likert-scale based questions in the survey about predefined strategies/interventions, addressing five strategic issues to control future pandemic influenza. The effectiveness of strategies defined as pertinent interventions in this plan was evaluated by targeting five strategic issues regarding pandemic influenza control. For the first strategic issue pertaining influenza prevention and pre pandemic planning; the confirmed effectiveness (agreement) for strategy (1a) 87.5%, strategy (1b) 91.7% and strategy (1c) 83.3%. The assessment of the priority level for strategies to address the strategic issue no. (1); (1b (High Priority) > 1a (Medium Priority) > 1c (Low Priority) based on the available resources of the developing and developed countries. For the second Strategic Issue encompassing the preparedness and communication regarding pandemic influenza control; the confirmed effectiveness (agreement) for the strategy (2a) 95.6%, strategy (2b) 82.6%, strategy (2c) 91.3% and Strategy (2d) 87.0%. The assessment of the priority level for these strategies to address the strategic issue no. (2); (2a (highest priority) > 2c (high priority) >2d (medium priority) > 2b (low priority). For the third strategic issue encompassing the surveillance and detection of pandemic influenza; the confirmed effectiveness (agreement) for the strategy (3a) 90.9% and strategy (3b) 77.3%. The assessment of the priority level for theses strategies to address the strategic Issue No. (3) (3a (high priority) > 3b (medium/low priority). For the fourth strategic issue pertaining the response and containment of pandemic influenza; the confirmed effectiveness (agreement) for the strategy (4a) 63.6%, strategy (4b) 81.8%, strategy (4c) 86.3%, and strategy (4d) 86.4%. The assessment of the priority level for these strategies to address the strategic issue no. (4); (4d (highest priority) > 4c (high priority) > 4b (medium priority) > 4a (low priority). The fifth strategic issue about recovery from influenza and post pandemic planning; the confirmed effectiveness (agreement) for the strategy (5a) 68.2%, strategy (5b) 36.3% and strategy (5c) 40.9%. The assessment of the priority level for strategies to address the strategic issue no. (5); (5a (high priority) > 5c (medium priority) > 5b (low priority).^ The qualitative analysis of responses to the open-ended questions in the study questionnaire was performed by means of thematic content analysis. The following recurrent or common “themes” were determined for the future implementation of various predefined strategies to address five strategic issues from the “FPIC related Strategic Management Plan” to control future influenza pandemics. (1) Pre Pandemic Influenza Prevention, (2) Seasonal Influenza Control, (3) Cost Effectiveness of Non Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPI), (4) Raising Global Public Awareness, (5) Global Influenza Vaccination Campaigns, (6)Priority for High Risk Population, (7) Prompt Accessibility and Distribution of Influenza Vaccines and Antiviral Drugs, (8) The Vital Role of Private Sector, (9) School Based Influenza Containment, (10) Efficient Global Risk Communication, (11) Global Research Collaboration, (12) The Critical Role of Global Public Health Organizations, (13) Global Syndromic Surveillance and Surge Capacity and (14) Post Pandemic Recovery and Lessons Learned. The future implementation of these strategies with confirmed effectiveness to primarily “reduce the overall response time’ in the process of ‘early detection’, ‘strategies (interventions) formulation’ and their ‘implementation’ to eventually ensure the following health outcomes: (a) reduced influenza transmission, (b) prompt and effective influenza treatment and control, (c) reduced influenza related morbidity and mortality.^

Balanced scorecard to improve strategic management control at School of Mines and Energy, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

We studied the situation in Spanish public universities regarding the use of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC), as an instrument of control and strategic management. Also, we studied its application to the School of Mines and Energy at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. The main advantage of the BSC is that improves the organizational structure of the workplace and the achievement of the objectives that ensure long-term success. First we review the strategy for success used in the Spanish educational system and specifically in the Spanish public universities. Then using the BSC and applying the main strategic lines for the successful management of the School of Mines and Energy at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. The strategic lines affect all the college groups and the success of the BSC tool is to increase communication between the faculties, personal auxiliary, students and society in general that make up the university. First we performed a SWOT analysis (DAFO in Spanish) there are proposed different perspectives that focus the long-term strategic objectives. The BSC is designed based on the strategic objectives that set the direction through using indicators and initiatives, the goals are achieved up to the programmed schedule. In the perspective of teaching, objectives are set to update facilities and increase partnerships with other universities and businesses, encouraging ongoing training of staff and improved coordination and internal communication. The internal process perspective aims at improving the marketing, the promotion of the international dimension of the school through strategic alliances, better mobility for students and professors and improved teaching and research quality results. It continues with improving the image of the school between customer?s perspective, the quality perceived by students and the loyalty of the teaching staff by retaining talent. Finally, the financial perspective which should contain costs without harming the quality, improving the employability of students and achieve relevant jobs at teaching and research through international measurement standards.

Implementing a knowledge management system within an NHS hospital:a case study exploring the roll-out of an Electronic Patient Record (EPR)

This research aims to contribute to understanding the implementation of knowledge management systems (KMS) in the field of health through a case study, leading to theory building and theory extension. We use the concept of the business process approach to knowledge management as a theoretical lens to analyse and explore how a large teaching hospital developed, executed and practically implemented a KMS. A qualitative study was conducted over a 2.5 year period with data collected from semi-structured interviews with eight members of the strategic management team, 12 clinical users and 20 patients in addition to non-participant observation of meetings and documents. The theoretical propositions strategy was used as the overarching approach for data analysis. Our case study provides evidence that true patient centred approaches to supporting care delivery with a KMS benefit from process thinking at both the planning and implementation stages, and an emphasis on the knowledge demands resulting from: the activities along the care pathways; where cross-overs in care occur; and knowledge sharing for the integration of care. The findings also suggest that despite the theoretical awareness of KMS implementation methodologies, the actual execution of such systems requires practice and learning. Flexible, fluid approaches through rehearsal are important and communications strategies should focus heavily on transparency incorporating both structured and unstructured communication methods.

Records Management System: Pilot Projects Functional Report, 1998

The Iowa Department of Transportation began preparation for the acquisition of an electronic document management system in 1996. The first phase was development of a strategic plan. The plan provided guidelines for defining the acquisition and implementation of a document management system to automate document handling and distribution. Phase 2 involved developing draft standards (document, indexing and technology) for planning and implementation of a document management system. These standards were to identify existing industry standards and determine which standards would best support the specific requirements of the Iowa Department of Transportation. During development of these standards, the decision was made to enlarge the scope of this effort from a document management system to a records management system (RMS). Phase .3 identified business processes that were to be further developed as pilot projects of a much larger agency-wide records management system.

Environmental management system and human resource practices: is there a link between them in four Brazilian companies?

The aim of this article is to analyze the theoretical model proposed by [Jabbour CJC, Santos FCA. Relationships between human resource dimensions and environmental management in companies: proposal of a model. Journal of Cleaner Production 2008;16(1):5 1-8.] based on the data collected in four Brazilian companies. This model investigates how the phases of the environmental management system can be linked to human resource practices in order to attain continuous improvement of a company`s environmental performance. Our aim is to contribute to a field, which has little empirical evidence. Although the interaction between the phases of the environmental management system and human resource practices is recommended by the specialized literature [Daily BE Huang S. Achieving sustainability through attention to human resource factors in environmental management. International Journal of Operations and Production Management 2001:21(12):1539-52.], the results indicate that most of the theoretical assumptions could not be confirmed in these Brazilian companies. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR POSITIONING WITH GNSS TECHNOLOGY

This paper presents a proposal for a Quality Management System for a generic GNSS Surveying Company as an alternative for management and service quality improvements. As a result of the increased demand for GNSS measurements, a large number of new or restructured companies were established to operate in that market. Considering that GNSS surveying is a new process, some changes must be performed in order to accommodate the old surveying techniques and the old fashioned management to the new reality. This requires a new management model that must be based on a well-described procedure sequence aiming at the Total Management Quality for the company. The proposed Quality Management System was based on the requirements of the Quality System ISO 9000:2000, applied to the whole company, focusing on the productive process of GNSS surveying work.

The main benefits associated with health and safety management systems certification in Portuguese small and medium enterprises post quality management system certification

The purpose of this study is to characterize how Portuguese Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) view the Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OHSMSs) certification process, after receiving the Quality Management System (QMS) certification. References were based on the ISO 9001 standard for a QMS and OHSAS 18001 for OHSMS. The method used to evaluate the implemented systems, was by form of questionnaire. Those questioned had to have a certified quality management system, an implemented OHSMS and be a SME. The questionnaire was sent to 300 SMEs; 46 responses were received and validated. Of them, only 12 SMEs had the OHSMS certificate according to OHSAS 18001. Within those 12 companies that participated: 7 SMEs are from the industrial sector; 3 belong to the electricity/telecommunications sector and 2 SMEs are from the trade/services activity sector. The size of the sample was small, but corresponds to Portuguese reality. Moreover, 34 SMEs did not have the OHSMS certificate. The questionnaire requested the main reasons for SMEs to opt for non-certification and it was related with high costs, while the main reasons to certificate were, among others, needed to eliminate or minimize risks to workers. The main benefits that Portuguese SMEs have gained from the referred certifications have been, improved working conditions, ensuring compliance with legislation and better internal communication about risks and hazards. Also presented are the main difficulties in achieving an OHSMS certification including high certification costs, difficulties motivating personnel, difficulties in changing the company’s culture and increased bureaucracy.

The strategic management of creation process and of change: a theoretical contribute from the perspective of tourism

The entrepreneurship and innovation have been gradually gaining ground in the academic community as a field of study. However, the interpretations surrounding fragmented, without a univocal definition. In last decades, tourism has received greater attention from researchers in various sciences, varying only by the different emphases considered: economic, social, cultural and environmental. As other emerging sectors in a modern economy, tourism is a dynamic and ever-changing industry. The study has as purpose to provide a better understanding regarding the essence of entrepreneurship: theoretical and practical implications from the perspective of tourism. Regarding the methodology used here, this is a conceptual paper with a literature review that brings together the major components of entrepreneurship and its implications tourist perspective and conceptual model of the dynamic nature of the Triggering Process and innovation (e.g. iTravey, Interactive Stores, Tourist Transportable Tower).

IDEA MANAGEMENT SYSTEM - AN ESSENTIAL COMPONENT IN THE CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT OF QUALITY AND INNOVATION

It is known the power of ideas is tremendous. But there are employees in many companies who have good ideas but not put them into practice. On the other hand, there are many others who have good ideas and are encouraged to contribute their ideas for innovation in the company. This study attempts to identify factors that contribute to success in managing ideas and consequent business innovation. The method used was the case study applied to two companies. During the investigation, factors considered essential for the success of an idea management program were identified, of which we highlight, among others, evidences the results, involvement of the top management, establishment of goals and objectives; recognition; dissemination of good results. Companies with these implemented systems, capture the best ideas from their collaborators and apply them internally. This study intends to contribute to business innovation in enterprises through creation and idea management, mainly through collecting the best ideas of their own employees. The results of this study can be used to help improving deployed suggestions systems, as well as, all managers who wish to implement suggestions systems/ideas management systems.