Strategic purchasing participation,supplier selection,supplier evaluation and purchasing performance

In this article, we examine how purchasing’s strategic participation influences supply management activities via the choice of appropriate operational and strategic criteria. Specifically, the study focuses on supplier selection and monitoring ongoing supplier performance evaluation based on operational and strategic criteria. A combination of choosing appropriate supplier selection criteria and monitoring supplier performance ensures that the benefits of purchasing’s participation in strategic planning translate into better purchasing performance of cost, quality, delivery, flexibility and innovation. We test the hypotheses using survey data collected from manufacturing companies in the US by means of a path model. Our results provide support for the tenet that purchasing’s participation in strategic planning influences purchasing performance directly as well as through the mediating effects of supplier selection criteria and supplier performance evaluation. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of the findings and propose directions for further research.     

Effect of organizational variables in JIT purchasing implementation

The paper reports empirical evidence of diverse organizational factors determining the implementation of Just-in-Time (JIT) purchasing practices. A theoretical framework distinguishing basically between operational practices, inherent in JIT environments, and complementary practices, characteristic of partnership sourcing arrangements, is proposed and used to test the relevance of a number of variables related to the interacting organizations over a sample of 152 Spanish auto components manufacturers. This approach, whose internal consistency is supported by the data analysis, reveals distinctive effects of the variables on each group of practices and helps towards the understanding of the dynamics of JIT purchasing. It also points out that the implementation of this purchasing strategy is associated to specific organizational features and requires certain attributes from suppliers.     

Steering firm performance through innovative capabilities: A contingency approach to innovation management

Today's business environment is filled with fierce competition, rapid technological changes and market uncertainty. For survival, organizations have no option but to embrace innovation both in their processes and product. Performance of innovative capabilities depends on the speed and quality of new product and processes. Contingent resource-based view is used in this study to understand the effect of innovative capabilities on various functional performances. Data was gathered from 115 senior-level managers working in engineering or marketing department of manufacturing firms. PLS-SEM is used for outer and inner measurement model validation. Results of this study reveal that process innovation and product innovation complements each other for improving innovation speed and quality. Moreover, in the case innovative products, manufacturing performance is a key to enhance marketing performance and firm competitive capabilities. This research provides various new insights for the research and development concerns and marketer for developing a successful case of introducing a new product in the market.     

Excessive SNS use at work,technological conflicts and employee performance: A social-cognitive-behavioral perspective

Pervasive Social Networking Site (SNS) access has deeply penetrated workers' daily life, inducing excessive usage that can lead to negative consequences. Despite the danger, few studies have examined the dark side of social media from the performance perspective of workers. This paper explores how excessive use of SNSs impacts work performance, considering the underlying mechanisms by using the cognitive-behavioral model and social-cognitive theory (SCT) as the foundations of the model. We propose that excessive usage of SNSs positively influences the cognitive emotional preoccupation and thereby leads to three types of conflicts: task conflict, process conflict, and relationship conflict (TPR conflicts). TPR conflicts, in turn, diminish the work performance. A sample of 386 Chinese SNS user responses were empirically tested to validate the proposed model, and our hypotheses were confirmed except for one: the results reveal that relationship conflict has no significant correlation to work performance. This study contributes to mitigating the destructive nature of social media by identifying its drivers and consequences, considering a comprehensive classification of SNS-related conflicts in the working environment. It also provides theoretical and important practical insights that help organizations to improve their workers’ performance.     

Strategic purchasing,supply management practices and buyer performance improvement: an empirical study of UK manufacturing organisations

Purchasing is increasingly seen as an important strategic activity of the firm. However, there is little evidence examining the effects of strategic purchasing on a firm's inter-organisational supply management practices and performance. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of strategic purchasing on the supply management practices of socialisation, supplier integration and supplier responsiveness, together with relationship performance. Using empirical data collected from 111 United Kingdom purchasing executives, a structural equation model is used to test the theoretical framework. The results provide support for four of the six hypotheses developed. Strategic purchasing was found to have an indirect, significant effect on improving buyer performance, acting through supplier integration. Strategic purchasing also had a significant effect on the use of socialisation mechanisms, but not on supplier responsiveness. Our research indicates that close, long-term supplier relationships can lead to the creation of relational rents. Implications for future research and suggestions for improving the rigour of strategic purchasing research are made.     

网络性能的分析、评价模型及其软件实现

通过网络参数设置、建立性能分析模型、采用新网络测试技术和使用开源网络测试软件Cacti进行具体网络测试与分析。搭建一个小型的骨干网络来模拟运营商的IP承载网,在IP网络的核心,以具体的网络故障排除作为分析实例,使用Cacti对网络流量进行监控和对流量图进行分析,以及性能测试与网络性能瓶颈分析,最后提出相关优化解决方案。     

An institutional theory perspective of business continuity planning for purchasing and supply management

Supply chains are increasingly susceptible to unplanned, unanticipated disruptions. With the implementation of the practices of lean systems, total quality management (TQM), time-based competition and other supply chain improvement initiatives, managers now realize that their supply chains are fragile, particularly to environmental disruptions outside their control. As a result of recent events including 11 September 2001, a system is now emerging in purchasing to manage supply risk characterised as having a very low probability of occurrence, difficult to predict, and with a potentially catastrophic impact on the organization. This paper presents case study research findings examining how and why firms create business continuity plans to manage this risk. Propositions are then presented from an institutional theory perspective to examine how various isomorphic pressures result in firms having similar risk management practices embedded in their supply management practices over time.     

A Decision-Information-Synchronisation perspective on the performance of FMS

The performance of a Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) largely depends on how the control system can control the flow of entities in the system. The control system takes control decisions based on the information provided as an input to the decision-making process. Therefore, it is important that the decision-making process and information systems operate in a synchronised manner with respect to the FMS characteristics. This can also be referred to as a Decision-Information-Synchronisation (DIS) operating zone implemented in the control system. To study the DIS in the present research, three types of visibility for decision-makers in FMS shop-floor control have been identified: (1) no local visibility, (2) physical local visibility and (3) physical and information local visibility of decision-maker/operator. These alternative visibilities and automation levels of decision and information system provide the hybrid environments of FMSs control. The current paper presents an approach to identify the DIS operating zone of FMS with suitable visibility of decision-maker and automation level. Simulation results show that under non-real-time control (low automation level in decision and information system) with physical local visibility, the FMS system performs comparable with the real-time control (high automation level in decision and information system) when routing flexibility levels are presented. Under the current global competitive environment, this study helps industrial managers determine a suitable level of visibility and automation in planning an FMS control system in order to obtain the desired performance at the lower cost.     

Empirical examination of critical failure factors of continuous improvement deployments: stage-wise results and a contingency theory perspective

Organisations implement various Continuous Improvement (CI) practices such as Total Quality Management, Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma (LSS) for improving their processes. Drawing from the success and failure stories of these structured CI practices, scholars enumerated Critical Success Factors and Critical Failure Factors (CFFs). This study empirically examines the occurrence of various CFFs across different stages of CI deployment. Further, from a contingency theoretic perspective, this study investigates their associations with contextual variables by collecting survey data from 213 business units from the USA, the UK, China, and India. Principal Component Analysis is used to group CFFs across five CI deployment stages leading to an empirically refined framework for CI. Crosstab analysis using the chi-square likelihood ratio presented associations of CFFs with contextual variables. Findings reveal significant differences in the occurrence of CFFs across countries. There is evidence that LSS is less prone to failures when compared with TQM, Lean and Six Sigma. The occurrence of CFFs has been relatively lower in smaller and medium-sized enterprises operating in the service sector. Findings also reveal that lessons learned from each CI deployment cycle, contribute to organisational learning, and thence, leading to success at the strategic CI level of maturity.     

Order allocation in purchasing management: a review of state-of-the-art studies from a supply chain perspective

Supplier selection (SS) and order allocation (OA) are strategic decisions that have a substantial effect on a company’s performance. However, order allocation is often neglected, since it results from supplier selection and is considered supplementary: little attention has been paid to its specific nature and complexity. Consequently, the authors conducted a systematic literature review specifically regarding order allocation methods. The research aimed to evaluate how often and when the issue has been dignified with an individual focus, independently of the supplier selection problem. This study conducted a comprehensive examination of the order allocation models and solutions, criteria for order quantity allocation, features of suppliers, items, planning periods, and demand most commonly considered in the literature. Finally, it aimed to discover whether supply chain configurations and trends have been considered in efforts to find a solution to the problem. The scientific contribution of this study is threefold: (i) to expand the review of scientific literature regarding order allocation models, (ii) to identify research gaps and highlight research opportunities, and (iii) to suggest a research agenda for the development of order allocation models according to the requirements of current trends in supply chain management.     

Average setup cost inventory model: performance and implementation issues

Now that just-in-time (JIT) concepts have become widely accepted and programs to reduce setup costs are becoming common, production managers need guidance in order to adapt to, as well as facilitate, the implementation of JIT goals. An inventory model is presented for the situation in which setup costs are subject to learning curve effects. The performance of this model is analysed and the conditions for its implementation are discussed.     

Modelling and simulation of just-in-time flexible systems

The increasing worldwide competition requires economical manufacture, high quality and short delivery time. The Just-In-time (JIT) philosophy of manufacturing is increasingly being considered by manufacturing organizations, as a response to the increased pressure to supply high quality products with short delivery times and at low cost. A very simple shop floor control system that was developed by Toyota in the 1970s specifically for their Just-In-Time assembly plant, has received considerable attention in the Western World, and is known as the ‘kanban’ system (literally translated as ‘card’ system). Japan’s success has prompted many scholars and practitioners, to turn their attention to Japanese management practices. This article is to address the modelling, simulation and implementation issues of Just-In-Time in flexible manufacturing environments. Priority nets are used for modelling and analysis of the kanban system. A large number of simulation runs are conducted/presented to probe the behaviour of the system, with respect to different parameter changes.     

An implementation perspective of applying object-oriented database technologies

As a result of improvements in information technology, more system designs and implementations require data-intensive applications. The most promising approach to solving these problems is the object-oriented database architecture. Unfortunately, object-oriented database management systems have not matured. Lack of agreements in the data models and formal foundations have created problems in using them. However, systems are being designed and developed with object-oriented philosophies even though important issues still need to be resolved. This paper examines the important issues in designing an object-oriented database prototype from three perspectives: object technologies, database technologies, and application environments. Each issue is discussed separately and illustrated with C++/Versant.     

A literature review on performance measures of logistics management: an intellectual capital perspective

Today, logistics management requires a comprehensive set of performance indicators that measure both tangible assets and intellectual capital (IC) of organisations. Nevertheless, most of the measures used in the past mainly related to the financial aspect, although some specific components of IC, such as process efficiency and effectiveness, have been considered. Logistics literature lacks a comprehensive consideration of the diverse IC measures, and it is unclear which area of IC requires more focus and development. Therefore, to explore and identify an opportunity for improvement, this study reviews the academic literature related to IC measures in logistics management. This literature review considers 111 academic articles published between 1994 and 2016. Following the six dimensions of the IC-Index, all indicators obtained from the literature are classified according to IC elements. The key contribution of this review is that it addresses the following gaps in the literature: the limited adoption of comprehensive IC methods in logistics studies; underdevelopment of specific indicators and measures used; failure to consider all human capital as well as renewal and development elements; and, finally, lack of academic research considering the influences among the different IC elements and logistics and financial performance.     

A derivation of the underlying constructs of just-in-time management systems.

Researchers have recommended that the theoretical constructs underlying just-in-time (JIT) management systems be identified and developed if JIT is to be fully understood and its full capabilities realized. In this study, we advanced this conceptual development through an instrument based on the relevant literature and empirically deriving three underlying constructs: (1) operating structure and control, (2) product scheduling, and (3) quality implementation. We report a content analysis of these constructs and develop propositions regarding their relationships, predecessors, and outcomes.     

Extreme natural hazards: population growth, globalization and environmental change

Mankind is becoming ever more susceptible to natural disasters, largely as a consequence of population growth and globalization. It is likely that in the future, we will experience several disasters per year that kill more than 10,000 people. A calamity with a million casualties is just a matter of time. This situation is mainly a consequence of increased vulnerability. Climate change may also be affecting the frequency of extreme weather events as well as the vulnerability of coastal areas due to sea-level rise. Disastrous outcomes can only increase unless better ways are found to mitigate the effects through improved forecasting and warning, together with more community preparedness and resilience. There are particular difficulties with extreme events, which can affect several countries, while the largest events can have global consequences. The hazards of supervolcanic eruptions and asteroid impacts could cause global disaster with threats to civilization and deaths of billions of people. Although these are very rare events, they will happen and require consideration. More frequent and smaller events in the wrong place at the wrong time could have very large human, environmental and economic effects. A sustained effort is needed to identify places at risk and take steps to apply science before the events occur.     

Ethics,society, and technology: A Confucian role ethics perspective

This essay provides a very brief overview of Confucian ethics that focuses on the role-based morality. It compares Confucian ethics with two dominant schools of thought in Western ethics deontology and consequentialism. This essay then discusses how Confucian ethics provides a unique way to think about social and political issues such as how the political leaders are selected and evaluated, the ethical justification of political legitimacy, the prioritization of economic, social, and cultural rights over other rights, and moral egalitarianism. Finally, this essay explores the ways in which Confucian ethics serves as a useful intellectual resource for examining the issues arising from the ethical assessment of (emerging) technologies and the professional formation of engineers. The Appendix of this essay includes some teaching resources that instructors can employ to teach students about ethics, society, and technology from a Confucian role ethics perspective.     

Semianalytical model for the derivation of ocean color inherent optical properties: description, implementation, and performance assessment

A semianalytical approach to the problem of determining inherent optical properties from satellite and in situ ocean color data is presented. The model uses empirically derived spectral slopes between neighboring wavebands in combination with radiative transfer modeling to determine the spectral absorption (alpha) and backscatter (b(b)); these values are then further decomposed into absorption due to phytoplankton, detrital, and colored dissolved organic matter components. When compared with over 400 in situ data points the model makes good retrievals of the total absorption and backscatter across the entire spectrum, with regression slopes close to unity, little or no bias, high percentage of variance explained, and low rms errors.     

A kanban-based simulation study of a mixed model just-in-time manufacturing line

The kanban-based operation of a mixed model manufacturing line is studied. Features of the hypothetical manufacturing line modelled are presented in terms of general structure, major components and operational characteristics. Simulation model developed is described and parameters of the base model are given. Experimental design features are discussed with respect to simulation related issues, performance measures, statistical analysis and experimental design clusters. Statistical findings are summarized in tabular format. Non-intuitive behaviour observed in each experiment set is interpreted.