A rich research stream investigates the drivers and enablers of supplier sustainability practices, usually classified into suppliers' monitoring and collaboration with suppliers. Differently from ...previous works analysing relationships between supplier sustainability practices and drivers or enablers, this research investigates how well-defined configurations of monitoring and collaboration can be characterised in terms of drivers and enablers. In this way, it intends to advance knowledge by identifying what drivers and enablers are important and distinctive for the different configurations of supplier sustainability practices. A first result is that moving from configurations of plants which less adopt supplier sustainability practices (i.e. non-adopters) to those which invest on monitoring and/or collaboration to a limited extent (i.e. partial adopters) up to the most advanced ones (i.e. full-adopters), the pressure due to cost reduction lessens its relative importance as a driver, while the pressure due to regulations remains essential. Other relevant results are that plant size acts as a barrier for non-adopters, and the alignment between the sustainability project and plant goals results determinant especially for full-adopters. This research also enriches the debate on the opportunity of differentiating between supplier monitoring and collaboration when investigating drivers/enablers, providing evidence of the risk of oversimplifications for some enablers/drivers.
Purpose - To comprehend the rationale behind managerial choices that lead companies to implement different types of collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment (CPFR) collaborations.Design ...methodology approach - Seven case studies of supply networks whose central firms operate in different sectors have been analysed.Findings - Identifies six types of CPFR collaborations, the choice of which can be explained by considering some important contingent factors, such as the CPFR goals, characteristics of the products and markets in which they are sold, supply network's physical and relational structure, and CPFR development stage.Research limitations implications - Further research developed in other contexts is necessary to refine the domain of applicability of the research findings. The opportunity to use the relationships found in this research as a managerial tool calls for the testing of research findings within larger samples of firms, representative of a broader range of industries.Practical implications - Suggests managers how to select the most appropriate action to be taken to implement CPFR, through the analysis of the context in which CPFR should be implemented.Originality value - This paper fulfils the need to clarify the reasons why companies decide to implement different types of CPFR collaborations. Moreover, it contributes to the definition of measures for the CPFR concept, and to the advance of substantive research on CPFR. In literature, few authors devote their attention to rigorously defining CPFR variables or proposing relationships among variables and measures.
The integration of circular economy-based life cycle management (LCM) into product design and optimisation is essential for the transformation towards a circular economy (CE). However, companies ...often lack the expertise to adapt life-cycle design (LCD) thinking in their business operations and are in need of respective capacity building. To close this apparent gap is the aim of the project e-CirP (Embedding Circular Economy into Product Design and Optimization) where LUT University, Fraunhofer, Technical University of Denmark, University of Padova, Delft University of Technology, University of Helsinki and Metso Outotec have worked together to develop a program that allows Master students across Europe to learn how to integrate CE and Life Cycle Thinking principles into product design by analysing real industrial cases. In the project, modern pedagogical approaches have been applied. A modular training package covering general circular economy aspects, as well as detailed value chain perspectives, has been created. Next to the content-related aspects, a great focus was also on the support of so-called soft-skills development, e.g. through international student cooperation on case studies. The paper presents the perspective of participating students as well as the cooperating companies that supplied the industry cases to allow an overview of opportunities and challenges.
This paper offers a systematic literature review on the fit among context, supply chain integration (SCI) and performance based on the analysis of 116 articles published in 28 peer-reviewed journals. ...By using Venkatraman's (1989) model, which distinguishes fit into different forms, to frame previous literature, and Hakansson's (1982) interaction model to classify the investigated contextual variables, the present research offers an original lens through which to examine the results found and to identify some open and unsolved issues and opportunities for future research. Based on these results, the research concludes that the most used forms of fit are mediation and moderation. Some examples of popular research topics include the moderating role of uncertainty/complexity in influencing SCI benefits and the role of SCI as a prerequisite for other operations and supply chain management practices. In addition, future research opportunities exist in several areas, including (1) the adoption of a behavioural operations supply chain management perspective and institutional theory to study SCI antecedents, and (2) the study of national culture as a moderator of the link between SCI and performance. However, the most promising research opportunities come from the less used fit forms (e.g. profile deviation and fit as matching) and from combinations of multiple fit forms that could help to address some unsolved issues in SCI, such as the balance between upstream and downstream integration and optimal SCI profiles. The arguments discussed could be useful for both academics and practitioners interested in the SCI-performance link and the role of context.
•The systematic literature review examines fit among context, SCI and performance.•Venkatraman's (1989) fit model is used to classify previous literature.•Contextual variables are classified using IMP interaction model.•The most explored and under-explored contextual variables are identified.•Promising implications for both researchers and practitioners are offered.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how just-in-time (JIT)-related job demands, problem-solving job demands and soft lean practices (SLPs) jointly influence employee well-being in ...terms of work engagement and exhaustion.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the job demands-resources model, lean-related job characteristics were classified as resources or demands, and a set of hypotheses was developed to test their effect on work engagement and exhaustion, including the potential interaction between job resources and demands. The hypotheses were tested using moderated hierarchical regression and structural equation modelling, based on data from 138 workers.
Findings
SLPs act as job resources in a lean company, increasing work engagement and reducing exhaustion. Conversely, JIT-related job demands act as a hindrance, reducing work engagement and increasing exhaustion. However, SLPs can reduce the effect of JIT-related job demands on exhaustion, and JIT-related job demands may enhance the positive effects of SLPs on work engagement.
Research limitations/implications
The study provides no conclusive evidence on the hypothesized role of problem-solving as a challenge job demand.
Practical implications
The results can guide practitioners’ understanding of how to implement lean without harm to employee well-being.
Originality/value
By employing a well-grounded psychological model to test the link between lean and well-being, the study finds quantitative support for: the buffering effect of SLPs on exhaustion caused by JIT-related job demands, and for the role of JIT as a hindrance. These novel findings have no precedent in previous survey-based research. In addition, it reveals the importance of studying SLPs at an individual level, as what matters is the extent to which workers perceive SLPs as useful and supportive.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of product modularity on new product development (NPD) time performance, and the moderating effects of interfunctional integration and ...supplier involvement on the product modularity‐time performance relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper analyzes data from a sample of 186 manufacturing plants settled in several countries, and operating in mechanical, electronic and transportation equipment sectors. Three hypotheses are tested through a hierarchical regression analysis.
Findings
Data analyses show that product modularity has a direct positive effect on NPD time performance, and that interfunctional integration positively moderates the product modularity‐time performance relationship. Finally, this research does not support the hypothesis that a positive interaction effect exists between product modularity and supplier involvement.
Research limitations/implications
Future research should replicate and extend the model to samples drawn from other industries. Moreover, analyses carried out provide some interesting directions for future research on the effect of supplier involvement on NPD time performance.
Practical implications
The practical implication for managers is that NPD time performance reduction requires levering simultaneously on product modularity and interfunctional integration to foster their interaction, rather than investing and acting on product modularity only. In addition, before deciding to invest on product modularity, managers should ascertain the level of interfunctional integration. In fact, it acts as prerequisite for the successful implementation of product modularity.
Originality/value
Empirical studies on the impact of product modularity on NPD time performance are really scant. This research empirically analyzes this effect, and contributes to the advancement of theory by investigating the effect of product modularity and integration practices in NPD in a comprehensive way.
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to study whether a fast supply network structure interacts with customer integration (CI) by positively moderating the relationship between CI and efficiency ...performance.Design methodology approach - The authors developed two hypotheses, incorporating dimensions of CI, fast supply network structure and efficiency performance. The hypotheses are tested through a hierarchical regression analysis using data from a sample of 200 manufacturing plants.Findings - CI alone is not enough to guarantee cost reductions because a fast supply network structure acts as a moderator of the CI-efficiency relationship. The role of this moderator is twofold. On the one hand, it interacts with CI, strengthening the positive impact of CI on efficiency through a positive complementary effect. On the other hand, if the supply network structure is not intended to support fast lead times, the impact of CI on efficiency can be hindered and, in extreme cases, CI can even make efficiency worse.Practical implications - Efficiency maximization requires levering simultaneously on CI and the supply network structure, rather than investing and acting on CI only. Managers should carefully weigh up the supply network structural context before embracing a CI program, because adopting CI in a wrong context could amplify a series of problems (e.g. nervousness of plans) and offset CI benefits in terms of efficiency.Originality value - This study provides an original contribution to the literature on the relationship between CI and efficiency by adopting a contingency perspective, namely assuming that the relationship between supply chain practices and performance is contingent upon how supply networks have been designed. Accordingly, this research questions the assumption that CI always improves efficiency, by analysing the complementary effect between CI and a fast supply network structure. This provides a number of original implications for the interpretation of the relationship between CI, supply network structure and efficiency.
Several operations decisions are based on proper forecast of future demand. For this reason, manufacturing companies consider forecasting a crucial process for effectively guiding several activities ...and research has devoted particular attention to this issue. This paper investigates the impact of how forecasting is conducted on forecast accuracy and operational performances (i.e. cost and delivery performances). Attention is here paid on three factors that characterize the forecasting process: whether structured techniques are adopted, whether information from different sources is collected to elaborate forecasts, and the extent to which forecasting is used to support decision-making processes. Analyses are conducted by means of data provided by the fourth edition of the Global Manufacturing Research Group survey. Data was collected from 343 companies belonging to several manufacturing industries from six different countries. Results show that companies adopting a structured forecasting process can improve their operational performances not simply because forecast accuracy increases. This paper highlights the importance of a proper forecasting-process design, that should be coherent with how users intend to exploit forecast results and with the aim that should be achieved, that is not necessarily improving forecast accuracy.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to deal with the transfer of lean practices between different units in multi-plant organizations with different levels of adoption of lean practices. It ...investigates how certain influential contextual variables – i.e. lean standards development, lean transfer team composition, source characteristics, recipient national environment and corporate lean programme deployment – can influence stickiness in the different phases of lean transfer process.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper opted for the multiple-case study method and examines six lean transfer projects at a dyadic level, that is, between a source and a recipient unit. The authors focussed on companies with headquarters in Europe with an attested experience in lean and which had recently and successfully transferred lean to subsidiaries in the USA and China.
Findings
The paper provides empirical insights about how stickiness in lean transfer projects changes during the initiation, implementation/ramp-up and integration phases. It identifies three lean transfer approaches (local, global, global and shared) and provides a set of propositions that explains how sociocultural traits of recipient environment (China vs USA) and lean transfer approach affect stickiness in each phase.
Originality/value
Literature on stickiness in lean transfer is at an early stage and very fragmented. Unlike previous contributions in the field, this paper provides an interpretation of the dynamics of stickiness in lean transfer at a micro-level (i.e. for each single phase of the lean transfer process). In addition, it develops a fuller understanding of the influence of context on lean transfer by adopting a configurational view, i.e. studying the joint effect of contextual variables on stickiness, which is a novelty in the lean transfer literature.
A debated issue in the literature regards whether the effect of employee involvement for continuous improvement on organisational outcomes differs in contexts with different degrees of production ...repetitiveness. Divergent positions can be found both in the OM and HRM field. This paper aims at investigating the direct and indirect effect (through Just In Time (JIT) and Total Quality Management (TQM)) of employee involvement for continuous improvement on organisational outcomes (quality, cost, responsiveness and employee relations), and the moderation of production repetitiveness on both these effects. Survey data analyses support that employee involvement for continuous improvement has a significant indirect effect on organisational outcomes through JIT and TQM which is not moderated by production repetitiveness. Instead, lowering production repetitiveness, the direct impact of employee involvement decreases and could become even non-significant. These results contribute to OM and HRM literatures, by emphasising the need to distinguish between direct and indirect effect when studying the role of production repetitiveness as a contingency. Overall, this research contributes to a better understanding of the mechanisms through which employee involvement for continuous improvement affect organisational outcomes.
