Operations Management Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

We present research that contributes to the debate on the universal applicability of quality management, and in doing so, subject the 'one size fits all' assumption underlying quality management to an empirical examination. Specifically, with the Ž . exception of enhancements in instrumentation, we attempted to replicate, as closely as possible, Anderson et al.'s 1995 empirical evaluation of a Deming-based theory of quality management. In our replication, we applied path analysis to secondary, plant-level data provided by a stratified sample of plants in three different industries in Italy. The path analytical Ž . results from the current replication study were compared against those reported in Anderson et al. 1995 , which used data from U.S.-based plants. These results were then discussed in the context of conducting and interpreting cross-cultural quality management research. We concluded with the need for more replication studies in the quality management discipline and with implications for research and practice. q

- by and +2
- •
- Engineering, Quality Management, Operations Management, Mathematical Sciences

Abstract This work presents the effect, in terms of travel distance and material handling time reductions, of an optimal rather than a uniform item allocation in one-block picking warehouses, both with and without the use of a simple picking heuristic. Since developing efficient product-location strategies represents a critical issue in Operations Management, due to the impact on warehouse performance in terms of both service level and operation costs, this paper focuses on an effective quantification of obtainable travel time reductions, obtaining a significant result for manufacturing companies aiming to determine the most appropriate material handling resource configuration. Building on previous work on the effect of slot-code optimization on travel times in single/dual command cycles, the authors broaden the scope to include the most general picking case, thus widening
the range of applicability and realising former suggestions for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the research development in supply chain risk management (SCRM), which has shown an increasing global attention in recent years. Literature survey and citation/ co-citation analysis are used to fulfil the research task. Literature survey has undertaken a thorough search of articles on selected journals relevant to supply chain operations management. Meanwhile, citation/co-citation analysis uses Web of Sciences database to disclose SCRM development between 1995 and 2009. Both the approaches show similar trends of rising publications over the past 15 years. This review has piloted us to identify and classify the potential risk associated with different flows, namely material, cash and information flows. Consequently, we identify some research gaps. Even though there is a pressing need and awareness of SCRM from industrial aspect, quantitative models in the field are relatively lacking and information flow risk has received less attention. It is also interesting to observe the evolutions and advancements of SCRM discipline. One finding is that the intellectual structure of the field made statistically significant increase during 2000-2005 and evolved from passively reacting to vague general issues of disruptions towards more proactively managing supply chain risk from system perspectives.

This paper describes the Inventory Record Accuracy (IRA) including the measurement method and its challenges

- by Rodolfo Torres-Rabello
- •
- Supply Chain Management, Operations Management, Logistics, Supply Chain

Actualmente las organizaciones que buscan permanecer en el futuro, deben hacer planeación estratégica en virtud de los cambio es que ocurren y lo vertiginoso de los mismos, es así que todas las organizaciones, llámense empresas privadas o públicas, instituciones paraestatales, organizaciones de la sociedad civil, centros educativos o fundaciones eclesiásticas, así como los tres órdenes de gobierno requieren de planear su porvenir en el corto, mediano y largo plazo, así como de aprovechar su trayectoria histórica y su legado cultural.

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- by educare institute
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- Marketing, Finance, Economics, Operations Management
- by Zaheer Baber
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- Information Systems, Organic Chemistry, Dentistry, Operations Management

Changi Airport has been voted as one of the most effective airports operating in the world. This paper will look into the history of the airport by bringing forward the achievements over the years together with the strategies and issues that the operation management team has worked through.
Since the independence in 1965 Singapore has been working on managing and developing the country, building the country’s population and education level that today show achievements amongst the top world economies. One of the main operations in Singapore is the Port operations. With a large amount of cargo being shipped to Singapore Ports and handled for the region, Singapore has a vast experience in port management, logistics and operations management. This brings us to the topic of this paper, Airport Operations Management. Following the experience from logistics and operations, Singapore has the basis for planning, designing and operating a well organized airport.

- by Michael M Hansen
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- Operations Management
- by Prof. Milan Padariya
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- Management, Operations Management, Operations Research, Production

The leather-processing industry (LPI) is constantly polluting the environment in Bangladesh. As a result, stakeholders are continuously pressurizing managers working in LPI to embrace green leather-processing activities. Thus, the green concept is attracting significant attention from managers in the Bangladeshi LPI. However, the industry is struggling with many barriers to implementing green supply chain management (GSCM). There are many studies regarding barriers to GSCM. However, those studies failed to show the possible pathways to implement GSCM. This study addresses the gap by evaluating barriers to GSCM considering effective pathways to GSCM. In this study, the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) is integrated with Elimination Et Choix Traduisant La Realite (ELECTRE-I) method to identify and prioritize the barriers and to rank the possible pathways to implementing GSCM in the leather industry. To accredit the proposed framework, it is implemented on a leather-processing factory in Bangladesh. A sensitivity analysis is performed to inspect the strength of the outcome of this method. The outcome of this study indicates that the high cost of advanced technology is the most important barrier to implement GSCM while green technology and techniques are the most effective pathways to GSCM. The findings of this research will support researchers and practitioners by giving insights on barriers and possible pathways to implementing GSCM.

- by Md. Shaif Uddin
- •
- Supply Chain Management, Operations Management

Recent studies advocate that digital technologies are key enabling factors for the introduction of servitized business models. At the same time, these technologies support the implementation of the circular economy (CE) paradigm into businesses. Despite this general agreement, the literature still overlooks how digital technologies enable such a CE transition. To fill the gap, this paper develops a conceptual framework, based on the literature and a case study of a company implementing a usage-focused servitized business model in the household appliance industry. This study focuses on the Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, and analytics, and identifies eight specific functionalities enabled by such technologies (improving product design, attracting target customers, monitoring and tracking product activity, providing technical support, providing preventive and predictive maintenance, optimizing the product usage, upgrading the product, enhancing renovation and end-of-life activities). By investigating how these functionalities affect three CE value drivers (increasing resource efficiency, extending lifespan, and closing the loop), the conceptual framework developed in this paper advances knowledge about the role of digital technologies as an enabler of the CE within usage-focused business models. Finally, this study shows how digital technologies help overcome the drawback of usage-focused business models for the adoption of CE pointed out by previous literature.

Circular Economy has been usually indicated as a promising approach to promote economic development and sustainability. Despite this general agreement, the Circular Economy paradigm is still little adopted by companies, as they need to face several challenges. In this context, Product-Service Systems (PSS) Business Models play a major role, as they have been proposed as an opportunity for promoting sustainability. Today, digital technologies are seen as a key factor to enable PSS, allowing at the same time the introduction of Circular Economy into companies. However, little attention has been set on how new digital technologies can overcome in practice the main Circular Economy challenges. To fill this gap, this paper explores such a role through a case study of a company who leverages Internet of Things, Big Data and Analytics in the provision of its PSS Business Model. Based on the findings of the empirical investigation, the role that the selected digital technologies play in overcoming the Circular Economy challenges is presented and discussed

Despite companies face several challenges when redesigning their supply chain for the Circular Economy, the literature lacks a systematisation of such challenges and of the ways to overcome them. Through a systematic literature review, this paper identifies and systematises 24 challenges that may hamper a supply chain redesign for the Circular Economy. Sixteen among these challenges are well known from research in related topics. On the contrary, the remaining eight are relatively new or take a different relevance within the Circular Economy context. A multiple case study in the household appliance supply chain is carried out, to explore how these challenges appear in practice and how companies may tackle them. The cases analysed involve actors at different supply chain levels, and findings suggest that a great degree of vertical integration by one actor in the supply chain is not a necessary condition for Circular Economy implementation. The empirical study, in conjunction with the literature analysis, leads to the development of a framework linking the challenges to specific levers that companies may pursue to overcome them. The framework can be seen as a reference for managers undertaking the path towards Circular Economy

This paper reports on the development of an automated planning and scheduling system supporting terminal operations of the vehicle transshipment hub in Bremerhaven. We describe terminal operations and derive an integral decision model for manpower planning and inventory control. Thereby we propose a hierarchical separation of the integral model into sub-models and develop heuristics to solve the arising sub-problems.

- by Herbert Kopfer
- •
- Operations Management, Heuristics, Logistics, Scheduling

We present research that contributes to the debate on the universal applicability of quality management, and in doing so, subject the 'one size fits all' assumption underlying quality management to an empirical examination. Specifically, with the Ž. exception of enhancements in instrumentation, we attempted to replicate, as closely as possible, Anderson et al.'s 1995 empirical evaluation of a Deming-based theory of quality management. In our replication, we applied path analysis to secondary, plant-level data provided by a stratified sample of plants in three different industries in Italy. The path analytical Ž. results from the current replication study were compared against those reported in Anderson et al. 1995 , which used data from U.S.-based plants. These results were then discussed in the context of conducting and interpreting cross-cultural quality management research. We concluded with the need for more replication studies in the quality management discipline and with implications for research and practice.

- by John Anderson
- •
- Engineering, Sociology, Quality Management, Operations Management

Ultra large scale (ULS) systems are future software intensive systems that have billions of lines of code, composed of heterogeneous, changing, inconsistent and independent elements that are dispersed through worldwide global networks. Huge scale of this heterology in addition to distinctive characteristics like decentralization of operation, management, deployment and evolution, continuous evolving, people participation in system operation and normal failures that dominate in ULS systems face them to new challenges that today software architectures and developers have less or no concerns about them. To face these challenges there must be an appropriate infrastructure with enough or at least extendable features and capabilities to support ULS distinctive characteristics. In this paper we propose computational grid as an appropriate infrastructure for ULS systems that not only supports some of ULS characteristics itself, but also can exploit service oriented architecture, fault tolerant approaches, distributed management algorithms and many other mechanisms in order to extend its fundamental capabilities to adapt itself with ULS systems. We explain what kind of grid is appropriate for ULS and expound how it provides solutions for each of the ULS particular characteristics.

Providing health care services has become a challenge for the government, especially for emerging economies, which face huge resource problems. mHealth (mobile health) has the potential to reduce health-related problems significantly in the long run. It can be used as a preventive healthcare tool also. Despite the potential, minimal studies exist on the technology adoption of mHealth. There have been inadequate studies in the context of India. To find out the domains where studies can be conducted and after a thorough literature review, the study employed the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) for the smooth running of mobile health services. As a theoretical contribution, this research is an extended version of the TAM, suggested by Davis, through considering six additional variables such as social influence, technology anxiety, trust, perceived risk, perceived physical condition, Resistance to change. To validate the linkages, a close-ended questionnaire was developed after a thorough literature survey. The current study collected 289 valid responses from different mHealth services users. The constructs of the model have been tested in Indian settings by conducting exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Further, Structural equation modelling is ably employed to validate the model to suit the Indian requirements. The adoption of mHealth was found to have had an enormous impact on social influence, behavioural intention and trust. The empirical examination showed high predictive power for adoption intention of mHealth services and the influential role of these important constructs. The implications for academics and policymakers have been discussed in this study. Finally, the future scope and limitations of the study have been discussed.

- by Manindra Rajak
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- Information Management, Operations Management

Container unloading/loading at marine container terminals (MCTs) is a key logistic process, to which some research efforts have been addressed by using mathematical programming models formulated in a deterministic-static environment. Vice versa, DES models in a stochastic-dynamic environment are well capable of representing the entire process. Hence, simulation results to be an effective planning and control tool for decision making at all decisional levels. Here we remark that optimal decisions in MCTs may be practically pursued by modelling the whole MCT and focusing attention on the core logistic processes, while representing in a simplified manner the remainder. We focus on the operational management of the cranes deployed along the quay, during the container unloading/loading process at a given number of vessels according to a previously planned berthschedule. We suggest a two-phase approach to the quay crane deployment problem: in the first phase an IP model is used to decide when and how many cranes must be assigned to each vessel; afterwards, we propose a heuristics to determine which specific crane should be assigned to a vessel. We indicate how this approach can be successfully integrated in a DES model, already available, to support dynamic assignment of cranes to berthed vessels.

The fundamental objective of staged laparotomy is to accomplish definitive operative management in a calculated, stepwise fashion based on the patient’s physiologic tolerance. This important concept has emerged from collective experience with massive acute abdominal injuries but clearly extends to elective operative procedures and surgical challenges in other torso compartments. Whereas the inability to achieve hemostasis is due most frequently to a recalcitrant coagulopathy following trauma, other scenarios include inaccessible venous injuries, coexisting extraperitoneal life-threatening injuries, uncertain viability of abdominal contents, and the inability to reapproximate abdominal fascia due to reperfusion-induced visceral edema. There are five critical decision-making phases of staged laparotomy: I, patient selection; II, intraoperative reassessment; III, physiologic restoration in the surgical intensive care unit; IV, return to the operating room for definitive procedures; and V, abdominal wall reconstruction. The abdominal compartment syndrome (ACS) is a common, often insidious complication of staged laparotomy. In fact, during phases II and III there is often a delicate balance between effective pressure tamponade of capillary bleeding and the untoward effects of the ACS. During phases IV and V a frequent dilemma is how to enclose the abdominal contents to reduce protein loss and facilitate patient mobilization.

- by Patrick Offner
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- Decision Making, Operations Management, Operating Room, World

This study examines how individual purchasing agents function as boundary spanners with suppliers to influence trust development in themselves and the buying firms that employ them. Building upon boundary theory and supply chain cooperation research, we identify three boundary spanning capabilities of purchasing agents and empirically test how these capabilities shape buyer-supplier trust development. Using two samples of data collected from suppliers in the automotive industry and food industry, we found that a purchasing agent's effectiveness in strategic communication with suppliers affects a supplier's trust in the buying firm, while an agent's professional knowledge and ability to reach compromises with suppliers affect a supplier's trust in the purchasing agent representing the firm. Trust in the purchasing agent in turn affects trust in the buying firm. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

- by John Henke and +1
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- Engineering, Operations Management, Automotive Industry, Supply Chain

Simulation games have been utilized as an educational tool in order to complement the traditional teaching methods. They have been widely applied in the teaching of different subjects such as business management, nursing, and medicine. This paper proposes a new simulation game which simulates a production system that consists of a set of machines, conveyors, and other components.

- by ahmed shaban
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- Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Education, Operations Management

This research sets out to test some yet unanswered questions from the literature on cumulative capabilities, as well as addressing some of the shortcomings in prior research on cumulative capabilities. Multiple regression analysis is used to test hypotheses using an existing data set of 165 plants in five countries and three industries. The findings indicate substantial differences in patterns of cumulative capabilities between countries and limited evidence of industry differences. Cumulative capabilities were found to be related to plant performance, with no difference in this relationship by industry. Support for sequential progression of cumulative capabilities was not evident, leading to the notion that development of cumulative capabilities is a complex endeavor, affected by many interrelated contingencies, not limited to sequence of development. A sequence of strategic initiative development was proposed and tested, finding support for a common foundation of practices related to cumulative capabilities, with limited support for the relationship between specific strategic initiatives and higher-level cumulative capabilities.

- by Barbara Flynn
- •
- Engineering, Quality Management, Operations Management, Operations Strategy

We compared five classification systems for clavicle fractures. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic value of each system. Over a two-year period we reviewed all new radiographs of the shoulder region and identified 487 clavicle fractures. Each radiograph was classified using five classification systems. We reviewed all subsequent X-rays and clinical records until the patient was discharged. We assessed each classification system's prognostic value in predicting delayed/non-union. Our data show that 79.3% of clavicle fractures occur in the middle third, 19.3% in the lateral third and 1.4% in the medial third. The overall prevalence of delayed/non-union was 7.3%, with 3.2% requiring operative management and 4.1% developing asymptomatic non-union. The incidence of non-union in the lateral third was 9.6%, but only 0.4% required operative management. Craig's classification had the greatest prognostic value for lateral third fractures, and Robinson's classification had the greatest prognostic value for middle third fractures. Fractures of the clavicle are common injuries but non-union is an uncommon occurrence. Non-union is more common in the lateral third, but we found these to be mostly asymptomatic. Middle third fractures are more likely to require operative fixation. Middle third fractures should be classified according to Robinson's classification system and lateral third fractures according to Craig's classification. We did not assess sufficient medial third fractures for the data to be significant.

- by David E O'Briain
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- Operations Management, Treatment Outcome, Adolescent, Orthopaedics

This dissertation aims to aid in the understanding of Mass Customization. It is recently presented as a new business strategy not only for Industries but also for any sort of business activities. State of art theories, business strategies and aspects, such as Open Innovation and Customer - driven value creation are addressed to support the idea of Mass Customization. Tools and techniques for industries are classified according to their field of appliance. In particular, the tools are classified into the following fields; Marketing, Product Development and Data Management, Production Design, Production Management and Logistics. The contribution to Operations Management through the field of Production Systems Design & Management is held by the research that is focused on Flow Production Lines, and more specifically on Continuous Flow Manufacturing. The most well established techniques of Flow Production are recognized as H. Ford’s System and Toyota Production System. Nowadays, they are expressed by the efforts of implementing the Lean Production principles. How Mass Customization is involved in a system of Flow Production? How the production flow reacts by the exertion of Mass Customization in Flow Production? Can production flow be customized according to demand? Is it efficient or not? The study of production flow can give the answers. In this dissertation, an algorithmic procedure of designing Flow Production Systems. The purpose is to customize the flow in accordance with demand. The algorithmic procedure is performed by a system that is named as Flow Customizer™ v.1 (stands for version 1). The procedure can be implemented in cases that either demand or the number of final products change. The implementation of the results of Flow Customizer™ v.1 is assessed as beneficial or not according to each case study. The procedure is described by specific phases and steps that are displayed by a flow chart. The Flow Production System that is redesigned by the Flow Customizer™ v.1 consists of Production Modules that are connected to each other through a Kanban System. The procedure’s function and its result of a Modularized Production System is explained by an application paradigm. Moreover, pieces of information from an industrial case study about organizing two production line’s resources are subjected. Calculation, optimization and also management decision issues are indicated through the procedure of designing Flow Production Systems. The results that derive from the function of this system are addressed. Main conclusions and future research directions are noted.

Overall equipment effiiency (OEE) measures the ratio of how much of a product or part is being made defect-free versus how much could be made according to the equipment’s design. A machine or process that has an OEE of 100 percent is producing at its maximum designed capacity with zero defects. Three metrics – availability, performance and quality – make up OEE. When real output is lower than expected, practitioners can find opportunities for improvement in all three of these factors and take actions that maximize the current process capabilities, fix problems and improve productivity.

- by Sl domerique
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- Business, Entrepreneurship, Organizational Behavior, Management

The purpose of this paper is to study the regulatory aspect of the Microfinance in the country and to explore the genesis of the Micro Finance Institutions (Development and Regulation) Bill, 2011.

- by Renu Bahri
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- Management, Operations Management

This paper revisits the use of trend forecasting to determine ordering policy in supply chains by viewing it as a part of the control process for making the supply responsive to demand. Trend forecasting is often used to assess demand—a tracked variable in the control context, which drives supply—a tracking variable. Used in this way, it is often observed to increase instability creating the so-called bullwhip effect. Trend is used on the other hand with reliability to increase stability in controller control, but with the difference that a trend of a ...

- by Khalid Saeed
- •
- Business, Dynamical Systems, Control Theory, Operations Management

Purpose-Aims to investigates the relationship of strategic choices of pure cost-, pure differentiation-, or a combination-strategy on a composite measure of financial performance for third-party logistics (3PL) providers in Hong Kong. In addition, it seeks to identify the importance of operations priorities underlying the respective adopted strategy, as well as the importance given to future competitive challenges for each strategy. Design/methodology/approach-Uses cluster analysis, ANOVA. Findings-Logistics service providers classified to follow different strategies report different financial performance, with companies adhering to the combined strategy of cost and differentiation performing best, followed by pure differentiation companies, which in turn outperform pure cost-, commodity driven-companies. Research limitations/implications-Future research may be widened to include customer, and not solely competitor, perceptions. Further studies could elaborate on technology adoption, information sharing, strategy formulation, operations practices, and benchmarking. Other studies could focus on the differences between high and low performers in terms of business performance, and the processes that enable low performers to become high performers; as well as comparing logistics strategies and practices between different countries.

- by willem selen
- •
- Business, Operations Management, Logistics Management, Competitive advantage

Supply chain managers must often trust data reported from suppliers to make decisions about sourcing and product reliability due to the costs or complexity of implementing traditional monitoring systems. Without some form of monitoring, these types of data are vulnerable to manipulation, thus making their suitability for decision-making ambiguous and creating an opportunity for 'supplier opportunism'. Recent practitioner literature suggests one solution to this problem they refer to as 'trust-but-verify'. The purpose of this empirical study is to scientifically examine the feasibility and cost of implementing one 'trust-but-verify' method in a real-world supply chain using a principle called Benford's Law. The results of this two-year study suggest that the technique is feasible and cost effective in identifying supply chain data that have been intentionally manipulated. This finding can allow supply chain managers to segregate suspect data from decision-making until they can be validated and thus mitigate supplier opportunism.

- by Douglas Hales and +1
- •
- Supply Chain Management, Decision Making, Operations Management, Supply Chain

The Baldrige framework has emerged as both a guide for quality management and the model upon which numerous state and international quality awards are based. It was introduced in 1988 as the foundation for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. The framework was significantly revised in 1992 and 1997. In order to test the validity of the theoretical model underlying the Baldrige framework as it has evolved over the years, we take the approach of analyzing the constructs upon which the Baldrige categories are based. Path analysis is used to test the fit of each of the three major frameworks, and the sums of direct effects are used to estimate the category weights implied by each of the path models. We found that all three frameworks were a good fit with the Baldrige frameworks for those years, and that both the 1992 and 1997 frameworks improved upon the foundation established by the 1988 framework. Thus, we conclude that appropriate adaptations to the Baldrige framework have been made over the years. We describe the implications for practitioners, in terms of critical success factors, and make recommendations for further minor modifications to the Baldrige framework.

- by Brooke Saladin
- •
- Engineering, Quality Management, Operations Management, Mathematical Sciences

We present the outcome of non-operative manage-ment of fractures of the shaft of the femur in chil-dren. Thirty children with non-operatively managed unilateral fractures of the shaft of the femur were studied. The mean age was 6.5 years... more

- by Prakash Chandran
- •
- Computed Tomography, Operations Management, Child, Infant

Objective: The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the logic of analyzing the supply chain as a system derives from the transformation process, the heart of the integration of supply, demand, and value in the supply chain,... more

- by Larry Howard and +1
- •
- Marketing, Supply Chain Management, Operations Management, Security

Driven by rising customer expectation for good quality product, accurate order fulfillment and fast delivery, which factory warehouse management plays important role for linking manufacturers and customers. With regarding the factory warehouse problems, order picking process has high labor intensive cost and operational cost and non-value adding activity for almost every factory warehouse. Therefore, to increase order picking efficiency, the objective was to investigate QR code on mobile platform for improving order picking process of lean factory warehouse. To eliminate waste in order picking process, quick response code (QR) on mobile platforms of smartphone was proposed for factory warehouse solution. The operation research was used with Nakhon-Ratchasima province's electronic manufacturing company of Thailand. The results indicated that QR code on mobile platform was an effective tools to reduce order picking process waste (i.e., travel time and waiting waste) and increase p...

Social exchange theory is used to gain a better understanding of the relationship between a buyer and a supplier that is characterized by lock-in situations. We begin by reviewing the theoretical foundations of social exchange theory. Next, we use an illustrative multinational business example from a Danish Business Group to demonstrate the complexities of the lock-in situation. Conjectures related to lock-in behaviors are initially developed and then examined by means of a game-theoretic model. The analysis provides a basis for the ...

- by Aarav Nair
- •
- Engineering, Economics, Supply Chain Management, Operations Management

The design and management of the manufacturing network for a firm is an important factor for its competitive position. By manufacturing network we mean the plant or plants of a manufacturing firm and the relationships with external suppliers. The way that these operate together is crucial for supporting the competition of the products in the marketplace. This paper presents the results of a survey of 106 Swedish manufacturing plants. We find that the markets and supply networks of Swedish plants are global, but there is a focus on Europe. The main reason for locating a plant in Sweden is proximity to skills and knowledge, and we find no pure low-cost plants. The overall level of site competence is very high. There are many significant differences between how internal and external suppliers are selected. The choice of internal suppliers, i.e. those suppliers in the manufacturing network that belong to the same firm, is to a large extent based on a single corporate decision reflecting quality and competence, while external suppliers are chosen based on quality, price, and delivery dependability considerations. All in all, this study provides a broad analysis of the manufacturing networks in which Swedish plants operate, and the roles of these plants.

- by Jan Olhager
- •
- Supply Chain Management, Operations Management, Survey Research, Production Planning

Environmental sustainability is an important issue and one that receives attention in the media, press and journals. Much of the discussion and debate surrounds the environmental impact that occurs across organizational supply chains. In this paper we set out to examine how concern for environmental impact is being incorporating into the strategic and operational management of supply chains. Our research is an exploratory study intended to provide an overview of practice and inform further research.

Between 1969 and 1987, 68 patients with pancreatic pseudocysts were treated. The median cyst size was 10 cm (range 2–25 cm). Nine patients were managed conservatively with resolution of the pseudocyst occurring in eight patients. These patients had significantly smaller (median 4 cm) cysts compared with those in both percutaneously and surgically treated patients (P<0·01). In 22 patients the pseudocysts (median 9 cm) were punctured percutaneously under ultrasound guidance and the cyst fluid was aspirated or drained through a catheter. Complete resolution occurred in 13 patients after 1–4 (mean 2·8) punctures per patient, regression occurred in six patients after 1–4 (mean 2·0) puncture procedures per patient and three were unchanged. No complications were noted, except that two patients treated percutaneously required additional surgery. Thirty-seven patients were managed surgically (median cyst size 11 cm) with external drainage (12 patients), cystgast-rostomy (17 patients), cystduodenostomy (three patients) cystjejunostomy (three patients) and pancreatic resection (two patients). Resolution of the cyst was noted in 29 patients, regression in five and three were unchanged. Five patients required additional surgery. Twelve complications were seen in ten patients (27 per cent), most frequently after external drainage. One patient died after surgical treatment. Mean hospital stay was 13 days among patients treated conservatively and 30 days in both percutaneously and surgically treated patients. Aspiration or catheter drainage of pseudocyst fluid guided by ultrasonography seems a safe and effective treatment of pancreatic pseudocysts and should be considered as initial therapy. If surgery is required cystgastrostomy is preferred.

- by Stig Bengmark and +1
- •
- Surgery, Operations Management, British, Treatment Outcome
- by K. Linderman
- •
- Engineering, Operations Management, Mathematical Sciences, Citation Analysis

In much of the current literature on supply chain management, supply networks are recognized as a system. In this paper, we take this observation to the next level by arguing the need to recognize supply networks as a complex adaptive system (CAS). We propose that many supply networks emerge rather than result from purposeful design by a singular entity. Most supply chain management literature emphasizes negative feedback for purposes of control; however, the emergent patterns in a supply network can much better be managed through positive feedback, which allows for autonomous action. Imposing too much control detracts from innovation and flexibility; conversely, allowing too much emergence can undermine managerial predictability and work routines. Therefore, when managing supply networks, managers must appropriately balance how much to control and how much to let emerge.

This development paper sets out the rationale for future empirical studies that focus on understanding the complexities associated with performance measurement within the NHS. It is intended that the study, which will focus on understanding exception congruence of service among the various NHS stakeholders, will eventually be based on data that are obtained from multiple exploratory interviews of NHS stakeholders involved with the delivery of NHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in England.

- by Phalis M Maina
- •
- Operations Management

Performance measurements may stimulate employee initiatives to improve operational performance, especially when they themselves participate in the development of their own departmental performance measures. Using the theory of planned behavior, we examine why this occurs in a beverage manufacturing company where we helped bottling line maintenance technicians develop measures about the results of their own work. Our analyses are based on qualitative data gathered at 156 meetings, 34 semi-structured interviews, quantitative performance data from the company's information systems, and quantitative questionnaire data. We found that the participatory development process increased employees' attitude, perceived social pressure and perceived capability to take initiative. Moreover, the departmental performance improved when the jointly developed performance measures were put to use.

- by Celeste Wilderom
- •
- Management, Sociology, Operations Management, Management Accounting