Decision-making approaches in process innovations: an explorative case study

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the selection of decision-making approaches at manufacturing companies when implementing process innovations.Design/methodology/approachThis study reviews the current understanding of decision structuredness for determining a decision-making approach and conducts a case study based on an interactive research approach at a global manufacturer.FindingsThe findings show the correspondence of intuitive, normative and combined intuitive and normative decision-making approaches in relation to varying degrees of equivocality and analyzability. Accordingly, the conditions for determining a decision-making choice when implementing process innovations are revealed.Research limitations/implicationsThis study contributes to increased understanding of the combined use of intuitive and normative decision making in production system design.Practical implicationsEmpirical data are drawn from two projects in the heavy-vehicle industry. The study describes decisions, from start to finish, and the corresponding decision-making approaches when implementing process innovations. These findings are of value to staff responsible for the design of production systems.Originality/valueUnlike prior conceptual studies, this study considers normative, intuitive and combined intuitive and normative decision making. In addition, this study extends the current understanding of decision structuredness and discloses the correspondence of decision-making approaches to varying degrees of equivocality and analyzability.