Field Of Operations Management Research Articles

RFID in Industry 4.0

The advent of Information and Communication Technology brought some advances in the field of Operations Management. RFID, when used as Ordering Coordination System, provides benefits not only for Production Control but also for some organisational functions that support the manufacturing sector. To identify these benefits, this work used a Systematic Literature Review. The results presented 15 benefits, classified into 4 areas that impact the Shop Floor Control and a framework containing the information flow necessary to operationalise the SFC 4.0. The discussion presented some insights relating the benefits with the maturity level of the entire SFC ecosystem when adopting RFID technology as an Ordering Coordination System and a brief agenda for future studies in this field of knowledge. It was possible to conclude that although the use of RFID is not new, its use as a premise for SFC operationalisation is yet in its initial stage of maturity, which could be reinforced by the fact that the most cited benefits were related to the initial stage of informational flow presented in the framework.

The financial, legal and political foundations of industrial resilience

PurposeThis paper is motivated by the gap between the extensive academic discussion of industrial resilience and the limited resilience observed in response to large disruptions. Its purpose is to investigate the relationship between the industrial resilience of manufacturing and service operations and the resilience of the supporting financial, legal and political systems. This research identifies the impact of high or low levels of resilience in these supporting systems on the ability of industrial operations to perform as required in disrupted environments.Design/methodology/approachThe authors combine a multi-disciplinary literature review with empirical data from four exploratory case studies. First, the authors review the literature on resilience in the fields of operations management, finance, law and political science to bring the terminology and concepts of these fields closer together. This review also defines the independent variables of the study: financial, legal and political resilience. Second, the authors use the framework from the literature to analyse data from four case studies of operations in difference contexts and sectors.FindingsIndustrial resilience is interdisciplinary, nuanced and complex. High levels of industrial resilience require high levels of financial, legal and political resilience. However, the activities required to improve the resilience of these supporting systems are often outside the locus of control of operations managers. Multiple perspectives on resilience must be coordinated to strengthen the response of industrial operations to large disruptions.Research limitations/implicationsAs a conceptual and exploratory study, this paper does not utilise quantitative data or in-depth case studies. The authors demonstrate the importance of an interdisciplinary perspective on industrial resilience and provide a theoretical framework that can serve as a foundation to further studies of resilience. The review of the literature provides a glossary of definitions of resilience that improves clarity in this disparate field.Practical implicationsManagers can apply the findings of this work to start cross-functional discussions in their firms that recognise the multiple dimensions of industrial resilience and improve the resilience of the supporting systems. The exploratory case studies provide concrete guidance for how managers in the fields of humanitarian and development operations, healthcare and manufacturing can improve industrial resilience by considering the interaction with the supporting financial, legal and political systems.Originality/valueThis study is the first to provide detailed conceptual discussion and empirical evidence for the interdisciplinary nature of industrial resilience in the context of public sector and non-governmental organisations. Combining evidence from different contexts and sectors demonstrates the broad industrial value of this work.

The quest for business value drivers: applying machine learning to performance management

The paper explores the potential role of Machine learning (ML) in supporting the development of a company’s Performance Management System (PMS). In more details, it investigates the capability of ML to moderate the complexity related to the identification of the business value drivers (methodological complexity) and the related measures (analytical complexity). A second objective is the analysis of the main issues arising in applying ML to performance management. The research, developed through an action research design, shows that ML can moderate complexity by (1) reducing the subjectivity in the identification of the business value drivers; (2) accounting for cause-effect relationships between business value drivers and performance; (3) balancing managerial interpretability vs. predictivity of the approach. It also shows that the realisation of such benefits requires a combined understanding of the ML techniques and of the performance management model of the company to frame and validate the algorithm in light of the context in which the organisation operates. The paper contributes to the literature analysing the role of business analytics in the field of performance management and it provides new insights into the potential benefits of introducing an ML-based PMS and the issues to consider to increase its effectiveness.

FORMATION OF TNE METHODOLOGY OF STRATEGIC AND OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT OF INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISES IN THE CONDITIONS OF GLOBAL INSTABILITY

The strong aggravation of military and political instability in the world, the introduction by the United States of America and other Western countries of a huge number of various and unjustified sanctions against Russia created very difficult conditions for doing business in our country's industrial enterprises. In this regard, the issues of forming a methodology for the strategic and operational management of industrial enterprises, which need to ensure survival and further development, despite the harmful effects of Western states and the most difficult problems with resource support for production, as well as sales of products outside the Russian Federation, are of particular importance. The article discusses the main directions of development of scientific thought in the field of strategic and operational management of industrial enterprises, including in modern conditions, characterized not only by the military-political aggravation of the situation in the world, but also in many respects related to these processes, the emergence of economic crises in the largest regions of America and Europe. The authors propose a new aggregated algorithm for managing industrial enterprises, both at the strategic and operational levels, based on mathematical models and methods, taking into account the characteristics of modern industry markets. It is also noted that the modern world economy is subject to cyclical phenomena due to the very nature of capitalist relations, and not only from the desire of the Western world to destroy Russia and its powerful industrial potential. The article also presents a number of mathematical models developed by the authors for assessing the production efficiency of industrial enterprises both for the options for the functioning of manufacturing companies in a stable environment and increased demand for enterprise products, and for their working conditions during periods of crisis. The most relevant today are the models of choosing strategic decisions in the context of the global crisis. Thus, the paper proposes a methodology for the preparation of managerial decision - making by the management of industrial enterprises, which ensures the minimization of costs for the production and sale of finished products, as well as the feasibility of technical re - equipment by enterprises in various periods of the functioning of the world economy. It is also reported how the proposed methodology for the strategic and operational management of industrial enterprises in the quite recent past allowed Russian manufacturing companies to achieve fairly high performance and competitiveness at the international level.

Agile R&D Units’ Organization Beyond Software—Developing and Validating a Multidimensional Scale in an Engineering Context

Previous literature addressed organizations’ adaptiveness to ever-changing business environments and investigated the concept of agility. However, extant agility research primarily covers the corporate and project levels and is typically located in the information systems and operations management fields. Relatively little quantitative research in innovation management literature exists, and those studies approached the concept solely from an outcome perspective (i.e., increased adaptiveness) instead of elucidating how organizations should organize themselves to be agile (i.e., a capability perspective). This article addresses these shortcomings and adopts a capability perspective since no empirical studies have examined agile R&D units’ organization (ARDO). Drawing on dynamic capabilities theory, we develop a measure of ARDO, conceptualizing it as a second-order construct, consisting of six dimensions: a culture of agile values, customer integration, autonomy, an iterative work method, cross-functional capabilities, and flat hierarchies. We validated the measurement by conducting three studies to ensure content, structural, and nomological validity. We applied structural equation modeling on a sample of 175 R&D managers and cross validated our findings on different hierarchical levels via a sample of 454 R&D employees. The results confirm the second-order nature of the ARDO measure and provide evidence of its positive relationship with front-end success. We advance scarce quantitative research on agility's neglected capability perspective and contribute to the innovation management field by facilitating further empirical research on agile R&D units’ antecedents and outcomes in the context of physical product development.

Подходы к качественной оценке состояния барьеров безопасности на объектах нефтегазовой отрасли

The basic concepts of the idea of safety barriers and proposals for their classification are given. The criteria for assessing the performance of safety barriers, methods for checking their performance during operation of the facility, as well as an approach to a qualitative assessment of their performance at the facility are described. Technical safety barriers mean engineering systems and equipment located at the facility and designed to implement a critical safety function. Administrative safety barriers serve to control the implementation of critical safety tasks performed by the employees. The performance of safety barriers is described by three groups of criteria: efficiency, reliability, stability. The tasks of effective safety barriers management are reduced to preventing, controlling, or reducing the consequences of the implementation of risks at oil and gas facilities. These goals are achieved by assessing the performance of each barrier element and maintaining its performance capability, as well as by analyzing not only technical, but also administrative decisions. The tasks set are solved by the efficient placement and use of safety barriers, ensuring their effectiveness, reliability, and sustainability through current supporting procedures. Based on the results of the assessment of the safety barriers performance, the recommendations are developed on the formation of a list of measures in the field of operational risk management and on reducing the level of risk criticality. The task of assessing the performance of safety barriers is to identify the weak points in the industrial safety of oil and gas facilities by determining the sufficiency and readiness of each existing safety barrier to perform a barrier function.

Analysis of OM-Based Literature Reviews on Facility Layout Planning

This work consists of a systematized review of the state of the art of reviews for the problem of Facility Layout Planning (FLP) within the Operations Management (OM) field to support the decisions taken for the improvement of the manufacturing and logistics in a factory environment. The first phase begins by defining the search strategies for obtaining the scientific literature, for which we used ten databases. With these, a base of 112 articles was obtained, but after the systematized process was reduced to 32 directly related articles. In the second phase, we executed a Dimensional analysis of these literature review articles employing a quantitative analysis of the sections and subsections of the selected articles. The third phase comprises the identification of gaps and future research lines. Finally, the conclusions obtained from the systematized review process are presented.

CASE STUDY PROTOCOL FOR QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

In operations management field, researches that adopt the case study method are often criticized for lack of rigor. That is worrisome, considering the popularity of this method. Achieving rigor requires some actions from the researcher and one of them is the adoption of a robust research protocol. However, information about the case study protocol is fragmented in literature; in fact, many studies address the method, but those dealing specifically with protocol are scarce. Aiming to assist other researchers, in this study is proposed a case study protocol for qualitative researches in operations management that can be applied in any type of case study, especially in those that study organizations and their internal processes and adopt the interview as the main source of information. The proposal is the result of a protocol tested in the field and an extensive literature review covering different areas of knowledge (focusing on the most classic and important papers on the subject). The protocol was replicated eighteen times in a study about an important organization and evaluated by six researchers in different phases. It comprises a set of recommendations and should be used as a reference guide on how to proceed in data collection step. If planned and used with care, the protocol will guide the researcher, favoring the rigor and quality of the results, eliminating doubts and uncertainties and reducing reworks.

On-demand service platform operations management: a literature review and research agendas

PurposeThe literature review aims to facilitate a broader understanding of on-demand service platform operations management and proposes potential research directions for scholars.Design/methodology/approachThis study searches four databases for relevant literature on on-demand service platform operations management and selects 72 papers for this review. According to the research context, the literature can be divided into research on “a single platform” and research on “multiple platforms”. According to the research methods, the literature can be classified into “Mathematical Models”, “Empirical Studies”, “Multiple Methods” and “Literature Review”. Through comparative analysis, we identify research gaps and propose five future research agendas.FindingsThis paper proposes five research agendas for future research on on-demand service platform operations management. First, research can be done to combine classic research problems in the field of operations management with platform characteristics. Second, both the dynamic and steady-state issues of on-demand service platforms can be further explored. Third, research employing mathematical models and empirical analysis simultaneously can be more fruitful. Fourth, more research efforts on the various interactions among two or more platforms can be pursued. Last but not least, it is worthwhile to examine new models and paths that have emerged during the latest development of the platform economy.Originality/valueThrough categorizing the literature into two research contexts as well as classifying it according to four research methods, this article clearly shows the research progresses made so far in on-demand service platform operations management and provides future research directions.

A robust strategy to address the airport gate assignment problem considering operators’ preferences

The airport gate assignment problem (AGAP) has been well studied in the field of airport transportation planning and operations management. For airport operators, it is important to assign flight activities to limited gates economically, and the robustness of the assignment is also a key issue. In this paper, we address the problem of assigning a number of flight activities, including arrival, parking, and departure, to different gates during the operating period. A robust strategy is developed by considering the airport operators’ tow-averse attributes. To solve the problem, firstly, a multi-objective integer programming model is proposed. There are two objectives in the model, one is to maximize the operators’ preferences characterized by scores, and the other is to minimize robustness cost caused by the changes of flight schedule. Secondly, a two-phase Monte Carlo based NSGA-II (TPMC-NSGA II) algorithm is designed, which effectively combines the Monte Carlo characters and the NSGA-II algorithm. Furthermore, a set of computational analyses are conducted. The results show that the proposed model and algorithm are capable of solving the airport gate assignment problem with an economical, robust, and preferred output.

Developing resilience in disaster relief operations management through lean transformation

The impact of disasters in terms of the loss of human lives, infrastructure, and economy has been increasing over time. Planning and management strategies for disaster relief operations (DROs) have got the attention of researchers and policymakers, particularly on how to achieve resilience in such operations. This research aims to investigate the use of the lean transformation approach, which in this context is the process of evaluating relief operations’ performance in terms of responsiveness and road mapping interventions, for achieving resilience in DROs. A systematic lean-based method instigated through DROs’ management initiative was developed. This was validated through an empirical industrial fire case study where selected lean concepts and tools like Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs and Customer (SIPOC)-analysis, value stream maps (VSM), key performance indicators (KPIs), fishbone diagram, and plan-do-check-act (PDCA) were used to investigate DROs resilience in terms of their responsiveness. The VSMs were developed for ‘as-is’ and ‘to-be’ scenarios, and comparative analysis against standardized KPIs was carried out. The lean transformation approach was found effective in the studied case of industrial fire for developing resilience in DROs. Furthermore, lean tools could help in devising pragmatic strategies to prevent delays and achieve enhanced resilience through better coordination, communication, capacity building, and awareness. This research contributes to the operations management and disaster management fields through lean transformation.

Interplay between Competing and Coexisting Policy Regimens within Supply Chain Configurations

Competing and coexisting policies (CACPs) may arise from the incompatibility of incentives, standards, and regulatory models between a local state and a federal government, or between two government jurisdictions across which supply networks operate. Traditional studies of supply chain dynamics typically explore the impact of policy regimens as standalone instruments. This study explores how the interplay between CACP regimens can affect the supply dynamics between producers, customers, and their intermediaries. We use a supply network configuration lens to assess implications for supply chain actors and system‐level outcomes. Our work is motivated by the federal‐state dissonance in the current dispute between India's farmers and the federal government regarding new laws that impact agricultural supply chains in India. In this case, alternative and coexisting policy interventions, ostensibly aimed at modernizing and transforming production and distribution, can lead to significant supply chain netting and inventory pooling reconfigurations in terms of material, information, and financial flows among Indian agricultural stakeholders, along with inventory repositioning and market creation options. In addition, of significance is the consequent shift in the balance between state/nation and federal/supranational equity and bargaining power, an increasingly relevant context where supply chains operate across a common but multi‐jurisdictional territory, and implications for system‐level outcomes, in this particular case equity, welfare economics, and food security. We conclude by pointing to the implications of CACP regimens, and their interplay, for the broader field of operations management and supply chain research.

Modelling and condition-based control of a flexible and hybrid disassembly system with manual and autonomous workstations using reinforcement learning

Remanufacturing includes disassembly and reassembly of used products to save natural resources and reduce emissions. While assembly is widely understood in the field of operations management, disassembly is a rather new problem in production planning and control. The latter faces the challenge of high uncertainty of type, quantity and quality conditions of returned products, leading to high volatility in remanufacturing production systems. Traditionally, disassembly is a manual labor-intensive production step that, thanks to advances in robotics and artificial intelligence, starts to be automated with autonomous workstations. Due to the diverging material flow, the application of production systems with loosely linked stations is particularly suitable and, owing to the risk of condition induced operational failures, the rise of hybrid disassembly systems that combine manual and autonomous workstations can be expected. In contrast to traditional workstations, autonomous workstations can expand their capabilities but suffer from unknown failure rates. For such adverse conditions a condition-based control for hybrid disassembly systems, based on reinforcement learning, alongside a comprehensive modeling approach is presented in this work. The method is applied to a real-world production system. By comparison with a heuristic control approach, the potential of the RL approach can be proven simulatively using two different test cases.

Innovating employee participation in the Netherlands

In this article, thirteen case studies are analysed which study the innovation processes renewing structures and forms of employee participation in companies in private and public sectors of industry in the Netherlands. In the majority of the case studies, new hybrid forms between representative and direct participation have been launched, in which elected members of works councils co-operate with non-member employees, mostly in temporary projects. These initiatives show successful results in mobilizing employee involvement in representative as well as in direct workers’ participation, and in improving efficiency and effectiveness in consultations with management in the workplace, as well as with company directors. At the same time, however, works councils have compromised on lowering the number of seats on their councils, leading to dilemmas around questions of democracy, formal powers and coordination. Furthermore, these experiments show limitations in their scope. Firstly, they hardly address more effective inclusion of the many (younger) workers with flexible contracts in employee participation schemes, nor the broader potential impacts on companies’ strategic decision-making. It can be concluded that practices aimed at renewing employee participation develop within the confines of the traditional characteristics of Dutch industrial relations, such as cooperative relationships between works councils and management, a low level of interventions from trade unions and a focus on the field of operational management (rather than on conflictual workers interests and strategic issues).

Managing the global service transition: employees’ reactions and management responses

Despite the importance of global engineering services (GES) to many manufacturing companies, this area of research has not been studied extensively. This paper explores the role of employees in a manufacturer’s transition to a global engineering services provider. Based on the literature, a conceptual framework is defined, which specifies the dynamic interaction between employee reactions and management responses to determine the transition outcome. Evidence is presented from a single case study based on 21 interviews and observations as well as documents and media information. The findings empirically demonstrate how employee resistance, support and rejection of the globalisation strategy develop, resulting in the need for continuous management responses to ensure global integration. Exemplar employee reactions are prioritisation of local over global customers in service delivery due to lack of ownership, which were responded to by designing new organisational procedures to ensure local prioritisation of global customers with service contracts. This study contributes to the emerging field of global operations management by studying the operational contributions of employees and the respective management responses. This research focuses specifically on global services as a novel focal area within this emerging field.

Surgery Sequencing Coordination with Recovery Resource Constraints

Surgical practice administrators need to determine the sequence of surgeries and reserved operating room (OR) time for each surgery in the surgery scheduling process. Both decisions require coordination among multiple ORs and the recovery resource in the postanesthesia care unit (PACU) in a surgical suite. Although existing studies have addressed OR time reservation, surgery sequencing coordination is an open challenge in the stochastic surgical environment. In this paper, we propose an algorithmic solution to this problem based on stochastic optimization. The proposed methodology involves the development of a surrogate objective function that is highly correlated with the original one. The resulting surrogate model has network-structured subproblems after Lagrangian relaxation and decomposition, which makes it easier to solve than the impractically difficult original problem. We show that our proposed approach finds near-optimal solutions in small instances and outperforms benchmark methods by 13%–51% or equivalently an estimated saving of $760–$7,420 per day in surgical suites with 4–10 ORs. Our results illustrate a mechanism to alleviate congestion in the PACU. We also recommend that practice administrators prioritize sequencing coordination over the optimization of OR time reservation in an effort for performance improvement. Furthermore, we demonstrate how administrators should consider the impact of sequencing decisions when making strategic capacity adjustments for the PACU. Summary of Contribution: Our work provides an algorithmic solution to an open question in the field of healthcare operations management. This solution approach involves formulating a surrogate optimization model and exploiting its decomposability and network-structure. In computational experiments, we quantitatively benchmark its performance and assess its benefits. Our numerical results provide unique managerial insights for healthcare leadership.

How much feedback do employees need? A field study of absolute feedback frequency reports and performance

AbstractScholars and practitioners in the field of performance management have advocated an increase in the exchange of feedback in the workplace. Practitioners would benefit from guidelines about appropriate feedback frequencies, but the current literature does not offer much guidance. Our study investigates how self‐reports of absolute frequencies relate to performance and job satisfaction. In a sample of diverse organizations, employees reported, on average, 3.8 feedback conversations in 3 weeks. Contrary to earlier suggestions that there might be an optimal feedback frequency, we find support for the notion that more feedback is better, without any indication of a downward trend at the highest feedback frequency. Our findings suggest that leader–member exchange may be one underlying mechanism that mediates this relationship.

Efficiency of Green Supply Chain in the presence of non-discretionary and undesirable factors, using Data Envelopment Analysis

A new approach that has dominated the production operations management field in recent years is supply chain management. A supply chain includes all the facilities, tasks and activities involved in manufacturing a product from suppliers to customers. Its various elements are planning, supply and demand management, procurement of raw materials, production scheduling, distribution and delivery of products to the customer. Special structures in the supply chain have been less studied in previous research. In this paper, the supply chain and its performance evaluation are examined in the presence of non-discretionary, undesirable and negative data. For this purpose, another model of the network DEA is presented which evaluates performance of the chain in the presence of non-discretionary inputs and outputs, undesirable outputs and negative outputs even in its internal structure. The efficiency of the chain stages is also calculated using a dual model. Subsequently, 42 cement companies listed on the Tehran stock exchange were evaluated, each of which has a chain of four stages including suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and customers. Based on the implementation of the model, six companies were found to be efficient and the rest were introduced as inefficient. Moreover, 25 cement companies in the Supplier sector, 18 companies in the manufacturing sector, seven companies in the distribution sector and finally 17 companies in the customer service sector were found to be efficient.

Personality Types as Predictors of (HACCP) Process Management Success (Analytical Study of a Sample of food Production Companies in Riyadh)

The current study deals with one of the most prominent topics that have received a broad attention by academics and practitioners of management in the contemporary time, especially when the criterion for the success of management has become reliance on the types and personal characteristics of employees and workers in various institutions and companies. The study of personality types is considered one of the most discussed topics in various scientific fields, as it has received great interest in many vital groups in various sectors of society. The results of some scientific research and studies across different languages, cultures and civilizations have indicated a great role for personality traits and types in the individual's success in job performance, feeling of quality of life and enjoyment of mental health. The scientific interest in studying personality has appeared since researchers began to measure personality in the fields of psychology, mental health and sociology. This concept has also recently developed in the field of Food production operations management in addition to its study in the field of management, and every field that deals with personality from its own approach and from its scientific perspective. This interest in personality is explained as the most important elements of success in achieving development and progress in societies are due to the role of the individual in the rising of society. We also note that the information revolution through the electronic information network had a major role in improving the field of psychometric measurement at the global Cross-border level through the electronic information network. Many psychological measures were applied to countless numbers and were developed in the study of personality.The aim of the current research is to identify personality types as predictors of the of the (HACCP) process management success in a sample of employees in three food production companies in the Riyadh region. The study sample consisted of (100) individuals with different academic qualifications, age and years of experience. The study is employed the descriptive, analytical and correlative approach. The results of the study resulted in a positive correlation of personality types (a), (b), (c), and successful (HACCP) process management success through personality types as follows, type (a), followed by type (c), and finally, type (b) as well. The study concluded with some recommendations and suggestions.

Effects of CEO and COO overconfidence on the firm's inventory leanness

PurposeThis study examines whether the behavioral attributes, such as overconfidence, of chief executive officers (CEO) and chief operating officers (COO) affect firm's inventory leanness. If they do, how are they interacting with each other? Moreover, incorporating market competition into the analysis, this study explores how the competition moderates the relationship between managerial overconfidence and inventory leanness.Design/methodology/approachUsing a large panel data of US manufacturing firms between 1998 and 2015, this study measures top managers' overconfident characteristics using stock option information. Then, a panel regression analysis is adopted to test the effects of managerial overconfidence on inventory leanness. Moreover, a moderation model is applied to investigate the interaction effects of market competition.FindingsFirms with overconfident COOs (CEOs), other circumstances being equal, increase (decrease) the inventory leanness as the market becomes more competitive.Practical implicationsThe study suggests that firms should understand top managers' behavioral characteristics to manage inventory efficiently. Collectively, CEOs (COOs) tend to increase (decrease) inventory levels due to their overconfidence as the market gets competitive. Firms should establish a systematic process to be reviewed by diverse stakeholders to deal with managerial overconfidence.Originality/valueThis study is an exploratory study that examines whether and how top management's behavioral attribute relates to a firm's operations performance. It underlines that CEO and COO's overconfident characteristics determine the inventory leanness when market competition is considered. Numerous studies on firm-level strategies emphasized the top managers' overconfidence as a key factor. However, behavioral characteristics at the top management level have rarely been studied in operations management fields. Based on the results, scholars could compare and understand the effects of CEO and COO overconfidence to provide insights into inventory management.