Sized Manufacturing Companies Research Articles

The Effect of Supply Chain Management Practices on Competitive Advantage in Manufacturing Industry in Pakistan: The Moderating Role of Big Data Analytics

The purpose of the current study is to examine that what big data analytics (BDA) may have a moderating effect on the relationship between supply chain management practices (SCMPs) and competitive advantage (CA) in Pakistani manufacturing companies. Data was gathered quantitatively from several manufacturing businesses located industrial in Karachi. The study hypothesis was tested using SPSS method and linear regression analysis, sample size is 154 persons working in small, medium and large sized manufacturing companies with multiple categorizations based on enterprise size, job & experience. The findings demonstrate that SCMPs have a major favorable impact on competitive advantage (CA). In particular, information quality (IQ), customer relationship management (CRM), and strategic supplier partnerships (SSP) all significantly improve competitive advantage (CA), information sharing (ISh) not significantly on competitive advantage (CA). Furthermore, investigates the association between SCMPs and CA in Pakistani manufacturing enterprises, as well as the moderating effect of big data analytics (BDA). The findings validate H1, H2, and H3 and demonstrate the beneficial effects of Supplier Strategic Partnership (SSP), customer relationship management (CRM), and information quality (IQ) on competitive advantage (CA). This study is to look at how big data analytics (BDA) may be able to moderate the relationship between supply chain management practices (SCMPs) and competitive advantage (CA) in Pakistani manufacturing companies. The findings demonstrate that SCMPs significantly improve CA. Information quality (IQ), customer relationship management (CRM), and strategic supplier partnerships (SSP) in particular significantly improve competitive advantage (CA). Information sharing (ISh), on the other hand, had no effect on competitive advantage (CA). Some flaw in the way the firms under investigation handle big data analytics (BDA). It emphasizes that for big data analytics (BDA) systems to produce the intended outcomes, managers must integrate them with other business systems and capabilities.

Modeling Managerial Accounting Information Systems Acceptance and Intention of Retention: Activity based Costing System as an Example

Accounting information systems acceptance and use has been a research interest for many researchers in recent years. Research in this area has employed several models related to technology acceptance and adoption. Factors that influence users’ acceptance and intention of use were investigated based on the pre-implementation perception of users regarding the usefulness of the systems, ease of use, and many other factors. In contrast, this study provides evidence on the post-implementation acceptance of the Activity-Based Costing (ABC) information system as a result of familiarity with the system and the realized benefits rather than expected. A questionnaire survey is used for data collection from different sized manufacturing companies. To analyze the hypothesized model, data obtained from non-adopters of ABC or adopters at the early stage of adoption were excluded from the analysis. In total, 83 valid responses were collected and used in the analysis. The findings indicate that user acceptance of ABC as a managerial accounting information system was enforced by the wider extent of use and the mediation of reported benefits that were realized by users (departments) of the system. Further, the acceptance of the system mediates the extent of use and the magnitude of reported benefits in their positive effect on the organizational intention to retain the system. These results guide companies that establish a new accounting information system, which may encounter a certain level of resistance, to make the benefits of the system implementation visible to all departments to create acceptance for the system and maximize the benefits of its use.

The Sophistication of Performance Measurement System in Manufacturing SMEs: The Role of the Interpersonal Ties in Top Management Teams

This study aims to explore the relationship between informal social relations between top-managers and the sophistication of the performance measurement system (PMS) in small-and-medium sized manufacturing companies. Drawing on social network theory, I argue that when TMT members are networked by interpersonal ties, this would provide top managers with easier excess to information and exchange of knowledge. Hence, these informal relationships could facilitate their control over day-to-day activities, and there would be a lesser need for adopting sophisticated management control practices. Using survey data on 2058 manufacturing SMEs from World Management Survey (WMS) project, the results supports the predicted negative impact of interpersonal ties in TMTs on PMS sophistication. The results also shed light on the key role of CEO in SMEs, by showing that this negative association is larger in TMTs leaded by internally promoted CEOs, than outsider CEOs. I also predict and find that interpersonal ties between TMTs moderate the extent to which SMEs adopt sophisticated PMS due to pursuing differentiation strategic priorities.

조직지원인식, 업무몰입, 지식공유의도, 이직의도 간의 구조적 관계: 중소제조기업 근로자를 중심으로

조직지원인식, 업무몰입, 지식공유의도, 이직의도 간의 구조적 관계: 중소제조기업 근로자를 중심으로

Measuring the lean readiness of Kuwaiti manufacturing industries

This paper measures the readiness of the Kuwaiti small and medium sized manufacturing industries to implement the lean system through an evaluation of their existing quality practices, and compare such readiness among different product sectors and ownership types. The study adopts the measurement framework developed by Al-Najem et al. (2013), which establishes six constructs related to lean quality practices, namely: process, planning and control, customer relations, suppliers relations, HR, and top management and leadership. Data were collected from a survey of 50 Kuwaiti small and medium sized manufacturing companies. One research question and two hypotheses were developed and tested using t-test and Levene's test, descriptive statistics, and one-way ANOVA. The results demonstrate that the Kuwaiti small and medium sized manufacturing industries are far from being ready to implement lean. In addition, the study found that product sector and ownership type have no significant impact on the lean readiness in the Kuwaiti small and medium sized manufacturing industries.

An ICT-based framework to improve global supply chain integration for final assembly SMES

PurposeTo access new markets and improve sourcing practices small to medium sized manufacturing companies (SMEs) increasingly seek suppliers and customers in distant countries. Yet these new relationships with global partners often pose problems of an agency nature. The purpose of this paper is to directly address these challenges through the proposal of an information and communication technology (ICT)-based framework.Design/methodology/approachThere has been very little research into how lead SMEs manage their global supply chains and the challenges they face. This paper uses a case study investigation to analyze how four French SMEs – final assemblers of machinery in the farming and agri-business sector – manage their international supply chains.FindingsIt was observed that the relationships and interactions between the SMEs and their immediate upstream and downstream partners were dominated by the agency problem and fell into six distinct categories (termed “barriers” to effective supply integration), namely; asymmetries, contractual design, supplier dependence, product specifications, supply chain complexity and performance monitoring.Originality/valueThe contribution of this paper is that a conceptual frame work was developed in which ICT solutions are offered to help address the barriers to supply chain integration, thus reducing the overall risk exposure due to externalities and problems of agency.

Relationship between Total Quality Management Practices and Financial Performance of Small and Medium Sized Manufacturing Companies in the Philippines

Objectives: To identify the predominance of Total Quality Management (TQM) practices in small and medium sized manufacturing companies in the Philippines and its relationship to financial performance. Methods: Questionnaires were administered among the owners/managers of the 50 small and medium manufacturing firms which were chosen through multi-stage random sampling. The questionnaire was composed of questions relating to quality practices in terms of management commitment and leadership, continuous improvement, total customer satisfaction, employee involvement, education and training, and reward and recognition. Descriptive statistics and Pearson Product Moment of Correlation were used to analyse the data in the study. Findings: The results reveal that the TQM practices in terms of management leadership and commitment, customer satisfaction, and continuous improvement are highly predominant while employee involvement, training and education, and rewards and recognition are only moderately predominant. Furthermore, aside from continuous improvement which was found to have a significant relationship to the solvency of the companies, there was no significant relationship between the other areas of TQM and the financial performance of the companies in terms of liquidity, solvency and profitability. These results run parallel with the fact that the rewards of TQM are highly long-range which means that any investment in the quality efforts now may not necessarily lead to any positive improvement in financial performance at once, or in the short term. This is the reason why there is a high degree of management commitment necessary in order to keep the improvement efforts afloat. This study has produced an important insight that a long-term dedicated SME quality development campaign can be an ideal strategy to improve productivity. Improvements: A comparison on the adoption of TQM between companies in terms of time period would give insights of the effects of TQM, if any, when conducted over long-term. Keywords: Profitability, Quality, Small and Medium Enterprise, Total Quality Management

Additive manufacturing in the mechanical engineering and medical industries spare parts supply chain

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to approximate the impact that additive manufacturing (AM) will have on firm inventory performance (IP) and customer satisfaction (CS) when it is applied within the spare parts (SP) supply chain of manufacturing organisations. This research also explores the influence of customer sensitivity (CSy) to price and delivery lead time and supply risk (SR) within those approximations.Design/methodology/approachAn online survey was used to collect the primary data for this research. Data were collected from 69 respondents working for organisations in two industrial segments within the UK manufacturing sector: “Industrial and Commercial Machinery and Computer Equipment” and “Measuring, Analysing and Controlling Instruments, Photographic, Medical and Optical Instruments”. The respondents worked for entities that were categorised in three groups: customers, suppliers, and entities that were both customers and suppliers. The groups that were self-identified as “customers” or “suppliers” answered 20 survey items each and the group that was identified as both “customers” and “suppliers” answered 40 survey items.FindingsThe results revealed that AM was considered a suitable vehicle for the fulfilment of SP demand. However, AM appeared to make no material difference to CS; the scenario used improved delivery time of SP but increased price. Also, AM was thought to improve IP through less reliance on buffer stock to manage SR and spikes in demand and less carrying of SP at risk of obsolescence.Research limitations/implicationsThe respondents worked for entities within two manufacturing industry segments within the UK and the insights garnered may not be indicative of similar organisations competing in other manufacturing industry segments within the UK or in other countries. In addition, approximately 82 per cent of the surveyed respondents worked for small organisations with fewer than 100 employees and the results may differ for larger organisations. Further limitations were the relatively small sample size and lack of open-ended questions used in the survey. Larger sample size and the usage of open-ended survey questions may lead to more reliable and valuable responses and feedback.Practical implicationsThe findings from this research are considered to be of interest to practitioners contemplating adoption of AM and to developers of AM wishing to increase market share due to the positive reaction of entities within the industrial and commercial machinery and computer equipment, and measuring, analysing and controlling instrumentation industrial segments. This research raises awareness to the possible risks and rewards – from a range of perspectives, of AM to practitioners considering its adoption in the spare parts supply chain (SPSC).Originality/valueThe paper takes a novel perspective on AM in SPSCs by illuminating the supplier and buyer perspective based on empirical data. This research provides new insights about the appreciation of the use of AM in SPSCs of mostly small sized manufacturing companies located in the UK. This paper also gives new insights about the willingness/conditions of manufacturing companies in the UK to adopt AM for the provision of SP. The originality of this research is twofold: it broached the applicability of AM in the supply chains of the two targeted industrial segments, and as far as the authors are aware, the influence of CSy (e.g. to price or lead time) and SR on SPSC players’ attitude to AM is yet to be considered. Finally, this research adopted a systems theory lens and considered system-wide impact of AM introduction.

Study Based Analysis on the Current Digitalization Degree in the Manufacturing Industry in Germany

The fourth industrial revolution and the digital transformation are already major factors in the manufacturing industry and their importance is ever growing. However, the degree of their practical implementation has to be scrutinized. To define a status quo, it is important to analyze the situation and to identify deficits, starting points and unexploited potentials.Still, a detailed understanding of the fourth industrial revolution and the digital transformation is lacking especially in small and medium sized manufacturing companies. In addition, the fourth industrial revolution is associated by most companies only with logistics as well as production and manufacturing areas. The opportunities to integrate additional functional areas of the production process and the vertical value chain into the concept of the fourth industrial revolution are hardly considered. Starting from the point of view that the fourth industrial revolution is defined as a systematic increase in the flexibility of products and processes through automation, extensive networking and decentralized control mechanisms, as well as a data acquisition and integration through information and communication technologies, a study concept is developed. For this purpose, it is not enough to ask only for the present prevalence of technologies of the fourth industrial revolution. It is necessary to analyze the processes within manufacturing companies.A survey concept is developed that initially breaks down the vertical value chain as well as the production process into specific sub-processes. These sub-processes are analyzed regarding their degree of automation and digitalization and networking among themselves. The results of this survey presents concisely the call for action, the state of implementation and realized solutions of the fourth industrial revolution in Germany. Furthermore, impulses and best practices for innovative products and business models can be given.

Small and Medium Sized Manufacturing Companies in Brazil: Is Innovativeness a Key Competitive Capability to Develop?

Small and medium sized manufacturing companies are important both to economic growth and to supply chains. Yet only limited research has focused on this type of organization – this includes in the area of manufacturing strategy. Using a large scale survey of 149 firms across three States in Brazil, this paper examines the competitive capabilities of small and medium sized manufacturing companies; and the link between their capabilities and performance. Our results show that the best-performing firms are those that lead on capabilities like quality and innovativeness rather than on cost. Much of the available literature on manufacturing strategy emphasizes only four key competitive priorities: cost, flexibility, quality and delivery. Consequently, our results confirm innovativeness as an important, fifth capability for small and medium sized firms in Brazil to maintain or develop. The findings are of relevance both to small and medium sized manufacturing companies in emerging economies and to international firms looking to relocate or outsource to Brazil.

SMEs' successful introduction of information management system: a case study for the manufacturer

In the Globalization of the business environment and the rapid technological development, the technology and intelligence are important advantages for the lack of funding SMEs, For management innovation and strengthen the competitiveness of enterprises, the information is the most efficient and powerful management tool. As a result, most of the medium-sized manufacturing firms introduction of the ERP system in order to promote the informatization. However, in reality, there are not much cases which show the tangible achievements by introduction of the ERP system. Therefore, this study searches on the Construction plan of Information Management System of the domestic small and medium manufacturing enterprises. Based on established construction method strategy Information management System apply to domestic small and medium sized manufacturing companies. In particular, information management system, that strategy was applied by considering the characteristics of SMEs and manufacturing enterprises.

Methodology to Apply Semantic Wikis as Lean Knowledge Management Systems on the Shop Floor

In manufacturing facilities, redundant work and poor product quality can be prevented by the effective use of the workers’ knowledge. The use of information systems can significantly improve the required knowledge management process, but need to be adapted to the requirements of manufacturing facilities. This paper presents a methodology to develop lean knowledge management systems based on semantic technology, which are designed for the needs of small and medium sized manufacturing companies. The underlying system architecture foresees a semantic wiki-system as the system's interface to workers. This user interface enables them to access heterogeneous data like equipment specifications, best practices and pictures as well as to rapidly record their observations and actions in the system. Furthermore, the system is equipped with a semantic inference engine, which performs content analysis and thereby automatically generates new facts in the knowledge base. Last, a semantic data interface interconnects the system with external information systems on the shop floor. The interface allows importing, interlinking and storing recipes and reports together with the workers’ knowledge in the common knowledge base. Based on these three system components, the system facilitates structured and integrated access, storage and re-use of expert knowledge and production data.

Implementing e-HRM: The Readiness of Small and Medium Sized Manufacturing Companies in Malaysia

This study attempts to understand the extent of e-HRM practised in the small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector in five main areas of human capital management, which is believed to have a significant impact on the competitiveness of the industry, namely, recruitment, compensation and benefits, training and development, communication and performance appraisal. The piece will also focus on the fact that the readiness and feasibility of implementing e-HRM in the SMEs in Malaysia is dependent on the availability of resources and the attitude of the employees. The resources covered in this study include expertise, financial and technical resources.

Acquisition of technological knowledge in small and medium-sized manufacturing companies in Sweden

Small and medium sized manufacturing companies in Sweden are facing an increasing demand for high competence in their technical functions and processes as more and more of them have to supply a globalised market. National organisations like the "National Board for Technical Development", as well as the European Union (EU) and regional funds are spending large resources to help SMEs to increase their competence. This paper takes the small company's perspective and describes what sources the SMEs are using to acquire scientific and technical knowledge and especially how they interact with the national system of technology development and transfer. This description is based on a survey of 509 small and medium sized Swedish manufacturing companies. From a factor analysis, six strategies for mobilising technical knowledge are identified, related to suppliers, research institutes, local sources, customers, or business and technology advisors, or mixed strategies. Differences between the companies with different strategies, in terms of e.g. size, and areas of renewal are analysed and degrees of innovativeness are discussed. In-depth studies of 40 of the most innovative of these companies give a further understanding of the processes behind the need for, and acquisition of, technological knowledge.

Performance measurement system design: testing a process approach in manufacturing companies

This paper describes the testing of a management process for the design and development of performance measurement systems in seven small and medium sized manufacturing companies. The paper outlines and develops the criteria used for evaluating the process and describes the methodology applied in seven action research cases, where academic researchers facilitated the senior management teams of the participating companies through the process to develop their performance measurement system. The research findings support the view that the process is robust and can be used by a variety of facilitators at different facilitation skill levels. The paper concludes by highlighting the need for further research into the implementation of performance measures developed by such a process.

Does the Market for Top Executives Work? CEO Pay and Turnover in Small U.K. Companies

This paper presents the results of our investigation into the operation of the managerial labour market in small and medium sized manufacturing companies. Using a sample of some 40 or so companies we study the sensitivity of managerial pay and tenure to company performance. Managerial pay in this type of firms is much lower than the six digit figures quoted for large public companies and CEO turnover is much higher than we expected. We find some evidence to suggest that pay in small companies is sensitive to sales growth and that CEO tenure in public companies responds to the growth in sales.

Promoting Exploitation of University Research by SMEs

The authors discuss issues relating to the feasibility of a Web-based database for facilitating communications between university researchers and industry. They have constructed an experimental Web-based Technology Bank that provides examples of university research which might be of interest to manufacturing companies. They are using this database as a focus of discussion on the usefulness of electronic communications for technology dissemination. The portfolio of research products, and the Web site on which it is housed, are currently being presented in a series of workshops for senior executives in small and medium sized manufacturing companies. Views are also being gathered from technology intermediaries. Analysis of the data so far has highlighted potential problems in disseminating information on the Internet and has also enabled the authors to identify and understand users' profiles.