Showing papers by "Jen-Her Wu published in 2015"

Ex-Ante PLM Misfit Analysis Methodology: A Cognitive Fit Approach

Abstract: Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems have been introduced by companies to facilitate their new product development process to shorten the product time to market, reduce the product development cost, and meet the dynamic demands of customers. However, PLM implementation is not an easy job and some of the attempted projects failed. A common problem encountered in adopting PLM packages has been the issue of misfits, i.e., the gaps between the specifications offered by a PLM package and those required by the adopting organization, which easily causes the project to fail. Current approaches for the ex-ante analysis of PLM misfits are extremely limited. This paper develops a methodology grounded in the extended cognitive fit theory for the misfit analysis. This approach can assist in identifying and representing consistent set of information for functions and workflow processes across business requirements and the PLM package. Particularly, Petri nets that are of graphical representations and easy to understand are employed to model the function-embedded workflow process. A case study is presented to examine the feasibility of this approach. We conclude that with our methodology, PLM analysts or adopting organizations can systematically identify potential misfits and the degree of misfit between the business requirements and PLM packages in an ex-ante analysis to mitigate the risks in PLM implementations.

Enablers and Consequences of Interfirm Co-Production

Abstract: As contemporary firms increase their reliance on information technology (IT) and are increasingly turning their attention to jointly creating value with their primary stakeholders, there is a growing need to understand what enablers promote from interfirm value co-creation from co-production in supply chains, how the co-production can be realized and what value can be created through the co-production. We integrate systems theory and the relational view perspectives to develop an explanatory model to explain how co-production mediates the impacts of enablers on the reciprocal benefits created in the global supply chain context. Drawing upon systems theory, we identify three constructs: platform compatibility (i.e., compatibility), co-production (i.e., synergy), and collaborative governance (i.e., integration effort). We draw on the relational view to identify two activities: process alignment and resource sharing for co-production, conceptualize three basic types of reciprocal benefits: market, innovation and anshin value, and theorize co-production—the synergy of process alignment and resource sharing activities—as key to the realization of synergy, thereby contributing to the reciprocal benefits in the context of interfirm supply chain. Based on survey data collected from 464 senior management representatives from 230 high-tech manufacturing firms from within Taiwan and China, we found 1) collaborative governance has a positive effect on platform compatibility, 2) both collaborative governance and platform compatibility promote co-production, 3) guanxi has a positive effect on collaborative governance and has a positive moderating effect on collaborative governance and co-production, and 4) co-production positively affects reciprocal benefits. Our findings highlight 1) the important role of co-production in mediating the platform compatibility and collaborative governance effects on reciprocal benefits, and 2) the complementary role of guanxi in strengthening the collaborative governance effect on co-production. These results provide insights into how firms can co-create value through enhanced interfirm co-production.