According to W. Edwards Deming, American companies require nothing less than a transformation of management style and of governmental relations with industry. In Out of the Crisis, originally published in 1982, Deming offers a theory of management based on his famous 14 Points for Management. Management's failure to plan for the future, he claims, brings about loss of market, which brings about loss of jobs. Management must be judged not only by the quarterly dividend, but by innovative plans to stay in business, protect investment, ensure future dividends, and provide more jobs through improved product and service. In simple, direct language, he explains the principles of management transformation and how to apply them.

Out of the Crisis

This paper reviews the use of case study research in operations management for theory development and testing. It draws on the literature on case research in a number of disciplines and uses examples drawn from operations management research. It provides guidelines and a roadmap for operations management researchers wishing to design, develop and conduct case‐based research.

Case research in operations management

Economic Control of Quality of Manufactured Product.

http://files.ferraz8.webnode.com/200000065-e27a6e46de/Artigo2.pdf

Lean manufacturing: context, practice bundles, and performance

https://isiarticles.com/bundles/Article/pre/pdf/8941.pdf

Defining and developing measures of lean production

Management initiatives and just-in-time manufacturing

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to advance thought and practice on supply chain relationship building, in the context of humanitarian logistics, drawing on lessons from leading practitioners.Design/methodology/approach – The presentations were treated like data, enabling grounded research concerning practitioners. The presentations were recorded, transcribed, vetted, and imported into qualitative software (NVivo8) to facilitate further analysis, which led to testable propositions.Findings – Three themes emerged, centered around relationship benefits, challenges, and advice on relationship building. Advice from the practitioners led to 11 propositions.Research limitations/implications – While the presentations were treated as interview data, there was no opportunity to probe statements made by the speakers. Also, speakers were the sole representatives for their organizations. Finally, the findings cannot be generalized beyond the types of situations and organizations represented at the conference.Pr...

Building humanitarian supply chain relationships: lessons from leading practitioners

Clients engage consultants for many reasons, not always successfully. Based on a literature review and client and consultant interviews, this paper suggests six universal factors ‐‐ stated as testable propositions ‐‐ to help explain consulting engagement success. The factors are consultant integrity ‐‐ in particular in putting the client’s interests first, client involvement and readiness to change, a clear agreement concerning requirements and expectations, client control of the engagement ‐‐ partly via clear and limited assignments, consultant competence, and a good fit along a number of dimensions ‐‐ including models of consultancy, client expectations, consultant capabilities, and consultant type. The paper also addresses the distinction between organisation development consultation and other types of management consulting and concludes that the distinction need not be so sharp.

Factors for consulting engagement success

Purpose – This paper primarily aims to address the following research question: Are techniques and practices developed for uninterrupted, for‐profit supply chains adaptable to the not‐for‐profit (NFP), interrupted context? In other words, can the managerial tools of business logistics be used in humanitarian relief logistics?Design/methodology/approach – A combination of grounded research and case‐based research methods is used. Grounded research methods involve coding interview data to enable constant comparison of the data with emerging categories. Three managerial representatives of a single case organisation, the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), are interviewed.Findings – MCC is a small NFP organisation operating in interrupted environments. As a matter of strategy, it pursues economic and social objectives. Strategic partnerships with “like‐minded” organisations are critical to achieve these objectives. To assess its achievements, MCC needs a wide range of performance measures.Research limitations/...

Not‐for‐profit supply chains in interrupted environments

There are various views about the nature of service quality in a consulting engagement. This paper utilises literature from a number of disciplines, along with exploratory interviews with seven consultants and one client, to address one question, namely, “What is engagement success in consulting, from both the client and consultant points of view?”. In addressing this question, the paper considers distinctions between types of consulting, client expectations and needs, and short‐ and long‐term revenue streams. It concludes by suggesting that a consulting engagement is successful if the consultant has met client expectations (by improving one or more of client performance, client capabilities, or organisational culture, without making any category worse) – whether or not a core need has been addressed – and the consultant has enhanced his/her reputation, with expectations of future revenue streams – whether or not any immediate income has been received.

Ron McLachlin

Papers

Management initiatives and just-in-time manufacturing

Building humanitarian supply chain relationships: lessons from leading practitioners

Factors for consulting engagement success

Not‐for‐profit supply chains in interrupted environments

Service quality in consulting: what is engagement success?