A closer look at the use of data envelopment analysis for technology selection

Does lean mean green

Electronic statistics textbook by EPUB 3.0

Neely, Andy (ed.): Business Performance Measurement. Theory and Practice Cambridge University Press, 2002, ISBN 052180342X, EUR 55,58 During the 1980s it became ever clearer that the leading industrial nations were developing towards service and information societies. Accordingly, new focal points in the economy and companies as well as in their scientific reflection and intervention have emerged. Among other things performance is no longer understood only in a narrow physical-technical or financial sense. A wider, multi-dimensional range of causes, aspects and consequences of business performance and its measurement were identified. In recognition of this, Andy Neely, director of the Centre for Business Performance at Cranfield School of Management, has edited a book about 'business performance measurement: This anthology is intended to be a state-of-the-art book and comes in six chapters. In the first chapter some functional analysis of performance are provided. Contributions towards a theoretical foundation of performance measurement are offered in the second chapter. They are followed in the third chapter by papers which shall give an overview of different methodologies and operational frameworks of measurement systems. The fourth chapter is more about practical applications of performance measurement, the fifth chapter about specific measures of operational performance, and in the last chapter some possible trends are being described. Taken together, the papers are not only well elaborated but deliver interesting insights and they give the reader much food for thought. But this anthology additionally makes a high claim: Not only shall a comprehensive overview about the problem of operational performance measurement be provided but also a contribution to the methodological foundation of operational performance measurement as a profession. If one assesses the book with regard to these targets a more equivocal picture appears. In the first chapter operational performance is considered with respect to the functional areas of accounting, marketing, operations and management. Although the latter contribution is laid out relatively broadly and an interesting suggestion for an `activity-centric performance measurement' is provided it is hard to understand why such functional areas as Human Resource Management or organizational aspects are not also considered. Hence, individual and social dimensions of performance are not being taken into account sufficiently. This might reduce possible insights since it is widely known that especially operational performance and value added have their roots in people's skills and (social) action. Because of the restriction on the four functional areas, which are surely of considerable importance, the reasoning remains trapped in a relatively narrow understanding of operational value drivers and indicators. The second chapter is about the theoretical foundation of performance measurement. In the first two papers by Lebas / Euske and Austin / Gitell, very structured and thoughtful ideas concerning performance and the design of performance measurement systems are provided (however, the empirical example of performance measurement in the airline industry in the second paper, although very interesting, might be in this chapter out of place). Against that, the papers by Osterloh / Frey concerning the impact of performance-related salary components on motivation and by Emmanuel about the tolerance of senior managers toward dysfunctional behaviour may not contribute much to a theoretical foundation of performance measurement. Here, it might be argued that the space could have been used better. For example, the subjectivity and interest-orientation of all measurement and valuation (especially in economy and economics) are not sufficiently made a subject of discussion. Although it is "merely" about measurement and not about the management of performance; who's perceptions and objectives are being taken into account and being measured by which criteria and how they are linked to other measures (headwords: main targets of a company, stakeholders' interests, short-term and budget orientation versus long-term and sustainable value-driver orientation) are of principle relevance for every operational performance measurement (system) and an important part of their theoretical foundation. …

Business Performance Measurement. Theory and Practice

The traditional type of organization for manufacturing is process organization, in which organizational units each specialize in a particular process. This is gradually being replaced by product organization; in the form of either continuous line flow (CLF), or group technology (GT). Group technology (GT) is a method of organization for manufacturing, in which the organizational units (groups) complete all the parts they make at their particular processing stage, and are equipped with all the machines and other facilities they need to do so. CLF is the preferred type of organization for process industries, and for a few cases of mass production in other types of industry. GT is the preferred type of organization for batch and jobbing production. This paper submits that if ’Production flow analysis’ (PFA) is used to plan the division into GROUPS of machines and associated FAMILIES of parts, then it is always possible in batch and jobbing production, to find a total division into groups, with very few excep...

Change to group technology: process organization is obsolete

The so far implemented enterprise resource planning ERP systems have in many cases failed to meet the requirements regarding the business process control, decrease of business costs and increase of company profit margin. Therefore, there is a real need for an evaluation of the influence of ERP on the company's performance indicators. Proposed in this article is an advanced model for the evaluation of the success of ERP implementation on organisational and operational performance indicators in oil–gas companies. The recommended method establishes a correlation between a process-based method, a scorecard model and ERP critical success factors. The method was verified and tested on two case studies in oil–gas companies using the following procedure: the model was developed, tested and implemented in a pilot gas–oil company, while the results were implemented and verified in another gas–oil company.

Method of evaluating the impact of ERP implementation critical success factors – a case study in oil and gas industries

The focus of this study was on investigating the relationships among employee loyalty, service quality, cost reduction and company performance, with the aim to investigate the impact of employee lo...

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/1331677X.2018.1456346

An empirical study of employee loyalty, service quality, cost reduction and company performance

Group technology has been in use in Yugoslavia for a number of years, and considerable experience has been gained in its use in different types of engineering factory. Significant gains have been made by converting to group technology (GT), in productivity, in flexibility, and in the reduction of throughput time and of WIP. The reduction of total stock and the increase in the rate of stock turnover, however, have not been satisfactory, partly due to the high rate of inflation but mainly to the choice of inappropriate methods of production control. We see a need to move towards JIT methods of production control, and have selected period batch control (PBC) as a possible method. This paper describes the existing production control methods in the factories where we are proposing to test the change. It describes the new methods we are proposing to introduce, and it outlines the progressive stage by stage approach which we are planning to use to introduce the change.

Period batch control and group technology

Energy efficiency optimization of air supply system in a water bottle manufacturing system

Nowadays many companies are applying the lean philosophy and value stream mapping (VSM) tool to eliminate and reduce losses and show possible places for further implementation of the lean concept. Since the system change takes place as a consequence, it is very useful to confirm the future system design performance before the actual implementation. This paper presents an application of VSM and computer simulation in a company for manufacturing and distribution of heating, cooling and neutral equipment for catering and trade industry. To improve the quotation creation process, the product configuration system is introduced. The performance of the new system design was confirmed using the discrete event simulation. Simulation results show several performance improvements. Conducted simulation experiments emphasize the better performance of new system design in terms of the accepted quotations, resource utilization, delivery time, work in process, non-value-added time and number of required operators. (Received in April 2019, accepted in October 2019. This paper was with the authors 1 month for 1 revision.)

/pdf/improving-process-of-quotation-creation-through-value-stream-2d75xlk4lw.pdf

Zdravko Tesic

Papers

Method of evaluating the impact of ERP implementation critical success factors – a case study in oil and gas industries

An empirical study of employee loyalty, service quality, cost reduction and company performance

Period batch control and group technology

Energy efficiency optimization of air supply system in a water bottle manufacturing system

Improving Process of Quotation Creation through Value Stream Mapping and Simulation