دانلود مقاله ISI انگلیسی شماره 22113
ترجمه فارسی عنوان مقاله

بررسی شیوه های سیستم کار برای تولید کنندگان مبتنی بر زمان: تاثیر آنها بر قابلیت های رقابتی

عنوان انگلیسی
Exploring work system practices for time-based manufacturers: their impact on competitive capabilities
کد مقاله سال انتشار تعداد صفحات مقاله انگلیسی
22113 2000 21 صفحه PDF
منبع

Publisher : Elsevier - Science Direct (الزویر - ساینس دایرکت)

Journal : Journal of Operations Management, Volume 18, Issue 5, August 2000, Pages 509–529

ترجمه کلمات کلیدی
- شیوه های سیستم کار - تولید کنندگان بر اساس زمان - استاندارد - ادغام
کلمات کلیدی انگلیسی
Work system practices, Time-based manufacturers, Standardization, Integration
پیش نمایش مقاله
پیش نمایش مقاله  بررسی شیوه های سیستم کار برای تولید کنندگان مبتنی بر زمان: تاثیر آنها بر قابلیت های رقابتی

چکیده انگلیسی

Manufacturing firms operating in a post-industrial environment have customers who demand specialized products and short lead times. To meet these needs, organizations are adopting time-based manufacturing practices to cut time and improve performance. The central tenet of this study is that time-based manufacturers employ traditional work system practices including standardization, formalization, and routinization plus integration to improve competitiveness. This study measures the levels of time-based manufacturing practices, work system practices, and competitive capabilities of 265 firms. The results indicate that firms with high levels of time-based manufacturing practices tend to have high levels of standardization and formalization as well as integration. Firms with high levels of standardization and integration tended to have enhanced competitive capabilities.

مقدمه انگلیسی

An important distinction between industrial and post-industrial firms is the nature of their manufacturing systems Doll and Vonderembse, 1991 and Huber, 1984. Firms operating in an industrial environment have predictable time dimensions where they preplan product and process innovations. In this environment, firms develop and implement innovations using the least costly methods and the most convenient times. Work systems are generally described as highly standardized, formalized, and routinized Gerwin and Kolodny, 1992 and Huber, 1984. These characteristics provide managers with the tools to control action and to ensure quality from the top down. Industrial era firms seek to attain high levels of these work system practices through the specialized, functional subdivision of work (Mintzberg, 1979). This is possible when organizations face a relatively slow rate of technological change and have limited product offerings Braverman, 1974, Skinner, 1985, Thompson, 1967 and Weick, 1990. In a post-industrial environment, time is compressed, variable, and volatile Blackburn, 1991 and Stalk and Hout, 1990; change is frequent and fast paced (Toeffler, 1970); and adapting to change is a key success factor. Firms must evaluate and act upon the high rate of technological innovation and expanded product offering that characterizes this environment Huber, 1984, McCutcheon et al., 1994 and Nord and Tucker, 1987. A radical innovation like time-based manufacturing helps firms respond to the quickening tempo of customer demand by creating fast and responsive production systems Koufteros and Vonderembse, 1998 and Koufteros et al., 1998. To cope with innovations, organizations should develop management systems and practices that support and reinforce change and enable firms to quickly produce and deliver customized products (Doll and Vonderembse, 1991). According to Grover et al. (1995), change management research illustrates the strong association between successfully implementing radical innovation and the “refreezing” stage, which institutionalizes change and restores equilibrium to the organization. It allows for the development of prescribed work procedures and methods (i.e., standards) and written documentation (i.e., formal knowledge). The successful implementation and subsequent repetitive application (i.e., routine use) of new innovations within firms depends upon the outcome of these efforts. Thus, the diffusion of new technologies may be enhanced in post-industrial firms when clear standards and written documentation are developed. A central tenet of this study is that post-industrial firms employing time-based manufacturing practices (Koufteros et al., 1998) achieve high levels of work system standardization, formalization, and routinization as well as integration (Doll and Vonderembse, 1991). These practices are achieved through the implementation of cross-functional decision processes designed to support rapid technological change. Cross-functional decision processes create greater work system integration, collapse traditional organizational boundaries, and promote the interdependencies of work (Gerwin and Kolodny, 1992). Thus, while management often prescribes and imposes formal work standards upon industrial era workers, such standards often emerge from the cross-functional decision processes engaged in by post-industrial workers. The number of standards may be greater in post-industrial organizations than in industrial organizations because post-industrial organizations face greater product and process variety. Therefore, it may be more important for post-industrial firms to formalize their procedures and methods. Over time, as these standards are carefully documented, disseminated, and understood, a routine develops that enables post-industrial organizations to improve their competitive capabilities (Koufteros et al., 1997). This paper develops a framework that relates time-based manufacturing practices, work system practices, and competitive capabilities. It examines three research questions: (1) do post-industrial organizations that possess high levels of time-based manufacturing practices have high levels of standardization, formalization, routinization, and integration; (2) when standardization is achieved, does it lead to formalization, which, in turn, leads to routinization; and (3) do these work system practices lead to enhanced competitive capabilities? To test these questions, valid and reliable measures of standardization, formalization, routinization, and integration are constructed based on theory and literature and using generally accepted psychometric principles. Linear Structural Equation Modeling (LISREL) is used to test the relationships.

نتیجه گیری انگلیسی

This paper provides a research framework that defines work system practices for post-industrial organizations. A theoretical rationale is provided for a set of work system practices: standardization, formalization, routinization, and integration. The research framework describes the impact of time-based manufacturing practices on these work system practices and discusses the impact of these work system practices on competitive capabilities. A set of instruments was developed to measure the four work system practices. The final instruments, listed in Appendix C, cover the content domain of each factor, have convergent and discriminant validity, and are reliable. The items are short, direct, and easy to use. The instruments are also short, with only 22 items across all four scales. The content domain is adequately covered because care was taken during item generation. The factor structure is simple with high loadings. The analysis has demonstrated that the instruments exceed generally accepted validity and reliability standards for basic research. These instruments should be cross-validated in confirmatory studies. In the structural model, firms with high levels of time-based manufacturing practices have high levels of standardization, formalization, and integration. No significant relationship exists between time-based manufacturing practices and routinization or between routinization and competitive capabilities. This may be caused by how routinization was defined and measured. All of the items that measure routinization, except for one, use a daily cycle for repetition. For example, RO1 states that, “Production workers build the same product(s) each day.” In retrospect, this daily cycle may have been too short for firms operating in a post-industrial environment where firms have many products and where process and repetitive cycles may be longer than one day. Also, the definition of routinization can be expanded so that the essence of the work is routine, even if the specific procedures vary from product to product. Future studies may wish to modify these questions and add new ones so that the cycle for repetition is longer than one day and the expanded definition of routinization is measured. Also, routinization is a characteristic that develops over time as actions are repeated and become infused in the organization. It is possible that later studies with better measures will find significant and positive relationships between time-based manufacturing practices and routinization. In the structural model, firms with high levels of standardization and integration had high levels of competitive capabilities. No significant relationship exists between routinization and competitive capabilities. This may be caused by the way routinization was defined and measured. The relationship between formalization and competitive capabilities is positive but not statistically significant. Future studies should carefully examine the relationships among time-based manufacturing practices, standardization, formalization, and competitive capabilities to determine if formalization has an independent impact on competitive capabilities. Time-based manufacturing firms develop work system practices that are standardized, formalized, and integrated. The efforts used to develop these practices should be participative, which should enhance commitment from employees. The methods and procedures should be broader in scope and tend to be under the control of the people doing the work. They will be involved in their creation, implementation, and execution. In this way, firms may be able to achieve the benefits of standardization and formalization as well as attain flexibility and speed from integration.