1,721,106 research outputs found
Development of mass customization implementation guidelines for small and medium enterprises (SMEs)
No full textMass customization (MC), an organization’s ability to provide customized products and services that fulfil each customer’s idiosyncratic needs without considerable trade-offs in cost, delivery and quality, is gaining importance among companies. To help practitioners on the complex path towards MC, academic research has provided some guidelines for MC implementation. Recent reviews in this research sub-stream underlined the lack of MC implementation guidelines (MC-IGs) specifically developed for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and also indicated the opportunity to use the design science research (DSR) strategy to develop new MC-IGs. The present research answers call for new MC-IGs by developing maturity grid-based MC implementation guidelines for SMEs that comply with the MC-IG building blocks and the MC-IG properties indicated by Suzić, Forza, et al. The development of such guidelines followed a DSR strategy that included short- and long-term observational evaluations in two SMEs over three years
The European PH.D. in Operations Management: quality assurance and efficiency by collaborative networks
No full textUsers' social-interaction needs while shopping via online sales configurators
Full text linkThe growing adoption of social web technologies such as social software (SSW) in online configuration environments has enabled the possibility of supporting configurator users in interacting digitally with real people while they are shopping for customized products. Previous research has identified that online sales configurators (OSCs) are currently connected to SSW with different modalities to provide configurator users with a variety of options to digitally interact with real people. Enriching the configuration environment with social-interaction tools has engendered the phenomenon of social-product customization. Recent studies considered the social product-customization by investigating the impact that community feedback and social comparisons has on configurator user. However, the OSCs users' need to interact with different referents during their configuration process, and whether the SSW-OSCs connections respond to this need are still unsearched. To address this gap, the present study explores (a) whether users experience the need to interact with different referents while shopping via OSCs and (b) which interaction modalities users are looking for. By considering 943 configuration experiences from 189 users of 378 OSCs for various consumer goods, the present study finds that the need for social interaction by OSC users is highly relevant. Moreover, OSC users perceive the need to interact with different referents during different stages of the configuration process, and, depending on the referent with whom they wish to interact, they are interested in different interaction modalities in terms of how and where those interactions take place. These findings imply that mass customizers may leverage their customers' need to interact with real people while shopping online via OSCs in order to better engage their actual and potential customers
Information Technology for Managing the Textile Apparel Chain: Current Use, Shortcomings and Development Directions
No full textInformation technology (IT) is a critical factor in textile apparel supply
chain management. This paper seeks to offer a contribution to help understand both the
applications and the problem areas of the IT portfolio within the textile apparel industry,
in the light of the key competitive factors for the chain. Adopting a perspective that takes
into account the whole textile apparel chain, the study reported here sought to identify
users’ requirements and perceptions and their awareness of three fundamental processes:
design; production planning and order cycle; and process control. The study was based
on data and opinions gathered by the authors from 38 Italian firms selected from among
those in the forefront of IT adoption. It was found that quality improvement and lead
time reduction are the key competitive factors for all the actors within the chain. Current
use, shortcomings and possible future uses of IT differ in relation to the three processes
considered and to the chain phase. However, IT systems are commonly seen as the means
through which greater integration between the operations of the different firms active in
this sector can be achieved
Paths of Improvements in Operations
No full textThis study considers the improvement initiatives which companies implement in operations, in the areas of design, supply and production (for example design computerisation, linkages with suppliers, JIT, quality improvement, flexible automation, etc.). By means of a survey the paper examines the question of the existence of different paths followed by companies to innovate their operations and obtain better performance levels. Four different paths, which in this paper have been labelled pioneers, innovators, followers, discriminators, are identified on the basis of the number of initiatives undertaken, an earlier or later start up, the sequence of their start-ups and the level of penetration reached within the plant. In addition to this, the four paths are examined in relation to the characteristics of the business environments in which the companies examined operate and their performance levels
Exploring Configurator Users’ Motivational Drivers for Digital Social Interaction
No full textAt a global level, the demand for online transactions is increasing. This is propelled by both the digital transformation paradigm and the COVID 19 pandemic. The research on Web infrastructure design recognizes the impact that social, behavioral, and human aspects have on online transactions in e-commerce, e-health, e-education, and e-work. As a result, social computing features are leading the Web with information and communication technologies that facilitate interactions among web users through socially enhanced online environments. It is crucial to research the social, behavioral, and human dimensions of web-mediated activities, especially when social activities are restricted only to an online environment. The present study focuses on the social dimension of the e-commerce of customizable products. This domain was selected because of the specificity of its product self-design process in terms of customers’ decision-making and their involvement in product value creation. This study aims to seek the extent that a set of customers’ motivational drivers rely on their need to interact with real persons during the technology-assisted process of products’ self-design. By adopting a user-centered perspective, the study considers 937 self-design experiences by 187 young adult users on a sample of 378 business-to-customers product configurators. The results should provide companies and software designers with insights about customers’ need for social presence during their product self-design experience so that they can fulfill this need by using social technology that provides positive experiences
“Considerazioni sulla ricerca nell'ambito dell'operations management: evoluzione, teorie e metodologie”
No full text
Reconciling Product Flexibility with Cost, Delivery, and Quality: The Importance of Bundling Mass Customization Practices
Full text linkReconciling product flexibility with cost, delivery, and quality is an ambidextrous organizational capability known as mass customization capability. This study focuses on how this capability is affected by the joint implementation of three organizational practices––knowledge absorption from customers, product modularity, and online sales configurator use––that directly correspond to the three fundamental building blocks of mass customization identified by prior, influential research. By drawing upon a central tenet of resource orchestration theory, the fit-as-covariation perspective, and prior mass customization research, we conceptually develop the hypothesis that the fit-as-covariation of these practices has a stronger positive association with mass customization capability than the same practices implemented in isolation. This hypothesis was tested using covariance-based structural equation modeling and survey data from 213 manufacturing plants in three industries across 16 countries. Our results support the hypothesis, showing that the joint effect of these practices explains substantially more mass customization capability variation (41.9%) than their isolated effects (13.9%). This amount of variation indicates an effect size that is greater than that reported by most previous survey-based studies on the antecedents of this capability. Theoretically, this paper adds to the relatively limited body of knowledge on the relationships among the enablers of mass customization by highlighting the benefits of a holistic approach in the implementation of the three practices under investigation. Pragmatically, this study helps companies create flexible systems that are able to provide customized products without compromising cost, delivery, or quality
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