Operations Management (operations + management)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


INSIGHTS INTO SERVICE OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT: A RESEARCH AGENDA

PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2003
ALEDA V. ROTH
This paper offers insights regarding an agenda for service operations management (SOM) research. First, we motivate the need for an SOM research agenda. Second, we offer a research framework that paints a broad-based picture of key architectural elements in the SOM research landscape. The framework builds upon prior and emerging research for designing, delivering and evaluating services. Third, in order to stimulate future research in SOM, we use this framework to hone in on five understudied and emerging research themes that underpin our proposed SOM research agenda. [source]


CHALLENGES POSED TO OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT BY THE "NEW ECONOMY"

PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2002
ROBERT H. HAYES
A growing number of sophisticated observers are coming to believe that the forces driving the so-called New Economy are fundamentally reshaping world industry. Moreover, the combination of fast growth and the excitement associated with leading edge technologies has made New Economy companies magnets for management talent,and particularly for the ambitious young people who attend our management programs. Are we providing these potential managers with a good foundation for managing operations in such companies? Are the principles that we traditionally have taught in operations management (om) courses sufficiently robust that they can still be applied to New Economy operations? In this paper we argue that, although some of our familiar concepts and techniques continue to be applicable to information-intensive operations, many are not. We sketch out a way to think conceptually about the important differences between the Old and the New Economies, and their implications for operations management teaching and research. [source]


Online Testing for Logistics and Operations Management

DECISION SCIENCES JOURNAL OF INNOVATIVE EDUCATION, Issue 2 2005
Dag Naslund
First page of article [source]


Call for Papers for a Special Issue of Production and Operations Management: Behavioral Mechanism Design for Operations Management

PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, Issue 5 2010
Elena Katok Guest Editors
No abstract is available for this article. [source]


Special Issue of Production and Operations Management: New Product Development, Innovation and Sustainability

PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, Issue 5 2010
Mark Ferguson Guest Editors
No abstract is available for this article. [source]


Special Issue of Production and Operations Management: Technology Commercialization, Entrepreneurship & Growth Driven Operations

PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2010
Nitin Joglekar
No abstract is available for this article. [source]


Special Issue of Production and Operations Management: New Product Development, Innovation and Sustainability

PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2010
Mark Ferguson
No abstract is available for this article. [source]


Special Issue of Production and Operations Management: New Product Development, Innovation and Sustainability

PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2010
Mark Ferguson
No abstract is available for this article. [source]


Special Issue of Production and Operations Management: Technology Commercialization, Entrepreneurship & Growth Driven Operations

PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2010
Nitin Joglekar
No abstract is available for this article. [source]


Special Issue of Production and Operations Management: New Product Development, Innovation and Sustainability

PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2010
Guest Editors Mark Ferguson
No abstract is available for this article. [source]


Special Issue of Production and Operations Management: Integrating Information and Knowledge Work in Outsourced, Offshored, and other Distributed Business Networks

PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2010
Edward G. Anderson Jr.
No abstract is available for this article. [source]


Special Issue of Production and Operations Management: The Theory and Practice of Operations Management in China

PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2009
Fangruo Chen
No abstract is available for this article. [source]


Special Issue of Production and Operations Management: Measuring the Impact of Sustainable Operations

PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2009
Charles J. Corbett
No abstract is available for this article. [source]


Special Issue of Production and Operations Management: The Theory and Practice of Operations Management in China

PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2009
Fangruo Chen
No abstract is available for this article. [source]


Special Issue of Production and Operations Management: Measuring the Impact of Sustainable Operations

PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, Issue 6 2008
Charles J. Corbett Guest Editors
No abstract is available for this article. [source]


System Dynamics as a Structural Theory in Operations Management

PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2008
Andreas Größler
The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate the usefulness of (1) system dynamics as a structural theory for operations management and (2) system dynamics models as content theories in operations management. The key findings are that, although feedback loops, accumulation processes, and delays exist and are widespread in operations management, often these phenomena are ignored completely or not considered appropriately. Hence, it is reasoned why system dynamics is well suited as an approach for many operations management studies, and it is shown how system dynamics theory can be used to explain, analyze, and understand such phenomena in operations management. The discussion is based on a literature review and on conceptual considerations, with examples of operations management studies based on system dynamics. Implications of using this theory include the necessary re-framing of some operations management issues and the extension of empirical studies by dynamic modeling and simulation. The value of the paper lies in the conceptualization of the link between system dynamics and operations management, which is discussed on the level of theory. [source]


The Management of Technology: A Production and Operations Management Perspective

PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2008
Cheryl Gaimon
We highlight many of the traditional research themes in the management of technology as well as research themes on emerging topics such as those that appear in this focused issue. The discussion demonstrates the breadth and multidisciplinary nature of management of technology as well as the variety of methods employed in management of technology research. We conclude by offering a list of research themes that are of particular interest to the Management of Technology Department of Production and Operations Management. [source]


Surgical Suites' Operations Management

PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, Issue 6 2007
Diwakar Gupta
Surgical suites are a key driver of a hospital's costs, revenues, and utilization of postoperative resources such as beds. This article describes some commonly occurring operations management problems faced by the managers of surgical suites. For three of these problems, the article also provides preliminary models and possible solution approaches. Its goal is to identify open challenges to spur further research by the operations management community on an important class of problems that have not received adequate attention in the literature, despite their economic importance. [source]


Operations Risk Management: Overview of Paul Kleindorfer's Contributions

PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, Issue 5 2007
Morris A. Cohen
This paper reviews Paul Kleindorfer's contributions to Operations Management (OM), with a special focus on his research on risk management. An annotated bibliography of selected other contributions reviews the breadth of topics that have occupied Kleindorfer's research attention over his now 45 + years of research. These include optimal control theory, scheduling theory, decision sciences, investment planning and peak load pricing, plus a number of important applications in network industries and insurance. In the area of operations risk management, we review recent work that Kleindorfer and his colleagues in the Wharton Risk Center have undertaken on environmental management and operations, focusing on process safety and environmental risks in the chemical industry. This work is directly related to Kleindorfer's work in the broader area of "sustainable operations", which he, Kal Singhal and Luk Van Wassenhove recently surveyed as part of the new initiative at POMS to encompass sustainable management practices within the POMS community. Continuing in the area of supply chain risks, the paper reviews Kleindorfer's contributions to the development of an integrated framework for contracting and risk hedging for supply management. The emphasis on alignment of pricing, performance and risk management in this framework is presaged in the work undertaken by Kleindorfer and his co-authors in the 1980s on after-sales support services for high-technology products. This work on supply chain risk, and its successors, is reviewed here in light of its growing importance in managing the unbundled and global supply chains characteristic of the new economy. [source]


Unlocking the Value of RFID

PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2007
Hau Lee
RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification) technology has shown itself to be a promising technology to track movements of goods in a supply chain. As such, it can give unprecedented visibility to the supply chain. Such visibility can save labor cost, improve supply chain coordination, reduce inventory and increase product availability. Industry reports and white papers are now filled with estimates and proclamations of the benefits and quantified values of RFID. Early adopters are now rallying more and more followers. However, most such claims are educated guesses at best and are not substantiated, that is, they are not based on detailed, model-based analysis. This paper argues that there is a huge credibility gap of the value of RFID, and that a void exists in showing how the proclaimed values are arrived at, and how those values can be realized. The paper shows that this credibility gap must be filled with solid model analysis, and therefore presents a great opportunity for the Production and Operations Management (POM) research community. The paper reviews some of the ongoing research efforts that attempt to close the credibility gap, and suggests additional directions for further strengthening the POM's contribution to help industry realize the full potentials of RFID. [source]


Managing Transportation Infrastructure for Sustainable Development

COMPUTER-AIDED CIVIL AND INFRASTRUCTURE ENGINEERING, Issue 3 2002
Edward O. Akinyemi
Major requirements for operationalization of the concept of sustainable development in urban transportation infrastructure operations management are presented. In addition, it is shown that the current approach to management is incompatible with the requirements for sustainable urban development. Consequently, the conceptual framework of a desirable approach is proposed. The philosophy of this approach is that the basic mission of infrastructure operations management is to obtain and maintain the maximum levels of people and goods mobility possible within the resources and environmental capacities in an area. A mathematical model is presented for obtaining the desirable levels and characteristics of traffic on each segment of an urban transportation network. In addition, three illustrative applications of the implemented model are presented. [source]


Multilevel Social Dynamics Considerations for Project Management Decision Makers: Antecedents and Implications of Group Member Tie Development

DECISION SCIENCES, Issue 3 2010
Elliot Bendoly
ABSTRACT Successful projects represent the effective culmination of management skills, planning, and individual project member strengths. In operations management, such strengths are often viewed predominantly from the perspective of skill base. However, it has become increasingly evident that behavioral traits associated with individuals play a very significant, if not ultimately dominating, role in the effectiveness of certain group projects. Our aim in this study is to look into how certain individual attributes viewed as relevant to these project contexts may lead to social networking decisions that have impacts spanning multiple levels of analysis. Such insights are likely to prove valuable to decision makers managing project teams as well. We employ a controlled 4-month investigation of multiple projects, for which we are able to consider both objective, and subjective pre-, in situ, and postproject data. Our results demonstrate that the issues of perceived control, confidence, and conscientiousness are relevant not only in driving individual perceptions of the value of within-group interactions, and hence the development of associated ties, but are also ultimately relevant in helping to drive higher levels of group performance. [source]


Measurement Equivalence Using Generalizability Theory: An Examination of Manufacturing Flexibility Dimensions

DECISION SCIENCES, Issue 4 2008
Manoj K. Malhotra
ABSTRACT As the field of decision sciences in general and operations management in particular has matured from theory building to theory testing over the past two decades, it has witnessed an explosion in empirical research. Much of this work is anchored in survey-based methodologies in which data are collected from the field in the form of scale items that are then analyzed to measure latent unobservable constructs. It is important to assess the invariance of scales across groups in order to reach valid, scientifically sound conclusions. Because studies have often been conducted in the field of decision sciences with small sample sizes, it further exacerbates the problem of reaching incorrect conclusions. Generalizability theory can more effectively test for measurement equivalence in the presence of small sample sizes than the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) tests that have been conventionally used for assessing measurement equivalency across groups. Consequently, we introduce and explain the generalizability theory (G-theory) in this article to examine measurement equivalence of 24 manufacturing flexibility dimension scales that have been published in prior literature and also compare and contrast G-theory with CFA. We show that all the manufacturing flexibility scales tested in this study were invariant across the three industry SIC groups from which data were collected. We strongly recommend that G-theory should always be used for determining measurement equivalence in empirical survey-based studies. In addition, because using G-theory alone does not always reveal the complete picture, CFA techniques for establishing measurement equivalence should also be invoked when sample sizes are large enough to do so. Implications of G-theory for practice and its future use in operations management and decision sciences research are also presented. [source]


Service Management,Academic Issues and Scholarly Reflections from Operations Management Researchers,

DECISION SCIENCES, Issue 2 2007
Richard Metters
ABSTRACT Services are now a larger portion of the economy than manufacturing for every nation on Earth, and services are an overwhelming portion of Western economies. While decision-making research has begun responding to this change, much of the scholarly work still addresses manufacturing issues. Particularly revealing is the field of operations management (OM), in which the proportion of manuscripts dedicated to services has been estimated at 3%, 6%, and 7.5% by various authors. We investigate several possible reasons for the neglect of services in research, including the difficulty in defining services, viewing services as derivative activities, a lack of defined processes, a lack of scale in services, and the effect of variability on service performance. We argue that times have changed, and none of these reasons is valid anymore. We sound the warning that failure to emphasize services in our research and teaching may signal the decline of the discipline. We note the proportion of OM faculty in business schools has shrunk in the past 10 years. Finally, we examine a selection of service research agendas and note several directions for high-impact, innovative research to revitalize the decision sciences. With practitioners joining the call for more research in services, the academic community has an exciting opportunity to embrace services and reshape its future. [source]


Applying the Collective Causal Mapping Methodology to Operations Management Curriculum Development,

DECISION SCIENCES JOURNAL OF INNOVATIVE EDUCATION, Issue 2 2007
Julie M. Hays
ABSTRACT Although the field of operations management has come a long way since its beginnings in scientific management, the field still appears somewhat amorphous and unstructured to many. Introductory operations management textbooks usually include a number of largely disjointed topics, which leave many students (and their instructors) without a coherent framework for understanding the field. As a result, the importance and sequencing of topics varies widely between courses and instructors, even within the same university. This article applies the newly developed Collective Causal Mapping Methodology to create a causal map for the entire field of operations management. The causal map is built on expert opinions collected from over 250 academics and practitioners representing many areas of expertise, schools, organizations, and countries. This collective causal map is then used to create a new framework for understanding and teaching operations management. This framework can aid instructors in determining which topics should be taught in an operations management course, how these topics might be grouped and sequenced, and the important interrelationships among the topics that should be stressed to students. [source]


Selection of knowledge acquisition techniques based upon the problem domain characteristics of production and operations management expert systems

EXPERT SYSTEMS, Issue 2 2001
William P. Wagner
The application of expert systems to various problem domains in business has grown steadily since their introduction. Regardless of the chosen method of development, the most commonly cited problems in developing these systems are the unavailability of both the experts and knowledge engineers and difficulties with the process of acquiring knowledge from domain experts. Within the field of artificial intelligence, this has been called the ,knowledge acquisition' problem and has been identified as the greatest bottleneck in the expert system development process. Simply stated, the problem is how to acquire the specific knowledge for a well-defined problem domain efficiently from one or more experts and represent it in the appropriate computer format. Given the ,paradox of expertise', the experts have often proceduralized their knowledge to the point that they have difficulty in explaining exactly what they know and how they know it. However, empirical research in the field of expert systems reveals that certain knowledge acquisition techniques are significantly more efficient than others in helping to extract certain types of knowledge within specific problem domains. In this paper we present a mapping between these empirical studies and a generic taxonomy of expert system problem domains. In so doing, certain knowledge acquisition techniques can be prescribed based on the problem domain characteristics. With the production and operations management (P/OM) field as the pilot area for the current study, we first examine the range of problem domains and suggest a mapping of P/OM tasks to a generic taxonomy of problem domains. We then describe the most prominent knowledge acquisition techniques. Based on the examination of the existing empirical knowledge acquisition research, we present how the empirical work can be used to provide guidance to developers of expert systems in the field of P/OM. [source]


Realizing the Potential of Real Options: Does Theory Meet Practice?

JOURNAL OF APPLIED CORPORATE FINANCE, Issue 2 2005
Alexander Triantis
The idea of viewing corporate investment opportunities as "real options" has been around for over 25 years. Real options concepts and techniques now routinely appear in academic research in finance and economics, and have begun to influence scholarly work in virtually every business discipline, including strategy, organizations, management science, operations management, information systems, accounting, and marketing. Real options concepts have also made considerable headway in practice. Corporate managers are more likely to recognize options in their strategic planning process, and have become more proactive in designing flexibility into projects and contracts, frequently using real options vocabulary in their discussions. Thanks in part to the spread of real options thinking, today's strategic planners are more likely than their predecessors to recognize the "option" value of actions like the following: , dividing up large projects into a number of stages; , investing in the acquisition or production of information; , introducing "modularity" in manufacturing and design; , developing competing prototypes for new products; and , investing in overseas markets. But if real options has clearly succeeded as a way of thinking, the application of real options valuation methods has been limited to companies in relatively few industries and has thus failed to live up to expectations created in the mid- to late-1990s. Increased corporate acceptance and implementations of real options valuation techniques will require several changes coming together. On the theory side, we need more realistic models that better reflect differences between financial and real options, simple heuristic methods that can be more easily implemented (but that have been carefully benchmarked against more precise models), and better guidance on implementation issues such as the estimation of discount rates for the "optionless" underlying projects. On the practitioner side, we need user-friendly real options software, more senior-level buy-in, more deliberate diffusion of real options knowledge throughout organizations, better alignment of managerial incentives with long-term shareholder value, and better-designed contracts to correct the misalignment of incentives across the value chain. If these challenges can be met, there will continue to be a steady if gradual diffusion of real options analysis throughout organizations over the next few decades, with real options eventually becoming not only a standard part of corporate strategic planning, but also the primary valuation tool for assessing the expected shareholder effect of large capital investment projects. [source]


The Implementation of Target Costing in the United States: Theory Versus Practice

JOURNAL OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2006
Lisa M. Ellram
SUMMARY Target costing has been touted as a process that can significantly improve new product development results in the accounting, engineering, operations management, and purchasing literature. The target costing process considers the voice of the customer, incorporates earlier supplier involvement and concurrent engineering, utilizes cross-functional teams, and focuses on creating a good or service that is both desirable and affordable to the customer and profitable to the producing organization. Unlike previous studies, which have focused on Japanese firms, or used single case studies, this paper uses the findings from case studies of 11 organizations actively engaged in the target costing process. This paper explores how the target costing process is used in practice in the United States, comparing it with the popular theoretical model of target costing. It helps shed light on to target costing practices of U.S. and other Western firms, and highlights the often overlooked role of the purchasing function in successful target costing efforts. [source]


System Dynamics as a Structural Theory in Operations Management

PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2008
Andreas Größler
The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate the usefulness of (1) system dynamics as a structural theory for operations management and (2) system dynamics models as content theories in operations management. The key findings are that, although feedback loops, accumulation processes, and delays exist and are widespread in operations management, often these phenomena are ignored completely or not considered appropriately. Hence, it is reasoned why system dynamics is well suited as an approach for many operations management studies, and it is shown how system dynamics theory can be used to explain, analyze, and understand such phenomena in operations management. The discussion is based on a literature review and on conceptual considerations, with examples of operations management studies based on system dynamics. Implications of using this theory include the necessary re-framing of some operations management issues and the extension of empirical studies by dynamic modeling and simulation. The value of the paper lies in the conceptualization of the link between system dynamics and operations management, which is discussed on the level of theory. [source]


The Modern Call Center: A Multi-Disciplinary Perspective on Operations Management Research

PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, Issue 6 2007
Zeynep Aksin
Call centers are an increasingly important part of today's business world, employing millions of agents across the globe and serving as a primary customer-facing channel for firms in many different industries. Call centers have been a fertile area for operations management researchers in several domains, including forecasting, capacity planning, queueing, and personnel scheduling. In addition, as telecommunications and information technology have advanced over the past several years, the operational challenges faced by call center managers have become more complicated. Issues associated with human resources management, sales, and marketing have also become increasingly relevant to call center operations and associated academic research. In this paper, we provide a survey of the recent literature on call center operations management. Along with traditional research areas, we pay special attention to new management challenges that have been caused by emerging technologies, to behavioral issues associated with both call center agents and customers, and to the interface between call center operations and sales and marketing. We identify a handful of broad themes for future investigation while also pointing out several very specific research opportunities. [source]