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- Flankegård, Filip
(författare)
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Supplier Involvement in Product Development: A Supplier Perspective
- 2022
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis explores the supplier perspective of supplier involvement in product development. Supplier involvement in product development is crucial for many companies to increase resource flexibility, access competence, reduce costs and time to market, among others. The existing literature focuses primarily on the customer perspective of supplier involvement, e.g., challenges and critical factors customers should consider. A few studies have focused on the supplier perspective. This research gap is addressed in this thesis by studying the conditions influencing the suppliers’ involvement in customers’ product development.This thesis explores two research questions: “What are the challenges suppliers experience when being involved in customers’ product development?”, and “What mitigating mechanisms and critical factors influence suppliers’ involvement in customers’ product development?”. The identified challenges originated [FF1] both from the customer and the supplier, indicating that both types of challenges must be focused on. The study also identified interdependencies between the challenges, implying that one challenge may lead to the occurrence of other challenges. The study suggests mitigating mechanisms to deal with the identified challenges. The identified critical factors influenced both the efficiency and effectiveness of supplier involvement in product development, e.g., lead-time, development cost, product quality, and cost. The study indicates that adopting a dual perspective and considering the challenges and critical factors for both the customer and the supplier, can support the involved supplier. The results build on findings from a case study including four SMEs.
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| 2. |
- Johansson, Peter, Associate professor, 1978-, et al.
(författare)
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Integrating advanced digital technologies in existing lean-based production systems : analysis of paradoxes, imbalances and management strategies
- 2024
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Ingår i: International Journal of Operations & Production Management. - : EMERALD GROUP PUBLISHING LTD. - 0144-3577 .- 1758-6593.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of paradoxes, underlying tensions and potential management strategies when integrating digital technologies into existing lean-based production systems (LPSs), with the aim of achieving synergies and fostering the development of production systems.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts a collaborative management research (CMR) approach to identify patterns of organisational tensions and paradoxes and explore management strategies to overcome them. The data were collected through interviews and focus group interviews with experts on lean and/or digital technologies from the companies, from documents and from workshops with the in-case researchers.FindingsThe findings of this paper provide insights into the salient organisational paradoxes embraced in the integration of digital technologies in LPS by identifying different aspects of the performing, organising, learning and belonging paradoxes. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate the intricacies and relatedness between different paradoxes and their resolutions, and more specifically, how a resolution strategy adopted to manage one paradox might unintentionally generate new tensions. This, in turn, calls for either re-contextualising actions to counteract the drift or the adoption of new resolution strategies.Originality/valueThis paper adds perspective to operations management (OM) research through the use of paradox theory, and we (1) provide a fine-grained perspective on why integration sometimes "fails" and label the forces of internal drift as mechanisms of imbalances and (2) provide detailed insights into how different management and resolution strategies are adopted, especially by identifying re-contextualising actions as a key to rebalancing organisational paradoxes in favour of the integration of digital technologies in LPSs.
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| 3. |
- Blackbright, Helena, 1972-
(författare)
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Exploring Purposeful use of Innovation Self-assessments
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Innovation management is a multidimensional practice characterized by the requirement of a constant renewal to maintain an organization’s relative innovativeness. A practice highly characterized by a requirement to handle uncertainty, risk, and long lead times, which requires an active management of both the prerequisites of today and a yet-undefined future. Therefore, it is of little surprise that the so-called “innovation audits,” with their purpose of direct or indirect improvement are often considered a vital part of innovation management practices. This thesis focuses on the internal self-assessment use of such audits by organizations to self-assess their current state of innovativeness against indicators of good practice or their own prior state. The purpose of such innovation audits is to reveal gaps between the current and desired state, which the organization can use to develop improvement activities.Substantial empirical and theoretical research on innovation audits exists, which focuses primarily on the development of the audit itself, but seldom on enacting audits that lead to desired improvements. Much innovation audit research discusses the areas to assess and the development of different types of indicators, statements, and framework, which represents these assessment areas. The problem is that no matter how well the indicators identify possible improvement areas or gaps between current and desired states, it still says very little about integrating retrieved information into activities that actually lead to the desired improvements.This thesis takes a process perspective on the undertaking of an innovation self-assessment audit (ISA). Rather than examining what to assess and how to use the result, it focuses on the undertaking of an ISA as an improvement process in itself. The overall objective is to contribute to the understanding of why a purposeful use of ISA emerges (or does not emerge). To this end, this thesis collects empirical data about ISA use and its context from qualitative case studies, involving 14 self-assessment groups from 9 different organizations. The findings from these studies is presented in the six appended papers that address different perspectives on ISA use and contextual prerequisites.To better understand why a purposeful use of ISA emerges (or does not), it was necessary to bring the appended papers together and undertake a more focused discussion on ISA use as a process in its entirety. Therefore, this thesis recontextualizes the six appended papers against a new theoretical framework based on theories on processes, complex adaptive systems (CAS), and competence-in-use.The theoretical discussion in this thesis offers several contributions. First, by approaching the undertaking of ISA as an improvement process, it focuses on the continuity of the process, which in turn allows a distinction between the execution of the process and the enabling of this execution. Second, the enactment of purposeful use is related to knowledge about the focus area of the assessment (e.g. innovation culture or capabilities) and the current state being assessed. Together, these create the basis for the theorization of a four-dimensional ISA competence-in-use that impacts how ISA can be purposefully enacted. Overall, the main reason why purposeful use emerges (or does not) does not seem to be so much about having a high ISA competence-in-use, as having high correspondence between expectations and competence-in-use.Together, this contributes to an increased understanding of why purposeful use emerges (or does not), making this its primary contribution within the field of innovation management. The focus on self-assessment use as an improvement process embedded in the organizational context it intends to improve, does give a more general relevance to the discussion on improvement processes, and the use of self-assessment audits outside the field of innovation management.The contribution of this thesis is closely related to the use of ISA and can be used to support the process of planning and undertaking an ISA. This thesis also contributes to knowledge on ISA competence-in-use, which can guide practical choices in undertaking an ISA for more purposeful use.
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| 4. |
- Johansson, Peter E., Associate professor, 1978-, et al.
(författare)
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Let us measure, then what? : Exploring purposeful use of innovation management self-assessments.
- 2019
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Ingår i: International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management. - 0265-671X .- 1758-6682. ; 36:10, s. 1734-1749
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to increase the understanding regarding how managers attempt to make purposeful use of innovation management self-assessments (IMSA) and performance information (PI).Design/methodology/approachAn interpretative perspective on purposeful use is used as an analytical framework, and the paper is based on empirical material from two research projects exploring the use of IMSA and PI in three case companies. Based on the empirical data, consisting of interviews and observations of workshops and project meetings, qualitative content analysis has been conducted.FindingsThe findings of this paper indicate that how managers achieve a purposeful use of PI is related to their approach toward how to use the specific PI at hand, and two basic approaches are analytically separated: a rule-based approach and a reflective approach. Consequently, whether or not the right thing is being measured also becomes a question of how the PI is actually being interpreted and used. Thus, the extensive focus on what to measure and how to measure it becomes edgeless unless equal attention is given to how managers are able to use the PI to make knowledgeable decisions regarding what actions to take to achieve the desired changes.Practical implicationsGiven the results, it comes with a managerial responsibility to make sure that all managers who are supposed to be engaged in using the PI are given roles in the self-assessments that are aligned with the level of knowledge they possess, or can access.Originality/valueHow managers purposefully use PI is a key to understand the potential impact of self-assessments.
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| 8. |
- Berglund, Rachael, et al.
(författare)
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Facilitating Employee-Driven Innovation through Leader Training
- 2023
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Ingår i: Proceedings of XXXIV ISPIM Innovation Conference. - 9789526506937
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Employee-driven innovation involves all employees at all levels in improvement work in the organisation. Rather than only accessing the capabilities of research and development employees – the unique competence, insights and ideas of all staff can be activated. We use a longitudinal design to test the impact of leader training on third-level EDI as part of a psychosocial risk assessment process. Leaders are trained to listen to employees and work together to solve work environment problems. We found that idea generation and time to take a break to test new ideas increases after only six months, and this increase is sustained at 18 months compared to a control group. However, 'keenness to share ideas' and 'being listened to' were not significant compared to the control group. These findings and their implications for future research are discussed.
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| 9. |
- Bruch, Jessica, et al.
(författare)
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Managing the core plant role-key prerequisites from an operations perspective
- 2020
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Ingår i: International Journal of Manufacturing Research. - : Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.. - 1750-0591. ; 15:1, s. 90-106
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A core plant should be a centre of excellence, have a central role for knowledge creation, and ensure that the latest knowledge is diffused in the organisation's production network. Core plants can yield a range of benefits, such as increased resource efficiency and decreased costs in the production network. However, core plants face immense challenges in performing their roles, given the different interests of the different stakeholders that need to be satisfied. We use data gathered from an in-depth study of six core plants in Sweden to analyse the prerequisites. We conclude that the core plant prerequisites are influenced by human, organisational, and technological aspects, i.e., successful development of core plant capabilities can only be achieved if all the three components are considered together. Our findings are relevant to operation managers, plant managers, and others interested in developing and maintaining core plant excellence.
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| 10. |
- Döös, Marianne, 1949-, et al.
(författare)
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Beyond being present : learning-oriented leadership in the daily work of middle managers
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of Workplace Learning. - 1366-5626 .- 1758-7859. ; 27:6, s. 408-425
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose – In their daily work, managers influence the organisation’s learning conditions in ways that go beyond face-to-face interaction. Neither the influencer nor those influenced are necessarily aware that they are engaged in learning processes. This paper contributes to the understanding of learning-oriented leadership as being integrated in managers’ daily work. The particular focus is on managers’ efforts to change how work is carried out through indirect acts of influence.Design/methodology/approach – The research was part of a larger case study. The data set comprised interviews with nine middle managers about ways of working during a period of organisational change. A learning-theoretical analysis model was used to categorise managerial acts of influence. The key concept concerned pedagogic interventions.Findings – Two qualitatively different routes for indirect influence were identified concerning social and organisational structures: one aligning, that narrows organisational members’ discretion, and one freeing, that widens discretion. Alignment is built on fixed views of objectives and on control of their interpretation. The freeing of structures is built on confidence in emerging competence and involvement of others.Research limitations/implications – The study was limited to managers’ descriptions in a specific context. An issue for future research is to see whether the identified categories of learning-oriented leadership are found in other organisations.Practical implications – The learning-oriented leadership categories cover a repertoire of acts of influence that create different learning conditions. These may be significant for the creation of a learning-conducive environment.Originality/value – The study contributes an alternative way of thinking about how work conditions are influenced that impact on learning in organisations. Managerial work that creates conducive conditions for learning doesn't need to be a specific task. Learning-oriented elements are inherent in aspects of managerial work and managers’ daily tasks can be understood as expressions of different kinds of pedagogic intervention.
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