PurposeConventional Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) may lead to wrong decisions in terms of a company's financial objectives. Thus, the aim of this paper is to develop an improved approach to prioritizing failures within the procedure of the FMEA.Design/methodology/approachFirst, the current “risk priority number” (RPN) being used within the FMEA is developed. Second, a case study is conducted in cooperation with an automotive supplier in order to test the applicability and benefits of the new approach.FindingsBy implementing the cost‐oriented FMEA, quality management can be improved. In order to decide on improvement actions, costs arising from faults detected by the customer, costs of faults detected within the boundaries of the company and costs associated with false positive inspection results should be included in the evaluation of potential failures. This case study confirms the benefits of the new approach.Research limitations/implicationsIn order to implement this modified FMEA, a precondition is to estimate failure costs precisely and comprehensively. This precondition could constitute a serious obstacle, because quality costs are often difficult to quantify. In addition, future research should focus on the potential to include interdependencies among various failure modes and effects.Practical implicationsThe proposed approach enables managers and designers to prevent expensive faults and hence facilitates decisions, which make better use of resources in optimising products and processes.Originality/valueThe paper provides a new approach to FMEA and thus contributes to the development of cost‐oriented quality management.

This paper presents an evaluation of Supply Chain Management Software. For this purpose, we conducted an empirical study in the European automotive industry among car manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, and logistic service providers from 25 countries. In particular, we analysed the objectives these companies are trying to achieve by using Supply Chain Management Software and evaluated to what extent these objectives have been accomplished. Our results show that the companies have been able to reduce both their costs and lead times and to improve their service levels. The survey also reveals, however, that until now, the cooperative potential of Supply Chain Management Software has not been utilized effectively.

The diversity of stakeholder requirements is currently a pivotal challenge for companies. Stakeholders expect companies to increasingly consider environmental and social aspects in their decisions. Thus, corporate goal systems are including not only qualitative and financial goals, but also environmental and social ones. Management systems for ensuring quality, environmental and occupational safety play an important role in achieving these objectives. Considering the interdependency between the different systems constitutes a central challenge. Much of the literature and the results from empirical studies suggest that the spatial application of integrated management systems is state of the art. Integrated management systems in particular are regarded as more effective and more efficient than separate and distinct management systems. However, the present long‐term study demonstrates that for car manufacturers in Germany these integration efforts are implemented in very different ways, and that some integration approaches are partially abandoned after a period of unsatisfactory implementation. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

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This paper presents an empirical study addressing current tendencies in corporate environmental reporting released to the public. On the one hand, we survey British and German environmental statements according to the 'European Eco-Management and Audit Scheme'. On the other hand, we explore why companies desist from participating in EMAS and thereby from publishing environmental statements. For this purpose, we have conducted a telephone survey with those companies in Northrhine-Westfalia, Germany, which have participated in EMAS twice but have dropped out afterwards. In doing so, the survey also intends to explore whether other types of corporate environmental reporting are increasingly employed in place of environmental statements. All in all, the goal of our study is to derive assumptions about future developments of corporate environmental reporting.