Purpose -The methods of quality management, business process management and knowledge management have until now been exploited by science and the industry separately. An integration of these disciplines could unlock the potential of a solid structure to measure and gradually improve knowledge transfer processes. This paper aims to address this issue. Design/methodology/approach -A maturity model was developed for SMEs to measure and assess the quality of their business processes. This enabled the companies to determine their existing status and to take the necessary actions for the competence development of their business processes, which should contribute to the attainment of their knowledge management goals. Research limitations/implications -This paper introduces a maturity model for knowledge-intensive business processes that enables companies to determine their processes' actual state and take the corresponding actions for their business processes improvement, in which special attention is being given to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Originality/value -The paper proposes an SME-specified maturity model for knowledge-intensive business processes. Its assessment procedure is developed based on literature researches and investigation of real processes of two industrial SMEs. This maturity model has advantages over other existing models since it accounts for the needs of SMEs by incorporating the company preference over the measured areas.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify main success factors for the effective implementation, operation and certification of an energy management system (EnMS) in accordance with ISO 50001, which represents the fastest growing standard for management systems in the world (International Organization for Standardization, 2013). Design/methodology/approach – Due to rising energy costs, increasing global competitive pressure and the demand for environmentally friendly products companies all over the world consider the implementation of an EnMS to meet future challenges. For that reason a survey (Jochem et al., 2013) among already certified German companies has been conducted focussing on organizational, teambuilding and technical aspects. Findings – Results indicate that EnMSs are most commonly built on already existing management structures and therefore staff organization is crucial for the success of the project. Still, monetary aspects such as energy related cost savings seem to be the decisive criterion for the operation of an EnMS. Regarding teambuilding aspects specific technical expertise is required which leads to cross-functional teams focussing on the field of production. In addition key technical and administrative measures for an effective EnMS were identified. Originality/value – The study provides best practice knowledge and gives interested companies the advantage to benefit from both the positive experiences of the participants as well as to prevent potential contra productive activities during the implementation, certification and operation of an EnMS.
In order to successfully achieve sustainable corporate development, enterprises have to define and implement a pragmatic strategy. In that pursuit, the discussion of motivation and reasoning behind incorporating sustainability strategies serves as a prelude to the thematic examination of challenges and courses of action in corporate strategy development and implementation. Especially in the context of sustainability, additional legislative and stakeholder requirement considerations make managing these tasks effectively, however, much more challenging. The firm's overall objectives thus become multidimensional and have to be broken down to the individual departments and business fields. Consequently, considerable effort has to be devoted to the planning, measurement and evaluation, steering and control as well as optimisation and communication processes of the holistically defined corporate value creation. Furthermore, a solution for enterprise sustainability management and its evaluation is necessary for ultimately balancing economic, ecological and social performance factors, to ensure optimized decision-making. towards future generations is emerging, as insights on the long-term effects of over-exploitation and environmental pollution are increasing. In the context of the evolution of this responsibility towards internal and external stakeholders, enterprises are confronted with the imminent challenge of adapting strategic orientation and operative value creation accordingly. The linkage between the economic, ecological and social perspectives of the interaction of enterprises with their environment however, poses unique challenges in terms of potential internal conflicts of objectives. At the same time, it is questionable to what extent the attainment can be related to the three perspectives of sustainability. Thus long-term strategic orientation has to be recognised as a premise for sustainable development, so that potential short-term performance discrepancies are not misinterpreted as deficits, or implied as representing poor decision-making. This is assuming that sustainability is more than an ideological construct for the conscious influence and control of human and entrepreneurial behaviour. Instead, it has to be conditional to certain criteria and traceable or ascertainable. Numerous approaches for operationalising sustainable management are therefore focused on indicators, but remain, however, limited in their extent or integrity in order to avoid complexity. KeywordsThe three-dimensional differentiated approach requires the simultaneous safeguarding of the economic, ecological and social capacity of the respective system and its environment for both the current and future generations (Dyllick and Hockerts 2002). Building on the definition of the German Bundestag, safeguarding economic performance is herein based on ensuring an adequate competitive situation as a driver of innovation and as a price-building mechanism, without however at the same time limiting the welfare of the individual inv...
Quality has been recognised by companies as a key competitive factor in order to differentiate in a globalised market. To ensure quality that meets customer requirements, companies implement management systems that enable the management to plan, control, secure, and improve the quality of goods and services. To cover these tasks sufficiently, such quality management systems require resources that need to be budgeted. Quality management critics point out again and again that quality management does not make a direct value-added contribution to a company's success and the use of funds must therefore be kept at a minimum. The success of quality management systems is therefore attempted to be measured by monetary and non-monetary indicators. Quality-related indicators, in particular, are used to control the quality management, to provide strategic and operational goal orientation, to identify the quality situation as well as weaknesses, and to enable benchmarking with other sectors or companies. In practice, this means the determination of costs, benefits, and profitability. In a cross-industry survey, the Chair of Quality Science at the Berlin Institute of Technology in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology examined the current practices of quality controlling in Germany. For this purpose, companies in the manufacturing and service industries were asked for participation. With a total of 215 respondents, the study provides a comparative overview by which indicators German companies measure the effectiveness and the efficiency of quality management systems. The study reflects a large methodological and content diversity in quality controlling
Purpose Industry 4.0 is one of the most used terms in the current industrial discussion. There are several perspectives and approaches related to Industry 4.0 so far, but no universal definition. Often-mentioned basic requirements to “implement” Industry 4.0 are lean and well-organized processes. In the past and still until today, a lot of companies try to implement lean production systems (LPS) according to the example of Toyota to realize a systematic approach to ensure well-organized processes. The process model aims to support organizations to integrate Industry 4.0 elements into LPS, regardless of the size of the organization. The purpose of this paper to describe a model as a first basis for further elaborations that could focus on the detailed design of each model-phases. Furthermore, the identified digital elements of Industry 4.0 build a first foundation to choose pilot projects related to existing challenges of the organizations LPS. In this context, especially the suitability of LPS and Industry 4.0 elements should be further investigated. Design/methodology/approach To investigate the current status regarding the realization of Industry 4.0 approaches and related challenges in the German industry, the two authors realized a survey with over 300 participants from different sectors and company sizes, using an online questionnaire. The results of the survey will be a part of this paper and a technology analysis, which was the outcome of an extensive literature analysis. The results were summarized in a model to integrate digital elements into existing LPS. Practitioners can use the process model as a first orientation to integrate industry 4.0 technologies into their existing LPS, based on specific challenges with their LPS processes. Findings Even if most of the participating German companies recognize Industry 4.0 as an important or very important topic, many of them do not consider themselves well prepared. The participants see huge challenges with regard to the needed qualifications and investments Industry 4.0 requires. In general, the companies hope to improve productivity and customer satisfaction to name two main objectives of the implementation of digital elements of Industry 4.0. In addition to the survey, a profound literature analysis was made and identified eight core digital elements. On this basis a milestone-based model to integrate these digital elements into existing LPS was developed. Originality/value This paper considers results from a study and analysis regarding the potentials of digital elements of Industry 4.0 for production system from different angles and introduces a model for integrating these elements.
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