No abstract

With risk defined as the possibility of deviation in the results from the expected goals, business process reengineering (BPR) initiatives clearly involve risk taking. However, due to the high expected returns of such efforts, the acceptable risk levels of BPR will tend to be greater than those of less ambitious projects. This research reports the development of a tool to quantitatively estimate the potential risk level of a BPR effort before an organization commits its resources to that effort. The underlying research employed a survey of BPR-experienced organizations to collect assessment information in order to build a BPR risk estimation model. The developed tool uses triangular fuzzy numbers to approximate the degree of success/failure of proposed BPR initiatives. The tool can be applied by any organization contemplating BPR, thus giving such organizations a heretofore unavailable estimate of the risk level of proposed BPR efforts. Validation was performed based upon an 18-month BPR project conducted at the Missouri Lottery.

Describes efforts to extend the use of quality function deployment (QFD) to manufacturing strategy development. QFD uses a house of quality to translate the “voice of the customer” into engineering specifications. Originally developed and applied as a powerful tool for concurrent product and process design, QFD is widely used in industry as a technique within total quality management (TQM). The approach has only recently been applied in strategic planning. Describes how the traditional QFD concepts and methods can be used in the formulation of manufacturing strategy to ensure alignment with business strategy. Presents a case study at a powdered metals manufacturer to show how the QFD methodology can be adapted for use in manufacturing strategy formulation.

Quality improvement continues to be an important international business strategy as we enter the twenty‐first century. Legal requirements, customer demand, market pressure, competition, and the need for in‐house quality improvement has driven more companies to become ISO 9000 registered. Implementing ISO 9000 is expensive, time‐consuming, and requires significant dedication and effort. Investment in such a project calls for detailed analysis and justification. This research paper proposes a multi‐attribute analysis and justification model based on the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) for implementing the ISO 9000 quality system standard. The model is developed based on case studies at companies which underwent the process of registration and by the synthesis of relevant literature both on ISO 9000 and techniques of analysing similar projects. The model has been applied and validated in companies that are both ISO 9000 registered and are pursuing ISO 9000.

Like productivity in the 1970s and quality in the 1980s, flexibility will be the popular operations and production management theme in the 1990s. Contrary to much of what is being written, warns that flexibility is not necessarily achieved through computer integration. Enthusiasm to embrace flexibility in order to achieve competitive advantage often leads to integration projects which are inadequately planned and under designed. Such projects do not result in true flexible integration but rather in what the author terms hard integration. Similar to the tooling in a hard automated system, the information interfaces in a hard integrated system are linked in a fixed and rigid manner. Hard integration reduces, not enhances, flexibility.