Exploration of the key evolutionary operational improvement activities
| Pages | 1123-1141 |
| Published date | 17 August 2012 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02635571211255050 |
| Date | 17 August 2012 |
| Author | Chinho Lin,Kang‐Wei Chai |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
Exploration of the key
evolutionary operational
improvement activities
Chinho Lin
Department of Industrial and Information Management and
Institute of Information Management, College of Management Science,
National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan, and
Kang-Wei Chai
Department of Industrial and Information Management,
National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore crucial evolutionary operational improvement
initiatives related to quality management, and the emphasis is on the lessons learned from operational
improvement practices in Taiwan.
Design/methodology/approach – To understand a firm’s evolutionary operational improvement
activities holistically and deeply, the authors conducted in-depth interviews with executives from four
firms in Taiwan. The grounded theory method is adopted in this study to depict the profile of the key
evolutionary operational improvement activities.
Findings – Based on the results of the qualitative empirical study, six major dimensions of
operational improvement are identified. Further, eight empirical propositions are proposed with
detailed descriptions.
Research limitations/implications – The results are based on international manufacturing
companies in Taiwan, and thus cannot be generalized to situations in other emerging countries and
industries without further research.
Practical implications – By referring to the results of this work, managers can better understand
the relationships among operational improvement activities, and thus increase the chances to benefit
from operational improvement initiatives.
Originality/value – This paper adds to the literature by providing new empirical insights into the
relationships among operational improvement activities.
Keywords Taiwan, Manufacturing industries, Operations management, Qualitymanagement,
Supply chain management, Supply chain qualitymanagement, Operational improvement,Case studies
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Operational effectiveness and efficiency are essential to superior performance, which is
the primary goal of any enterprise (Porter, 1996). One of the most important ways to
enhance operational effectiveness and efficiency is to pursue quality management,
which has received significant attention from both manufacturing and service sectors.
The ISO 9000 (International Organization for Standardization) standards, for example,
aim to assist companies in establishing a solid quality system to maintain the quality
level. Many organizations have chosen to go further with total quality management
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0263-5577.htm
Operational
improvement
activities
1123
Received 16 February 2012
Revised 20 April 2012,
25 April 2012
Accepted 25 April 2012
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 112 No. 7, 2012
pp. 1123-1141
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/02635571211255050
(TQM) initiatives (Gotzamani and Tsiotras, 2001; Martinez-Lorente and
Martı
´nez-Costa, 2004) and/or GE’s Six Sigma approach to reduce defects, improve
productivity, eliminate waste and reduce costs (Zu et al., 2008).
In a rapidly changing environment, the processes that occur between enterprises are
no longer as independent as before, and combinations of relevant processes are part of
the supply chain relationship. Supply chain management (SCM) has thus been widely
discussed and studied in the context of various industries (Li et al., 2005; Chong et al.,
2011) Recently, scholars have begun to merge quality management with SCM
perspectives, and propose theories of supply chain quality management (SCQM)
(Kuei et al., 2001, 2011; Foster, 2008). SCQM has been shown to be an effective response
to market demands (Kuei et al., 2001, 2011), and communication with collaborating
partners is a key factor for enterprises seeking to establish effective supply chain and
quality relationships (Foster, 2008).
To meet the challenges of a rapidly changing external environment, many
enterprises have actively implemented operational improvements (Hanna et al., 2000).
However, to date there are few studies on the evolutionary operational improvement
gaps that appear when firms adopt new activities related to quality to enhance their
competitiveness (Sila et al., 2006). And, how a company progresses from a quality-centric
approach to another one is seldom mentioned, especially with regard to the development
of SCQM. Knowledge of all kinds of operational improvement activities (such as ISO,
TQM, Six Sigma, SCM, and SCQM) can help managers to lay out effective plans for
process change and improvement. In addition, several studies (Eng and Yusof, 2003;
Chen et al., 2010) have shown that companies with different sizes have distinguishing
characteristics that have different effects on how TQM is implemented and how SCM is
integrated with their supply chains. Given the diverse and disjointed forms and theories
of quality and SCM in the existing literature, the primary aim of this study is to explore
the practices of operational improvement in two contexts (i.e. small vs large companies)
in Taiwan. We focus on Taiwan for the following reasons:
.Porter’s (1990) critical concept is that national competitive strengths tend to be
associated with “clusters” of industries. According to the World Economic
Forum’s “2006-2008 Global Competitiveness Report,” Taiwan was ranked first in
the world with regard to its “State of Cluster Development”.
.The two main business models of global supply chains that most involve firms in
Taiwan are original equipment manufacturing (OEM) and original design
manufacturing (ODM). These two models account for 94 percent of domestic
production volume in the notebook-computer industry (Feng and Chern, 2008).
.Manufacturing firms in Taiwan have good practices with regard to supply chain
integration, customer service management, design effectiveness, operations and
distribution, quality and service, and coherence and information systems
(Chow et al., 2008).
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. First, a brief literature review of the
related work on quality management with regard to ISO 9000, TQM, Six Sigma, and
SCM/SCQM is presented. Second, the research methods and the in-depth interviews
used in the four case studies are explained to identify activity gaps in the evolutionary
process of operational management. Third, based on a grounded theory analysis, the
thematic relationships among the evolutionary operational improvement activities
IMDS
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1124
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