Italian and UK Manufacturing compared

Although the Italian economy has seen a steady growth in the importance of the service sector, manufacturing still plays a key role in the economy. It employs 32 per cent of the active population and accounts for about 33 per cent of the country’s gross national product. For this reason, the performance of Italian manufacturing plants relative to their international counterparts is of considerable domestic importance, as well as highly relevant for those interested in wider European comparisons and benchmarks. This article reports on a research project that looked at the performance of manufacturing plants in Italy, and in the

A study into continuous improvement initiative sustainability

The idea of continuous improvement is familiar to most managers and there are many examples of how its use can increase a company’s overall performance. However, while numerous companies have adopted the approach, very few have seen the long term sustainability of such programmes. This paper reports on research that was carried out into the sustainability of continuous improvement initiatives. A case study was carried out in a manufacturing company that had been using the approach for five years. The case study identified several factors that helped to sustain the initiative but it also revealed some elements that had a negative impact

Supplier base management : the contrast between Germany and the UK

Supplier base management is an important aspect of the management of manufacturing operations, as reducing the number of suppliers – the supplier base – is a key approach in many companies including the US and the UK. By having fewer suppliers, manufacturers have more time to work closely with each remaining supplier, for instance, on improving quality and product innovation. However, is this approach being adopted in Germany as fast as it has been in the UK? This paper describes research which addresses this question and which also investigates how German companies are managing contacts with their suppliers. The study was conducted in two stages. Firstly, a survey of manufacturers in Germany and the UK identified the trends in the supplier base of companies in each country. Secondly, a follow-up telephone survey was carried through with purchasing managers at a random sample of 34 German plants to identify, for example, the advantages experienced by manufacturers, which had reduced their supplier base. The findings show that German manufacturers have not reduced their supplier base by as much as companies in the UK. The second part of the research showed that German manufacturers, which have reduced their supplier base, perceive the benefits of this. However, other companies appear to have failed to take the opportunity to gain advantages from a reduced supplier base

Corporate responsibility, supply chain partnership and performance: An empirical examination

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in International Journal of Production Economics. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2012 Elsevier B.V.Unlike corporate and business levels, there is little research examining corporate responsibility (CR) at the functional level of the firm including supply chain strategy. The results of a firm-level survey show that CR internal awareness, and monitoring CR performance are positively related to the supply chain partnership approach, however sharing CR best practices is negatively associated. Furthermore, the impact of CR on firm performance is mediated by the functional behaviour of supply chain partnership formation. Our study provides support for including CR awareness building and monitoring in the development of partnerships but cautions against imposing CR best practices on suppliers

A Model of Continuous Improvement Programme Management

The aim of this study is to identify key management decisions that enable the sustainment of a continuous improvement (CI) initiative. To accomplish this aim, we examine the procedures and practices used by two manufacturing companies for the management of their CI initiatives; one that is successfully sustaining the effectiveness of its CI initiative and another failing to do the same. This research makes two contributions to the conceptual understanding of CI programme management. First, we identify five CI programme management factors that enable the sustainment of a CI initiative. Second, the five factors are incorporated into a new CI programme management model. The model details a ‘bottom-up’ procedure for the generation of manufacturing performance improvement ideas and the management of their implementation

Manufacturer-supplier relationships : An empirical study of German manufacturing companies

Effective management of suppliers is one of the ways manufacturing companies can improve their performance. Typically, it has been argued in the literature that close relationships with suppliers should be developed, in contrast to the traditional price-driven transactional relationships. However, there has been relatively little empirical research on how supplier management is applied

The search for generic manufacturing strategies in the UK engineering industry

The search for generic manufacturing strategies has been attempted previously using the American and the European Manufacturing Futures survey data. This paper details the results of a study using manufacturing strategy and performance data submitted by 120 competitors for the 1993 and 1994 UK Best Factory Award. The research method used was the same as that applied by the previous researchers of this subject. This was to carry out a cluster analysis of the rankings of emphasis to be given to the improvement of six competitive capabilities during a two year period following completion of the questionnaire. Only data from UK engineering companies were used for this analysis. The study findings are similar to those of the previous American study but add to them. Four distinct clusters of different competitive capabilities were observed. The distinguishing competitive capability of each cluster was found to be consistent with those detailed in a previously published theoretical framework that linked competitive capabilities with generic manufacturing strategy types.School of Managemen

Supply base management : an empirical investigation

Manufacturing companies place a strong emphasis on the role of supply chain management-the management of supplies, suppliers, inventory and distribution. Supplier management is key and much of the literature talks about the trend to reduce supplier base. Database analysis gave empirical evidence of this trend in UK manufacturing companies-201 companies from different industrial sectors were all found to have cut their supplier base over the last four years, on average by 9% in the household products sector and approximately 35% in the process, engineering and electronics sectors. Further research at four companies looked at their experiences with suppliers and established that a key reason for supplier base reduction is to free time to more effectively manage the remaining suppliers. The criteria used for supplier selection and reasons why single- sourcing was avoided were also identified. These findings on supplier management have implications for both researchers and managers in industry