Editorial

Citation

Radnor, Z. and Heap, J. (2008), "Editorial", International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Vol. 57 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm.2008.07957baa.001

Editorial

The issue includes a set of papers around the theme of “manufacturing” or “operations management” where concepts of performance measurement and management are used within a number of contexts.

First some thoughts …

Manufacturing in today’s environment seems to encompass quite a range of processes … some of which are not really “manufacturing” at all – in the sense of making new things. However, if we take manufacturing to mean – or to include – the transformation of physical resources into new forms, then we can be much more flexible. This means that chemical processing, food processing, etc. become within the “manufacturing” ambit … as well as services including banks and government tax offices who are also implementing modern manufacturing concepts and ideas. The linking element with all of these examples is the “process view” or “process technology” and since all use many of the same technologies, they can be measured and controlled by similar approaches.

Manufacturing has absorbed “Lean”; not all manufacturing, of course, but at a recent “The Manufacturer Live” event, “Lean” was a strong theme that ran through many of the presentations. “Lean”, which was very popular around ten years ago when the book “The Machine that changed the World” by James Womack and Dan Jones was published, has recently seen re-birth over the past couple of years. This is partly due to the “other manufacturing” organisations, i.e. services both private and public, taking on board the principles of Lean as a means to drive up efficiency, productivity and quality. Indeed one of us, Zoe Radnor, has just completed an evaluation of the implementation of Lean in Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in the UK. Watch this space!

One of the elements within Lean which is often a concern within organisations is sustainability and how and what should it consists of. Some firms have adopted elements of sustainability as a result of their core values whilst others seem to think they are insuring against encroaching regulation. We wonder which ones adopt the concept more fully!

Now to this issue …

In their paper (Franceschini, Galetto, Maisano and Mastrogiacomo) attempt to support and help organisations to decide which set of indicators they should use. The paper presents a methodology to facilitate the selection and verification of indicators. This may be something that is of use and interest to many organisations who are currently managing vast sets of measures and indicators (in many large organisations – in the region of over 1,000)!

The issue of managing or dealing with many measures is also the focus of the second paper by Jusoh, Ibrahim and Zainuddin where they focus on the performance consequences of multiple measures within the Balanced Scorecard framework. In their study of Malaysian companies they found that the focus is still on financial measures compared to non-financial although “customer” measures are becoming more prominent. However, they did find that organisations who took a multi perspective view did have a better performance even if there was some trade off due to the measures (Warning: Japanese firms often argue that trade off in performance is an excuse and a consequence of over focus on the measures rather than focusing on improving the process or performance of the organisation.)

The final research paper by Thomas, Barton and John considers Small to Medium Size companies (SMEs) attitudes towards and benefits of adopting Advanced Manufacturing Technologies (AMT). The paper proposed a strategic model for the introduction and application of AMT into SMEs. This could and should support and help SMEs to adapt rather than adopt AMT. All too often organisations attempt to adopt concepts, models, tools and elements of system feeling that “one size fits all”. Zoe’s recent evaluation of the implementation of Lean in public services has clearly shown that adaption rather than adoption is the key – keep the high level principles and aims but adapt the detail!

In our “Reflective Practice”, session, the paper by Walker neatly shows the links between theory and practice (links we sometimes forget?) but also exposes the lack of connectedness between rhetoric and action when it comes to transferring private sector practice to the public sector.

The paper by Searcy is also included in this issue since it is a similar theory-practice paper using a case study to show how a sustainable development performance measurement system was developed at a Canadian electric utility. Via the case study, Searcy demonstrates that a systems approach and a set of formal systems criteria can provide needed direction and serve as tests of validity throughout the development process.

And that’s another issue off the production line … as with much manufacturing production was (just) on time (just) on budget) but we hope you agree well within the quality tolerance levels.

Zoe Radnor, John Heap