Jennifer Farris

The brutal fact that about 70% of change initiatives fail clearly demonstrates that more research is needed to develop knowledge and guidelines to support organization development and change. According to various action researchers, this also provides evidence that the dominant approach of positivist science has failed to generate ‘knowledge for use’ within this field. Action Research (AR) aims to complement positive science by focusing on complex real life problems, participation, joint-meaning construction and workable solutions: the desired results of AR are solutions to immediate problems and, equally important, learning from both intended and unintended outcomes of the change. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how principles of various AR methodologies have been important to support the creation of a learning organization within a technical support unit of the Belgian Armed Forces. Such an evolutionary multimethod approach adds new insights to the AR methodology: in l...

Despite the anecdotal recognition of factors that may influence Kaizen outcome sustainability, there has been little empirical investigation of sustainability determinants. This research reports on the preliminary sustainability results from one manufacturing organization. The organization is participating in an ongoing field study of Kaizen events containing multiple manufacturing organizations. Researchers collected data on event characteristics, follow-up mechanisms, goal sustainability, and work area context for 14 events from the case study organization. A preliminary set of perceptual follow-up mechanism measures is identified and summarized. The study results also provide preliminary evidence of how the follow-up mechanisms may influence goal sustainability.

ABSTRACT This article presents an approach for assessing the effectiveness of engineering design tools applied within new product development (NPD). In this approach both the quality of the proccss used to apply the design tool and the quality of outputs generated by the design tool are assessed. The approach described was developed and piloted in an engineer-to-order (ETO) company. The specific assessment instruments created are also presented. Future work Will include investigating the use of the approach for additional design tools and analyzing how design tool effectiveness relates to overall product launch effectiveness.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe and illustrate an application of a structured approach to assess and improve an organization's performance measurement review process. Design/methodology/approach – This approach was implemented within an ongoing action research project in a large telecommunications organization. Assessment elements were defined based on literature review, and the assessment approach was designed based

ABSTRACT With the increasing popularity of Kaizen events as a process improvement initiative, the amount of Kaizen event literature has also increased. This article includes a systematic literature review of the Kaizen event body of knowledge, assessing the quality of the literature and synthesizing the literature to find convergent, variant, and divergent practices. The findings indicate that the literature is dominated by trade press and industry case works, with a growing number of academic publications. Several identified themes from the data synthesis were convergent, e.g., the importance of team member authority/autonomy and having a well-defined problem scope, while others were divergent, e.g., the level of functional and hierarchical heterogeneity and Kaizen event deployment. In order to advance the Kaizen event body of knowledge, future research should include more systematic academic investigations and theory-testing works, particularly of these divergent findings.

ABSTRACT Lean Product Development (LPD) is one of the leading approaches currently being adopted by organizations attempting to maximize value, increase quality, shorten lead times, and lower costs for product development (PD) processes; however, it appears that the mere translation of lean manufacturing principles into PD settings does not necessarily equate to an effective lean PD process, and many organizations continue to struggle to deploy LPD. In order to better understand the theoretical content of LPD research, as well as the potential reasons for implementation difficulties, this article presents results from a systematic review of the LPD literature over the past 21 years. Findings are used to identify trends and themes in the current research, areas for future research, and implications for practicing engineering managers. In particular, we find that current themes in LPD research can be mapped to seven knowledge domains, and we identify practices and principles that have been proposed for dealing with core problems, as well as future research needs, within each of these domains.

ABSTRACT While rapid improvement efforts, e.g. Kaizen events, and continuous improvement efforts, i.e. kaizen, remain popular approaches to operational excellence, it is rare that organisations fully sustain change from these initiatives. The impact of both Kaizen events and kaizen may be substantially lower, if not entirely eliminated, after significant time has elapsed from initial implementation of changes. In this paper, we examine how having a continuous improvement culture can support rapid improvement sustainability via an examination of the impact of Kaizen events several months after implementation. Employing a dynamic capabilities perspective and using the institutionalisation of planned change framework, we empirically examine this relationship via a field study of 65 Kaizen events in eight manufacturing organisations. In short, we find that the extent to which work area employees exhibit peer learning, as well as awareness and responsibility both inside and outside of their work area, and the extent to which changes are accepted are significantly related to the perceived impact of Kaizen events several months after implementation. This research adds to current understanding of Kaizen events and kaizen, providing evidence to guide the use of Kaizen events and to inform areas for future research.

ABSTRACT Previous research has shown that military units operating in the context of risky missions display the characteristics of a Learning Organization. The present work provides preliminary exploratory evidence about the association between Learning Organization characteristics and leadership styles used by military leaders in the field. Based on the literature, we hypothesized that higher Learning Organization characteristics would be associated with a more transformational style of leadership that inspires followers. With this purpose, the five characteristics of a Learning Organization as defined by Peter Senge (Systems Thinking, Team Learning, Shared Vision, Mental Models, and Personal Mastery) and leadership styles as defined by the multifactor leadership model of Bass and Avolio (Transformational, Transactional, and Passive-Avoidant), were measured among commanding officers who had recently served in a mission abroad. Associations with organizational outcomes (Extra-Effort, Effectiveness, and Satisfaction) were also investigated for both Learning Organization characteristics and leadership styles. The correlations showed that Learning Organization characteristics were highly related to Transformational leadership dimensions, and also with Transactional leadership based on Contingent Rewards; meanwhile no association was found with a Passive-Avoidant leadership. Organizational outcomes were also related to Transformational leadership, Contingent Rewards and to various characteristics of a Learning Organization. Implications of these results, as well as avenues for future research, are also discussed.

Home > International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management > Volume 57 issue 8 > Kaizen events and organizational performance: a... ... Icon: Abstract. Icon: Backfiles. Icon: Print. Icon: Reprints & permissions. ... This research was supported by the National ...

Design/methodology/approach – Assessment elements were defined based on the literature, and the scoring approach was designed based on performance excellence frameworks such as Baldrige and EFQM. A research case application in a Belgian public sector ...

... including actual authority to implement changes during the event, is frequently cited as one of the key task design characteristics contributing to Kaizen event effectiveness (eg, Adams et al., 1997; Bicheno, 2001; Bradley and Willett, 2004; Foreman and Vargas, 1999; Kumar and ...

ABSTRACT Iteration is a central issue in the management of product development (PD) projects. Iteration is often recognized as a major cause of increased PD lead time and cost, a key driver of schedule risk, and a primary source of uncertainties in the commitment of resources. However, iteration, when planned and managed effectively, can also be used to overcome the uncertainties inherent in interdependent development activities, and to thereby improve and accelerate PD projects. In this paper, we present a methodology that engineering managers can use to identify process architectures which may provide more effectively structured iterations. The methodology determines the suggested process architecture by first eliminating any unbeneficial iterative loops, if they exist, through the application of existing design structure matrix methods, and, then, by front-loading iterations in organizing the other loops through the application of a group formation algorithm. To evaluate the effectiveness of our proposed method, we compare its performance with that of other partitioning and sequencing algorithms also concerned with the ordering of activities within iterative blocks, and also evaluate its performance when used in conjunction with these other algorithms. Specifically, we apply these methods to four examples and use simulation modeling to evaluate the performance of the process architectures suggested by the different methods. Based on the four initial examples, it does appear that our methodology has significant potential to improve the management of PD projects with uncertain iterations by supporting systematic loop pattern explorations and front-loading. Study limitations and areas for future research are also discussed.