There is a lack of feasible managerial tools to support companies in their greening initiatives. The objective of this paper is to propose a tool - Green Karma - for monitoring and proactively managing initiatives for environmental sustainability. We present findings from an action research project involving two freight transport companies. The tool is based on Quality Function Deployment but has been adapted to capture various dimensions of environmental efforts. As goals, in traditional QFD labelled as customer needs, we applied national environmental goals, thereby widening the scope of the customer to a societal perspective. Regarding the means, traditionally labelled as functions, we instead documented greening initiatives in the companies and applied them in the tool. Using the Green Karma tool resulted in increased pro-activity. New initiatives were taken among the companies. Furthermore, a more structured approach and firm commitment to realise ideas were observed. Thus, the tool has shown its potential to increase the pace of greening the companies operations and strategies. QFD has previously been used to analyse and prioritise environmental activities but it has not been used before as a proactive tool for driving and implementing environmental initiatives. In this paper, such an application is presented.

Purpose

Digital transformations are changing society, and they force industries to react to the market more frequently. Managers are aware of new technical demands, which increase the pressure of meeting those demands. To meet technical demands, radical innovations are one way to stay competitive. However, it is more complex to make them a part of the business. The purpose of this study was to create a framework for small and medium-sized enterprises to become more efficient by starting to digitalise their business processes with the expertise of an external innovation partner.

Design/methodology/approach

The study was performed at a case company with an abductive approach where both deduction and induction were used to study the empirical findings and formulate new theories in relation to recognised theory. Qualitative methods have been used in the empirical study due to their flexibility and the fact that the focus of the information gathering was to create a context.

Findings

The analysis indicates that a certain level of process maturity can be put in relation to a certain innovation level and a certain level of digital change. According to a process maturity model, an adaptable process could respond to changes in customer demands better, which can be related to changes in the business domain and the society. The research resulted in a conceptual cooperative model based on the three domains of the study. The model has been validated using design reviews with the case company, a consultancy firm and together with an innovation partner.

Practical implications

The model will be a practical template for Small and Medium Enterprises to follow when digitalising business processes and how to prioritise them.

Originality/value

The proposed framework of how to digitalise at different innovation levels coupled to process maturity levels is a novel idea that could be used for further research.

While the usage of process management within the freight transport industry is unknown and presumed low, it has been used within other sectors as an efficient approach for dealing with and fulfilling customer demands as well as environmental requirements. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how process management can enhance a customer focused greening in the transport and logistics sector. We present a literature review of the intersections of process management, freight transport and environmental sustainability. Furthermore, we conducted a case study of how two environmentally ambitious Swedish freight transport companies use process management to enhance environmental sustainability. We found that environmentally ambitious freight transport companies do not proactively use process management, and that workshops with topical experts and practitioners can be a way for introducing process management to enhance environmental sustainability in such companies.

Listening to citizens is seen as an important source of information about public service performance. In Sweden, to secure the quality of elderly care, the National Board of Health and Welfare conducts a yearly survey of in-home elderly care services and nursing homes. A central problem of the existing survey methodology is the interpersonal incomparability of survey responses due to differences in preferences and health conditions. One way to deal with this problem is to use the survey methodology with anchoring vignettes. The purpose of the paper is to investigate the possibilities and limitations of using anchoring vignettes as a general survey method and specifically to test the method for measuring elderly care quality. The vignettes were developed interactively with professionals working in elderly care and evaluated with 1600 users of in-home elderly care services and nursing homes. The results showed that anchoring vignettes reduce the impact of respondents personal characteristics on survey results. In general, anchoring vignettes give more robust answers that reduce the problem of incomparability. However, anchoring vignettes increase the complexity of the questionnaire and have limited value in elderly care. Our results indicate that the method might be applicable when using healthier and younger respondents.

Purpose

While Process Management has not commonly been used within the freight transport business, it has been used within other sectors as an efficient approach for dealing with and fulfilling customer demands as well as environmental requirements. The purpose of the current paper is to present a case study of how Swedish freight transport companies use Process Management to enhance environmental sustainability.

Methodology/Approach

We developed a case study with two environmentally ambitious Swedish freight transport companies. Information was collected by interviews, observations and workshops. We also studied three larger freight transport companies. The analysis is a comparison between empirical findings and literature.

Findings

Environmentally ambitious freight transport companies do not proactively use Process Management, and workshops with topical experts and practitioners can be a way for introducing Process Management to enhance environmental sustainability in such companies.

Research Limitation/implication

The results will be the basis for propositions for further research, and for practical implications for transport companies.

Originality/Value of the paper

A previous study of the intersection between Process Management and Green Logistics identified a void in literature, which makes this paper unique. Academically, this paper contributes to filling that void. Practically, the paper is useful for freight transport practitioners with interest in increasing sustainability in their operations.

The freight transport sector largely contributes to the environmental footprint, and the freight transport industry lacks practical tools for implementing green initiatives. Process Management is an efficient approach for fulfilling customer demands as well as environmental requirements within other sectors. This paper presents a literature review of Process Management activities within the freight transport sector, with emphasis on environmental sustainability. While Green Logistics and Process Management are established academic research disciplines, there is little research found in the intersection between the two. Hence, there is a need for future research in this field.

Today’s organizations face the challenge of measuring the right things and then using those measurements as a starting point to work with improved quality.  It is important to design a measurement tool that corresponds to the initiatives taken when a new management implementation such as adopting quality values is carried out. The failure to generate a shared value base is pointed out as one main cause for the inability to effectively apply Quality Management and Lean within organizations, thus it appears central to measure these values. However, the measuring of values and organizational culture, e.g. the soft side, seems to be missing within both concepts. The managers have great influence on what culture will be predominant in an organization, and how they act and behave affects the attitudes and behaviours of the co-workers within the organization. Therefore, there is a need for a tool that measures not only quality values, but also behaviours that support or obstruct a quality culture. Furthermore, it is of interest how the employees rank both the performance and the importance of quality values and behaviours. The tool should not be a ‘certification’ but rather a diagnostic tool for continuous improvement.

The quality of teaching should be the central theme in the education on quality management (QM). Delivering bad courses about QM would reduce the legitimacy of the subject, since we do not practise what we preach. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the quality of education can be enhanced through effective course design based on quality thinking and higher education theory. The study covers three university courses in the field of QM; an introductory course in QM, and courses in Six Sigma and Lean Production, respectively. Each course has been analysed and described in terms of factors affecting student learning and the perceived quality of the courses. The impact of course design on examination results and student evaluation has been studied and compared to historical data. The study demonstrates that course design can have a profound impact on student learning as well as course evaluation. Analysis of the three examples provided in this paper indicates that the QM principles can effectively be used in course design processes. Attention to the principles presented in this paper facilitates the design of courses that enhance learning and ensure higher student satisfaction. The application of QM principles in higher education has a long theoretical tradition. This paper provides three strong examples of how this can be done in practise.

User and customer surveys are the most commonly used instruments to evaluate the efficiency and quality of public services, but an important question is whether the data collected by the surveys are of sufficient quality to support decision making and improvements of public services. One of the mentioned problems is the interpersonal incomparability of survey responses, which may be biased if individuals interpret the questions in different ways and use response scales in systematically different ways. The purpose of the present study is therefore to investigate how the use of anchoring vignettes could improve the quality of survey results. Our results show that anchoring vignettes remove some noise from survey results and allow the correction of otherwise interpersonally incomparable survey responses. The suggested methodology has the potential to contribute to better evaluations of the quality of elderly care and, thereby, to better decisions on how to improve elderly care services.

Taking cultural aspects into account is seldom mentioned as a success factor in implementing Six Sigma. In this paper, we elaborate on the implications of implementing and applying Six Sigma in countries with different national cultures, especially in those with non-American cultures. Based on two longitudinal case studies, we show how to take cultural aspects into account when implementing Six Sigma, and also, how implementing Six Sigma influences the local national culture of the company. We argue that taking different aspects of national cultures into account when implementing Six Sigma within a global organisation will enhance understanding, cooperation and performance of the organisation.

In this article, we provide an insight into Process Management that offers a simple hands-on method to improve Process Management. Organisations implementing ‘some modern’ management concept sometimes fail or do not achieve the expected results. From our own industrial experiences, we found that organisations implementing Process Management sometimes start off on a ‘too-advanced’ level without having fulfilled the necessary prerequisites. For that purpose, in this article, we present a Process Management maturity model developed in an environment of industrial and academic cooperation. In addition to the model, we present a diagnostics tool that has been developed together with several companies to be used by organisations to assess their current level of process maturity. By using this, it is the purpose that organisations could reduce their risk of starting off ‘too high’ and thus failing in their efforts.

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to develop a model to help service organizations to set the specification limits according to the customer expectations.

Design/methodology/approach – A review of relevant literature has been used to develop a new integrated model with ideas from the Kano model, SERVQUAL, Taguchi loss function, Importance Performance Analysis (IPA) and a new model, “the Trade-Off Importance”. A survey was carried out with 18 external customers and internal stakeholders of the Service Division of Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery AB in Finspong, Sweden.

Findings – The model has demonstrated its robustness and credibility to set the specification limits. Additionally, it is a very powerful tool for service quality measurement and to set strategic directions.

Research limitations/implications – First, articles published on this subject are few and there is no similar model in the literature to confirm or compare results. The proposed model must be further validated in future research. Second, this study is applied in a single service division, with a relatively small sample. Ideally, research should be conducted using multiple industries in order to ensure that the model is generalizable.

Originality/value – To the best of one's knowledge, this paper is the first attempt to create a road-map to set the specification limits in services. Researchers should find that the proposed model fills the research gap. From a managerial standpoint the practical benefits in Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery AB suggest a new way of communicating to customers. The model will also improve the target setting in the Six Sigma projects.

The aim of this paper is to test and evaluate a designed conversational seminar – the knowledge overlapping seminar (KOS) – as a support for joint directed action in projects. This conversational arena is designed to support the process of co-constructing shared understanding in projects with the aim of delimiting misunderstandings and creating knowledge overlap between people coming together from different organizational contexts. As misunderstandings often rise in projects among people who don't share the same language due to their belonging to different organizational contexts, there exists a need to develop methodologies that will assist in supporting the co-construction process of shared understanding in projects. This study proposes a designed conversational seminar for this purpose. KOSs are designed to be conversational arenas in which members of a project team have an opportunity to guide one another in their respective different domains of knowledge related and connected to the common project goal. The design of KOS aims to avoid conversational obstacles to effective knowledge overlap between members from different organizational contexts and from different knowledge domains, with special emphasis on avoiding prestige. The KOS has here been evaluated as being a promising conversational ?tool? for application in projects with a view to support joint directed action by achieving a shared understanding of the project goal and delimiting misunderstandings, with improved efficiency, quality, and, ultimately, more satisfied customers as a result.

Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control (DMAIC) is the well-known Six Sigma methodology, while Define, Measure, Analyse, Design, Verify/Validate (DMADV) is the most commonly used methodology within Design for Six Sigma (DfSS). Many emphasise the differences between the two, but there are similarities as well. Based on Donald Wheeler's four process states, it is suggested when it is appropriate to use DMAIC or DMADV. However, in one specific state, which is quite common, neither of the two is appropriate. In the case of a process that is out of control but with only minor customer problems, a combination of DMAIC and DMADV, called for Define, Measure, Analyse, Design, Control (DMADC), is suggested. It was developed from experiences gained in process-improvement projects at Siemens in Sweden. Furthermore, contrary to the views of some authors, it is argued that there is no such thing as a 'five-sigma wall' between DMAIC and DfSS when improving processes.

Many companies around the world have implemented Six Sigma as a problem solving methodology especially useful for dealing with recurring problems in business processes. Since the 1980s when it was developed at Motorola, many companies have tried to implement Six Sigma to fit their own company’s culture and goals. This thesis presents a longitudinal case study describing the evolution of ‘Six Sigma Management’ at Siemens in Sweden. The success of the programme was to a large degree built on previous failures, confirming Juran’s old saying ‘Failure is a gold mine’. From the case study, success factors for implementing Six Sigma at Siemens are identified and compared to those given in the literature. Some of the most critical success factors identified at Siemens had not been mentioned as such in the literature before. The main conclusion of the study is that, in order to succeed and get sustainable results from a Six Sigma programme, Six Sigma should be integrated with Process Management, instead of just running Six Sigma as a separate initiative in an organisation. Furthermore, the thesis includes papers presenting methods and tools to be used in a Six Sigma programme or in Six Sigma projects. They deal with: how to identify suitable Six Sigma projects, how to select which Six Sigma methodology to use, how to find hidden misunderstandings between people from different knowledge domains, and how to simulate the impact of improvements to iterative processes. All these methods and tools have been developed and tested at Siemens. This has been an action research project, where the author has been employed by the company under investigation for eleven years and has actively influenced the changes in the company based on knowledge gained at the company as well as on research studies conducted at universities. In action research the change initiative under investigation is conducted and analysed in a single context. The readers are invited to draw their own conclusions on the applicability of the results to their own specific cases. In addition to this, some conclusions derived using analytical generalisation, applicable to a more general case, are presented in the thesis.

Six Sigma methodology offers an organization significant improvement potential, but project selection is often a problem. A formalized customer feedback system can provide reliable and valuable information to a project selection team, since dissatisfied customers are a continuous source of ideas concerning product innovation and improvement. A case study illustrates how a Swedish turbine manufacturer uses feedback as a driving force in a process improvement process (PIP) that allows selection of Six Sigma projects vital to the development of new products. The application of Six Sigma allowed the firm to expand a fault handling process based on customer dissatisfaction from a product support process to one that encompass process issues as well. Implementation of the PIP is still in progress, but the improve phase has been completed and the check phase is in progress. Faults classified from process owners have resulted in the identification of 67 potential Six Sigma projects.

Kostnaderna för ändringar sent i produktutvecklingsprojekt på grund av missförstånd tidigare i projektet är mycket höga, även om inget företag vill erkänna hur höga de verkligen är. Baserat på erfarenheter från svensk industri och på resultat från tidigare forskning inom området drasslutsatsen att människor måste tala med varandra för att kunna förstå varandra och därmed undvika missförstånd. Informationsteknik kan användas för att öka frekvensen och mängden information som kommuniseras inom en produktutvecklingsorganisation men den kan inte ersätta samtal mellan människor. Detta forskningsprojekt har som mål att presentera metoder som ska kunna användas för att förbättra måluppfyllelsen vid utveckling av nya produkter, det vill säga färre missförstånd ska ge en förbättrad produkt- och processkvalitet, vilket i sin tur medför sänkta kostnader och förkortade ledtider. Ytterligare ett mål är att presentera en metod för att öka det organisatoriska lärandet, vilket skulle förbättra en organisations förmåga att anpassa sig till förändringar i dess omvärld. Det övergripande målet är mer konkurrenskraftiga företag.

Följande bidrag till forskningsområdet Metoder och organisation för ledning av ingenjörsarbete (Engineering Management på engelska) lämnas i denna avhandling: (i) En modell för ledning av ingenjörsarbete är en teoretisk modell av hur tre olika ledningsfilosofier kan användas tillsammans för att förbättra det organisatoriska lärandet inom en produktutvecklingsorganisation baserat på Senges ramverk ‘De fem disciplinerna’. (ii) Fantomturbinutveckling är en presentation av hur ingenjörer som arbetar med utveckling av teknik och process för produktutveckling kan dela mål och visioner baserade på framtida kundbehov. (iii) Simulering av processförbättringar är en metod för att simulera och jämföra förbättringar av en utvecklingsprocess innan de införs. (iv) Kunskapsöverlappningsseminarium (KOS) är en kommunikationsmetod som ingenjörer i ett produktutvecklingsteam kan använda för att eliminera missförstånd. Hinder som uppträder i vanliga möten undviks i KOS.

Aktionsforskning har använts som forskningsmetod. Forskningen har utförts på ABB STAL, ett företag som tillverkar gasturbiner och ångturbiner, där författaren till denna avhandling är anställd. Det använda angreppssättet, samverkande aktionsforskning, karaktäriseras av att forskaren i stort sett totalt identifierar sig med företagets aktiviteter och förändringsriktning, vilket väl överensstämmer med forskningen inom detta projekt som till stor del är baserat på författarens egna erfarenheter.