The main purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between export involvement and domestic market performance with focus on pharmaceutical firms. The study covers three research questions including: 1: How to assess the export involvement/performance of the Iranian pharmaceutical companies? 2: How to assess the performance of Iranian pharmaceutical companies in domestic market? 3: How to examine the relationship between export involvement/performance and domestic market performance?

An intensive literature review and integration of relevant views and models helped us to build our own framework as a conceptual and analytical model. The model consists of EXPERF model, EFQM model, Export performance evaluation, domestic performance evaluation and the relationship between domestic performance and export performance. EFQM model and respective ILL indices was used for measuring domestic performance of the organizations on nine components of leadership, policy and strategy, people, partnership and resources, processes, people results, customer results, society results and key performance results. In order to achieve true representative of Iranian pharmaceutical companies K-mean clustering algorithm has been used to cluster Iranian pharmaceutical companies. EXPERF scale was used to measure export performance of the pharmaceutical companies in Iran on three aspects of financial export performance, strategic export performance and satisfaction with the export venture. Six clusters emerged after running the clustering algorithm in MATLAB software. This software enables us to put the similar companies together. Then centroids of the clusters were chosen to verify the relationship. Then relationship between export involvement (export performance) of pharmaceutical companies and their domestic performance was determined by use of Pearson coefficient.

Pearson correlation = 0.708 and Sig= 0.026which is less than 0.0 5 then with 95% confidence we can claim that there is a significant relation between export performance of the Centroids and Domestic performance of the centroids of Iranian pharmaceutical companies and considering that the correlation

coefficient value is positive, it means better export performance will result in better domestic performance. In other words Export performance of the companies has positive direct effect on domestic performance of Iranian pharmaceutical companies. Further studies can be done on clustering of Iranian pharmaceutical companies; effects of export involvement on individual components of EFQM based performance of firms and also verification of effect of export involvement and domestic performance in other business contexts.

In current globalized and highly demanding markets, Quality does not constitute any more a competitive advantage for organizations. Instead, Quality represents a basic market entry requirement for organizations indistinguishable from the country or economic sector they belong to.

Being conscious of the importance of Quality for all type of organizations, the purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the identification and better understanding of current trends in academic research on Quality Management. By analyzing a sample of 612 academic papers collected from five international Quality journals and two QMOD international conferences over 2010 and 2011, the author will study and reflect on the current trends of global academic research related to Quality Management.

Literature review was used as research methodology for the thesis. Academic papers were categorized, classified and analyzed in order to identify current research trends on Quality Management.

This work provides a snapshot of the current research trends on Quality Management. It benefits the educational sector, researchers, industry and practitioners by presenting an overview of the current research needs as well as potential future research topics.

As a result of this study, five main trending research topics on Quality Management were identified: management systems standards, total quality management, service quality, customer related processes after delivering product/service and excellence models.

China, India, USA, Sweden and UK were identified as the countries that have published the highest number of academic papers in international Quality journals during the studied period. Additionally, it was found a marked predominance of academic research on Quality Management towards the service sector.

These results and the answers to five proposed research questions were discussed and solved in this report.

The aim of this study was to explore and evaluate managers’ views of a large-scale improvement program, including their experiences and opinions about improvement initiatives and drivers for change. The study is based on a survey used in 2 nationwide mappings of improvement initiatives and developmental trends in Swedish health care. The participants were all managers in a county council in Sweden. Data were analyzed descriptively, and statements were ranked in order of preferences. A majority of the respondents stated that they had worked with improvements since the county council improvement program started. The managers sometimes found it difficult to find data and measurements that supported the improvements, yet a majority considered that it was worth the effort and that the improvement work yielded results. The top-ranked driving forces were ideas from personnel and problems in the daily work. Staff satisfaction was ranked highest of the improvement potentials, but issues about patients’ experiences of their care and patient safety came second and third. The managers stated that no or only a few patients had been involved in their improvement initiatives. Large-scale county council improvement initiatives can illuminate quality problems and lead to increased interest in improvement initiatives in the health care sector.

A central problem for the healthcare sector today is how to manage change and improvements. In recent decades the county councils in Sweden have started various improvement initiatives and programs in order to improve their healthcare services. The improvement program of the Kalmar county council, which constitutes the empirical context for this thesis, is one of those initiatives.

The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to a broader understanding of large-scale improvement program in a healthcare setting. This is done by analyzing practitioner’s improvement ideas, describing participants in the improvement projects, revising and testing a survey to measure the development of improvement ideas and describing the improvement program from a theoretical perspective. The theoretical change model used looks at change from two opposing directions in six dimensions; Goals, Leadership, Focus, Process, Reward system and Use of consultants.

The aims of the county council improvement program are to become a learning organization, disseminate improvement methodologies and implement continuous quality improvements in the organization. All healthcare administrations and departments in the county council were invited to apply for funds to accomplish improvement projects. Another initiative invited staff teams to work with improvement ideas in a program with support from facilitators, using the breakthrough methodology. Now almost all ongoing developments, improvements, patient safety projects, manager and leader development initiatives are put together under the county council improvement program umbrella.

In the appended papers both qualitative and quantitative research approach were used. The first study (paper I) analyzed which types of improvement projects practitioners are engaged in using qualitative content analysis. Five main categories were identified: Organizational Process; Evidence and Quality; Competence Development; Process Technology; and Proactive Patient Work. Most common was a focus on organizational changes and process, while least frequent was proactive patient work. Besides these areas of focus, almost all aimed to increase patient safety and increase effectiveness and availability.

Paper II described the participants in two of the initiatives, the categorized improvement projects in paper I and the team members in the methodology guided improvement programs. Strong professions like physicians and nurses were well represented, but other staff groups were not as active. Managers were responsible for a majority of the projects. The gender perspective reflected the overall mix of employees in the county council.

Paper III described a revision and test of a Minnesota Innovation Survey (MIS) that will be used to follow and measure how quality improvement ideas develop and improve over time. Descriptive statistics were presented. The respondents were satisfied with their work and what they had accomplished. The most common comment was about time, not having enough time to work with the improvement idea and the difficulty of finding time because of regular tasks. This was the first test of the revised survey and the high use of the answer alternative “Do not know” showed that the survey did not fit the context very well in its present version.

Trying to connect the county council improvement program and the initiatives studied in papers I and II with the change model gave rise to some considerations. The county council improvement program has an effort to combine organizational changes and a culture that encourages continuous improvements. Top-down and bottom-up management approaches are used, through setting out strategies from above and at the same time encouraging practitioners to improve their day-to-day work. Whether this will be a successful way to implement and achieve a continuous improvement culture in the whole organization is one of the main issues remaining to find out in further studies.

Quality improvement (QI) has become an important issue in healthcare settings. A central question for many healthcare systems is how to manage improvement initiatives adequately. All county councils and regions managing healthcare in Sweden have started to work with QI at an organizational system level, to varied extents. The Kalmar county council improvement initiative constitutes the empirical basis of this thesis. The aim of the thesis is to provide knowledge about different aspects of a county-wide improvement initiative, and a broader understanding of factors and strategies that affect participation, management and outcomes. The overall study design is based on a case study.

The first two studies illuminate the practice-based (micro level), bottom-up perspective. Inductively five different areas (categories) were identified. Factors influencing participation in improvement initiatives provided the basis for the next study. The result showed that different staff categories were attracted by different initiatives. The next two studies illuminate the top-down (macro/meso) management perspective. Managers’ views of how patients can participate were investigated and a content analysis of the written answers was made. Four main areas (categories) were identified. A survey study investigated all of the county council managers’ experiences of the whole improvement initiative. Overall the managers thought that the improvement work was worth the effort. To evaluate the Breakthrough Collaborative program, a survey was developed and tested. This survey was used to investigate process and outcome of the BC program. The majority of the respondents were satisfied with their work, but wanted more time for teams to meet and work. To find out if an improvement program can affect outcome and contribute to sustainable changes, interviews were made with project applicants (n=202). Almost half (48%) of the projects were funded, and of those 51% were sustained. Of the rejected (not funded) projects, 28% were accomplished and sustained anyway. The results in this thesis cannot show that the “golden mean” exists, or that a single best way to manage changes and improvements in a healthcare organization has been found, but the way QI initiatives are organized does affect participation and outcomes. The intention, from the management topdown system level, encouraging staff and units and letting practice-based ideas develop at all system levels, can stimulate and facilitate improvement work.

The aim of this study is to empirically identify and present different kinds of practice-based improvement ideas developed in health care services. The focus is on individual placement needs, problems/issues, and the ability to organize work on the development, implementation, and institutionalization of ideas for the health care sector. This study is based on a Swedish county council improvement program. Health care departments and primary health care centers in the Kalmar County Council were invited to apply for money to accomplish improvement projects. A qualitative content analysis was done of 183 proposed applications from various health care departments and primary health care centers. The following 5 types of improvement projects were identified: organizational process, evidence and quality, competence development, process technology, and proactive patient work. This illustrates the range of strategies that encourage letting individual units define their own improvement needs. These projects point to the various problems and experiences health care professionals encounter in their day-to-day work. To generalize beyond this improvement program and to validate the typology, we applied it to all articles found when searching for quality improvement projects in the journal Quality Management in Health Care during the last 2 years and found that all of them could be fitted into at least 1 of those 5 categories. This article provides valuable insights into the current state of improvemen  work in Swedish health care, and will serve as a foundation for further investigations in this quality improvement program.

From a management point of view there are many different approaches from which to choose in how to engage staff in initiatives to improve performance. The present study investigates how two different types of improvement strategies stimulate and encourage involvement of different professional groups in healthcare organizations. The first type, Designed Improvement Processes, is constituted of a methodologically guided collaborative program. The second type, Intrapreneurship Projects, is characterized by an “intrapreneur” working with an improvement project in a rather free manner. The data analysis was carried out through classifying the participants´ profession, position, gender and the organizational administration of which they were a part. The result showed that nurses were the largest group participating in both improvement initiatives. Physicians were also well represented, although they seemed to prefer the less structured Intrapreneurship Projects approach. Assistant nurses, being the second largest staff group, were poorly represented in both initiatives. This indicates that the benefits and support for one group may push another group aside. Managers need to give prerequisites and incentives for staff who do not participate to do so.

Objective. The present study will contribute to knowledge of how practitioners in a healthcare region engage in quality improvement initiatives. The focus is on individual placement needs, problems/issues and the ability to organize work on the development, implementation and institutionalization of ideas for the healthcare sector.

Design and settings. This study is based on the Kalmar county council Improvement Program. Healthcare departments and primary healthcare centers in the county council were invited to apply for money to accomplish improvement projects. The aim is to empirically identify and present the different kinds of practice-based improvement ideas developed in healthcare services. The 202 applications received from various healthcare departments and primary healthcare centers are analyzed using qualitative content analysis.

Outcome and Results. Five types of improvement projects were identified: Organizational Process; Evidence and Quality; Competence Development; Process Technology; and Proactive Patient Work. This illustrates the range of strategies that encourage letting individual units define their own improvement needs. In addition, a common characteristic among the studied project applications is to increase patient safety, effectiveness and availability of care, and education/training. Those intentions are found in many of the applications and therefore give the impression of being most important to caregivers today.

Conclusions. These projects point to the various problems and experiences healthcare professionals encounter in their day-to-day work. This paper provides valuable insights into the current state of improvement work in Swedish healthcare, and will serve as a foundation for further investigations in this quality program.

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to contribute to the knowledge of who engages in quality improvement initiatives and to describe whether staff professions or gender are relevant variables.

Design/methodology/approach – This paper contains an evaluation of the participants in a specific defined strategic improvement initiative program in one county council in southeast Sweden. The improvement program was initiated by county council politicians to encourage improvement initiatives and to spread improvement skills and knowledge in the organization. The program is driven both “top down” (teaching/convincing line managers to demand improvements) and “bottom up” through improvement programs using methodology to help teams identify, plan and adopt improvements in their daily work. Data was collected from special applications (called Free Applications, FA) and from participants in the education program (called Improvement Program, IP), both of which include information about profession and 2 gender. A content analysis was made. After the first categorization of which types of improvement projects practitioners engage in, further analysis of staff disciplines, professions (hierarchy) and gender was done. The results were compared to the overall structure of staff presence in the county council.

Findings – Changes in participation occurred over time. The FA (Free Applications) part (n=202) shows a higher share of leaders and managers (35%), but their participation in the IP (Improvement Program) (n=477) fluctuated (8-26%). Physicians were more represented in the FA than in the IP. The largest single group was nurses. Overall the gender perspective reflects the conditions of the county council, but in FA the representation of women was lower. Five types of improvement projects were identified: 1) Organizational process focus; 2) Evidence and quality; 3) Competence development; 4) Process Technology; and 5) Proactive patient work. Managers were most represented in the category “Organizational process”. The largest difference was seen in the category “Proactive patient work” with the highest occurrence among women (86%) and less among men (17%) and managers (21%). The patient as a contributor taking active part was not found in either the FA or the IP.

Research limitations/implications – This study shows differences in participation between free applications and methodology-guided programs when it comes to professions and gender in the country council improvement drive. It may be useful for further research regarding how to successfully work for and implement improvements and change in healthcare environments.

Practical implications – The study will discuss and contribute to further knowledge of whether profession, hierarchy and gender have an impact (obstructive or as an asset) in performing improvement work in healthcare settings.

Originality/value - Not much has been written about who is accomplishing quality improvements in terms of profession and gender. This paper provides some valuable insights into the differences between staff categories (professions) and gender in the improvement work in Swedish healthcare.

Quality improvement initiatives, a concept with origins in the manufacturing sector, have increased within the Swedish healthcare sector in recent decades. These efforts to improve quality can be seen as a response to demands for more cost-effectiveness and better medical results. However, studies have shown that less than 40% of these initiatives are successful (Olsson et al. 2007). The reason why specific improvement initiatives in healthcare fail or succeed is, therefore, a central question in studies of change. To be able to manage, improve and implement quality initiatives and improvements it is necessary to observe, measure and evaluate. Batalden and Davidoff (2007) point out that if there are no mechanisms to measure the changes, there is no way to know whether they actually lead to improvements. A more severe consequence, as stated by Sorian (2006), is that we sometimes accept an organizational system that not only fails to reward or encourage quality improvements but also sometimes punishes those who prioritize quality over cost-effectiveness. The need for more evidence about how to organize and manage new quality initiatives is identified as an important task within studies of healthcare improvement (Walshe 2009, Olsson et al. 2007).

BACKGROUND:

Quality improvement initiatives have expanded recently within the healthcare sector. Studies have shown that less than 40% of these initiatives are successful, indicating the need for an instrument that can measure the progress and results of quality improvement initiatives and answer questions about how quality initiatives are conducted. The aim of the present study was to develop and test an instrument to measure improvement process and outcome in Swedish healthcare.

METHODS:

A questionnaire, founded on the Minnesota Innovation Survey (MIS), was developed in several steps. Items were merged and answer alternatives were revised. Employees participating in a county council improvement program received the web-based questionnaire. Data was analysed by descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. The questionnaire psychometric properties were investigated and an exploratory factor analysis was conducted.

RESULTS:

The Swedish Improvement Measurement Questionnaire consists of 27 items. The Improvement Effectiveness Outcome dimension consists of three items and has a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.67. The Internal Improvement Processes dimension consists of eight sub-dimensions with a total of 24 items. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the complete dimension was 0.72. Three significant item correlations were found. A large involvement in the improvement initiative was shown and the majority of the respondents were satisfied with their work.

CONCLUSIONS:

The psychometric property tests suggest initial support for the questionnaire to study and evaluate quality improvement initiatives in Swedish healthcare settings. The overall satisfaction with the quality improvement initiative correlates positively to the awareness of individual responsibilities.

This study evaluated the use of the Breakthrough Series Collaborative methodology in a Swedish county council improvement program, comparing measurements at the beginning and after 6 months. A questionnaire was used, and improvement processes and outcomes were analyzed. The results showed an overall large engagement in improvements, although the methodology and facilitators were seen as only moderately supportive.

Since the mid-1990s, increased attention has been placed on quality improvement and patient safety within the healthcare context. This study aims to evaluate the use of the Breakthrough Series Collaborative methodology in a Swedish county council improvement program, comparing measurements at the beginning and after six months. A questionnaire was used, and improvement processes and outcomes were analysed. The results showed an overall large engagement in improvements, although the methodology and the facilitators were seen as only moderately supportive. Nursing educators have highlighted the importance of improvement education amongst healthcare professions, and nurses could play an active role in improving healthcare practices and patient safety.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether an improvement program can contribute to positive sustainable improvements in an organization, and whether financial incentives are driving forces for improvements. The material was all projects (n=232) that applied for funding in a county council improvement program between 2007 and 2010. The projects were analyzed as to whether they received funding (n=98) or were rejected (n=95). In addition, a categorization of the projects’ intentions was analyzed. Some projects were still ongoing, but 50 projects were implemented and sustained two or more years after being finalized. Implemented improvements were on different levels, from (micro level) units up to the entire (macro level) organization. In addition, 27 rejected projects were finalized without funding. Eighteen of those 27 were sustainably implemented. This study indicates that there are incentives other than financial at work if an improvement program will contribute to sustainable improvements in the organization. To encourage practice-based improvements is one way of incentivizing the intention and effort to become and perform better.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether an improvement programme can contribute to positive sustainable improvements in an organisation, and whether financial incentives are driving forces for improvements. The material was all projects (n=232) that applied for funding in a county council improvement programme between 2007 and 2010. The projects were analysed as to whether they received funding (n=98) or were rejected (n=95). In addition, a categorisation of the projects intentions was analysed. Some projects were still ongoing, but 50 projects were implemented and sustained two or more years after being finalised. Implemented improvements were on different levels, from (micro-level) units up to the entire (macro-level) organisation. In addition, 27 rejected projects were finalised without funding. Eighteen of those 27 were sustainably implemented. This study indicates that there are incentives other than financial at work if an improvement programme contributes to sustainable improvements in the organisation. To encourage practice-based improvements is one way of incentivising the intention and effort to become and perform better.

Background: From a management point of view, there are many different approaches from which to choose to engage staff members in initiatives to improve performance.

Objective: The present study evaluated how two different types of improvement strategies facilitate and encourage involvement of different professional groups in health-care organizations.

Methods/Design: Empirical data of two different types of strategies were collected within an improvement project in a County Council in Sweden. The data analysis was carried out through classifying the participants' profession, position, gender, and the organizational administration of which they were a part, in relation to their participation.

Setting: An improvement project in a County Council in Sweden.

Participants: Designed Improvement Processes consisted of n=105 teams and Intrapreneurship Projects of n=202 projects.

Intervention: Two different types of improvement strategies, Designed Improvement Processes and Intrapreneurship Projects.

Main Outcome Measures: How two different types of improvement strategies facilitate and encourage involvement of different professional groups in healthcare organizations.

Results: Nurses were the largest group participating in both improvement initiatives. Physicians were also well represented, although they seemed to prefer the less structured Intrapreneurship Projects approach. Assistant nurses, being the second largest staff group, were poorly represented in both initiatives. This indicates that the benefits and support for one group may push another group aside.

Conclusions: Managers need to give prerequisites and incentives for staff who do not participate in improvements to do so. Comparisons of different types of improvement initiatives are an underused research strategy that yields interesting and thoughtful results.

The aim of this study was to investigate managers’ opinions of how to take advantage of patients as resources in quality improvement work in the Swedish healthcare sector.

Detta examensarbete utförs i samarbete med företaget Järn AB, vilket är ett svenskt företag med gjuteri, pulvermetallurgi samt bearbetningsverksamhet. Produkterna är av varierande typ, storlek och volym, avsedd för ett brett kundsegment däribland fordonsindustrin samt maskintillverkare. Företaget har mer än 500 anställda och namnet Järn AB är fiktivt.

Syftet med arbetet är att föreslå ett angreppssätt för hur Järn AB kan gå vidare med statistisk processtyrning (SPS). Detta angreppssätt ska baseras på erfarenheter från fordonsindustrin samt litteraturstudier. Studien kommer grunda sig utifrån perspektiven människa, teknik och organisation. Resultatet kommer även utmynna i ett praktiskt förslag som ger företaget konkreta exempel kring införandet av SPS.

Förslagen i studien kommer grunda sig på fyra studiebesök som valts ut under arbetets gång. Tre av de valda företagen är framstående i kvalitetsfrågor inom svensk industri och det fjärde företaget jobbar med statistisk processtyrning i stor utsträckning. De besökta företagen har olika typer av processer, däribland gjuteri- och bearbetningsprocesser som också återfinns hos uppdragsgivaren. Det har också utförts en nulägesbeskrivning hos Järn AB för att se vilka möjligheter det finns med statistisk processtyrning och jämföra utgångsläget med studieobjekten. 

Resultatet av studiebesöken gav att inget av de svenska företagen använde SPS i dagsläget även om vissa hade erfarenheter från ett tidigare användande och flera såg framtida möjligheter med SPS.

Om personalen involveras i SPS-arbetet och får ansvaret för detta arbete så kommer det ge ökad motivation och större chans att skapa ett långsiktigt arbete. Det förutsätter att systemet är lättanvänt samt att användaren har fått rätt utbildning i området. Det är också viktigt att det går att justera en parameter i processen som är direkt kopplad till utfallet av SPS.

De processer som visat sig lämpliga för SPS hos Järn AB är de bearbetningsprocesserna som inte är självjusterande. Gjuteri- och pulverpressning är relativt komplexa processer som gör det svårt att knyta specifika parametrar till utfallet och behöver mer utredning innan SPS kan införas.

De styrdiagram som har visat sig lämpliga utifrån process- och hårdvarutekniska aspekter är R-diagram då dessa lämpar sig vid införandet av SPS på variabeldata och har stöd i föreslagen mjukvara. Vid ett senare skede är det också värt att titta på andra typer av styrdiagram som EWMA och CUSUM.

The objective of the research presented in this paper is to identify the relations and strength of the relationships between the elements of two models – the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) and the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Excellence model. For that purpose, a framework which indicates the relationships between the mentioned models has been developed. The hypothesis to be tested is whether the EFQM Excellence model may be used as an indicator of BSC implementation success. Hypothesis testing is based on data from a sample of 150 Serbian organisations. The results suggest that there are strong positive correlations between the BSC perspectives and the EFQM Excellence model criteria. Since the regression coefficients for the relationships between the BSC perspectives and the EFQM criteria are significant, with high positive values, the research results indicate a strong justification of the developed framework.

As split-plot designs are commonly used in robust design it is important to identify factors in these designs that influence the dispersion of the response variable. In this article, the Bergman-Hynen method, developed for identification of dispersion effects in unreplicated experiments, is modified to be used in the context of split-plot experiments. The modification of the Bergman-Hynen method enables identification of factors that influence specific variance components in unreplicated two-level fractional factorial split-plot experiments. An industrial example is used to illustrate the proposed method.

In today’s markets, as the debate on customer oriented product development gets more intense, designing “Quality Feeling” in a product gain more and more importance. The basic objective of this study was to identify and analyze aspects of “Quality feeling” in a reach truck operator cabin. Kansei Engineering methodology was applied to research, how each component representing a reach truck operator cabin evoke quality feeling and how users experience quality feeling. Kansei Engineering (KE) is a consumer-oriented technology that aims to transfer customer’s perceptions, feelings and mental images into a tangible product. Quality feeling as a Kansei concept has investigated for two levels of perception in the study. The first level is comprised of Kansei words that are assumed to represent the feeling of quality for the reach truck`s operator cabin components. The second level is more general compared to the first one and concerns the views for direct Quality feeling representation of components. Forty-seven subjects evaluated eight operator cabin components of a reach truck on 7-degree SD scale, involving 20 Kansei words that represent the quality feeling. Reliability, Factor and Multivariate Regression Analyses were applied to the data gathered. The results showed that reach truck operator cabin components give rise to different perceived dimensions of quality feeling. The method used in the application moreover showed the most important operator cabin components in terms of their contribution to Total quality feeling for the reach truck. In conclusion the approach presented within this study can assist to determine user preferences and help product evelopers and designers to reflect quality feeling and other concepts.

Purpose – This paper seeks to deal with affective design of waiting areas (servicescapes) and has twofold aims. The first, is to explore affective values for waiting areas. The second, is to identify interactions between physical design attributes and affective values.

Design/methodology/approach – This study included a free association method for data collection, applying Kansei engineering methodology to extract design solutions relating to specific feelings. The study was undertaken at six primary health centres in Östergötland County, Sweden. In total, 88 participants (60 patients and 28 staff) were interviewed.

Findings – The selected waiting areas show significant differences for their perceived affective qualities. The most desired feeling for creating affective values is found to be “calm”. The core design attributes contributing to this feeling are privacy, colours, child play-areas and green plants. Good design of lighting, seating arrangements and a low sound level are also important design attributes to give a more complete design solution.

Research limitations/implications – The study provides useful insights for understanding affective needs in servicescapes, and it provides design suggestions. The results have not been analysed separately for gender or different age groups.

Practical implications – The paper proposes a framework model to be applied when dealing with affective values in servicescapes.

Originality/value – This paper makes an original contribution to understand affective values towards the physical environment in servicescape design. It offers a methodology to study complex environments with many alternative design solutions using limited resources. Moreover, this study uses a combination of a free association method and Rough Sets theory in affective design.

Lean production has become a widespread production system to address the need of being more productive. Since three decades ago that some big automotive manufacturers started to adopt lean, many SME’s has adopt it and enjoy the outcomes. Literature have investigated the successful implementation of lean in these organizations, yet, very few papers have addressed the challenges toward adopting lean.

In this thesis research a plastic package manufacturer is chosen as the case of study to implement some initiatives of lean production and study the challenges and outcomes of lean adoption. The efforts during the making the changes were focused on adopting the SMED and Root-Cause Analysis techniques, and also to reduce defect rate in one of the products.

The findings indicate before any effort to implement lean production techniques, some social issues must be considered to reduce the risk of failure. The Rosti AB case indicated that promoting motivation among operators and resolving mistrust between managers and operators is essential to encourage them to participate in improvement changes.

In order to promote motivation and eliminate mistrust to encourage operators to participate in improvement changes it is necessary to empower them in decision makings in improvement implementations.

Objective: This paper was based on case study research at the Swedish Mail Service Division and it addresses learning time to sort mail at new districts and means to support the learning process on an individual as well as organizational level. Participants: The study population consisted of 46 postmen and one team leader in the Swedish Mail Service Division. less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanMethods: Data were collected through measurements of time for mail sorting, interviews and a focus group. less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanResults: The study showed that learning to sort mail was a much more complex process and took more time than expected by management. Means to support the learning process included clarification of the relationship between sorting and the topology of the district, a good work environment, increased support from colleagues and management, and a thorough introduction for new postmen. less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanConclusions: The identified means to support the learning process require an integration of human, technological and organizational aspects. The study further showed that increased operations flexibility cannot be reinforced without a systems perspective and thorough knowledge about real work activities and that ergonomists can aid businesses to acquire this knowledge.

This article describes empirical research undertaken to identify how production planners and schedulers in manufacturing businesses exert influence on employees in production and commercial departments. Through the analysis of observations and interviews conducted in four case studies, sources of power were identified and categorized. It was found that although production planners and schedulers often did not have formal authority, in practice they had considerable influence. In the main, their sources of influence resided in their access to information, company agendas, and influential arenas, as well as their knowledge and social skills. The discussion draws from the findings examining influencing behaviors and considering their implications. The findings inform associated research on the processes, behaviors, and roles that schedulers and planners perform at functional interfaces, in support of effective and responsive order fulfillment. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Human and organizational factors have a substantial impact on the performance of planning and scheduling processes. Despite widespread and advanced decision support systems, human decision makers are still crucial to improve the operational performance in manufacturing industries. In this text, the state of the art in this area is discussed by experts from a wide variety of engineering and social science disciplines. Moreover, recent results from collaborative studies and a number of field cases are presented. The text is targeted at researchers and graduate students, but is also particularly useful for managers, consultants, and system developers to better understand how human performance can be advanced.Show more Show less

The aim of this paper is to describe and reflect on an interactive research approach used to address the challenges on how to improve product introductions, the part of the product realization process associated with the transfer of a product from product development to serial production. In the interactive research approach, research results as well as improvement of practice are given equal importance. The collaboration between researchers and practitioners therefore addresses both the focus and the process of the change. The approach includes four main iterative steps: 1) mapping/diagnosis, 2) feedback of results, 3) participation in development activities, and 4) follow-up/evaluation. The paper reports findings from interactive research in one company within office product industry and one company group, consisting of three company units within the engine industry. Preliminary findings indicate that the participating companies afterwards work in a more structured way with product introductions and that the employees have gained deeper knowledge about product introductions as well as experienced the advantages of working across functional boundaries. Furthermore, the interactive research approach is suitable to run projects from an ergonomics perspective as it focuses on developing both practice and theory, it is human-centered, and it emphasizes broad participation from practitioners.

This study of scheduling work in practice addresses how the production-scheduling processes in four companies are influenced by human, technological, and organizational aspects. A conclusion is that the outcome of the scheduling process is influenced by the scheduler adding human capabilities that cannot be automated, by technical constraints in the scheduled production system and by the available scheduling software tools. Furthermore, the outcome is influenced not only by how the scheduling process is formally organized, but also by the scheduler's informal authority and the role taken to interconnect activities between different organizational groups. The findings from the study support a number of previous studies done on scheduling in practice whilst giving new insights into their interpretation.

The purpose of this article is to describe how Quality Management (QM) is perceived today by scholars at three Swedish universities, and into what QM is expected to develop into in twenty years. Data were collected through structured workshops using affinity diagrams with scholars teaching and performing research in the QM field. The results show that QM currently is perceived as consisting of a set of core of principles, methods and tools. The future outlook includes three possible development directions for QM are seen: [1] searching for a “discipline X” where QM can contribute while keeping its toolbox, [2] focus on a core based on the traditional quality technology toolbox with methods and tools, and [3] a risk that QM, as it is today, may seize to exist and be diffused into other disciplines.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to assess whether the implementation of a total quality management (TQM) approach positively affects the financial performance of European companies. This paper tests whether North American results showing the relative out-performance of companies that have successfully implemented TQM approaches are replicated in Europe. less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanDesign/methodology/approach - This research uses the same methodology as the seminal work of Hendricks and Singhal. The winning of a Quality Award is used as a proxy for the sound implementation of TQM. Publicly available share price and accounting data is analysed over a ten year period. Changes in the performance of award winning companies relative to non-award winning companies are tested using a matched-pair comparison approach. less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanFindings - The results confirm that, despite evident and marked differences in company structures and institutional environments between North America and Europe, stronger performance is again achieved by the TQM-oriented award winning companies. less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanOriginality/value - There is little empirical research establishing the link between TQM and improved financial performance within Europe, with most existing studies presenting findings only based on perception data. The findings presented in this paper close some of the limitations of previous European studies and use rigorous research methods to estimate the financial and business impact of TQM on company performance in Europe. Furthermore, extending Hendricks and Singhals seminal study to include Europe, has been an objective of those in the European TQM practitioner community ever since the early results were published.

Recently, Lean Production (Lean) has become a prevailing management concept in Sweden. However, previous research seems to show that the Lean concept and the impact of Lean vary considerably between organizations. This paper illustrates some key methodological issues that need to be considered when researching loosely defined management concepts such as Lean. The paper is based on a review of the literature and five comparative Swedish cases studies. Our study indicates that Lean has changed over time and that operationalization and interpretations of the concept vary considerably. This study concludes that future Lean studies should include a thorough assessment of the Lean interventions, study settings, and in particular non-Lean factors mediating the outcomes of Lean-inspired change programs.

Lean production is a philosophy which purpose can be simplified as: Produce more products with the usage of fewer resources by eliminating waste in the system. At the beginning it was part manufacturing companys who started using the different techniques within lean but in recent years lean has been widespread and applied in service organizations like health care for example. The development of lean against the process industries has however been slower which implies that the companys within that industry still have a lot to learn when it comes to lean. Some critics argue that the possibilities of applying lean techniques in the process industries are limited. Others claim that you just need a different approach and that the lean methods might need to be adjusted so that the conditions of the industry are considered.

When the main purpose of lean is to eliminate waste from the system there is a generally accepted method called value stream mapping (VSM). The method is used in order to map the material- and information flow and hence identify the waste existing in the system. There is a limited amount of literature considering the applicability of this method in the process industry, whereupon this study comes in handy. This master thesis was carried out as a case study at BillerudKorsnäs Skärblacka’s craft paper production and the purpose is to investigate how VSM can be applied at this type of production in order to eliminate waste. The study resulted in a description of the conditions necessary for the method to be used successfully, how the distinctive characteristics of the process industry affect the implementation of the method and which modifications that needed to be done.

When the material- and information flow was mapped a number of problem areas were identified where the waste in the system was revealed. It was then detected that the biggest focus should be on the material flow and the production equipment. The identified problem areas lead to a number of improvement suggestions whose purpose is to decrease the amount of waste in the system. Recommendations were also proposed, discussing how the company henceforth can work iteratively with value stream mapping as a part of a process with continuous improvements.

After the method was carried out conclusions could be drawn. The applicability of the method was considered as good due to problem areas and waste was identified and presented in a lucid way. Though, the data collection and calculation of the included parameters were very time-consuming. The reasons for that were that this was the first time the method was used at the company and the fact that all the data was stored in different systems. With continued mappings of the value stream the data collection and calculation will be less time-consuming parts due to all the formulas are already specified and lessons can be learned from the performance of this study. Due to the fact that radical changes of layout or flow pattern are hard or even impossible to carry out in this kind of industry the main focus of the VSM should be the mapping where the purpose is to identify existing problems and wastes. Hence the output from this method could be foundation for future investments and improvements.

Quality management (QM) has been popular and widely used in Taiwan since the 1960s. However, it has been found that a review of its development is lacking. Hence, this paper aims to examine the history and the evolution of QM in Taiwan, and to take a step further to look for cues for shaping its future development. The research purpose of this paper is more specifically to review the development of QM during the period from 1970 to 2012. Quality Magazine, the most popular reading material on QM in Taiwan, has been selected as the search database. The overall review result shows that the development of QM in Taiwan has three developmental phases: (1) the quality technologies and tools focus period (1970-1985); (2) the QM system integration period (1986-2000) and (3) the quality in service industry development period (2001-2012). In light of the overall as well as the detailed review results, senior quality experts were invited for consultation, discussion and prediction of the needs and the future development of QM in Taiwan.

Continuous improvement is a concept which is used already in many manufacturing companies. But in recent years, service industries as well started to recognize the importance of it. The benefits can be cost reduction, overall higher efficiency and customer satisfaction. So it is one of the key competences for a company to possess in order to be successful in the future.

Sectra AB was chosen as the object of this case study in this thesis, because they are operating in a highly competitive environment, but have less resources compared to their competitors. Since continuous improvement is also seen as important in their eyes, an assessment of their continuous improvement capability in the deployment department is needed. The result of this thesis can be the basis for future strategies or implementations which will improve their continuous improvement situation.

Through observations, interviews and surveys, the assessment was made for the deployment department that it is a middle experienced company regarding continuous improvement. The organization already started to incorporate continuous improvement activities in their working ways, but a systematic and strategic process is missing. The high willingness and interest to engage in continuous improvement were identified as strengths in the deployment department. Their weaknesses are found in the practical implementation and systematic monitoring of those continuous improvement elements.

The concept of knowledge management was introduced as an alternative which could support the continuous improvement process in the company. It guarantees that the knowledge is captured in the whole department on the way to a learning organization.

The aim of this paper is to study the effect of management factors on enterprise performance, considering a survey that the University Consortium in Engineering for Quality and Innovation has led. The relationships between management factors and enterprise performance are formalized by a Simultaneous Equation Model based on the generalized maximum entropy (GME) estimation method. The format of this paper is as follows. In Section 2, the data collected, the questionnaire evaluation, and the management model analytical formulation are introduced. In Section 3, the GME formulation is specified, showing the main characteristics of the estimation method. In Section 4, the results and a comparison among GME, partial least squares (PLS), and maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) is shown. In Section 5, concluding remarks are discussed.

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.

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.

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.

This study attempts to explore (examine) the relationship between organizational innovation capability and product platform development as well as organizational performance in Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) producer in Iran. Accordingly, a conceptual and analytical model for examining relationship of innovation capability of a firm with product platform development as well as performance  of API producers is developed which consisting of components:  strategy, processes, Linkage, organizational structure,  learning, product platform development and performance. The model is operationalized and tested in a group of Iranian API producers.

The data were collected from eight subsidiaries companies of TAIC which are the largest conglomerate in production, provision and distribution of API in Iran. Our database consists of 168 questionnaires and companies, internal documents. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses were used as complementary to each other.

1. The results show that most of Iranian API companies buy the required technology in order to establish a new product platform. This behavior was common among in both successful and unsuccessful firms. However, they were different in using the acquired technology for developing derivative products internally. The successful API producers (high performance) because of having better innovation capability are prone to use the opportunities to develop the new product derivatives, which can increase the sale and also the profit of company as well as its performance.

2. There is a positive relationship between the organizational innovation capability and product platform development of the companies, and the firms which are better in innovation capability are prone to develop more products (derivatives) in the existing product platform when there is opportunity to develop new products and also there is a positive relationship between the performance of the companies and their innovation capabilities too, In which the firms which have the better innovation capabilities, have the better performance.

3. Firms with good organizational innovation capability have a great possibility to develop their product platform as well as their organizational performance. Such firms had well communicated vision and mission, clear organizational purpose, long term commitment to the main projects, effective mechanisms to implement the innovation, systematic problem solving, proper organizational context, proper working structure, reward system, effective internal and external organizational systems, close relationship with customers, supplier and partners, commitment to training and development.

This study examines the relationship between organisational innovation capability, product platform development and performance in pharmaceutical small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Iran, an area which has remained unexplored. The intensive literature review has led us to suggest an empirically tested conceptual model consisting of innovation capability, product platform and performance as well as factors/enablers shaping innovation capability in the pharmaceutical firms. Combinations of quantitative and qualitative methods were used for data collection and analysis. Eight Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) companies that produce about 80% of local manufactured API were studied. The results show that the Iranian firms have chosen an imitative strategy in technology and product development. The common pattern for technology sourcing was external. However, although all companies purchased technologies from well-known suppliers, they demonstrated significant differences in the variety of products produced and performance. The failure firms lacked sound absorptive capability. Furthermore, the firms with high performance used a combination of internal and external sources for technology and product development. The empirical analysis showed a positive relationship between innovation capabilities, technology platform, product platform and performance. The pre-requisite to this relationship was found to be effective innovation management and strength/abilities in strategy, organisational structure, learning, processes and linkage (relationship) with the customers, suppliers and alliances.

This study aims to identify key success/failure factors in international strategicalliances (ISAs) in the Iranian pharmaceutical industry, an area which has remainedlargely unexamined. The literature review, and an expert panel’s views, led us tostudy 33 success factors. These factors, based upon their importance in strategic andstructural configuration of the alliance formation process, were grouped as contentand process-oriented. A combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches wasused for data collection and analysis. The results confirmed that all 33 factors areeffective in alliance success, which is an extension of earlier research. The studyreveals 8 of the most important success factors, and 11 of the most prevalent failurefactors. The findings also showed that six of the eight most important success factorsare process-oriented variables. This confirms that trust, mutual understanding anddeveloping strong inter-organisational relationships are extremely important in thesuccess of alliances in the Iranian Pharmaceutical industry. However, 8 of 11 failurefactors are content-oriented, which means that the failed alliances mainly hadproblems in the alliances’ strategic and structural design. The qualitative studysupports the quantitative results and adds to the high importance of the soft aspect ofthe alliances’ success including: the culture of collaboration, open-mindedness,relationship-building ability, parties’ proper knowledge of each other’s businessculture/working attitudes, and effective communication. Besides, in Iran, the localgovernment and public institutes have significant impact on the success of thealliances. One of the more significant findings that emerged from this study is that‘success’ can mean different things to different people/partners, so success andfailure should be seen from both parties’ perspectives.

The use of business excellence models (BEM) has become popular in the last two decades, and several companies have learned how to use them and gained from such models. More companies, we assume, have experienced problems when using such models because of various weaknesses such as too-sophisticated assessment criteria, excessive paperwork, cumbersome procedures and a lack of focus, which have limited its use in practice. To respond to some of those problems, a new overall business excellence framework (BEF) has been developed which recommends adaption instead of adoption of existing BEM. The suggested overall BEF helps to integrate BEM with management tools/techniques and the organisational culture/characteristics for guiding an organisation towards business excellence. A document-based empirical case of a world-class company, Boeing Aerospace Support, was investigated to illustrate how the overall BEF may work in practice as a complement to an existing BEM when companies adapt such models to their specific contexts.

With the evolution of quality from inspection and defect reduction to the new management philosophy, TQM, a new quality metrology is needed. Contributions to building the new TQM Metrology in the form of principles, guidelines and examples are presented and discussed.

Sustainability has become a topic of global relevance: Corporations and other economically acting organizations increasingly need to realize economic, environmental and social objectives in order to survive. Supplementary to "classical" environmental management, realizing corporate sustainability requires comprehensive approaches which allow the integration of social and economic aspects. Such concepts can be found e.g. in international excellence models mainly based on a TQM thinking but also in the field of human factors in organizational design and management. Understood as systems approaches, they include the interests of all relevant stakeholders with a mid- or long-term time perspective and are thus highly linked with the principles of sustainable development. In this book internationally leading scientists discuss the issue of sustainability from their perspective, resulting in an innovative view on different management approaches under the umbrella of corporate sustainability.

Purpose - The authors analyze the principles and results of lean production and compare the lean production philosophy with the six sigma quality process and the principles of total quality management (TQM). At the end of the paper, it is discussed how to build the necessary company culture for having success with these principles/management philosophies. Design/methodology/approach - Literature search and comparative analysis complemented with a Danish case on wastage in a core process. Findings - It is shown that the lean production philosophy and the six sigma steps are essentially the same and both have developed from the same root - the Japanese TQM practices. The improvement process from six sigma, the DMAIC process, can be regarded as a short version of the Quality Story, which was developed in Japan in the 1960s as a standard for QC-circle presentations. We conclude that the roadmaps of lean production and six sigma quality are examples of new alternative TQM roadmaps. We also conclude that especially with lean production and six sigma quality there seems to be too much focus on training people intools and techniques and at the same time too little focus on understanding the human factor, i.e. how to build the right company culture. Originality/value - The detailed and historical analysis of six sigma quality, lean production and TQM combined with a focus on the human factor and the needed corporate culture. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

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