Course: Operations Management-16SP

6 Articles Annotated Bibliography

1. Drucker, P. F. (1999). Knowledge-worker productivity: The biggest challenge. California management review, 41(2), 79-94

The purpose of the article is to emphasize on the importance of knowledge workers and their productivity. The author has argued that in the 20^th century, the company was focusing on the production equipment while now this approach needs to be diverted toward the workers. The article is a research study approach towards the evolution of workers from working everything manually to the use of sophisticated technology and development of valuable worker’s skills to increase productivity. The author has suggested that within a very short time, organizations would need to answer some fundamental questions to be in the business. They are: what is the importance of the skilled labor vs the legal owners? Who to make knowledge workers more productive? How would the meaning of the word “capitalism” change when knowledge governs instead of money? What would “free market mean when knowledge workers own the knowledge regarding productivity?

2. Fleming, Q. W., & Koppelman, J. M. (2000, January). Earned value project management. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.

The main focus of the article is to explain the concept of the “earned value” from a theoretical perspective. The authors have argued that the earned value is a concept that has evolved from the implementation process of Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT). Earned Value has since become an industry standard which is classified to be a set of 32 criteria by the National Security Industrial Association (NSIA). Researcher suggest in this article that Earned Value concept implementation is an effective technique in major projects. This concept is not largely used yet but it can be a valuable asset for small businesses as well. Earned value can be incorporated when there is a risk of a rapid growth in the project cost. Software projects can greatly benefit from Earned Value. Earned value can provide the project manager with an advance warning system which could be used as early as the 15% of the project completion.

3. Lambert, D. M., & Cooper, M. C. (2000). Issues in supply chain management. Industrial marketing management, 29(1), 65-83.

The article discusses a framework that could prove vital in the integration of cross functional variables coupled with a marketing strategy. The researcher have carried out a literature review of the existing material concerning case studies involving different companies and multiple member. The authors argue that the modern businesses does not operate as individual entities, rather different businesses operate in collaboration with each other. It has been labeled as supplier-brand-store paradigm. The research has suggested that there are four main links in the supply chain process that need to be identified and addressed in a manner so that all issues and conflicts related to them are resolved. First is managed business process links, second is monitored business process links, third is not-managed business process links and fourth is non-member business process links. The research further suggests three interlinked elements that are active in supply chain management. They are supply chain network structure, supply chain business process and management components.

4. Mentzer, J. T., DeWitt, W., Keebler, J. S., Min, S., Nix, N. W., Smith, C. D., & Zacharia, Z. G. (2001). Defining supply chain management. Journal of Business logistics, 22(2), 1-25.

The main purpose of this literature review article is to define the supply chain management process from different perspectives. The term “supply chain management has risen to be well known within the last few decades. Due to the fact that the free market is growing, there is a greater dependence on suppliers for goods with a bigger profit margin. This has increase a need for the introduction and implementation of the concept of supply chain management. The paper has compared many definitions and come up with their own definition of the supply chain that is

“A set of three or more entities (organizations or individuals) directly involved in the upstream and downstream flows of products, services, finances, and/or information from a source to a customer.”

The article has further defined three channel relations that govern the concept of supply chain. They are direct supply chain, extended supply chain and ultimate supply chain. The ultimate supply chain is a complex combination of the relations of different actors in the process of supply chain. These actors are: supplier, organization, customer, market research firm, financial provider, ultimate supplier and ultimate customer.

5. Meredith, J. (1998). Building operations management theory through case and field research. Journal of operations management, 16(4), 441-454.

The author of the article has focused on the importance of publishing case field studies in the field of operations management. The author believes that there is a greater need to register and publish case and field studies as they provide a more scientific understanding in the form of empirical evidence to the field. These empirical methods are superior to a rationalistic approach towards understanding the concept of operations management as a process. The author have defined rationalistic research as an approach that is founded on the understanding that the phenomenon that need to be studied in a research are independent of the assumptions of the researchers and the context of the research. While empirical research or case study uses scientific tools to collect and analyze data to make predictions using standardized tools and keeping in view the context of the research. The researcher has suggested that case and field study must contain detailed observations and careful consideration of cause-effect chains. The inferences drawn from these studies must be logical.

6. Yusof, S. R. M., & Aspinwall, E. (1999). Critical success factors for total quality management implementation in small and medium enterprises. Total Quality Management, 10(4-5), 803-809.

This research is carried out to investigate the critical success factors (CSF) that could lead to a better implementation of total quality management (TQM) techniques in small and medium enterprises. The researcher argue that there has been much research carried out to investigate CSF at larger organizations but there is a gap in the case of smaller and medium organization. This research addresses this gap. The research has suggested ten CSF. The scope of the article is to point out these factors instead of describing these factors in details. These factors are: management leadership, organization, education and training, quality in design, quality in supplies, quality in process, fact-based management, human resource management, customer focus and tools and techniques. References to other researches are available to briefly describe the above ten CSF.