Understanding dynamism and complexity factors in engineer-to-order and their influence on lean implementation strategy

Abstract

Complexity and dynamism are considered intrinsic features of engineer-to-order (ETO) business environment; it is, therefore, important to understand and manage them better. Based on empirical investigation of two case companies, this paper expands existing literature on how and why complexity and dynamism context factors constitute not only external business environment issues but also sub-factors within the boundary of the firm. It argues that most of the sub-factors for complexity and dynamism identified for repetitive manufacturing are relevant for the high uncertainty capital goods manufacturing ETO with some exceptions such as short product lifecycle and technological turbulence. A framework of configuration (on implementation of lean practices), and moderation (on the lean-operations performance relation) forms of influence from dynamism and complexity is proposed. Further arguments to be verified in future large scale research include: (1) dynamism bears challenges, and complexity provides opportunities to foster implementation of relevant lean practices in ETO, (2) both complexity and dynamism positively mediate better operations performance and enriched value from implemented lean practices.

Sustaining performance under operational turbulence

“…(2) just-in-time/flow; 3human resources management, (4) lean purchasing, (5) customer involvement and partnership; (6) supplier involvement and development; (7) standardisation; and (8) total productive maintenance. List of practices belonging to each bundle can be found in Birkie and Trucco (2016). Interested readers may additionally refer to Bortolotti et al (2015) for a detailed list of literature on lean bundles and underlying practices.…”

Lean and green in the transport and logistics sector – a case study of simultaneous deployment

“…By disseminating the concept of waste reduction (Chauhan and Singh, 2012), since the 1950s the lean paradigm has been gaining fame in a wide range of industrial sectors all around the world (Birkie and Trucco, 2016;Garza-Reyes et al, 2012). Thus, lean is nowadays considered one of the most dominant managerial paradigms (Forrester et al, 2010) as evidence advocates it increases the competitiveness of organisations (Hines et al, 2004) by improving productivity and quality, and reducing inventories and lead-times (AbdulWahab et al, 2013).…”

Supply chain agility as an acclimatisation process to environmental uncertainty and organisational vulnerabilities: insights from British SMEs

“…Uncertainty particularly characterises the current business environment that curbs predictability and suffers from a lack of relevant and applied knowledge amid information abundance. Complexity and dynamism factors in different industrial settings represent environmental uncertainty in various businesses (Birkie and Trucco 2016). In this vein, environmental uncertainty is a crucial trait of many supply chains (Fynes, de Búrca, and Marshall 2004;Paulraj and Chen 2007;Tseng et al 2014;Purvis et al 2016;Samson and Gloet 2018) that are distinctively complex and dynamic (Skilton and Robinson 2009;Milgate 2001;Roscoe et al 2019).…”