STANDARDIZING THE GLOBAL ORDER-TO-DELIVERY PROCESS IN A PRODUCT GROUP: A CASE STUDY IN A GLOBAL MANUFACTURING COMPANY
Warvas, Toni (2014)
Kuvaus
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Tiivistelmä
This research project was initiated by a product group operations manager of a global manufacturing company to bring transparency and harmonization in the global operations. There are 11 units in the product group, and in the past the units were managed locally. Two years ago the company introduced a new structure where the product group is globally managed and the units are only responsible for producing the end products. Some of the local processes have been transformed to global processes already, but the company is still facing a great deal of problems due to different procedures between the units. This research project aims to induce harmonization in the global operations through process documentation, standardization, and defining the commonly used strategies and models. The distribution of created materials was performed by establishing a web-based portal called handbook that included everything created during this project. At the end of the project the created standard procedures were compared to the current means to operate using a gap analysis.
The research framework was created based on the information acquired from the existing research literature in relevant fields of studies. The empirical data for the research was acquired through discussion and e-mail conversations with the process masters in each function in each unit. Part of the empirical data was found through different internal databases. Three product group managers were also actively involved with this project and communicated a lot of empirical information and knowledge to the researcher regarding the global processes.
The acquired results indicated that the case company could standardize its global operations through the created standard process models for the selected processes with relatively low perceived risks involved. On the other hand, harmonizing efforts might require plenty of resources, and the implementation might not be possible in the near future because of it. The created gap analysis provided a comprehensive general picture of the global situation to support future management decisions.
The research framework was created based on the information acquired from the existing research literature in relevant fields of studies. The empirical data for the research was acquired through discussion and e-mail conversations with the process masters in each function in each unit. Part of the empirical data was found through different internal databases. Three product group managers were also actively involved with this project and communicated a lot of empirical information and knowledge to the researcher regarding the global processes.
The acquired results indicated that the case company could standardize its global operations through the created standard process models for the selected processes with relatively low perceived risks involved. On the other hand, harmonizing efforts might require plenty of resources, and the implementation might not be possible in the near future because of it. The created gap analysis provided a comprehensive general picture of the global situation to support future management decisions.