The Experts below are selected from a list of 282 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Troy Magennis - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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the economic impact of software development Process Choice cycle time analysis and monte carlo simulation results
Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2015Co-Authors: Troy MagennisAbstract:IT executives initiate software development Process methodology change with faith that it will lower development cost, decrease time-to-market and increase quality. Anecdotes and success stories from agile practitioners and vendors provide evidence that other companies have succeeded following a newly chosen doctrine. Quantitative evidence is scarcer than these stories, and when available, often unverifiable. This paper introduces a quantitative approach to assess software Process methodology change. It proposes working from the perspective of impact on cycle-time performance (the time from the start of individual pieces of work until their completion), before and after a Process change. This paper introduces the history and theoretical basis of this analysis, and then presents a commercial case study. The case study demonstrates how the economic value of a Process change initiative was quantified to understand success and payoff. Cycle-time is a convenient metric for comparing proposed and ongoing Process improvement due to its easy capture and applicability to all Processes. Poor cycle-time analysis can lead to teams being held to erroneous service level expectations. Properly comparing the impact of proposed Process change scenarios, modeled using historical or estimated cycle-time performance helps isolate the bottom line impact of Process changes with quantitative rigor.
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HICSS - The Economic Impact of Software Development Process Choice -- Cycle-Time Analysis and Monte Carlo Simulation Results
2015 48th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2015Co-Authors: Troy MagennisAbstract:IT executives initiate software development Process methodology change with faith that it will lower development cost, decrease time-to-market and increase quality. Anecdotes and success stories from agile practitioners and vendors provide evidence that other companies have succeeded following a newly chosen doctrine. Quantitative evidence is scarcer than these stories, and when available, often unverifiable. This paper introduces a quantitative approach to assess software Process methodology change. It proposes working from the perspective of impact on cycle-time performance (the time from the start of individual pieces of work until their completion), before and after a Process change. This paper introduces the history and theoretical basis of this analysis, and then presents a commercial case study. The case study demonstrates how the economic value of a Process change initiative was quantified to understand success and payoff. Cycle-time is a convenient metric for comparing proposed and ongoing Process improvement due to its easy capture and applicability to all Processes. Poor cycle-time analysis can lead to teams being held to erroneous service level expectations. Properly comparing the impact of proposed Process change scenarios, modeled using historical or estimated cycle-time performance helps isolate the bottom line impact of Process changes with quantitative rigor.
Larry P Ritzman - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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LINKING Process Choice WITH PLANT‐LEVEL DECISIONS ABOUT CAPITAL AND HUMAN RESOURCES
Production and Operations Management, 2009Co-Authors: Larry P Ritzman, M H SafizadehAbstract:We examine how Process Choice links with design decisions about capital and human resources. Our analysis confirms empirically most expected differences between Process- and product-focused plants for these decisions. What is unexpected is how top-performing plants resemble other plants within the same Process Choice category in most respects, while distinguishing themselves on a few selected Process attributes. For example, better performing Process-focused plants not only achieve higher machine flexibility levels and lower overhead costs as expected, but also have more intensive preventive maintenance programs. Similarly, product-focused plants that achieve certain hallmarks of Process-focused plants also enjoy superior performance.
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revisiting alternative theoretical paradigms in manufacturing strategy
Production and Operations Management, 2000Co-Authors: M H Safizadeh, Larry P Ritzman, Debasish N MallickAbstract:Testing and cross-validation of theories and paradigms are necessary to advance the field of manufacturing strategy. When the findings of one study are also obtained in other studies, using entirely different databases, we become more confident in the results. Replication alleviates concerns about spurious results and is one motivation for this study. We examine aspects of the tradeoffs concept, production competence paradigm, and a manufacturing strategy taxonomy framework. In regard to the tradeoffs concept, we found evidence of tradeoffs between some, but certainly not all, manufacturing capabilities of quality, cost, delivery, and customization. The relationships get sharper when controlling for Process Choice. For example, the tradeoff between cost and customization is particularly strong between plants that have different Process Choices. We find that such tradeoffs can change, or even disappear, however, once the Process Choice is in place. With respect to the production competence paradigm, our analysis shows a statistically significant correlation between production competence and operations performance in batch shops, but not in plants with other Process Choices. Finally, using variables similar to those of Miller and Roth, our data produced three similar clusters even though their unit of analysis was much more macro than ours. Controlling for Process Choice is consistent with the current manufacturing strategy literature that emphasizes dynamic development of capabilities within the context of path dependencies. A major argument of this strand of research is that operations decisions not only affect current capabilities, but also set the framework for development of capabilities in the future. That being the case, controlling for Process Choice (or other factors such as industry or markets) should contribute to the understanding of capability-development paths adopted by different manufacturing plants. In short, we found at least partial support for each of the theories examined here, even though the theories seem on the surface to be contradictory and mutually exclusive. Controlling for Process Choice or other measures of dependency goes a long way in uncovering consistency across different theories and empirical studies in operations management.
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Linking performance drivers in production planning and inventory control to Process Choice
Journal of Operations Management, 1997Co-Authors: M H Safizadeh, Larry P RitzmanAbstract:Abstract This study investigates how Process Choice relates to production planning and inventory control decisions. We empirically examine the validity of deductively derived patterns about these types of decisions. More importantly, we look for normative insights by exploring how production planning and inventory control decisions affect operations performance. Our findings show that production line and continuous flow plants use more of a level production strategy, and carry less raw material and work-in-Process inventory. The performance drivers for these plants, through which the operations function excels, are effective utilization of equipment, reduced finished goods inventory, and reduced setup down time. To gain forward demand visibility and batching economies, job and batch shops rely much more on backlogs in their planning Process. These plants use more of a production chase strategy and position inventory lower in the bills of materials. Four performance drivers for top-performing job and batch shops are to find ways that better anticipate customers' orders, have a more responsive chase strategy, carry less raw material or purchased inventory, and shorten production planning horizon, partly through less reliance on backlogs. It is intriguing that top-performing plants not only do the expected things, given their Choice of Process, but also excel in selected dimensions—some of which fit the profile normally associated with a different Process Choice. To monitor and continuously improve operations, evaluation ‘scorecards’ should pay particular attention to performance drivers, which change depending on the plant's Process Choice.
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an empirical analysis of the product Process matrix
Management Science, 1996Co-Authors: Hossein M Safizadeh, Larry P Ritzman, Deven Sharma, Craig H WoodAbstract:Process Choice, a major part of operations strategy, is a key decision that links operations to business strategy. Hayes and Wheelwright, among others, argue that the emphasis given to product customization and other competitive priorities should agree with Process Choice. Our empirical study investigates whether firms actually link their Process Choice to product customization and other competitive priorities as hypothesized, and whether compatible decision patterns lead to better performance. Analysis of data collected from managers at 144 U.S. manufacturing plants shows a strong correlation between Process Choice, product customization, and competitive priorities. Process Choice is highly related with the degree of product customization, and also with the emphasis placed on the quality and cost competitive priorities. Job shops and batch shops tend to have more product customization, higher costs, and higher quality. Some continuous flow shops use part commonality and flexible automation to achieve more customization than would otherwise be expected. Without these initiatives, customization in continuous flow shops results in weak performance.
Victor Manuel Bennett - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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organization and bargaining sales Process Choice at auto dealerships
Management Science, 2013Co-Authors: Victor Manuel BennettAbstract:This paper examines how firms’ organizational form affects prices negotiated. Negotiated prices are one factor determining whether a vendor or customer captures the value from a transaction. Firms that systematically negotiate more effectively capture more value. Research has investigated individual- and market-level determinants of negotiation outcomes, but little has been done on the firm-level determinants of negotiated prices. I present a first look at one feature, sales Process: whether salespeople handle the entire sale in parallel or customers begin with less experienced salespeople who can escalate difficult assignments. I model firms’ Choice of sales Process as a biform game and test predictions of the model using a combination of transaction-level data on new car purchases in the U.S. and a unique survey of dealership management practices. I find that a serial Process has implications consistent with improving firms’ bargaining power and reducing customers’ outside option.
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Organization and Bargaining: Sales Process Choice at Auto Dealerships
Management Science, 2013Co-Authors: Victor Manuel BennettAbstract:This paper examines how firms' organizational form affects prices negotiated. Negotiated prices are one factor determining whether a vendor or customer captures the value from a transaction. Firms that systematically negotiate more effectively capture more value. Research has investigated individual- and market-level determinants of negotiation outcomes, but little has been done on the firm-level determinants of negotiated prices. I present a first look at one feature, sales Process: whether salespeople handle the entire sale in parallel or customers begin with less experienced salespeople who can escalate difficult assignments. I model firms' Choice of sales Process as a biform game and test predictions of the model using a combination of transaction-level data on new car purchases in the United States and a unique survey of dealership management practices. I find that a serial Process has implications consistent with improving firms' bargaining power and reducing customers' outside options. This paper w...
M H Safizadeh - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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LINKING Process Choice WITH PLANT‐LEVEL DECISIONS ABOUT CAPITAL AND HUMAN RESOURCES
Production and Operations Management, 2009Co-Authors: Larry P Ritzman, M H SafizadehAbstract:We examine how Process Choice links with design decisions about capital and human resources. Our analysis confirms empirically most expected differences between Process- and product-focused plants for these decisions. What is unexpected is how top-performing plants resemble other plants within the same Process Choice category in most respects, while distinguishing themselves on a few selected Process attributes. For example, better performing Process-focused plants not only achieve higher machine flexibility levels and lower overhead costs as expected, but also have more intensive preventive maintenance programs. Similarly, product-focused plants that achieve certain hallmarks of Process-focused plants also enjoy superior performance.
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revisiting alternative theoretical paradigms in manufacturing strategy
Production and Operations Management, 2000Co-Authors: M H Safizadeh, Larry P Ritzman, Debasish N MallickAbstract:Testing and cross-validation of theories and paradigms are necessary to advance the field of manufacturing strategy. When the findings of one study are also obtained in other studies, using entirely different databases, we become more confident in the results. Replication alleviates concerns about spurious results and is one motivation for this study. We examine aspects of the tradeoffs concept, production competence paradigm, and a manufacturing strategy taxonomy framework. In regard to the tradeoffs concept, we found evidence of tradeoffs between some, but certainly not all, manufacturing capabilities of quality, cost, delivery, and customization. The relationships get sharper when controlling for Process Choice. For example, the tradeoff between cost and customization is particularly strong between plants that have different Process Choices. We find that such tradeoffs can change, or even disappear, however, once the Process Choice is in place. With respect to the production competence paradigm, our analysis shows a statistically significant correlation between production competence and operations performance in batch shops, but not in plants with other Process Choices. Finally, using variables similar to those of Miller and Roth, our data produced three similar clusters even though their unit of analysis was much more macro than ours. Controlling for Process Choice is consistent with the current manufacturing strategy literature that emphasizes dynamic development of capabilities within the context of path dependencies. A major argument of this strand of research is that operations decisions not only affect current capabilities, but also set the framework for development of capabilities in the future. That being the case, controlling for Process Choice (or other factors such as industry or markets) should contribute to the understanding of capability-development paths adopted by different manufacturing plants. In short, we found at least partial support for each of the theories examined here, even though the theories seem on the surface to be contradictory and mutually exclusive. Controlling for Process Choice or other measures of dependency goes a long way in uncovering consistency across different theories and empirical studies in operations management.
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Linking performance drivers in production planning and inventory control to Process Choice
Journal of Operations Management, 1997Co-Authors: M H Safizadeh, Larry P RitzmanAbstract:Abstract This study investigates how Process Choice relates to production planning and inventory control decisions. We empirically examine the validity of deductively derived patterns about these types of decisions. More importantly, we look for normative insights by exploring how production planning and inventory control decisions affect operations performance. Our findings show that production line and continuous flow plants use more of a level production strategy, and carry less raw material and work-in-Process inventory. The performance drivers for these plants, through which the operations function excels, are effective utilization of equipment, reduced finished goods inventory, and reduced setup down time. To gain forward demand visibility and batching economies, job and batch shops rely much more on backlogs in their planning Process. These plants use more of a production chase strategy and position inventory lower in the bills of materials. Four performance drivers for top-performing job and batch shops are to find ways that better anticipate customers' orders, have a more responsive chase strategy, carry less raw material or purchased inventory, and shorten production planning horizon, partly through less reliance on backlogs. It is intriguing that top-performing plants not only do the expected things, given their Choice of Process, but also excel in selected dimensions—some of which fit the profile normally associated with a different Process Choice. To monitor and continuously improve operations, evaluation ‘scorecards’ should pay particular attention to performance drivers, which change depending on the plant's Process Choice.
Rajesh Krishna Balan - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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the impact of Process Choice in high maturity environments an empirical analysis
International Conference on Software Engineering, 2009Co-Authors: Narayan Ramasubbu, Rajesh Krishna BalanAbstract:We present the results of a three year field study of the software development Process Choices made by project teams at two leading offshore vendors. In particular, we focus on the performance implications of project teams that chose to augment structured, plan-driven Processes to implement the CMM level-5 Key Process Areas (KPAs) with agile methods. Our analysis of 112 software projects reveals that the decision to augment the firm-recommended, plan-driven approach with improvised, agile methods was significantly affected by the extent of client knowledge and involvement, the newness of technology, and the project size. Furthermore this decision had a significant and mostly positive impact on project performance indicators such as reuse, rework, defect density, and productivity
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ICSE - The impact of Process Choice in high maturity environments: An empirical analysis
2009 IEEE 31st International Conference on Software Engineering, 2009Co-Authors: Narayan Ramasubbu, Rajesh Krishna BalanAbstract:We present the results of a three year field study of the software development Process Choices made by project teams at two leading offshore vendors. In particular, we focus on the performance implications of project teams that chose to augment structured, plan-driven Processes to implement the CMM level-5 Key Process Areas (KPAs) with agile methods. Our analysis of 112 software projects reveals that the decision to augment the firm-recommended, plan-driven approach with improvised, agile methods was significantly affected by the extent of client knowledge and involvement, the newness of technology, and the project size. Furthermore this decision had a significant and mostly positive impact on project performance indicators such as reuse, rework, defect density, and productivity