Operations Strategy & Flexibility
This department seeks to publish articles that examine the relationships between operations strategy and operational decisions within an organization, as well as relationships with other functional areas. Articles on both the process of developing/modifying strategies and the ******* of an organization’s strategy are encouraged. Of particular interest are articles that examine linkages between strategic priorities/goals and both long-term operational decisions and shorter term operational decisions.
While the field of operations strategy has made great strides in studying competitive priorities and studying operational decisions separately, there is a strong need to examine linkages at a deeper level. In a sense, Skinner (1969) offered a call to arms for manufacturing as the missing link in corporate strategy. This department wishes to publish papers that examine links between operations strategy and decisions, as well as between different functional areas of an organization (i.e. marketing, finance, information technology, new product development). Specific topics that are of great interest include:
• The broader area of "operations" strategy rather than the earlier focus on "manufacturing" strategy. Services make up a large majority of the economies of developed nations, and even within manufacturing, much of the value added is not attributable to direct product transformations.
• Studies focused on a single industry that allow for comparison of different strategies based on competitive priorities by examining different linked operational decisions in a controlled setting.
• Longitudinal rather than cross-sectional studies. Strategy is often examined in a static manner, yet given its dynamic nature there is a strong need for more longitudinal research.
• Strategic consensus and multiple viewpoints. Operations by definition involve anyone in an organization directly involved with providing a product or a service, thus there are typically numerous people involved in any order. Research that examines multiple participants from a single organization is encouraged to break from the common focus on a single key informant.
The specific topics mentioned above are not intended to be a complete list. We encourage papers that combine strong theory with practical examination of operations strategy in organizations. All research methods will be considered, but emphasis is placed on empirical examinations of existing organizations and the value of insights in guiding executives in managing their organizations.
Service Operations Management
There is an ever-increasing need to improve management principles and theory on designing and managing service operations. Advances in information and communications technology hastened the startling pace of service product and process advances, globalization of services, the heterogeneity and complexity of customer demands, and entry of non-traditional service providers. Yet despite the size and growth of the service sector in industrialized economies, productivity has improved only slightly in recent decades. Additionally customer expectations for faster, better, cheaper services are rising. These are but a few examples of environmental, contextual, and competitive factors that are altering the landscape of service enterprises.
The Service Operations Management (SOM) Department is seeking leading-edge, rigorous research that expands the scientific knowledge base of services management from an operations management lens, and at the same time is relevant to practice. With this scope, we seek articles that build and test theory in SOM and provide managerial insights on the design, delivery, and performance assessment of services. Theory-based conceptual studies and interdisciplinary submissions are also encouraged and articles may cover either strategic or tactical problems. Submissions should be grounded in practice and be motivated by SOM issues faced by practicing managers, their companies or the service sector. Research methodologies may vary from analytic optimization, economic analyses, simulation and empirical techniques, which span survey-based to case-based studies. Regardless of the research approach taken, all submissions must pass the highest standards for scholarly work. Examples of topics that fall into the SOM Department include:
• Service technology management including: the use of the Internet for e-commerce (B2B) and e-services (B2C), self-service and process technologies, and technology mediated customer contacts
• Behavioral and psychological aspects of service management including: management of professionals and knowledge workers, employee-customer interfaces, design for experiences, delivering personalized services, and servicescape effectiveness
• Yield management, DEA, discreet choice modeling, and other analytical approaches to managing and designing services
• Service supply/value chains design including: customer-supplier relationships, managing uncertainty, franchising, outsourcing, shared services, purchasing, and configurations of facilities and networks
• Service-based manufacturing, including service factories and after-sales service
• Performance and value measurement including: economics of services, customer satisfaction and loyalty
• Managing service encounters including: blueprinting, failsafing, service guarantees, and service recovery
• Service innovations and new service design and development
• Interface between SOM and other functions including, marketing and human resources
• Capacity planning including: queuing, scheduling, forecasting, and trade-offs in balancing supply and demand
• Service sector applications including: financial services, retail services, health care, hospitality, catalogue, and industrial services
• Service quality, customer orientation, and continuous improvement
• Service operations strategy including: strategic planning; strategy ******* and execution, service delivery channel strategies, pricing, SOM competitiveness, service configurations and taxonomies
• Globalization of services including: industrialized and emerging markets, multicountry expansion, and cross-cultural issues.
Special Topics in Operations Management
This Department invites papers that extend the frontiers of Operations Management. Our discipline continues to broaden fast as the global business environment increasingly rewards companies that can integrate various disciplines or perspectives in an innovative manner. This Department would like to provide an outlet to scientific papers that address new and challenging additions to operations management. Paper topics are potentially unlimited but here are a few examples:
• Interfaces between operations management and environmental impact (industrial ecology, lifecycle analysis)
• Product recovery and take-back issues (reverse logistics, remanufacturing, closed-loop supply chains)
• Specific problems related to international operations (outsourcing, impact of legislation)
• Dynamic and agile global production and supply networks
• Lean versus robust international production and supply chains
• Disaster logistics (disaster preparedness and response issues)
• Production and supply chain performance management and links to bottom-line financials
• Lifecycle approaches to design, production and supply chain management
• Installed base management.
It is important that the topic of the submitted paper is not recognized as part of established mainstream research in other Departments yet, otherwise the paper should be submitted to the appropriate specialized Department. Authors are requested to motivate why their paper is being submitted to this "Special Topics" Department.
All manuscripts submitted for review will be expected to show managerial relevance and scientific rigor. The problem studied should be firmly grounded in practice and must be motivated by issues faced by a firm or an industry. Authors are encouraged to clearly and convincingly motivate why the particular problem they study is innovative and important to both industry and academia.
The Department is open to all research methods provided the analysis in the paper shows a sound methodological base.
Supply Chain Management
The rise of global markets and increasingly virtual companies has focused both management and academic attention on competition among supply chains. The Supply Chain Management Department considers the operational challenges of managing product, information, and financial flows across organizations and customers. We seek papers that present leading- edge research on this rapidly evolving topic. The possible paper topics are vast – for example:
• Inventory management
• Supply chain coordination
• Integrated supply chain planning
• Sourcing relationships and strategy
• Supply chain design and facility location
• Organization of the supply chain function
• Managing product variety in supply chains
• Coordination of product and supply chain design
• The role of information technology in supply chain coordination
• Logistics, order fulfillment and distribution
• Supply chain risk management
• Channel management.
Manuscripts submitted for review will be expected to display both managerial relevance and scientific rigor. In particular, the problem studied must be firmly grounded in practice and must be motivated by issues faced by a firm or an industry. Research that deals with more than one entity is encouraged. Research focused on traditional operations topics such as shop floor scheduling, quality control, manufacturing flexibility will not be considered unless a compelling connection to supply chain management is provided. All research methods will be considered, but manuscripts must pass the highest standard of scientific rigor in terms of methods and analysis

good work my friend