Extending the Horizons: Environmental Excellence as Key to Improving Operations
Tóm tắt
The view that adopting an environmental perspective on operations can lead to improved operations is in itself not novel; phrases such as “lean is green” are increasingly commonplace. The implication is that any operational system that has minimized inefficiencies is also more environmentally sustainable. However, in this paper we argue that the underlying mechanism is one of extending the horizons of analysis and that this applies to both theory and practice of operations management. We illustrate this through two principal areas of lean operations, where we identify how successive extensions of the prevailing research horizon in each area have led to major advances in theory and practice. First, in quality management, the initial emphasis on statistical quality control of individual operations was extended through total quality management to include a broader process encompassing customer requirements and suppliers’ operations. More recently, the environmental perspective extended the definition of customers to stakeholders and defects to any form of waste. Second, in supply chain management, the horizon first expanded from the initial focus on optimizing inventory control with a single planner to including multiple organizations with conflicting objectives and private information. The environmental perspective draws attention to aspects such as reverse flows and end-of-life product disposal, again potentially improving the performance of the overall supply chain. In both cases, these developments were initially driven by practice, where many of the benefits of adopting an environmental perspective were unexpected. Given that these unexpected side benefits seem to recur so frequently, we refer to this phenomenon as the “law of the expected unexpected side benefits.” We conclude by extrapolating from the developmental paths of total quality management and supply chain management to speculate about the future of environmental research in operations management.
Từ khóa
Tài liệu tham khảo
Barry J., 1993, J. Eur. Bus., 5, 34
Besanko D., 2000, Economics of Strategy
Bragdon J., 1972, Risk Management, 19, 9
Cachon G. P., 2003, Handbooks in Operations Research and Management Science: Supply Chain Management, 11, 341
Carter C. R., 1998, J. Bus. Logist., 19, 85
Chen F., 2002, Handbooks in Operations Research and Management Science: Supply Chain Management
Crosby P. B., 1979, Quality is Free
Evans J. R., 2001, Management and the Control of Quality, 5
Freeman H. M., 1995, Industrial Pollution Prevention Handbook
Freeman R. E., 1984, Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach
Friedman M., 1962, Capitalism and Freedom
Garvin D. A., 1983, Harvard Bus. Rev., 61, 64
Guide V. D. R., 2002, Harvard Bus. Rev., 80, 25
Guide V. D. R., 2003, Business Aspects of Closed-Loop Supply Chains. International Management Series, 2
Hart S. L., 2002, Sloan Management Rev., 44, 51
Hart S. L., 1999, Sloan Management Rev., 41, 23
Hopfenbeck W., 1993, Fx
Juran J. M., 1998, Juran’s Quality Handbook, 5
Kaplan R. S., 1996, Harvard Bus. Rev., 74, 75
Klassen R. D., 2004, Understanding Supply Chains—Concepts, Critiques, and Futures, 229, 10.1093/oso/9780199259328.003.0010
Kuhn T. S., 1970, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Liker J. K., 2004, The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World’s Greatest Manufacturer
Madu C. N., 2003, Competing on Quality and Environment
Mendel P. J., 2001, Organizations, Policy, and the Natural Environment: Institutional and Strategic Perspectives
Micklethwait J., 2003, The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea
Pall G. A., 2000, The Process-Centered Enterprise: The Power of Commitments
Perrow C., 1984, Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies
Porter M. E., 1995, Harvard Bus. Rev., 73, 120
Reinhardt F. L., 1999, Harvard Bus. Rev., 77, 149
Reiskin E. D., 2000, J. Indust. Ecology, 3, 19
Rogers D. S., 1999, Going Backwards: Reverse Logistics Trends and Practices
Romm J. J., 1999, Cool Companies: How the Best Businesses Boost Profits and Productivity by Cutting Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Shewhart W. A., 1931, The Economic Control of Quality of Manufactured Product
Stock J. R., 1998, Development and Implementation of Reverse Logistics Programs
Wallace W., 1971, The Logic of Science in Sociology