7. Case B: development of subcontracting strategy and information
7.4 Choice and definition of objectives
The aim is to prioritise development points and choose the most important things from the point of view of the development targets in the company (Lukka, 2003). It is also to aim to set up development teams and other groups in the company, to address specific development themes.
The first project group meeting was held on 11 October 2000. The project group covered different persons from many functions. The following persons be- longed to the group:
– managing director – director of finance – production manager – manager of subcontracting – development manager – manager ofr special products – project manager
– three researchers from VTT.
In the meeting, it was agreed to set the following development objects and devel- opment teams:
Subcontracting strategy group: The objective for the group was set to formu- late the strategy for subcontracting and the operation plan for achieving the growth objectives set. In this group, the answering person was the manager for subcon- tracting. The first meeting was on 1 November 2000. The group had five meetings in the period between 1 November 2000 and 10 January 2001.
Subcontracting development group: The objective for the group was deter- mined to formulate the central processes for the subcontracting, and to act as a certain kind of proto group, participating in product and method development.
Furthermore, the objective was to act as a certain kind of subcontracting “organi- sation”. In this group, the answering person was the manager for subcontracting.
The first production meeting was on 14 November 2000. The group had three meetings in the period between 14 November 2000 and 13 February 2001.
Production meeting group: The objective was to activate the whole manage- ment of production, that is, to create the transfer form of knowledge and experi- ence between different production departments. The objective for production meetings was to approach the development needs of each department as well as of the whole production, based on problem–based learning (cf. Coriat and Dosi, 1998; Dixon, 1999). In this group, the answering person was the production man- ager. The first meeting was on 1 November 2000. There was a total of six meet- ings in the period between 1 November 2000 and 11 January 2001.
In the spring of 2001, the special group was to advance indicators for pro- duction. The objective was to consider loading groups, and to determine opera- tive level indicators for these loading groups. In this group, the answering person was the manager of finance. The work started in the spring of 2001.
The group had three meetings in the period between 25 January 2001 and 22 February 2001. The researchers from VTT made the plan for the arrangement of indicators in the production in Case B.
The development and management of know-how: The willingness for train- ing was considered within different groups, based on the inquiry. Besides that, the researchers from VTT carried out an atmosphere mapping in Case B, from which they created a report.
The researchers participated in all these groups and their work. The role of the researchers from VTT was defined as follows:
– to take care of the progress of the joint project according to its planned schedule
– to bring the needed expertise for business, production planning, and infor- mation systems
– to offer and develop, together with the groups in the company, develop- ment practices and methods for the management of changes
– to conduct and support development group work (models, procedures, tools).
The purpose of the joint project was to develop operations management and op- erating procedures concurrently, as this was seen as a requirement for the defini- tion and development of information systems on the one hand, and for continuous
7. Case B: development of subcontracting strategy and information systems needs
development of information systems on the other. Case B clearly highlights how important strategic groundwork and operating procedures are for information sys- tems development. Figure 11 illustrates the development project in Case B.
Figure 11. Development map in the Case B development project.
One objective for the project group was to follow–up and manage the development groups. The project group had in the beginning phase, an important role in direct- ing the joint project, but the role changed later as only follow-up activities and operative working happened in development groups. However, many of the mem- bers of the project group participated in the work in the development groups at the same time.
The project group had seven meetings in the period between 11 October 2000 and 19 June 2001.
It is vital for SMEs to see operations management development as part of the development of operating procedures and the outlining of future activities (Hyötyläinen and Kalliokoski 2001). In this sense, the joint project outline in Case B highlights the importance of the early stages of the life–cycle model of the intro-
Project group - direction of
activity - follow-up and
assessment
Subcontracting strategy group
• strategic and functional goals for subcontracting
• growth strategy
• development activities
Manufacturing meeting group
• betterment of flow of information
• development of operative production control
• productional development activities
Subcontracting development group
• order-control action modes
• operative processes and organisation for subcontracting
• control ways and procedures
• control tools
Information systems needs
• descriptions for development needs
• alternative solution models
• definition of implementation models
duction process of the operations management system. The definition and devel- opment of information systems is crucially dependent on strategic policy setting and operations development.