Entries from May 2008
Logistics research takes many forms, but now a different type of conference invitation landed in my mailbox: one to a “military logistics symposium“. It’s in fact a research convention that’s organised by the Nordic Defence Logistic Research Network and takes place during Dec 4/5 in Stockholm. What makes it particularly interesting is that this research network is quite engaged in humanitarian logistics, and CIMIC research at the same time. Not to forget the traditional defence logistics topics that will come up as well.
Interested? Contact Per Skoglund [firstname.lastname@ihh.hj.se] or Michael Dorn [firstname.lastname@fhs.se] for more info. And don’t forget to send in an abstract by June 25, 2008!
Gyöngyi
Categories: Call for papers · Conferences · Humanitarian supply chains · Logistics · Supply Chain Management
Why do we organise and attend academic conferences? Yes, here it comes, it’s the debate that matters. Discussing ideas, refining our arguments, getting feedback, input, maybe even co-operation partners. Unfortunately, this seems to be lost at some conferences. More and more academics only attend with papers of their “honours students”, reluctant to share their ideas, not wanting to even hint what they are actually working on. One may suspect they have no own ideas 
It’s funny how people think one may steal their brilliant idea. Sure, it happens, but such unethical behaviour always comes right back at those who do this. But usually the one who came up with an idea has a first mover advantage in any case (or does s/he?); having developed it much further than any copy-cat could follow up.
But well, it is a competitive environment, and I was just confronted with what a difference it can make to live in a publish-or-perish climate. If you don’t steal the other’s idea you’ll at least attempt to shoot it down at a conference… Where did the common goal of advancing science disappear? Publish or (and?) perish has been argued to kill the spirit of higher education, it seems to now kill the spirit of academic conferences. I have started to understand the EU’s stance of having to combine efforts for grant applications; it forces you to collaborate and to discuss your research throughout the process. It’s just sad we need to be forced to do so…
Gyöngyi
Categories: Conferences · Uncategorized
I am teaching Operations Management this semester, including two lectures on Failure Prevention and Quality Management, respectively.
The core textbook (Slack et al. 2007, 5th Ed.) includes many illustrative case examples, but suffers from the physical, static format of the book. Pieces from the trade press and other business media can, however, be of help by providing some contemporary examples from “practice” (this why it is useful for students to become acknowledged with this debate). One of the more “interesting” references during the lectures has been…and here it comes, UK…Terminal 5. This story literally walked into the classroom.
If you search for some of the following on Google, a some evidence will appear that allows further “synthesis”: Terminal 5 March 2008 operations baggage milan failure chaos
This allows students to deal with contemporary management challenges that have not been discussed by editorial boards (or filtered through?) of case books (eeerhhmm).
I am not sure this is what my co-blogger Gyöngyi had in mind on this piece on “The gift of travel time” . I refer more and more to Mintzberg’s “Why I hate flying” in my lectures.
Árni
Categories: Operations management · Service management · Socks and sandals
Tagged: Operations management
First there was standardisation, then product adaptation, then customising… till now it is the customer doing the lion share in developing a product or service. Harley and Land Rover owners have developed their own version of the vehicle for quite some time, to the extent that the brands live of the individuality of the final products and new vehicles are only there for inspirational models or “concept cars”. Ikea has outsourced the final assembly of products to the consumer (with some downsides for reverse logistics when half-assembled products come back just because the consumer was not able to take care of this final step), and what we have only learned to think about when e-grocers entered the market, retailing lives of consumers picking, weighing, packing and transporting their own items home.
Now the idea of consumer involvement in product development has seemingly entered the arena of services (at least considering service management literature). Not that it hadn’t been there before, just think of your local gym where it’s up to the consumer which of the services s/he uses in which order and according to which individual training programme. Theme parks and cruises offer similar possibilities of individually developing the “service experience”. So, what’s new about taking customising into the service arena?
Gyöngyi
Categories: Product development · Service management
