BUSI 650 Week 4 ILP: Annotated Bibliography Example

Research for an Operations Portrait of a Medical-Device Molder: An Annotated Bibliography for the Integrative Learning Project

Purpose

These sources support an Integrative Learning Project describing Blue Ridge Precision Molding, a composite Virginia molder of plastic parts for device makers, as a successful operations organization. The final paper will address operations strategy, management practices, lean production, quality and Six Sigma and supply chain risk. The search ran through the library's business databases, and I kept only peer-reviewed studies that test claims with data or offer carefully argued definitions, rather than practitioner articles.

Annotated Sources

Bloom, N., & Van Reenen, J. (2007). Measuring and explaining management practices across firms and countries. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 122(4), 1351-1408. https://doi.org/10.1162/qjec.2007.122.4.1351

This study (Bloom & Van Reenen, 2007) developed an interview-based survey to score management practices in 732 medium-sized manufacturing firms in four countries, covering areas such as monitoring, target setting and people management. Their scores were strongly associated with productivity, profitability, market valuation and survival. They also found wide variation within countries, with a long tail of poorly managed firms, and that badly run firms were more common in sheltered markets and in family businesses handed down to the eldest son. The study's large sample and careful measurement make it one of the most credible pieces of evidence that management quality, not only technology, explains performance differences. Its manufacturing focus suits Blue Ridge, although the firms studied were larger on average. The final paper will use it in the section on performance measurement and management systems, to argue that Blue Ridge's daily routines, such as its production meetings and visual metrics, are a source of its success and worth strengthening.

Boyer, K. K., & Lewis, M. W. (2002). Competitive priorities: Investigating the need for trade-offs in operations strategy. Production and Operations Management, 11(1), 9-20. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1937-5956.2002.tb00181.x

This study addressed a long-running debate in operations strategy: must plants choose among cost, quality, flexibility and delivery, or can advanced technology let them improve all four together? Boyer and Lewis (2002) collected survey answers from both supervisors and floor workers at 110 plants with newly installed advanced equipment. Their results indicated that trade-offs persisted, though the perceived differences among priorities were modest and depended on where in the plant hierarchy respondents worked. Because the data reflect respondents' perceptions rather than measured performance, the study shows how plant members think about priorities more than how plants actually perform. It remains useful for framing strategy. The final paper's operations strategy section will use it to explain why Blue Ridge emphasizes delivery reliability and treats quality as a qualifier rather than claiming leadership on every priority, and why changeover time links its flexibility and cost goals.

Hendricks, K. B., & Singhal, V. R. (2005). An empirical analysis of the effect of supply chain disruptions on long-run stock price performance and equity risk of the firm. Production and Operations Management, 14(1), 35-52. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1937-5956.2005.tb00008.x

Hendricks and Singhal (2005) examined 827 public announcements of supply chain disruptions made between 1989 and 2000 and followed each affected firm's shares across a three-year window surrounding the announcement. Average abnormal returns over that window approached negative 40 percent, much of the decline occurred in the year before, on the day of and in the year after the announcement, and firms did not recover quickly; equity risk also rose. The event-study method and large sample make the evidence persuasive for publicly traded firms, while for a private supplier like Blue Ridge the stock-market measures are an indirect guide. The study's broader lesson, that disruptions impose lasting rather than temporary harm, supports the final paper's supply chain section, where it will justify Blue Ridge's investment in qualifying second sources for resin and in holding safety stock for single-sourced grades.

Hopp, W. J., & Spearman, M. L. (2004). To pull or not to pull: What is the question? Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 6(2), 133-148. https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.1030.0028

In this conceptual paper, Hopp and Spearman (2004) argue that practitioners had simplified the terms pull and lean until they caused confusion, and they propose precise definitions. In their account, any arrangement that caps the work allowed on the floor counts as pull, whatever form it takes, while lean means keeping down what a firm spends protecting itself against variability, whether that protection takes the form of inventory, spare capacity or extra lead time. The paper is theoretical rather than empirical, but its definitions are widely cited and give managers a way to apply lean thinking outside high-volume repetitive manufacturing. For Blue Ridge, which molds hundreds of parts in variable batches, this is essential: the final paper's lean production section will use the definitions to explain why the company caps released work on its shared presses instead of attempting kanban for every part, and why its quick-changeover and maintenance projects count as lean because they reduce the variability that forces buffers.

Linderman, K., Schroeder, R. G., & Choo, A. S. (2006). Six Sigma: The role of goals in improvement teams. Journal of Operations Management, 24(6), 779-790. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jom.2005.08.005

Linderman et al. (2006) examined a tension between goal-setting theory, which holds that challenging goals raise performance, and the quality tradition associated with Deming, which distrusts numerical goals. Studying Six Sigma improvement teams, they found that goals could be effective when teams followed the Six Sigma tools and method rigorously, but that challenging goals were counterproductive when teams did not use the method carefully. The study's empirical support for an interaction between goals and method is valuable, although it draws on teams within particular organizations and may not generalize to every setting. The final paper's quality section will use it to describe how Blue Ridge sets targets for its improvement projects, pairing each team's defect-reduction goal with required use of the structured method, and to caution against stretch targets for teams that have not yet been trained.

Netland, T. H. (2016). Critical success factors for implementing lean production: The effect of contingencies. International Journal of Production Research, 54(8), 2433-2448. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2015.1096976

Netland (2016) asked whether the commonly recommended success factors for lean implementation hold across different situations, as contingency theory would question. A survey of 432 practitioners in 83 factories owned by two multinational companies asked what managers should do to ensure lean succeeds at the factory level. The responses were grouped into general success factors and compared across corporation, factory size, implementation stage and national culture. The analysis generally supported a common list, with minor differences, for example by stage of implementation. Because the respondents came from two large multinationals, the findings may fit a mid-sized independent plant less closely. Still, the study is useful for the final paper's lean section, where it will support the argument that Blue Ridge's product variety does not exempt it from the usual requirements for lean success and that its implementation needs to sequence practices according to how far along it is.

Schroeder, R. G., Linderman, K., Liedtke, C., & Choo, A. S. (2008). Six Sigma: Definition and underlying theory. Journal of Operations Management, 26(4), 536-554. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jom.2007.06.007

Using a grounded theory approach and the limited literature then available, Schroeder et al. (2008) proposed a definition and theory of Six Sigma. They argued that although its tools resemble earlier quality management approaches, Six Sigma introduced a distinctive organizational structure, with defined improvement roles and a structured method, that helps organizations control improvement activities more rigorously while also enabling problem exploration among people from different parts of the organization. The authors acknowledged that Six Sigma also creates new challenges. As a theory-building study, it provides definitions and propositions rather than tests, but it is one of the most cited academic treatments of Six Sigma. The final paper's quality section will use it to describe Blue Ridge's improvement structure, in which trained project leaders work across molding, quality and engineering, and to explain why that structure, rather than any single statistical tool, sustains the company's low defect rates.

Shah, R., & Ward, P. T. (2003). Lean manufacturing: Context, practice bundles, and performance. Journal of Operations Management, 21(2), 129-149. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0272-6963(02)00108-0

Shah and Ward (2003) used data from IndustryWeek's Census of Manufacturers to examine how plant size, plant age and unionization affect the adoption of 22 lean practices and how those practices relate to performance. They sorted the practices into four coherent groups, labeled JIT, TQM, TPM and HRM by the authors, and confirmed the grouping statistically. Plant size strongly influenced adoption, while unionization and age mattered less than often assumed, and the bundles together explained about 23 percent of the variation in operational performance after controlling for other factors. The large sample and validated measures make this a foundational study for the final paper's lean section. It will support the argument that Blue Ridge should treat its changeover, maintenance, quality and training initiatives as one system rather than as separate projects, since the evidence suggests their effects depend on each other.

Closing Note

The eight sources map onto the final paper's planned sections. Operations strategy draws on Boyer and Lewis (2002); management systems and performance measurement on the management practices study (Bloom & Van Reenen, 2007); lean production on Shah and Ward (2003), Hopp and Spearman (2004) and Netland (2016); quality and Six Sigma on Schroeder et al. (2008) and Linderman et al. (2006); and supply chain risk on Hendricks and Singhal (2005). Every planned section of the final paper now has at least one study behind it. The Meredith and Shafer textbook will provide the core concepts throughout.