Fabian J. StingUniversity of Cologne | UOC · Department of Supply Chain Management
Fabian J. Sting
Prof. Dr.
About
35
Publications
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Introduction
Fabian J. Sting is Chaired Professor of Supply Chain Management – Strategy and Innovation at University of Cologne, and Chaired Professor of Digital Supply Chain Innovation at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam.
Publications
Publications (35)
To keep product development projects on schedule, establishing psychological safety and promoting cooperative behavior can be just as important as good planning.
We study the implementation of operations strategy at six German manufacturers in mature businesses. Search theory argues that vertical coordination (i.e., unilateral top-down adjustment of lower-level search actions) balances stability against the improvement potential enabled by frontline search and also that horizontal coordination (i.e., bilate...
Organizations engage in search when they innovate. Search is typically performed by multiple group members who are
knowledgeable about parts of the search problem, but rarely understand all decision variables. Search theory has shown
that team members therefore need to coordinate their work. However, previous work has not examined joint problem
sol...
How do employees perceive strategic technology initiatives? Understanding this is crucial for attaining employees’ acceptance, and so for successful initiative implementation. Drawing on timely cases of digitalization-induced change initiatives triggered by Industry 4.0, the digital networking of the manufacturing industry, we investigate manufactu...
Research on buyer–supplier relationships has debated the advantages and disadvantages of embedded relationships. We join this debate by developing theory on the performance implications of relaxing embedded buyer–supplier relationships for a limited period of time—a previously neglected phenomenon we refer to as temporary deembedding. To capture th...
Shop-floor employees play a key role in manufacturing innovation. In some companies, up to 75% of all productivity gains are the result of bottom-up employee ideas. In this paper, we examine how employee interplant assignments—short problem-solving jobs at other manufacturing plants within the same firm—influence employee-driven manufacturing innov...
How do employees perceive strategic technology initiatives? Understanding this is crucial
for attaining employees’ acceptance, and so for successful initiative implementation.
Drawing on timely cases of digitalization-induced change initiatives triggered by
Industry 4.0, the digital networking of the manufacturing industry, we investigate
manufactu...
Progression of knowledge in operations management (OM) relies on researchers building and testing theories using data from practice. However, standalone empirical research designs have inherent limitations and may not adequately capture complex OM problems. This may result in researchers narrowing the scope of the problems that they create epistemo...
Companies struggle with timely project execution despite employing sophisticated management methods. Although help across projects is critical for time performance, it has not been explicitly incorporated into project management (PM) systems. We model a PM system, based on an innovative real-life practice, that both incorporates and shapes project...
Employee ideas are a valuable starting point to improve operational efficiency. Organizations therefore systematically tap into employee knowledge. In this paper we empirically investigate how moves between problems and sites affect the innovation value created by employee ideas for the organization. We document that the dynamic effects of problem...
Research on buyer-supplier relationships has debated the advantages and disadvantages of embedded relationships. We join this debate by developing theory on the performance implications of relaxing embedded buyer-supplier relationships for a limited period of time—a previously neglected phenomenon we refer to as temporary de-embedding. To capture t...
Research on buyer-supplier relationships has debated the advantages and disadvantages of embedded relationships. We join this debate by developing theory on the performance implications of relaxing embedded buyer-supplier relationships for a limited period of time—a previously neglected phenomenon we refer to as temporary de-embedding. To capture t...
High-tech organizations maintain a portfolio of R&D projects that address problems with different levels of complexity. These projects use different strategies to search for technological solutions. Projects refining existing products, processes and technologies, for instance, employ a local search strategy to improve performance, while projects de...
Operations strategy is formed via complex processes that transpire in multiple directions at multiple organizational levels. While most previous studies focus on the “macro-level” process of strategy formation from the dominant top-down perspective, this study investigates the “micro-level” process of strategy formation that governs interactions am...
This study examines the operational (improvement) benefits of strategy cascading — as well as the effects of leadership style — as embedded in the organizational context of portfolio complexity. We use multiple comparative case studies (based on nine manufacturing sites of a global automotive supplier) to analyze strategy cascading, for which theor...
Which inventions should a company patent? Should it patent at all? Many companies engaged in an innovation race seek a patenting strategy that will protect their intellectual property, but not much is known about factors that determine the best strategy. Although scholars in various management, economics, and engineering disciplines have conducted...
We study technology strategy implementation at six German manufacturers in mature businesses. Our focus is the interaction between horizontal coordination and the vertical balance of top- and bottom-driven innovation projects. Top-down and bottom-up strategy implementation occur simultaneously, although manufacturers differ regarding which approach...
Contrary to conventional wisdom, banking can be both fair and profitable in fact, fairness can be a source of competitive advantage. The evidence for this claim comes from a segment of the financial services industry seldom associated with fairness: consumer credit. The reputation of this business which encompasses credit cards, personal loans, pay...
When facing supply uncertainty caused by exogenous factors such as adverse weather conditions, firms diversify their supply sources following the wisdom of “not holding all eggs in one basket”. We study a firm that decides on investment and production levels of two unreliable but substitutable resources. Applying real options thinking, production d...
This article analyzes dual sourcing decisions under stochastically dependent supply and demand uncertainty. A manufacturer faces the trade-off between investing in unreliable but high-margin offshore supply and in reliable but low-margin local supply, where the latter allows for production that is responsively contingent on the actual demand and of...
Search theory describes how organizations address problems that are too complex to be solved through optimization. Because most high-level strategic initiatives fall into this category, search is at the heart of strategic processes in most organizations. Search theory has examined how aspects of the organizational context (such as cognition, modula...
A fundamental problem in project planning and control (PPC) is the meeting of deadlines under conditions of schedule uncertainty and project workers with private information. The PPC process is complex,so an “optimal” method has yet to be found. The project management community is currently guided by heuristics; these include network planning and s...
Firms that source from offshore plants frequently perceive the lack of reliability and flexibility to be among the major drawbacks of their strategy. To mitigate against imminent mismatches of uncertain supply and demand, establishing capacity hedges in the form of responsive backup suppliers is a way out that many firms follow. This article analyz...
The development of new environmental laws and alternative technologies in the form of hybrid and fully electric engines has influenced the car industry. Toyota has introduced its innovative fuel technologies comply the environment regulations that extend with product life-cycle footprints and all operations. Japanese manufacturers has entered the U...
The article focuses on how the German car manufacturer, Bayerische Motoren Werke AG or BMW, is managing the effects of population aging on the industry. The redesign of BMW's factories to accommodate older workers and increase productivity is mentioned. Research on a pilot production line, which is based on a mix of employees who have an average ag...
Ein bewährtes Rezept zur Bewältigung von Beschaffungsrisiken ist die Streuung von Lieferquellen – getreu dem Motto „nicht
alles auf eine Karte zu setzen“. In diesem Artikel soll diese Logik der Diversifikation um einen wichtigen Aspekt bereichert
werden: Die Diversifikation von Lieferquellen ist ein Schlüssel zur Schaffung von Beschaffungsflexibili...
In dem Beitrag wird ein zweistufiges Planungskonzept vorgestellt, um im Zuge der Gestaltung einer Supply Chain die Losauflagen, Transportzyklen und Sicherheitsbestände für die Produkte der Supply Chain festzulegen. In der ersten Planungsstufe werden die Transport- und Losgrößen festgelegt. Die zweite Stufe bestimmt unter Einhaltung eines vorgegeben...
Mit einer simplen Idee hat der Dachfensterhersteller Roto die Arbeit seiner Entwicklungsabteilung verbessert. Dem Hilferuf eines einzelnen Ingenieurs folgt die prompte Problemlösung durch die Gruppe. Die positiven Folgen: Weniger Verzögerungen, höhere Motivation und bessere Zusammenarbeit mit anderen Abteilungen, Zulieferern und Kunden.
Projects
Projects (4)
Understand how frontline manufacturing and service employees contribute to product and process innovation. This encompasses idea generation, idea selection, as well as implementation and learning.
Many real operations management problems are inherently dynamic and complex. Addressing such problems by combined emprirical and modeling-based research methods can lead to richer findings, stronger contributions and novel theories. Especially simulation tools---when well grounded into OM realities--- are apt to capture dynamic and complex sitiations. The goal of this project is to champion such multi-method research.
