Michael Andrew Lewis

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• PhD
• Professor at University of Bath

Operations and Supply Chain Management (OSCM) has continually evolved, incorporating a broad array of strategies, frameworks, and technologies to address complex challenges across industries. This encyclopedic article provides a comprehensive overview of contemporary strategies, tools, methods, principles, and best practices that define the field's...

For many years, hierarchical governance of aviation has, via incremental refinement of (trans)national rules and regulations, contributed to extraordinary safety and security performance. With the emergence of drone systems, embodying very different technologies, applications and accessibility, these governance arrangements have faced specific adap...

Scale is commonly deployed as a descriptor in the extant project management literature without an associated discussion of what this means. Following a literature review and synthesis of 172 papers we identify three findings. First, most papers addressed the foundational concept of scale obliquely, suggesting a conceptual gap. Second, where scale i...

Purpose Although trust and distrust as distinct phenomena are of increasing interest to operations and supply chain management (OSCM) scholars, they have been inconsistently conceptualized and there is a lack of evidence regarding the distinctiveness of their respective antecedents. This study, therefore, focuses on one of the most widely accepted...

IKEA didn’t give up on drones for inventory management after pilots fizzled — it came up with a better approach for testing new technologies. URL: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/a-better-way-to-pilot-emerging-technologies/

Purpose This paper draws on social exchange theory to theorise supplier motivation to share knowledge. It examines the effects of supplier anticipated future dependence on their motivation to share knowledge with a buyer, mediated by economic, relational and learning motives. It also examines the conditional effects imposed by the current embeddedn...

Although disruptive “Industry 4.0” technologies often lack a clear business case, vendors are advocating and companies are actively exploring their use in operations settings. The technology management literature suggests that successful adoption derives from an appropriate fit between the specific technology and (1) economic and strategic factors,...

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate governance in service triads, specifically studying significant steering and connecting coordination failures, to reveal typically hidden characteristics and consequences. Design/methodology/approach: This study focuses on coordination functions and activities between a buyer (a government department), a c...

Across the world, there are multiple organisations carrying out project-related research in a variety of ways. However, there is no single source available that provides information on these global institutions. To make a start in this direction, this report collates a list of such organisations. The research is exploratory and also seeks to unders...

Project research is crucial. It shapes the Body of Knowledge, helping practitioners to assess personal, project and programme performance and informing their professional development via a range of critical institutions. Such research is essential because projects are increasingly important in all sectors and organisations. However, project perform...

Purpose The purpose of this study had two aims: (1) to extend insight regarding the challenges of implementing standardised work, via care pathways, in a healthcare setting by considering interactions with other operational (i.e. resource sharing, portfolio alignment) and professional (i.e. autonomous expertise) dependencies and (2) to develop nove...

This paper investigates how leaders construct ‘loss’ identity narratives which defuse the scope for external attack and sustain self-meanings. We draw on a sample of 31 United Kingdom business school deans, who although often depicted as multi-talented, high-status achievers, are also targets for criticism and have high rates of turnover. Our study...

The issue of social capital development in buyer-supplier relationships is increasingly of interest to supply chain management scholars. Most of our understanding, however, has been developed from the manufacturing context, where the Procurement function plays an active role. In contrast, Procurement’s role in the procurement and management of serv...

This paper explores the dynamic interplay of formal/informal governance mechanisms, in terms of functional and dysfunctional consequences for both sides of the dyad, in long-term inter-organizational relationships. Using two longitudinal cases of UK defence sector procurement (warship commissioning) we move beyond notions of complementarity and sub...

Purpose - This research examines the relationship between organizational ambidexterity, the ability of companies to explore new and to exploit existing processes simultaneously, and manufacturing performance as represented by the sand cone model. Moreover, the paper analyses the impact of stable and dynamic environments on this relationship. Desig...

This paper finds that OM's 'one-size-fits-all' characterization of professional services, namely high levels of customer engagement, extensive customization, knowledge intensity, and low levels of capital intensity, does not hold when carrying out a 'deep dive' (to the best of our knowledge, a first in this area of OM) into consultancy in the US tr...

Processes of servitisation will lead providers to change their service delivery structures, but they also need to transform broader organisational attributes including contractual and relational capabilities. Based on case studies in the European healthcare sector, we investigate the influence of increasing levels of service complexity on this tran...

Despite the importance of knowledge sharing between supply chain partners, supplier motivation to share remains largely unexplored. This study examines the role of buyer power in supplier motivation to share knowledge. Applying a multi-method, sequential research design, case studies followed by a scenario-based experiment, we find buyer expert pow...

This paper examines the extent to which ‘classic’ professional service characteristics and assumed managerial challenges present themselves in an empirical context. We draw on survey data from 251 consultancy firms serving the travel, tourism, and hospitality sector in the United States. Analysis suggests several areas of divergence between concept...

This paper examines how organizations coordinate the often conflicting demands for high performance delivered over long periods and involving complex environments. Using two longitudinal cases of defense contracts for supporting new warships we explore not only the roles of formal and informal governance mechanisms, but the dynamic interplay of fun...

Governments around the world, but especially in Europe, have increasingly used private sector involvement in developing, financing and providing public health infrastructure and service delivery through public-private partnerships (PPPs). Reasons for this uptake are manifold ranging from rising expenditures for refurbishing, maintaining and operati...

Purpose – While previous studies explored the argument that allies the notion of complexity to the complex product-service offerings being procured, this paper aims to explore whether there is a corollary with exchange governance complexity. More specifically, the paper analyzes the relationship between systemic complexity and complexity of contrac...

This research examined (1) to what extent a conceptual model derived from research into advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) implementations offers explanatory insight for a public sector organisation implementing advanced service technology, and (2) how, if at all, the experiences of a specific public sector implementation (the implementation o...

Public and private organizations are transitioning from buying or selling products to procuring or selling complex, long-term integrated solutions consisting of bundles of interrelated products and services. In response to an increasing demand for innovative solutions and a shortage of public funding, governments around the world are increasingly t...

Purpose – The world is changing – economically, technologically, politically, and socially. As an academic discipline, operations management (OM) is, almost by definition, close to practice. Are our OM research methods fit for purpose for the new age? This paper reflects on and develops the principal themes discussed in the “OM Methodology” Special...

This paper explores the challenging circumstances when one part of government decides that the performance of a subsidiary part is unacceptable and arranges some kind of remedial intervention. Following the detailed analysis of a series of four central-local government interventions we develop a model of the intervention process that combines the t...

Adoption of change management best practices continues to be offered as a route towards improved cost, quality and productivity of public services. These approaches are predominantly drawn from private sector research and their application by the public sector remains a relatively under-researched area. In this article we investigate with three cas...

Highlights ► Detailed analysis of a legal service partnership is used to explore the distinctive characteristics of professional service operations management. ► We examine customer interactions, service customization, process throughput and variability, professional employee behavior and managerial interventions. ► Professional–client exchange is...

This paper analyses how people’s subjectively construed identities are disciplined by, and appropriated from, their talk about organizational routines. Identity work, we argue, is not just an expression of agency but also of power. Based on a study of a UK regional law firm, our research counter-balances understandings of professional lawyers as au...

Traditional business models coped with the complexity inherent in buying complex capital assets that will be operated and maintained over many years by a division of labour based on subsets of the value chain. Recently, customers in a wide range of sectors are not buying subcontract production or construction capacity but procuring business ‘soluti...

Purpose The paper seeks to analyze the evolution of competitive advantage using both “classic” and “extended” resource‐based theory (RBT). The aim is to examine the different ways in which “classic” and “extended” resource‐based advantage develops and how they might combine to create long‐term advantage. Design/methodology/approach A single case s...

The links between strategy and performance remains an elusive “holy grail” for researchers and practitioners alike. We do not seek to provide a prescriptive panacea in this paper but we find links between particular types of strategic formulation and operations performance in a range of key parameters. Our research focuses on the PC industry where...

Although there is a growing body of research exploring the transition to a more service-based orientation in complex product markets, the majority of this literature adopts what might be classified as a ‘manufacturer-active’ point of view; that is it explores the challenges faced by firms (e.g. aircraft & capital equipment manufacturers, building f...

Re‐structuring of the Welsh NHS means change for much of its existing ‘narrow’ (e.g. specific financial processes) and ‘broad’ (e.g. certain professional services) shared service portfolio and, correspondingly, this creates an opportunity to reflect on experience to date and consider future options....

This paper argues that today's global automotive markets challenge the way that vehicle manufacturers and their suppliers (and their academic observers) conceptualise value creation with complex 'blends' of services and products, an increasingly common basis for revenue generation. It presents two cases from opposite ends of the automotive value ch...

Although there is a growing body of research exploring the transition to a more service-based orientation in complex product markets, the majority of this literature adopts what might be classified as a 'manufacturer-active' point of view that explores the challenges faced by firms (e.g., aircraft and capital equipment manufacturers, building firms...

This paper investigates the detail and dynamics of how contractual and relational governance mechanisms are deployed in managing complex, long-term public–private supply arrangements. Using empirical data from two UK Private Finance Initiative (PFI) cases, the paper analyses the interplay of governance mechanisms along a timeline of project phases....

This report explores those challenging circumstances where a local authority needs exceptional ‘support’ from central government or more seriously, regulators determine that a performance threshold has been crossed and Ministers agree that some form of ‘intervention’ is necessary. To date in Wales, these have often been quite ad-hoc arrangements an...

This paper examines patterns and trends in motor vehicle safety recalls using a dataset based on 23.1 million vehicles registered in the UK between 1992 and 2002. A safety recall occurs when vehicle manufacturers call vehicles that have been sold and are in use back to their dealerships for safety-related remedial work. Safety recalls can be a stra...

Charles Babbage (1791–1871) was the embodiment of a polymath: elected a Royal Society fellow, holder of the Lucasian Chair of mathematics at Cambridge, founder of the London Statistical Society, author of many papers and full‐length monographs and, most famously from a 21st century perspective, the architect of modern computing with his difference...

There is a well established tradition of teaching operations management (OM) via various kinds of production game: real players making real decisions in a practical, albeit simulated, situation. Surprisingly, there has been much less conceptual reflection on the process and content of this approach to OM education, something this paper aims to begi...

This paper explores the constraints and enablers of the process of innovation within the context of UK health care supply networks. Building on a comprehensive literature review of established and recent innovation and supply network research, the paper presents three levels of supply network analysis: sector level supply networks, focal organizati...

Successive UK governments have increasingly used Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and Public-Private Partnership (PPP) investment vehicles as the principal method for procuring public sector capital projects and delivering associated services. To date there has been limited in-depth empirical investigations into managerial processes associated with...

This article evaluates the assumption that interaction within customer–supplier relationships is always the pivotal point for innovation. The article proposes that the relevance of customer and supplier relationships depends on the nature and maturity of the technology being developed, thus exploring the potential variation in customer–supplier int...

Organizational ‘innovation laboratories’, dedicated facilities for encouraging creative behaviours and supporting innovative projects, have received scant academic attention despite their increasing popularity with a range of different practitioners. This paper develops an initial theoretical explanation of the phenomenon, based upon notions of org...

This paper develops a definitional model of the role played by various forms of technology in a range of business processes. The model draws upon and refines established knowledge of traditional (i.e. manufacturing) process technologies while at the same time engaging with the similarities and differences associated with service and information/int...

Would you send a half-empty truck across Europe or pay to airfreight coats to Japan twice a week? Would you move unsold items out of your shop after only two weeks? Would you run your factories just during the day shift? Is this any way to run an efficient supply chain? For Spanish clothier .Zara it is. Not that any one of these tactics is especial...

This paper explores theoretical and practical aspects (i.e. resources allocated, activities undertaken, actors/decisions involved) of corporate 'parenting' in the development of international service networks. A review of the relevant corporate strategy, supply-chain, networks and services management literature underpins a preliminary content (capa...

The paper presents a brief history of the development of operations management (OM). This provides the backdrop for a content analysis of journal articles published in the Journal of Operations Management and the International Journal of Operations & Production Management between January 1990 and June 2003. MBA student survey data are then used to...

This paper explores theoretical and practical aspects (i.e. resources allocated, activities undertaken, actors/decisions involved) of corporate ‘parenting’ in the development of international service networks. A review of the relevant corporate strategy, supply-chain, networks and services management literature underpins a preliminary content (capa...

The case describes how Zara, operating out of the Galician port of La Coruña in north-west Spain has managed to become a benchmark for speed and flexibility in the garment industry. The case offers an illustration of a fast-response global supply, production and retail network. In 2003 Zara was the only retailer that could deliver garments to its s...

This paper explores theoretical and practical aspects (i.e. resources allocated, activities undertaken, actors/decisions involved) of corporate “parenting” in the development of a retail lending network. A review of the relevant corporate strategy, supply-chain, networks and services management literature underpins a preliminary content (capability...

Despite the potential for operations management to be a competence-based discipline, it is not clear how practical the construct is in ex ante operations strategy formulation or how useful it is as a critical lens on operations theory. This paper develops a preliminary model of competence as a transformation process, combining resource and activity...

Modified competitive, technological, social and political circumstances have magnified the potential impact of operations-related failures; yet OM’s interest in operational ‘risks’ remains underdeveloped. This paper develops a provisional model of operational risk based upon the input and outcome dimensions of causal event and negative consequence....

Modified competitive, technological, social and political circumstances have magnified the potential impact of operations‐related failures; yet OM’s interest in operational ‘risks’ remains underdeveloped. This paper develops a provisional model of operational risk based upon the input and outcome dimensions of causal event and negative consequence....

This is the 3rd edition of the text - currently in its 7th edition (2024)

This article explores practical and competitive aspects of the role that technology plays in service firms. A review of resource-based theory leads to a conceptual model describing how technology can contribute to sustainable competitive advantage (SCA). The pragmatic challenge of implementation is then explored and the first conceptual model is ex...

The exchange of technical personnel between organizational actors in a supply network has become known as Guest Engineering (GE). Despite increasing popularity as an inter-organisational arrangement (especially in the automotive sector) it has generated relatively little academic research and therefore this paper seeks to extend our understanding o...

English This article explores the relationship between Quality Management (QM) and Best Value. It investigates how well Best Value incorporates established QM practice and moreover whether the framework has also encouraged any innovative QM developments. Conceptual and practice-centred models of local government service quality provide the structur...

The concept of organisational competence is employed to develop a theoretical and practical critique of the new product development (NPD) process. Competence concepts seek to explain whole firm, rather than individual product success and exploring the impact of this different ‘unit of analysis’ suggests that traditional definitions of NPD success a...

Today, “lean” may no longer be fashionable but its core principles (flow, value, pull, minimizing waste etc.) have become the paradigm for many manufacturing (and service) operations. Given this pre-eminence, the paper seeks to establish what impact it has had on the overall competitive positions of adopter firms. Combining normative and critical t...

Between 1988 and 1994, Aerospace Composite Technologies (ACT) Ltd. completed a very successful business re-design, received national awards for quality and training excellence, became an independent company (following an MBO from Lucas Industries) and posted very encouraging financial results. This paper describes why this apparently successful aer...

This paper deploys 'classic' and 'extended' Resource-Based Theory in analyzing the evolution of competitive advantage. The empirical core of the work is a single longitudinal case study: a review of the 50-year history of a highly successful food service (i.e. provision of food and beverage products and services to the 'out of home' sector) firm. P...

Purpose of the paper There is a tendency in all research to study those areas where a great deal is happening, which appear to be cutting edge, which appear in the wider media as 'sexy' sectors. This paper examines innovation - or rather lack of it - in three sub sectors of a sector often ignored in studies of innovation; rehabilitation services (a...

Spanish retailer Zara has hit on a formula for supply chain success that works. By defying conventional wisdom, Zara can design and distribute a garment to market in just fifteen days. From Harvard Business Review. Editor's note: With some 650 stores in 50 countries, Spanish clothing retailer Zara has hit on a formula for supply chain success that...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Cambridge, 1995.