Thomas Friedli

University of St.Gallen · Institute of Technology Management

Purpose This study explores the phenomenon of company-specific plant role models. Following the establishment of distinct lead factories, recent studies imply that multinational companies are now using more detailed plant roles to manage manufacturing networks. While multiple plant role typologies can be found in literature, this is, to our knowled...

Purpose Although benefits are promising, many companies face problems leveraging synergies between Lean and Digitalization at the program management level. This paper aims to identify activities to manage the boundaries of Lean and Digitalization programs. Design/methodology/approach The research design follows a cross-industry multiple-case study...

Historically, manufacturing companies supplied world markets out of their home countries. Today, most of them rely on a network of globally spread plants. The benefits a network provides are summarized under the term network capabilities. It remains open, how a well-designed network can compensate the lack in competitive advantage in, e. g., qualit...

The interaction between a firm’s headquarters and its plants is crucial to ensuring that the manufacturing network generates a competitive advantage. The concept of plant roles, first introduced by Ferdows (1989), is a suitable tool to facilitate the headquarters-plant relationship. Although many articles deal with Ferdows’s plant roles, hardly any...

The right balance between centralization and autonomy in International Manufacturing Networks (IMNs) is the subject of an intensive debate within academic literature and practice. As part of a focus group with 18 industry experts at IMN management, we examined this topic in more detail. We could contribute to the scientific discussion with the late...

In times of global turbulence, risk management is key to ensuring competitiveness. For the management of manufacturing networks, the analysis of country risks is crucial. Operations managers must identify and manage risks arising from adverse country developments at an early stage. This paper presents a framework to map these risks and their impact...

Zur Erschließung neuer Märkte, zur Risikomitigation oder um Zugang zu günstigen Kosten zu erhalten, erweitern Unternehmen ihre Produktionsnetzwerke mit neuen Standorten. Der vorliegende Beitrag zeigt eine systematische Standortauswahl passend zur Netzwerk- und Standortstrategie. Neben der Länderattraktivität wird in dem Auswahlprozess die Wettbewer...

Looking back at the past decades, one thing becomes clear: data has had a huge impact on organizations at all levels. Whether it's statistical analyses, big data or artificial intelligence, data will shape business performance in the years to come. On the one hand, even simple analyses with limited datasets can be highly effective in helping compan...

The aim of the annual survey is to provide a meaningful picture of the current situation of the manufacturing industry in Switzerland and to map possible structural change through its long-term focus. The focus on manufacturing companies provides new information that is sometimes only insufficiently covered by other surveys. This transparency gives...

Angesichts steigender Energiekosten ist das Thema Energieeffizienz nicht erst seit heute von hoher Bedeutung für die in globaler Konkurrenz stehende produzierende Industrie. Maschinen- und Anlagenbauer versuchen, von der Nachfrage nach energieeinsparenden Lösungen zu profitieren. Paradoxerweise bleiben die erzielten Umsätze mit innovativen Paketen...

As a digital technology, predictive maintenance (PdM) can contribute substantially to the necessary sustainable transformation of the manufacturing industry by maintaining assets more efficiently, increasing material and energy efficiency, and reducing associated waste. But as manufacturing companies struggle to implement sustainability, sustainabl...

Improving sustainability concerns many stakeholders: customers, shareholders, employees, and regulators. The manufacturing industry is a significant factor as production continually depletes finite resources. Without a shift to more sustainable business models (i.e. those based on the triple bottom line), there is a risk of continued depletion of r...

The digital transformation is increasingly gaining momentum in the B2B industry and thereby governs important agenda items of several board members. In this regard, marketing and sales organizations are one of the business areas that seek to seize the different opportunities from using digital technologies. The advancements in digital technologies...

For years, manufacturing companies have been implementing Operational Excellence (OPEX) programs with the goal of effectively and sustainably improving their performance. Now, companies are also gradually recognizing the possibilities of Digitalization for advancing their operational processes. Even though both OPEX and Digitalization are directed...

Equipment manufacturers (EMs) exhibit unsustainable operating patterns in linear production models by depleting finite materials. In this context, future business environments in industrial markets shift fundamentally and form a new sustainability paradigm stimulated by key drivers, e.g., end customer behavior. Considering the market shift, this re...

The objective of this paper is to examine the relationships between technical and social lean bundles as well as operational performance in the context of the pharmaceutical industry. We investigate the direct and mediating effects of the lean bundles Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), Total Quality Management (TQM), Just-In-Time (JIT), and Human...

An aging population, a lack of qualified medical staff, and rising costs in the healthcare sector pose major challenges to many societies. Implementing digital solutions in hospitals is a promising response to these challenges without compromising the quality of patient care. Nevertheless, the adoption of digital solutions in the healthcare environ...

Produktionsnetzwerke stehen in ständigem Austausch mit einem dynamischen Umfeld und sind durch globale Aktivitäten einer Vielzahl von Einflüssen ausgesetzt. Zur Sicherstellung der Zukunftsfähigkeit gilt es sowohl kurzfristige Disruptionen entlang der Lieferkette als auch langfristige Einflüsse, wie zum Beispiel den Trend zu mehr Nachhaltigkeit, zu...

Basierend auf Benchmarkingdaten von 68 Industrieunternehmen und vertiefenden Expertenbefragungen bietet dieser Beitrag eine Orientierung für die Formulierung und Implementierung von globalen Produktionsstrategien. In der Formulierung stellen die Zusammenarbeit mit dem Topmanagement und eine konsistente Einbettung in die Unternehmensstrategie Erfolg...

Identifying and Implementing the Most Beneficial Use Cases for Your Company—44 Use Cases That Will Drive Your Operational Performance and Digital Service Business The digitization of factories promises great potential benefits. The implementation of the various technologies for the smart factory is extremely complex, requires new competencies and...

We have been using the Smart Factory Navigator and the implementation process in various projects with industrial companies since 2017. The Smart Factory Framework and implementation process have already been proven in more than 20 research and consulting projects with industrial companies, ranging from large multinationals to small and medium-size...

In recent years, the adoption and application of new technologies - Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI), to name a few - has accelerated in manufacturing. To remain competitive, manufacturing companies are looking to these digital technologies as a way to increase the efficiency and fle...

Beside efficiency benefits enabled by the use cases, the Smart Factory Framework also provides a company with the basis for developing new digital services. In this chapter, we show how the framework can be used and how use cases can be marketed as digital services.

As the use case patterns show, the smart factory provides a bundle of new opportunities to drive performance and increase competitive advantages for a company. New technologies require new skills, in particular digital skills. Additionally, and even more importantly for implementing smart manufacturing, use cases become the holistic understanding o...

Purpose Digital solutions (DS) that build on recurring revenue models (RRMs) offer new opportunities to continuously create and capture superior value. However, many firms fail to engage their sales force in digital solution selling (DS selling), leading to agency problems that receive little attention in literature. This study aims to examine the...

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate how soft lean practices moderate the performance effects of hard lean practices. The authors provide new evidence from the pharmaceutical industry, which is characterized by a highly regulated and technical environment and has been largely uncharted in the lean literature. Design/methodology/appr...

In today´s changing and competitive business environment, companies must identify and adjust their manufacturing capabilities to remain successful. In the past, manufacturing companies relocated capacities from high-to low-cost environments. Recent events, however, resulted in a call for reshoring. To successfully reshore, companies must consider c...

Over the past several decades, pharmaceutical manufacturing has become increasingly global and supply chains have become longer, more complex, and fragmented. While pharmaceutical products available to patients and customers typically conform with appropriate standards, supply chains are often affected by disruptive events and shocks that impact pu...

The digital transformation is a complex and multi-faceted phenomenon, which companies hamper to manage effectively. One particular facet of this phenomenon is the role of managers, which is still underrepresented in research. This study aims to identify and explain why and what managerial practices and competencies are particularly needed to effect...

Predictive maintenance as one of the most prominent data-driven approaches enables companies to not only maximize the reliability of production processes but also to improve their efficiency. This is especially valuable in today’s volatile environment. Nevertheless, companies still struggle to implement digital technologies to track and improve the...

Abstract Based on an empirical study, this paper provides insights into the applicability of different decision support tools for managing global production networks (GPNs). Qualitative models such as frameworks and guidelines currently dominate the planning of GPNs due to their high degree of abstraction. Quantitative models, on the other hand, ar...

Almost every large corporation nowadays operates some sort of Production System (PS), usually built as a derivative from leading examples like the Toyota Production System. Production Systems (PSs) are introduced to increase operational performance and to eventually instill a culture of continuous improvement across the mostly globally dispersed pr...

There exists a wide range of optimization models in the Operations Management (OM) community to solve complex problems such as lot sizing. However, their practical performance is often criticized due to the complexity of implementation and insufficient applicability in real-world decision processes. These theory-driven approaches are either simple...

Digital transformation creates tremendous innovation opportunities for medical technology firms. By offering digital services, medical technology firms can support healthcare providers to improve the efficiency and outcomes of care delivery. The shift towards digital-enabled services business models is referred to as digital servitization. However,...

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore organizational enablers of frontline employees’ (FLEs) service-sales ambidexterity (SSA) in industrial firms expanding their digital service portfolios. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted a qualitative study of five industrial firms pursuing digital service growth and, for this purpose...

In this chapter, the St.Gallen Management Model for International Manufacturing Networks will be described along the three layers of strategy, configuration, and coordination as well as the necessary strategic fit between them. The idea of the framework is to provide operations executives with a discussion framework that enables them to address the...

Strategic decisions like off- and re-shoring, outsourcing, product allocation, investments in technology, merger and acquisitions, and many others, often have immediate, conclusive implications, which can massively reduce structural and infrastructural options within a global production network for a long time. Consequently, it is crucial that ever...

A manufacturing network, carefully configured by choosing the right locations for its sites and their respective roles, aims to fulfill its network strategy. At the same time, each site on its own strives toward operational excellence, eventually turning into a continuously improving organization. While the interplay between these sites should be r...

Literature about International Manufacturing Networks usually neglects Operational Excellence or Lean Production Systems. Coming from a long history, both are often solely approached and seen as stand-alone topics. However, the enterprise-wide introduction of a Lean Production System and the launch of a comprehensive Operational Excellence programm...

Organizations are increasingly transforming their business models from the provision of products toward the provision of services to gain a competitive advantage. This phenomenon is known as servitization, a form of transformation which is particularly accelerated by the impact of digital technologies. Digital servitization is a contemporary topic...

Manufacturing networks - global production networks and international manufacturing networks - are exposed to an increase in uncertainty, which can cause disturbances. To cope with these disturbances, scholars presented different concepts, such as robustness, resilience, responsiveness, flexibility, changeability, adaptability, and agility. However...

The rise of global competitors operating at a lower cost, trade restrictions caused by the US-China dispute and local content requirements, and eroding margins in many product businesses all exert downward pressure on industrial firms’ profitability. This is further exacerbated by the short- and long-term economic consequences of the COVID-19 pande...

This chapter explores service operations management, which covers the activities, decisions, and responsibilities of operations managers in industrial service organizations. Although service operations management is a field not often seen at the top of manufacturing companies’ agendas, it is of crucial importance due to its significant influence on...

Moving away from the product at the center of attention in the end of the 1990s led to a new focus on “performance systems” and the management of industrial services in the history of our institute. As we figured out over several research and applied projects that little effort has been put into managing the service business, we documented our resu...

Managing industrial services holds several challenges arising from the interdependencies and, even more, the possible trade-offs with the traditional goods-centric business and the legacy organization of a manufacturing company. The main challenges include conflicts between the product and service department and that service management requires mor...

This chapter introduces the second part of the book “Managing Industrial Services.” An overview of the six practitioner contributions by Heidelberger Druckmaschinen, Schindler, John Deere, SKF, Siemens Mobility, and Kaeser is provided. Each contribution offers first-hand evidence of challenges and successful practices from manufacturers growing the...

Academia and industry practices have shed light on some domains of industrial service management more than on others. This book has expanded current understanding of two domains that were already in the spotlight: service strategy and service organization. Moreover, the book offers insight into the emerging domains of service innovation, service sa...

Defining a strategy is crucial for any company to deploy resources appropriately. The same holds for a service strategy—while its importance even increases when manufacturers have limited experience with managing the service business. Formulating a service strategy is a comprehensive endeavor that must be aligned with the overall corporate objectiv...

Theoretically based on public service logic (PSL), this paper explores the barriers and capabilities surrounding public sector value co-creation with private sector organizations in the context of digital transformation. Specifically, value co-creation efforts at a large public transport and rail infrastructure provider are examined from multiple p...

Goal: The goal of this paper is to test the possible connection between pharmaceutical manufacturing plants’ Operational Excellence implementation and regulatory inspection outcomes. Methodology: This paper uses logistic regression models on a unique dataset compiled from proprietary operations datasets and published FDA inspection outcomes. Resu...

Western European manufacturers’ difficulties in earning revenue from industrial services in Pacific Asia have been linked to cultural values. Yet, ways of creating and capturing value from smart services in the region remain unexplored. Against this backdrop, this research seeks to (1) uncover how cultural values influence smart service revenue mod...

Using site-specific optimization approaches in international manufacturing networks is increasingly proving insufficient. To solve this problem, several holistic and integrated alternatives have been developed to reflect a global perspective. This book presents advances in the St. Gallen Global Manufacturing Network Model and its application in num...

Purpose In this paper, the authors empirically investigate under which conditions production network management is effective to improve manufacturers' financial performance. For this, the authors explore contingencies between production networks and the three key dimensions of organizational environment. Design/methodology/approach A survey with s...

Many firms have started Industry 4.0 (I4.0) initiatives in recent years, without having a sound understanding of the effects generated by the technologies introduction. This research provides indications of what to expect from the implementation of two key technologies for I4.0: big data analytics and manufacturing execution systems. The study expl...

The Pharmaceutical Industry started its journey towards Operational Excellence early in the 2000s. In this paper, we provide an exploratory view on the adoption of Operational Excellence practices and the development of selected performance KPIs over the time from 2003 to 2018. There are distinguishable trends regarding the adoption of different Op...

Purpose This paper sets out to identify barriers to intra-network exchange within international manufacturing networks (IMNs) from the micro-level perspective of key actors at the plant level, namely, plant leaders. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected through interviews with 12 plant leaders from nine different firms operating in at le...

Purpose Manufacturers seek to innovate and improve processes using new digital technologies. However, knowledge about these new technologies often resides outside a firm's boundaries. The authors draw on the concept of absorptive capacity and the literature on open innovation to explore the role of external search in the digitization of manufacturi...

Where is the Swiss economy in terms of digitization? And how can she still improve? A new study shows what it takes for companies to use the digital transformation and where the problems are. The research looked at diffferent sectors and compared the current status. Die Volkswirtschaft, 06/2020, S. 56 - S. 58, www.dievolkswirtschaft.ch

Kurzfassung Das Management globaler Produktionsnetzwerke ist aufgrund weltweiter Turbulenzen, hervorgerufen durch ökonomische, politische und technologische Einflüsse, besonderen Herausforderungen ausgesetzt und erfordert dabei den Umgang mit einem hohen Grad an Komplexität. Aufgrund der gegenwärtigen betrieblichen Rahmenbedingungen ist eine system...

Purpose To address the increasing number of quality issues, the pharmaceutical industry has expanded its continuous improvement focus to the quality control lab as one of the bottlenecks in pharmaceutical value creation. We replicate the relation between enablers (also known as practices) and performance in pharmaceutical quality control labs, in o...

This report presents the findings from three years of Quality Metrics Research and builds on seminal outcomes from earlier operations and quality management research, e.g. Voss et al. (Voss, Blackmon, Hanson, & Oak, 1995), Ferdows and De Meyer (Ferdows & De Meyer, 1990), Deming (Deming, 1986). The work undertaken in year 3 has deepened the insights...

Manufacturing companies enhance increasingly their hardware products with services. The deployment of digital technologies intensifies the fusion of products and related services towards hybrid offerings consisting of smart products and smart services. If manufacturing companies can control all relevant performance measures of such hybrid offerings...

Lean has been the dominant production paradigm for the past few decades. With its focus on reducing complexity, lean suggests to limit the use of digital technologies on the shop floor. Recent advancements in digital technologies, however, promise significant improvements through its ability to manage complexity. This apparent conflict raises the q...

Industry 4.0 is a ubiquitous term throughout general newspapers, on company websites or in scientific journals. One of its key constructs is the smart factory, envisioned as a future state of a fully connected manufacturing system, mainly operating without human force by generating, transferring, receiving and processing necessary data to conduct a...

With digital technologies, smart services become a cornerstone of industrial product-service systems. Services are increasingly delivered by digital means and thereby become difficult to grasp for customers. For manufacturing companies, this is an opportunity to leverage value-based marketing and sales (VBMS). Despite this approach appearing promis...

Companies fail to leverage the full potential of their intra-company manufacturing network because many neglect the coordination layer. New technologies enable support of coordination activities for network managers. This contribution shows the status quo of technologies deployed in order to improve coordination. The basis is a national survey of t...

A key resource in data analytics projects is the data to be analyzed. What can be done in the middle of a project if this data is not available as planned? This chapter explores a potential solution based on a use case from the manufacturing industry where the drivers of production complexity (and thus costs) were supposed to be determined by analy...

Kurzfassung Die Technologien von Industrie 4.0 bieten global produzierenden Unternehmen die Chance, Entscheidungen zur Netzwerkgestaltung zu verbessern und die Steuerung der Produktion weltweit zu synchronisieren. Dadurch werden eine nachhaltige Steigerung des Wertschöpfungsgrads in der Produktion und die Nutzung von Kostenvorteilen ermöglicht. In...

Purpose Scholars often associate Operational Excellence (OPEX) enablers with high operational performance. Several studies have concluded that advancing OPEX enablers helps improve organizational performance. This paper aims to better understand the relation between OPEX enablers and a robust quality control lab. Integral to pharmaceutical quality...

Industrie 4.0 bestimmt immer noch den Diskurs in Praxis und Forschung der industriellen Produktion. Mit der Vielfalt an möglichen Technologien und Einsatzmöglichkeiten haben insbesondere kleine und mittlere Unternehmen Schwierigkeiten, die für sie relevanten Anwendungsfälle zu identifizieren. In diesem Beitrag wird eine Methode vorgestellt, die ein...

Kurzfassung Die Organisation eines Unternehmens ist ein zentrales Element, um Digitalisierung aus der Gesamtperspektive voranzutreiben. In der Praxis sind fünf Organisationsformen zur Verankerung von Digitalisierung üblich: dezentral, funktional, Führungsteam, Kompetenzzentrum und Leitwerk. Eine aktuelle Studie zeigt, dass insbesondere die letzten...

This report, building upon the findings of the first year of the research project provides an account of the research activities undertaken in the second year and presents an outlook for future research on this topic. In terms of structure, Chapters 2 and 3 of this report describe the background and research-design. Chapter 4 then eintroduces the r...

The pharmaceutical industry invests enormous amounts of resources (>€1 billion and >10 years) in the development of new products. External factors such as intensifying foreign competition and greater regulatory demands can negatively affect the profit margin, whereas the R&D productivity diminishes. To stay competitive and to maintain high R&D capa...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify and investigate non-technical barriers for smart services in the capital goods industry. Design/methodology/approach A multiple methodology approach is adopted. First, qualitative workshops and interviews were conducted with 14 experts from five companies. The findings generated subsequently provi...

Quality Culture as enabler of high quality performance and subsequently as source of competitive advantage is increasingly discussed among OPEX and quality executives. Research studies indicate an impact of quality culture on performance, especially on the success of quality improvement programs such as Total Quality Management initiatives. A conti...

Kurzfassung Internationale Produktionsnetzwerke können als Quelle von Wettbewerbsvorteilen maßgeblich den Unternehmenserfolg beeinflussen. Die Positionierung der Produktionsstandorte als Teilelemente des Gesamtsystems stellt einen relevanten Stellhebel zur Optimierung dar. Auf Basis einer strukturierten Vorgehensweise können die strategischen Netzw...

A multiplicity of factors including technological innovations, dynamic operating environments, and globalisa-tion are all believed to contribute towards the ever-increasing complexity of manufacturing systems. Althoughcomplexity is necessary to meet functional needs, it is important to assess and monitor it to reduce life-cyclecosts by simplifying...

Complexity management methods in the field of strategic and operational complexity management are usually conceived for the discrete manufacturing industry and are hardly transferable to the process industry. In this paper, complexity management practices, as well as complexity drivers, in the discrete manufacturing industry and the process industr...

The FDA Quality Metrics initiative has emerged directly from the FDA Science and Innovation Act (US Congress, 2012) (FDASIA, 2012) and aims to provide both industry and regulators with better insight into the current state of quality across the global pharmaceutical manufacturing sector that serves the American publics’ healthcare needs. As part of...