L23 - Organization of ProductionReturn

The so-called agile approach is increasingly popular in the world of project management as a response to more dynamic and competitive environments. This study follows the question: What are the decisive criteria that result in the use of agile process models in practice? Therefore, a broad range of decision criteria is investigated, representing different reasons for firms to decide in favour or against the usage of agile process models, namely: Time-saving, increased efficiency, availability of qualified personnel, uniform terminology, project comparability and functions as a knowledge base. Most existing research on agile project management is of qualitative nature; this study uses a quantitative approach to assessing 51 firms and nine different industries within the DACH region. The collected data was analysed in a binary logistic regression model. Results reveal that time-saving positively predicts the use of agile process models, while high ratings in function as a knowledge base and project comparability predict the absence of agile process models. Therefore, practitioners are suggested to educate project and portfolio managers in the creation of hybrid environments and integration of agile process models in traditional project portfolios.
Implications for Central European audience: The results of this study provide valuable insights into the selection of project management approaches across different industries in the DACH region.

Most small and medium-sized enterprises in the furniture industry use simple partial approaches to improve or manage production processes. The article aims to present research results focused on continuous process improvement through the implementation of Six Sigma (SS) and Lean Six Sigma (LSS) concepts in furniture production. Their impact on the performance via the level of the ROE (Return on Equity) indicator was evaluated using statistical methods of Chi-square test and Cramer’s contingency coefficient. The results of the research showed that furniture enterprises that had implemented selected methods of quality management reached a medium level of ROE values. The absence of a more comprehensive approach to managing the performance of processes was the impulse for a model creation based on the interconnection of SS and LSS concepts. The model should a practical use of appropriate methodologies and procedures in the management of furniture production processes, as well as in their optimisation. A thorough analysis of non-conforming products performed in furniture manufacturing processes transformed into SS and LSS metrics and the implementation of the model in the enterprise led to reduced process waste by reducing the number of non-conforming products, reducing the cost of such products, and increasing the capability of critical processes.
Implications for Central European audience: The combination of theoretical knowledge in performance management and quality of production processes and practical knowledge from the real implementation of methods and tools for continuous improvement of production process capability in the company proved to be a good basis for creating a model within SS and LSS. These facts have contributed to the development of scientific knowledge. The presented application of methods and tools within SS and LSS will provide instructions for the use of new management methods. The specific outputs of the research work improve defining problems, measuring process parameters, analysis of measured data, improving furniture production processes.

The main goal of this paper is to identify the major factors for the decision of Swiss IT service firms to nearshore their locations and to quantify their relative importance. Moreover, we develop an IT Nearshoring Index ranking the attractiveness of different European regions. We use a quantitative survey of 56 Swiss IT service firms that are either actively engaging in nearshoring or planning to nearshore parts of their business. Using the survey, we identified five main factors for the nearshoring location decision of Swiss IT firms: economic, labour, institutional, social and location. We pin down the relative importance (weights) of the aforementioned factors using the survey results and expert interviews. The labour factors (including labour costs on the one and the availability of skilled IT workforce on the other side) proved to be most important. We use the obtained weights to construct a (weighted) IT Nearshoring Index. Based on the IT Nearshoring Index, we find that in contrast to general belief, the most attractive locations cannot be found in Eastern Europe, but in Southern UK or Western Germany. The first is due to their high availability of IT workforce, the latter due to their cultural and geographical proximity. Eastern European regions can base their competitive advantage on offering attractive labour costs, but this cannot make up for the disadvantage of greater cultural and geographical distance to Switzerland.