Special section 2025/01: Operations and technology management

2024-02-16

Special section: OPERATIONS AND TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT

Guest Editors: Beatriz Minguela Rata and Diéssica de Oliveira Dias,  Universidad Complutense de Madrid (España)

Operations Management refers to the management of a company's processes and resources for the production of goods and services  (Arias Aranda & Minguela-Rata, 2024). This issue is of vital importance for companies, as sustainable competitive advantages can be achieved from them (Hitt et al., 2016). Among the best known real cases we can mention the company Inditex, which, based on its Operations Management and, especially, on its supply chain management, manages to impose itself over its competitors through, on the one hand, fast designs that adapt to fashion trends and, on the other hand, through highly efficient logistics (Qrunfleh & Tarafdar, 2014). Another well-known example is the case of Amazon, which, thanks to its Operations Management, achieves great excellence in logistics, with very fast deliveries and always complying with committed deliveries (on-time deliveries). We can also mention the case of Tesla, which with a mass-produced electric vehicle such as the Model 3, competes with great success with the large traditional vehicle manufacturers (Verganti et al., 2020).  All these real cases illustrate how companies are achieving sustainable competitive advantages based on the way they manage their operations, i.e. from their Operations Management.

In addition, Information Technology (IT) and its rapid evolution offer a powerful support to Operations Management to achieve its purposes (Maqueira et al., 2019; Núñez-Merino et al., 2024). In this sense and continuing with the previous examples, with the aim of identifying fashion trends, Inditex analyzes in short spaces of time large volumes of information (Big Data) on sales coming from its stores spread all over the world to identify fashion trends; Computer Aided Design (CAD) allows them to remake designs based on those trends; Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) interfaces with the aforementioned CAD systems to rapidly manufacture new fashion-conscious collections; finally, using highly automated IT-enabled logistics to manage a large number of items in a short period of time, they quickly distribute these products (Ferdows et al. , 2004; Inditex, 2020; Oliveira-Dias et al., 2022). For its part, Amazon uses Web and e-commerce technologies to interconnect its distribution suppliers, coordinate them, thus achieving deliveries in less than 24 hours from the time the order is placed (Ardito et al., 2019). Finally, Tesla, with highly robotized factories, manufactures a much larger number of vehicles than any of its competitors (Verganti et al., 2020).

These and many other real cases evidence that business studies in general, and business administration and management in particular, should make efforts to bring the perceived value that both Operations Management and its interaction with technology bring to the business world (Choi et al., 2018; Reyes et al., 2023).

To that end, this special issue of the Revista de Estudios Empresariales: Segunda Época calls for articles that focus on Operations Management and Technology from a broad perspective, so that the value provided by this discipline and the powerful effect that is achieved with its support of technologies is highlighted. By way of example, the topics covered in this issue include, but are not limited to, the following.

  • Case studies on Operations Management and Technology.
  • Supply Chain Analysis.
  • Effect of new Information Technologies on Operations Management (Cloud Computing, Big Data, Internet of Things or IoT, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, among others).
  • Strategic decisions on Operations Management and Technology.
  • Empirical studies on Operations and Technology Management.
  • The role of Human Resources in Operations and Technology Management.
  • Barriers and drivers for the use of innovative technologies in Operations Management.
  • Advantages and disadvantages of using IT in Operations Management.
  • Operations Management, new IT and sustainable operations.

 Key words: Operations management, information technology, economics, new technologies, emerging technologies.

References:

Arias Aranda, D. A., & Minguela-Rata, B. (2024). Decisiones estratégicas de la Dirección de la producción y operaciones (1st ed.). Ediciones Pirámide.

Ardito, L., Petruzzelli, A. M., Panniello, U., & Garavelli, A. C. (2019). Towards Industry 4.0: Mapping digital technologies for supply chain management-marketing integration. Business Process Management Journal, 25(2), 323–346. https://doi.org/10.1108/BPMJ-04-2017-0088

Choi, T.-M., Wallace, S. W., & Wang, Y. (2018). Big Data Analytics in Operations Management. Production and Operations Management, 27(10), 1868–1883. https://doi.org/10.1111/poms.12838

Ferdows, K., Lewis, M. A., & Machuca, J. A. D. (2004). Rapid-Fire Fulfillment. Harvard Business Review, 82(11), 104–110.

Hitt, M. A., Xu, K., & Carnes, C. M. (2016). Resource based theory in operations management research. Journal of Operations Management, 41, 77–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jom.2015.11.002

Inditex. (2020). INDITEX Annual Report. https://static.inditex.com/annual_report_2021/es/documentos/memoria-anual-2020.pdf.

Maqueira, J.M; Moyano-Fuentes, J.; Bruque, S. (2019): “Drivers and consequences of an innovative technology assimilation in the supply chain: cloud computing and supply chain integration”; International Journal of Production Research, Vol. 57, No. 7, pp. 2083-2103. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2018.1530473.

Núñez-Merino, M.; Maqueira, J.M.; Moyano-Fuentes, J.; Castaño-Moraga, C.A. (2024). “Quantum-inspired computing technology: changing the rules of the game in manufacturing and logistics for operational Agility”, Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management (in-press, aceptado 16/01/2024). https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPDLM-02-2023-0065

Oliveira-Dias, D., Maqueira-Marín, J. M., & Moyano-Fuentes, J. (2022). The link between information and digital technologies of industry 4.0 and agile supply chain: Mapping current research and establishing new research avenues. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 167, 108000. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2022.108000

Qrunfleh, S., & Tarafdar, M. (2014). Supply chain information systems strategy: Impacts on supply chain performance and firm performance. International Journal of Production Economics, 147, 340–350. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2012.09.018

Reyes, J., Mula, J., & Díaz-Madroñero, M. (2023). Development of a conceptual model for lean supply chain planning in industry 4.0: multidimensional analysis for operations management. Production Planning & Control, 34(12), 1209–1224. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2021.1993373

Verganti, R., Vendraminelli, L., & Iansiti, M. (2020). Innovation and Design in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 37(3), 212–227. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpim.12523

Proposed schedule:

  • Deadline for submission of originals: by August 30, 2024.
  • Proposed publication date: January 2025