Research Project Update

Diving deeper into research has been a great experience for me. The topics behind team disruptions and lean production have helped me to understand leadership and the inter-workings of companies much better.

Throughout the project I have read up on various articles encompassing the social aspect of team disruptions and have recently made a shift towards the lean production concepts. Both of these have given me so much valuable information that I have been applying to my everyday studies. Such as the continuous innovation that makes 'lean' so useful and efficient in the work place.

As the project progresses we will be conducting more interview as well as exploring further into team disruptions on all levels. This has been such a great opportunity for learning, honing my research skills, and bettering my team work skills.

a brief summary of what I have done and what I am going to do

As our research moves forward, my research team decided to investigate how complexity and team learning contribute to our understanding of disruptions. I am interested in how teams perform when disruptions occur, and the concept of team learning firmly ties to teams' performance. As a result, I picked up the concept of team learning as my focus. One definition of organizational learning come from Dr. Kennedy that is "ongoing process of reflection and action, characterized by asking questions, seeking feedback, experimenting, reflecting on results and discussing errors or unexpected outcomes of actions. "

During the break, I have read several articles about organizational learning from Journal of Operation Management. One of them deeply interests me. It is called "How to learn new tasks: shop floor performance effects of knowledge transfer and performance feedback." In this article, the authors argue that organizational learning involves in knowledge transfer and skills development. In order to achieve the optimal learning outcome, people should learn explicit knowledge (the knowledge that can be expressed by words) by mimicking  the people who have understood the explicit knowledge other than self observation.

Now, I am starting to code the data that my team collected from interviews and surveys for understanding inputs, modification behaviors, performance and disruptions attributes.

Complexity’s pleasures.

Being apart of this research as broadened my horizons. While moving research forward I have learned ideas and disciplines that I would of never ran into during a standard biology major education. One of the more recent things I have been exposed to do to research is ‘System Complexity’.

I’ve read articles and books about System Complexity and found it quite interesting. The concepts lends nicely to the research. In multiple writings the level of complexity a system contains is directly related to the rate of errors or disruptions that happen in the system. As we bring in more data this concept might prove true in services and production companies we are studying.

Another thing I found delightful about System Complexity is that the research surrounding it largely uses organic system to illustrate the concept. This has allowed me to directly use the knowledge I have gain in my biology classes to better this research.  

Studying complexity has been a highlight during this research.

Congratulations

Congratulations Jarvis!  The Associate Dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs has announced that one of our undergraduate team researchers, Jarvis Xu, has received the Mary Gates Research Scholarship for Spring and Summer, 2014. 

reflect on the F-22 program paper

Browning, Tyson R. and Ralph D. Heath (2009). “Reconceptualizing the Effects of Lean on Production Costs with Evidence from the F-22 Program,” Journal of operation Management, 27 (1): 23-44

According to Browning and Heath (2008), lean production can reduce waste during the manufacturing processes. By minimizing the amount of waste, manufacturers can decrease their manufacturing cost. However, lean production is not always saving money for manufacturers. When the waste was reduced to a certain level, such little waste will actually increase the production cost. Browning and Heath investigate the discrepancy above with an analysis of how lean production relates to the added cost. They find out that lean production method creates uncertainty for the manufacturers. In order to be lean, manufacturers are required to modify its internal and external process to minimize its waste as much as possible. Based on the nature of different processes, modifying processes can be challenging. Those challenges contribute to the uncertainty that lean production method create. Depending on how lean the production-processes are, the uncertainty will vary from low to high. One feasible method to handle those uncertainties is utilizing the agile production method that believes that manufactures should have a certain level of production-resource as inventory to deal with uncertainty.  

Report on my second interview

  On Feb 24^th, I interviewed my friend who was manager assistant in a Chinese fast-food restaurant .  The order processes of the restaurant are started when customers get to the waiting line. Then, customers need to walk through a order line to order their food. Because of the special layout of Panda Express, customers will have their food when they are waking through the line. At the end of the waiting line, there are cashier stations. As a manager assistant, she needs to monitor the whole ordering processes to ensure her employees worked as efficiently as they can.           

             According to her, a couple caused the most extreme disruption that she encountered in last month. The couple had not ordered food in the Panda Express before, so they needed longer time than other customers to order food. As a result, they blocked the order lines, and the customers behind them had to wait for a longer time than usual. According to her, every customer in her restaurant gets served in less than 4 minutes. The blocked order line meant a profit loss. Therefore, She categorized this event as the most extreme disruptions. When she decided to give the couple simple food, the disruption was settled because the couple finally understood what they want to order and walked through the order line.

Title: Small Worlds, Infinite Possibilities? How Social Networks Affect Entrepreneurial Team Formation and Search
Authors: Howard E. Aldrich and Phillip H. Kim
Source: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sej.8/abstract

In this article social networks are explored in depth as a useful tool in the creation of entrepreneurial teams. Starting off with the explanation of the simple formation of a team, using first a rational process of member selection based on the skills of individuals and their capabilities to grow and change with the business. The second step is the social psychological model that emphasizes the need for team member to function properly. This leads to three network model structures that are employed by entrepreneurs in order to maneuver for opportunities and resources. These three models are random, small world, and scale free network.

Social networking is considered highly important to either the success or failure of many entrepreneurs. A random network is what is used by many researchers use in order to conduct test of statistical significance and allow for patterns to arise. The structure of these are characterized by an average path between nodes (nascent entrepreneurs) in random graphs is short because of indirect ties and the sense that people's location nor wealth effects their access to others. In a random network everyone has full access and entrepreneurs are able to go about things and succeed as easily as possible.

Small world networks are exactly what they sound like, connections formed in smaller clusters like neighborhoods, friendship circles, or workplaces. These restrict a network because of their smaller nature. There are less people to interact with therefore less connection to make which is what sets this networking apart from random networking. This type of social network creates something called homophily which is the principle that a contract with similar people occurs at a higher rate than among dissimilar people. Since a small world network creates such a close knit community outsiders have a very difficult time getting in which only disrupts more connections from being made.

Scale free networks work off of a power law in the distribution of nodes and their ties. In this type of social network nodes can have a large amount of connections, most of which are higher up more influential connections. These networks are formed by nodes joining together and in a way feeding off of each others networks in order to grow their own. A rather ingenious sort of idea really. These connections are always well thought out and calculated precisely, never randomly. Of the three networks discussed in this paper the scale free network is the least vulnerable to random failures due to such a large and diverse network.

The paper also explains the further importance of social networking in business. They also explain the disadvantages that many people are in if they are not chosen to be in a higher up circle. When you are not properly connected often times your profession can suffer since you have less access to various opportunities.