Increasingly organizations compete based on time. As a result, cycle-time reduction is a key agenda for organizations interested in achieving increased customer service and reduced cost. With improved cycle time, organizations can often eliminate or reduce inventory while expanding customer service offerings. The purpose of this tutorial is to present the fundamental concepts of cycle time redu...

Research shows that continuing competitive pressure applied during development and production leads to better industry performance, often at reduced cost. However, the entrenched practice of one-time competition for an entire program life-cycle often endows the winner with a very strong monopolistic power that lasts for decades. This paper describes continuous competition as leverage to acquire...

Recent years increase in organizations’ dependence on information technology has ushered in changing roles for IT departments and IT governance alike. Instead of being primarily focused on the continuous and cost efficient maintenance and support of existing resources, there is a need for a more balanced take on IT Governance which calls for an ambidextrous approach. This involves an increased ...

This paper presents evidence on the impact of managers on cost efficiency in banking. Stochastic frontier analysis is applied to a unique Finnish data set. The paper finds that manager age and education have strong yet complicated effects. University education enhances efficiency if the manager is running a large bank. Managing director changes are systematically followed by efficiency changes....

This chapter gives an overview of benefit-cost analysis (BCA) and similar evaluation tools, such as cost-effectiveness analysis and technology-based standards, in the context of public health. We describe these evaluation tools, how they are used, their shortcomings, and how they should be interpreted. As with other powerful tools, they are subject to misuse and misinterpretation, even by profe...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the cost effectiveness of a 4.5 year education campaign that promoted farmers' adoption of rollover protective structures (ROPS) to prevent tractor overturn injuries. DESIGN Randomized controlled trial, decision analysis, and cost effectiveness analysis. SETTING One treatment county and one control county in the State of Kentucky. INTERVENTION A campaign by a local t...