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Volume :15 Issue : 1 2008
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Operational Performance Measures Used and Contemporary Management Practices Deployed in Manufacturing Firms: The case of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Auther : Abdullatif M. Basheikh
& Ahmed B. Abdel-Maksoud
This paper aims at providing an empirical framework for exploring a proposed relationship between non-financial performance measures on the shop-floor (SFNFPMs) and a range of technological, managerial, organisational and environmental factors in Saudi manufacturing firms. The paper explains, briefly, the tentative framework of the proposed relationship between the use of SFNFPMs and the levels of deployment/importance of four contingent variables: innovative managerial practices (IMPs), advanced manufacturing technologies (AMTs), contemporary management accounting techniques, and aspects of competition. It then sheds light on levels of importance of the SFNFPMs of five evaluation categories (product quality, customer satisfaction, on-time delivery, employee morale, and efficiency and utilisation) and levels of application/deployment of the incorporated contingent variables in Saudi manufacturing firms. It also provides salient comparisons on levels of application of the incorporated variables between Saudi firms and UK firms. The paper presents summary statistics of research responses from interviewing managers of 144 Saudi manufacturing firms (belonging to various industry sectors) in mid 2005. It concludes that measures of 'on-time' delivery and efficiency and utilisation, amongst the five evaluation categories incorporated, are considered as highly important. Moreover, levels of importance of these two categories seem to be positively and significantly correlated with the levels of application of IMPs and AMTs and the levels of importance of aspects of competition as perceived by managers in the surveyed firms.