Production is not just about pallets, oil, noise and locker room mentality. At PEØ, the focus is on product, process and service development mobilised through quality and management control in the networks and supply chains in which the enterprise performs. The Department is concerned with the knowledge-based scope for action of both private and public enterprises and institutions.

The Department strategy centres around performance management and interorganisational relations; research is typically based on empirical methods, often in cooperation with enterprises and institutions, and the courses are built around the basic academic topics of: business economics, supply chain management, management control and operations management.

The Department of Operations Management covers production management, distribution, product and process development in general as well as information and communication in and about modern industrial and service enterprises based in particular on interorganisational relations and performance management – often called operations management.

The Department has four academic focus areas: Business economics, management control, supply chain management and operations management. Business economics is about cost and price theory focusing on decision-making concerning pricing, scope of production and resource allocation based on modelling of the activities of the enterprise. Management control is about setting up and using various types of information, planning and reporting systems as well as budgeting and follow-up. Supply chain management concerns the management of the flow of services, products, product development and information through enterprises in chains and networks. Finally, operations management concerns management and organisation of production issues, often with a view to developing products and processes.

The Department’s overall strategic research focus areas are: (1) interorganisational relations, and (2) performance management. Both research and teaching priorities are based on those considerations and often combinations thereof. Interorganisational relations are centred around supply chain management, working relations between enterprises, networks, e-business and e-commerce as well as interorganisational knowledge sharing, and the Department explores ways of managing such interorganisational relations. Performance management is about effects and values often based on information, representation, reporting, incentives and communication. The emphasis is often on ’new’ management objects such as knowledge, quality, environmental and social responsibility as well as a wide range of modern management techniques such as balanced scorecard, ERP systems, modern financial calculation methods and intellectual capital accounts.

The Center for Business Development and Management Technology is affiliated to the Department as a business research unit. Its activities are financed by business enterprises, and projects are developed in close cooperation with them. This way, the Center financed a number of PhD projects conducting research in a wide variety of fields related to the other research activities of the Department. Its significant interplay with public and private enterprises and institutions covers a large number of networking activities and seminars in relation to research projects.

One expression of the research production of the Department is its publications. This object may not be the only relevant research dimension, but it is currently one of the most important Department goals as it is an expression of its visibility. Since its foundation in 1998, a main focus of the Department has been to increase the number of publications and to increase internationalisation. Developments since 1999 appear from Figure 1.

Figure 1

The figure shows an increase in international publications while apparently the number of national publications declined drastically. The number of international publications shows a slight long-term increase. Obviously this is and remains the Department’s strategy. However, this goal is ambiguous as a mere publication count does not necessarily reflect the quality aspect. Of course, there is a certain ranking of journals which may reflect quality to some degree, but it is not always clear (even to us) what determines the international ranking of journals. Quality is not easily defined.

The number of Nordic-language publications declined drastically in 2003. To some degree, this may be attributable to an error in the method of calculation used for 2002, but that does not account for the entire decline. One explanation is that we are now seeing the effect of our commitment to international articles instead of local activities. Another may be that we have spent quite a few resources on the development of Department programmes causing Danish-language articles and books to be given a lower priority. It is important for the Department to have both international and national presence. Therefore, we must ensure that our commitment to produce international articles does not eliminate local-language production completely. This is a difficult balancing act, and our ambition is for our research to be published both internationally and nationally. In order to ensure national publication of sufficient quality we must be able to get it published through international channels, however. Therefore, the variations in the number of Nordic-language publications have to do with the time available after giving priority to the development of study programmes and international publication.

This also confirms the comment in the 2002 Research Report emphasising that even though 2002 saw an immense increase in the number of national publications, the strategy remains to ensure international publication acting as a quality check of national publications.

The Department has widespread working relationships with the business community and public institutions. Here, the Center for Business Development and Management Technology plays a crucial role with a large number of PhD projects financed by the business community. It has over 20 PhD students and a contact network of 120 enterprises. A number of new projects were launched in 2003. For example, new forms of partnerships were established in connection with a major development project in cooperation with FASP (the association of specialist practitioners) with a view to generating quality development competencies. The project includes research and competence development with the participation of researchers, consultants and users. It includes 2-3 PhD projects and is to run for 3-5 years.

A number of our supply chain management-oriented projects attract a lot of attention in the business community, and the working relationship between the Confederation of Danish Industries, the Center for Industrial Production (Aalborg University) and the Department involves cooperation with the 25 leading production enterprises in Denmark.

Add to this projects concerning Danish production enterprises in an international context and studies of the use of formal methods organised in cooperation with a number of leading Danish enterprises and with the Center for Industrial Production at Aalborg University.

There is no doubt that cooperation with the business community and public authorities is close to the Department’s heart. However, reason should always exceed the individual arrangement. Research conclusions should be worth publishing.

As an indication of the Department’s efforts to create partnerships and to acquire external research funding, Figure 2 shows the distribution of research funds according to source.

Figure 2

Figure 2 illustrates that half the Department’s research funds are generated externally – a slight reduction compared with last year. A number of applications have been unsuccessful this year, and while they are willing to allocate time, it is proving difficult to get enterprises to allocate funds. This probably has to do with market trends. However, more than half of the external funding is from enterprises, while funds from research councils, EU, etc., have been reduced.

It is the Department’s clear goal to obtain external research funding for a good deal of its research activities. This would also allow a Department research process geared to development, which is necessary to ensure optimal academic debate. We expect the percentage of external research funds to increase in future, but in the short term market trends will create uncertainty and thereby influence the willingness of enterprises to be involved in research activities.