Supply chain transformation in APC Ireland: lean thinking, opposing logics and bricolage.
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Date
2007-06Author
Costello, Gabriel
Donnellan, Brian
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Costello, G. J., Rochford, C. and Donnellan, B. (2007) Supply chain transformation in APC Ireland: lean thinking, opposing logics and bricolage. 15th European Conference on Information Systems, St. Gallen, Switzerland, June 7-9, 2007.
Abstract
This paper presents a number of observations and findings from an ongoing study of supply chain
transformation in a subsidiary of American Power Conversion (APC) located in the West of Ireland.
The study is being carried out in a period of significant change within both the Irish economy and the
APC Corporation. The research addresses the question of how innovation can contribute to the
sustainability and development of the Operations function in a time of transition. To begin with, a
review is presented of relevant research and theory in the areas of lean supply, innovative culture and
information systems bricolage. Then the context and composition of the lean transformation team
involved in the case study are described together with the research design. The work proposes to make
a contribution in two areas. Firstly by providing empirical evidence of the role of innovation in an
organizational transformation and the challenge of incorporating bricolage in the course of
information systems design. Secondly to the building of theory by proposing that organizational
innovation can be viewed as a dynamic process of tuning ¿opposing logics¿. The paper concludes by
suggesting that the study has significance in the context of Ireland¿s objectives of moving to an
innovation economy and of strengthening academic-industrial collaboration.