Innovative Quality Improvements in Operations

Tomas Backström is a Professor of Innovation Science at Mälardalen University, Sweden.  Starting with an undergraduate degree in Engineering Physics and a PhD in Engineering, his work has grown more and more multi-disciplinary and he has published articles and chapters in a wide spectrum of venues such as: The Learning Organization, International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, Economics and Business Letters, Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology, and Life Sciences, and Emergence: Complexity & Organization. With experience from thirty-five years of research in work life he currently researches and teaches about innovation management and creativity in groups and organizations, with a special focus on communication and leadership.Anders Fundin is a Professor of Quality Technology and Management at Mälardalen University, Sweden. With a PhD in Quality Technology and Management and a MSc in Engineering his interest has evolved in areas suchas Quality Technology and Management, Operations Management and Change Management. Through 18 years of research and development experience within the automotive industry his research work has been published in journals such as for example, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, International Journal of Service Industry Management, International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, and Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing.Peter E. Johansson is a Senior Lecturer in Innovation Science since 2012, and since 2015 he is the subject representative for Innovation Science at the School of Innovation, Design and Engineering. Peter is a part of the research group Workplace Innovation and Quality Management, WIQM, and he received his PhD in Education in 2011 at Stockholm University; specialized in the fields of workplace learning, learning organisations and organization pedagogics. Peter has been involved in several cross-disciplinary research projects, and his current research interests are positioned in the intersection between operations management and innovation management research. His research deals with the origins of, and conditions for, learning and development of innovation competencies; on an individual and organisational level as well as the relation between those.

• Contents.- Introduction by editors.- Quality management for both stability and development (Anders Fundin and Bo Bergman).- Explore and exploit in lean production (Peter E Johansson).- Kaikaku and kaizen in lean production (Yuji Yamamoto).- A knowledge perspective on explore and exploit (Mattias Elg).- An organizational perspective on explore and exploit (John Bessent).- Leadership for exploration and exploitation (Tomas Backström and Jim Hazy).- Idea-generation and idea-implementation as a group task (Bengt Köping Olsson).- Creating spaces for exploration and exploitation (Jennie Schaeffer).- Conclusion and future research directions by editors.