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This paper aims at both analysing the different stages of servitization and structuring the used terms. To do this, we started from the Product Service Systems model.

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Aan de hand van een literatuurstudie en een praktijktoepassing toont deze meesterproef aan hoe lean six sigma beginselen zich vertalen naar een administratieve omgeving. De gevallenstudie vindt plaats in de HR-administratie en maakt gebruik van value stream management om het procesverloop te verbeteren.

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Outsourcing is a useful tool for a company to gain a competitive advantage in the contemporary, increasingly competitive business world. However, the existing literature demonstrates that for this tool to be effective a firm needs to retain control when it decides to go from 'making' to 'buying'. On one hand, this paper examines the relationship between performance and relational risk, caused by goal incongruence and information asymmetry. On the other hand, it examines the factors that can mitigate them: intentional and performance trust, as well as output, behavior, and social control. In order to obtain the required amount of control over multi-tier supply networks, a dynamic interorganizational governance model is proposed that draws primarily on the available literature on trust, power, agency theory and organizational theory. To bring this thesis to an end, possible avenues for future contributions to literature by expanding upon the proposed model are offered.

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This Master Thesis deals with bringing the Markov chain theory concepts into the domain of inventory. First of all, it provides a general line between the Markov chain theory, Markov chain analysis and Markov chain optimization concerning inventory. Second, it provides a general method to approach the inventory problem on hand by using a Markov chain. It explains when a Markov chain approach is possible and desired and how the Markov chain analysis is worked out. In order to do so, numerical examples are provided. Furthermore, the link is made with the Markov chain decision process theory. In doing so, inventory problems can be translated in a Markov reward process. The latter can then be utilized in order to evaluate policies or even to find an optimal inventory policy according to management’s desires.

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Nowadays consumers want a greater variety of products, preferably tailored to their individual needs, but still at affordable prices. This can be achieved with mass customization through a commonality and/or modularity approach. These two approaches are however not always beneficial and the costs that will result from their implementation should first be investigated into detail. Since different cost types evolve in different directions compared to a traditional design and depend on different parameters, a good total cost model is required to determine if commonality and/or modularity is beneficial in a particular case. This thesis proposes a clear and comprehensible model to do this. Secondly, this thesis investigates which product design methodologies are available to a designer that wants to implement commonality and/or modularity. Modular design methods were found to be divisible according to the objective they try to achieve (e.g. the reduction of life-cycle costs). According to the designer's objective and the information available the right method can be chosen. Methods that help to search for common components are often based on the cost reductions commonality can lead to but often do not incorporate the potential performance degradation commonality can have as a result.