Lasting Improvements in Manufacturing Performance: In Search of a New Theory

Is there a way to avoid trading off one capability for another in manufacturing? The prevailing wisdom says no. But some manufacturers seem to have been able to defy that: compared to their competitors, they have better quality, are more dependable, respond faster to changing market conditions, and...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ferdows, Kasra, De Meyer, Arnoud
Format: text
Language:English
Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 1990
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/3834
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/4831/viewcontent/auto_convert.pdf
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Institution: Singapore Management University
Language: English
id sg-smu-ink.lkcsb_research-4831
record_format dspace
spelling sg-smu-ink.lkcsb_research-48312018-07-10T04:57:13Z Lasting Improvements in Manufacturing Performance: In Search of a New Theory Ferdows, Kasra De Meyer, Arnoud Is there a way to avoid trading off one capability for another in manufacturing? The prevailing wisdom says no. But some manufacturers seem to have been able to defy that: compared to their competitors, they have better quality, are more dependable, respond faster to changing market conditions, and in spite of all that, achieve lower costs. How can this be explained? Our aim here is to provide an explanation. We contend that the nature of the trade-offs among manufacturing capabilities is more complex than has been assumed. Depending on the approach taken for developing each capability, the nature of the trade-offs change. In certain cases not only can trade-offs be avoided altogether, but in fact one capability would enhance another. They become cumulative. Moreover, when a capability is developed in this way, it is likely to be more lasting and less fragile than if it were developed at the expense of other capabilities. We go on to suggest a model which shows how this can be done: To build cumulative and lasting manufacturing capability, management attention and resources should go first toward enhancing quality, then-while the efforts to enhance qualify are further expanded-attention should be paid to improve also the dependability of the production system, then-and again while efforts on the previous two are further enhanced-production flexibility (or reaction speed) should also be improved, and finally, while all these efforts are further enlarged, direct attention can be paid to cost efficiency. We use data from 1988 European Manufacturing Futures Survey (167 respondents) to test and illustrate our model. 1990-04-01T08:00:00Z text application/pdf https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/3834 info:doi/10.1016/0272-6963(90)90094-T https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/4831/viewcontent/auto_convert.pdf http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business eng Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University Manufacturing performance quality dependability trade-offs manufacturing costs manufacturing capabilities Business Administration, Management, and Operations Operations and Supply Chain Management
institution Singapore Management University
building SMU Libraries
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider SMU Libraries
collection InK@SMU
language English
topic Manufacturing performance
quality
dependability
trade-offs
manufacturing costs
manufacturing capabilities
Business Administration, Management, and Operations
Operations and Supply Chain Management
spellingShingle Manufacturing performance
quality
dependability
trade-offs
manufacturing costs
manufacturing capabilities
Business Administration, Management, and Operations
Operations and Supply Chain Management
Ferdows, Kasra
De Meyer, Arnoud
Lasting Improvements in Manufacturing Performance: In Search of a New Theory
description Is there a way to avoid trading off one capability for another in manufacturing? The prevailing wisdom says no. But some manufacturers seem to have been able to defy that: compared to their competitors, they have better quality, are more dependable, respond faster to changing market conditions, and in spite of all that, achieve lower costs. How can this be explained? Our aim here is to provide an explanation. We contend that the nature of the trade-offs among manufacturing capabilities is more complex than has been assumed. Depending on the approach taken for developing each capability, the nature of the trade-offs change. In certain cases not only can trade-offs be avoided altogether, but in fact one capability would enhance another. They become cumulative. Moreover, when a capability is developed in this way, it is likely to be more lasting and less fragile than if it were developed at the expense of other capabilities. We go on to suggest a model which shows how this can be done: To build cumulative and lasting manufacturing capability, management attention and resources should go first toward enhancing quality, then-while the efforts to enhance qualify are further expanded-attention should be paid to improve also the dependability of the production system, then-and again while efforts on the previous two are further enhanced-production flexibility (or reaction speed) should also be improved, and finally, while all these efforts are further enlarged, direct attention can be paid to cost efficiency. We use data from 1988 European Manufacturing Futures Survey (167 respondents) to test and illustrate our model.
format text
author Ferdows, Kasra
De Meyer, Arnoud
author_facet Ferdows, Kasra
De Meyer, Arnoud
author_sort Ferdows, Kasra
title Lasting Improvements in Manufacturing Performance: In Search of a New Theory
title_short Lasting Improvements in Manufacturing Performance: In Search of a New Theory
title_full Lasting Improvements in Manufacturing Performance: In Search of a New Theory
title_fullStr Lasting Improvements in Manufacturing Performance: In Search of a New Theory
title_full_unstemmed Lasting Improvements in Manufacturing Performance: In Search of a New Theory
title_sort lasting improvements in manufacturing performance: in search of a new theory
publisher Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University
publishDate 1990
url https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/3834
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/4831/viewcontent/auto_convert.pdf
_version_ 1770571921045323776