European Manufacturing: A comparative study (1985)

• Main Author: De Meyer, Arnoud
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 1986
• Subjects: manufacturing industry; strategic planning; tradeoff; flexibility; cost efficiency; Europe; Business Administration, Management, and Operations; Operations and Supply Chain Management
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/4120; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/5119/viewcontent/EuropeanManufacturing_1986_EMJ_afv.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

One of the striking events of the eighties in the field of management is the increase in attention paid to the role of manufacturing and technology in the determination of a firm’s competitive position. Traditionally, corporate policy and strategic decisions were defined on the basis of a financial and marketing analysis of the company’s strengths, weaknesses and competitive environment. The contribution of the technology function and more in particular the production and operations function was often limited to implementation and a marginal adaptation of a course set by financial and marketing considerations. Some of the world’s excellent competitors have, however, developed over recent years an arsenal of strategic weapons which are derived from a better deployment of the physical assets and the operations and systems of the company. The significance of operations and manufacturing to the strategy of the company is twofold. It relates to how manufacturing processes provide a company with a distinctive advantage in the market place (through, for example, a shorter delivery time, a higher volume or design flexibility or a higher reliability) and how manufacturing processes allow a company to compete on a product with different performance characteristics.