Trying to Resolve Manufacturing Performance Trade-Offs: The Case of British Contract Electronics Assemblers

The changing nature of competitive pressure now requires companies to compete on several aspects of performance simultaneously. This reality departs from the traditional idea that organizations must find a specific area of competency and choose between objectives such as low cosT., quality, or flexibility. Hence, the degree to which companies resolve manufacturing performance trade-offs, and the understanding of the processes whereby companies manage to achieve this, emerge as a set of research questions. This paper presents the results of a benchmarking study carried out to assess and compare the levels of manufacturing performance achieved by 16 British contract electronics assemblers. Case studies conducted in three of these companies highlighted structural and cultural aspects that may explain intercompany differences in the resolution of manufacturing performance trade-offs. Resume La nature changeante des regies de la competition oblige les entreprises a maitriser simultanement plusieurs aspects de la performance manufacturiere. Cette realite differe de l'idee recue selon laquelle les organisations doivent choisir entre des objectifs tels la reduction des couts, la qualite, ou la flexibilite. Ainsi, l 'evaluation du degre de resolution des arbitrages tradi-tionnels entre les objectifs de performance manufacturiere et la comprehension des facteurs favorisant cette resolution constituent des themes de recherche pertinents. Les resultats d'une etude de benchmarking menees aupres de 16 sous-traitants electroniques britan-niques et ayant pour but de comparer leur performance manufacturiere sont presentes dans cet article. Trois etudes de cas ont ensuite permis d'identifier differents aspects structurels et culturels qui semblent expliquer les differents niveaux de resolution des arbitrages opera-tionnels.