Competitive strategy and plant-level flexibility

Choosing how and where to be flexible is a critical issue for manufacturers, particularly as competition becomes more intense and environments become more turbulent. Unfortunately, attempts by scholars to make useful prescriptions remain hampered by the fragmented nature of the literature on flexibility. The present paper integrates a review of that literature with concepts from organization theory and competitive strategy in proposing two types of flexibility—tactical and strategic—at the plant level. Using canonical correlation analysis and data gathered from multiple US industries, the relationship between competitive strategy and the perceived value of tactical and/or strategic flexibility is explored. Results tentatively indicate significant strategic effects on the choice of flexibility emphasis at the plant level.

[1]  Manoj K. Malhotra,et al.  Resource Flexibility Issues in Multistage Manufacturing , 1990 .

[2]  Cheryl Gaimon,et al.  Flexibility and the choice of manufacturing facilities under short product life cycles , 1992 .

[3]  C. Prahalad,et al.  The core competence of the corporation’, Harvard Business Review, Vol. pp. . , 1990 .

[4]  Gregory G. Dess,et al.  Dimensions of Organizational Task Environments. , 1984 .

[5]  A. Murray.  A Contingency View of Porter's “Generic Strategies” , 1988 .

[6]  J. Pfeffer,et al.  The External Control of Organizations. , 1978 .

[7]  C. B. Besant,et al.  Flexibility in manufacturing , 1989 .

[8]  K. R. Harrigan.  Formulating Vertical Integration Strategies , 1984 .

[9]  Raimar Richers.  The theory of economic development , 1961 .

[10]  B. Carlsson.  Flexibility and the theory of the firm , 1989 .

[11]  Manoj K. Malhotra,et al.  A theoretical framework for analyzing the dimensions of manufacturing flexibility , 1999 .

[12]  D. Dillman.  Mail and telephone surveys : the total design method , 1979 .

[13]  G. Stigler.  Production and Distribution in the Short Run , 1939, Journal of Political Economy.

[14]  Suresh P. Sethi,et al.  Flexibility in manufacturing: A survey , 1990 .

[15]  Bhaba R. Sarker,et al.  A Review of:“Factory Physics: Foundations of Manufacturing Management” Wallace J. Hopp and Mark L. Spearman Richard D. Irwin, Inc., 1996 , 1997 .

[16]  Peter T. Ward,et al.  Configurations of Manufacturing Strategy, Business Strategy, Environment and Structure , 1996 .

[17]  M. Tushman,et al.  Organizational Evolution: A Metamorphosis Model of Convergence and Reorientation , 1985 .

[18]  R. Hensley.  A review of operations management studies using scale development techniques , 1999 .

[19]  M. Hannan,et al.  The Population Ecology of Organizations , 1977, American Journal of Sociology.

[20]  C. Hardy.  Organizations: Rational, Natural and Open Systems , 1983 .

[21]  G. Huber.  Organizational Learning: The Contributing Processes and the Literatures , 1991 .

[22]  A. Meyer.  Adapting to environmental jolts. , 1982, Administrative science quarterly.

[23]  Richard A. D'Aveni,et al.  Economies of Integration Versus Bureaucracy Costs: Does Vertical Integration Improve Performance? , 1994 .

[24]  David E. Mills.  Demand Fluctuations and Endogenous Firm Flexibility , 1984 .

[25]  M. Porter.  Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance , 1985 .

[26]  R. Hayes.  Restoring our competitive edge , 1984 .

[27]  Vincent A. Mabert,et al.  Alternate Routing Strategies in Batch Manufacturing: An Evaluation , 1988 .

[28]  C. Prahalad,et al.  The Core Competence of the Corporation , 1990 .

[29]  D. Hambrick.  Environmental scanning and organizational strategy , 1982 .

[30]  William J. Abernathy,et al.  Technology, productivity and process change , 1975 .

[31]  P. Ghemawat.  Commitment: The Dynamic of Strategy , 1991 .

[32]  J. Child.  Organization Structure and Strategies of Control: A Replication of the Aston Study , 1972 .

[33]  R. Sanchez.  Strategic flexibility in product competition , 1995 .

[34]  Gregory G. Dess,et al.  Divergence between Archival and Perceptual Measures of the Environment: Causes and Consequences , 1993 .

[35]  C. Hill.  Differentiation Versus Low Cost or Differentiation and Low Cost: A Contingency Framework , 1988 .

[36]  S. Vickery,et al.  Dimensions of manufacturing strength in the furniture industry , 1997 .

[37]  R E Miles,et al.  Organizational strategy, structure, and process. , 1978, Academy of management review. Academy of Management.

[38]  Bhatt L. Vadlamani,et al.  Assessing generic strategies: an empirical investigation of two competing typologies in discrete manufacturing industries , 1995 .

[39]  D. Gerwin.  Manufacturing flexibility: a strategic perspective , 1993 .

[40]  S. Sethi,et al.  The Impact of Flexible Automation on Business Strategy and Organizational Structure , 1992 .

[41]  O. Williamson.  The Economics of Organization: The Transaction Cost Approach , 1981, American Journal of Sociology.

[42]  Qingyu Zhang,et al.  Manufacturing flexibility: Defining and analyzing relationships among competence, capability, and customer satisfaction , 2003 .

[43]  Douglas J. Miller,et al.  An empirical examination of transaction- and firm-level influences on the vertical boundaries of the firm , 2003 .

[44]  N. Slack.  Flexibility as a Manufacturing Objective , 1983 .

[45]  David J. Miller,et al.  Relating Porter's Business Strategies to Environment and Structure: Analysis and Performance Implications , 1988 .

[46]  Joel D. Goldhar,et al.  Uncertainty reduction through flexible manufacturing , 1987, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management.

[47]  William J. Abernathy,et al.  Patterns of Industrial Innovation , 1978 .

[48]  L. Cronbach.  Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests , 1951 .

[49]  K. Weick.  Mail and telephone surveys: The total design method. , 1978 .

[50]  Alan D. Meyer,et al.  ENVIRONMENTAL JOLTS AND INDUSTRY REVOLUTIONS: ORGANIZATIONAL RESPONSES TO DISCONTINUOUS CHANGE , 1990 .

[51]  David E. Mills,et al.  Industry Structure with Fluctuating Demand , 1985 .

[52]  S. Vickery,et al.  Production Competence and Business Strategy: Do They Affect Business Performance? , 1993 .

[53]  D. Teece,et al.  DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES AND STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT , 1997 .

[54]  David Upton,et al.  Flexibility as process mobility: The management of plant capabilities for quick response manufacturing , 1995 .

[55]  B. Wernerfelt,et al.  Competitive Strategy Under Uncertainty. , 1984 .

[56]  Donald Gerwin,et al.  An agenda for research on the flexibility of manufacturing processes , 1987 .

[57]  Larry P. Ritzman,et al.  The relative significance of forecast errors in multistage manufacturing , 1993 .

[58]  D. Dillman,et al.  How to conduct your own survey , 1994 .

[59]  Abdul A. Rasheed,et al.  Configuration Research in Strategic Management: Key Issues and Suggestions , 1993 .

[60]  K. Eisenhardt,et al.  Accelerating Adaptive Processes: Product Innovation in the Global Computer Industry , 1995 .

[61]  James M. Utterback,et al.  Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation , 1996 .