Flexibility and competitive advantage – manufacturing becomes a service business
by Joel D. Goldhar, Mariann Jelinek, Theodore W. Schlie
International Journal of Technology Management (IJTM), Vol. 6, No. 3/4, 1991

Abstract: Much has been reported about the seeming inability of many firms to attain the expected level of benefits from their investments in CIM and FMS technology. Some of the blame has been placed on inappropriate expectations, some on bad project management, and some on errors in the analytical methods used to evaluate and justify the investments. AU of these 'errors' undoubtedly contribute to the problem; but we believe that two more fundamental difficulties are at issue: (1) a failure to understand fully the strategic and organizational changes that must accompany the new technology; and (2) a failure to understand the essential new role of information technology in the integration of engineering, manufacturing and marketing and in the design of flexible manufacturing systems. As yet, few managers see the relationship between flexibility on the factory floor on the one hand, and strategic flexibility in the organisation, and the marketplace, on the other. Nor is such flexibility widely enough viewed as a source of competitive advantage. This paper will briefly discuss the evolution of manufacturing technology and management to highlight how traditional constraints and relationships between manufacturing, engineering and marketing are changed by computer technology. We will then focus on how manufacturing operations are changed, and a new economics of production created. Finally, we will describe a new philosophy for manufacturing along with the new strategies they permit, and the organisation designs and management systems that are required; and made possible, by the utilisation of information technology.

Online publication date: Mon, 25-May-2009

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