Title: Towards balancing multiple competitiveness measures for improving business performance in manufacturing

Authors: Biren Prasad

Addresses: Electronic Data Systems (EDS), Automated Concurrent Engineering (ACE), Unigraphics Solutions, P.O. Box 3882, Tustin, CA 92782, USA

Abstract: Today, companies are facing tremendous challenges of how to provide the agility that came from ||craft manufacturing|| with the cost benefits that were the results of ||mass production||. ||Concurrent Engineering||, coupled with automation efforts, is becoming vital in maintaining a competitive posture in today|s marketplace. Competitiveness in this context represents a system|s total performance. It is important to note that the performance of an organisational unit is governed largely by the system in which it is contained. It would be a worthless exercise to improve the business performance of a local unit without changing the entire system, if units were interdependent. Business performance is an effective measure of how inputs (people, materials, means, etc.) are utilised in a certain period (measured in terms of operating expenses), in order to realise certain useful outputs in this period. The paper proposes a method for finding a cumulative balancing index for optimising a company|s total competitiveness position based on the following eight independently measured factors: overall productivity; time-to-market; customer satisfaction; cost-of-quality; profitability; inventory; quality; unscheduled changes.

Keywords: balancing manufacturing competitiveness; cost-to-quality; customer satisfaction; time-to-market; business performance; effectiveness; performance efficiency; inventory; unscheduled changes; measures of merits.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMTM.2001.001429

International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management, 2001 Vol.3 No.6, pp.550-569

Published online: 03 Jul 2003 *

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