Manufacturing Strategy, Capabilities and Performance

• Main Author: Hallgren, Mattias
• Format: Doctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för ekonomisk och industriell utveckling 2007
• Subjects: Manufacturing Strategy; Manufacturing Capabilities; Operational Performance; Empirical Research; Contingency Factors; Manufacturing engineering and work sciences; Produktion och arbetsvetenskap
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-8962; http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:isbn:978-91-85831-72-2

This dissertation addresses the topic of manufacturing strategy, especially the manufacturing capabilities and operational performance of manufacturing plants. Manufacturing strategy research aims at providing a structured decision making approach to improve the economics of manufacturing and to make companies more competitive. The overall objective of this thesis is to investigate how manufacturing companies make use of different manufacturing practices or bundles of manufacturing practices to develop certain sets of capabilities, with the ultimate goal of supporting the market requirements. The thesis aims to increase the understanding of the role of operations management and its immediate impact on manufacturing performance. Following the overall research objective three areas are identified to be of particular interest; to investigate (i) the relationship among different dimensions of operational performance, (ii) the way different performance dimensions are affected by manufacturing practices or bundles of manufacturing practices, (iii) whether there are contingencies that may help explain the relationships between dimensions of manufacturing capabilities or the effects of manufacturing practices or bundles of manufacturing practices on operational performance. The empirical elements in this thesis use data from the High Performance Manufacturing (HPM) project. The HPM project is an international study of manufacturing plants involving seven countries and three industries. The research contributes to several insights to the research area of manufacturing strategy and to practitioners in manufacturing operations. The thesis develops measurements for and tests the effects of several manufacturing practices on operational performance. The results are aimed at providing guidance for decision making in manufacturing companies. The most prominent implication for researchers is the manifestation of the customer order decoupling point as an important contingency variable to consider when studying manufacturing operations.