Manufacturing Strategy: a source of competitive advantage
The existence of a properly formulated and explicit strategy is essential to ensure the development and success of the business. In industrial companies the manufacturing strategy is a key element. Every company is in a unique and dynamic situation offering
products and services with different order winning criteria.
Figure - 1
Manufacturing strategy provides a strategic link between manufacturing and business strategy. The observation says that the capabilities of manufacturing were not considered when formulating or implementing business strategy, and identified a number of elements of manufacturing strategy, which included technology and its management.
Manufacturing, marketing, R&D, finance, and Human Resources must all create strategies that collectively and synergistically comprise the overall strategy for business.
A few common characteristics of a manufacturing strategy:
First, the manufacturing strategy must support the business strategy by focusing the manufacturing activity on a small set of objectives dictated by customer need
Second, it should describe allocation of resources within the manufacturing function in a way that allows achievement of the manufacturing objectives.
Third, it will be reflected in the patterns of actual decisions made by the manufacturing function. If the decisions made over time by the organization are not consistent with the stated strategy, then the stated strategy is displayed by the enacted strategy
The contents of manufacturing strategy include:
Establishment of manufacturing objectives
Recognition of manufacturing strategic decisions areas.
Formulating a manufacturing strategy requires the following things
The identification of markets, competitors and current performance;
An identification of opportunities and threats;
An assessment of current strategy;
The generation of a new strategy to meet requirements.
The objective of manufacturing strategy is to create operationally significant performance measures in which the competitive dimensions comprise cost, quality, dependability and flexibility
Strategies then need to be evaluated for comprehensiveness, consistency, the extent to which they have been articulated and communicated, and the contribution they make to competitive advantage. Future developments in this field will focus on the application of a resource-based perspective within manufacturing strategy and on improvements to the application or process of manufacturing strategy formulation.
Manufacturing strategy depends on a firms differential focus on the dimension of
Cost
Quality
Delivery
Reliability
Flexibility
Flexibility has many benefits in high-volume manufacturing, such as in the automotive industry, where there are changeovers, design changes and model changes. Flexibility to reduce these changeover times, as well as having the ability to changeover easily, is useful, even for high volume components.
Flexible Manufacturing Systems combine several production technologies to manufacture a wide variety of parts in random order by machine rather than manual labor. Basically, Flexible Manufacturing System is a combination of machine tools, material handling equipment, computer components and software. Its major applications lay in the metal working industries. However, Flexible Manufacturing System may also be appropriate for any batch-manufacturing situation where the variety of parts produced is high and/or the product mix is variable.
Flexible Manufacturing Systems are automated integrated systems of equipment and information flow, arranged for the economic production of small batches of complex components. These systems are essentially composed of workstations and material transfer systems in which the control of operations is performed by a central computer. The integration of these features gives the Flexible Manufacturing System concept the following advantages:
Reduced lead-time and increased throughput;
Indirect labor reduction;
Increases in machine utilization;
Work in process inventory reduction; and
Good balance of production and flexibility.
Since Flexible Manufacturing Systems and flexibility are becoming key issues in the development of a suitable manufacturing strategy for the future, the search for an effective methodology of analysis capable of overcoming the existing obstacles is a fundamental objective for a successful Flexible Manufacturing System expansion.
Advantages of Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS)
Greater labor productivity: Fewer workers requiring specialized education and skills.
Greater machine efficiency: Fewer machines, less floor space and less space for operator movement.
Improved quality: Less waste because on-line gauging allows immediate feedback and adjustment of the manufacturing process.
Increased system reliability: Intelligent, self-diagnosing control decrease the time required to identify and correct hardware problems