Trade-offs? What Trade-offs? Competence and Competitiveness in Manufacturing Strategy

The article by Skinner W. (“Manufacturing—Missing Link in Corporate Strategy,” Harvard Business Review (May/June 1969), pp. 136–145] can be said to have started the field.

Skinner W. , “Missing the Links in Manufacturing Strategy,” in Voss C.A. , ed., Manufacturing Strategy: Process and Content (London: Chapman & Hall. 1992), pp. 13–25. The need for conceptual research is also emphasized by several good recent surveys of manufacturing strategy literature by Adam E.E. Jr. Swamidass P.M. , “Assessing Operations Management from a Strategic Perspective,” Journal of Management, 15/2 (1989): 181–203; Anderson J.C. Cleveland G. Schroeder R.G. , “Operations Strategy: A Literature Review,” Journal of Operations Management, 8/2 (April 1989): 133–158; Leong G.K. Snyder D.L. Ward P.T. , “Research in the Process and Content of Manufacturing Strategy,” OMEGA, 18/2(1990): 109–122.

See for example Hayes R.H. Wheelwright S.C. Clark K.B. , Dynamic Manufacturing (New York, NY: The Free Press, 1988).

One of the types of flexibility distinguished in Gerwin D. , “An Agenda For Research On The Flexibility Of Manufacturing Processes,” International Journal of Operations and Production Management, 7/1 (1987): 38–49.

Stalk G. Jr. Hout T.M. , Competing Against Time: How Time-Based Competition Is Reshaping Global Markets (New York, NY: The Free Press, 1990).

Blackburn J.D. , ed., Time-Based Competition: The Next Battleground in American Manufacturing (Homewood. IL: Irwin, 1991).

Examples of shortcomings of conventional cost accounting procedures can be found in, e.g., Johnson H.T. Kaplan R.S. , Relevance Lost: The Rise and Fall of Management Accounting (Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1987).

See Garvin D.A. , “Competing on the Eight Dimensions of Quality.” Harvard Business Review (November/December 1987), pp. 101–109.

Kotler P. Armstrong G. , Principles of Marketing (Englewood Cliffs. NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1991).

See Blackburn , op. cit.

Skinner (1969), op. cit.

Skinner W. , “The Focused Factory,” Harvard Business Review (May/June 1974), pp. 112–121.

Porter M.E. , Competitive Strategy (New York. NY: The Free Press, 1980).

This corresponds to a Stage I or Stage II view in the framework cited in Hayes, Wheelwright Clark , op. cit. Letting manufacturing play a more important part in supporting and even formulating business strategy corresponds to a Stage III or Stage IV view.

Skinner W , “The Productivity Paradox,” Harvard Business Review (July/August 1986), pp. 55–59.

Ferdows K. De Meyer A. , “Lasting Improvements in Manufacturing Performance: In Search of a New Theory,” Journal of Operations Management, 9/2 (April 1990): 168–184.

The European Manufacturing Futures Project has been administered at INSEAD since 1983. For this project, a sample of large European manufacturing companies are surveyed on a regular basis through a mailed questionnaire.

This is already hinted at by Skinner [(1986) op. cit.]. More recently, Skinner [(1992) op. cit.] argued that trade-offs do still exist, but should perhaps be called “performance relationships” or something similar, as they do not necessarily imply negative relationships between factors.

Ferdows Meyer De , op. cit., p. 169.

Skinner (1986), op. cit.; and Buzzell R.D. Gale B.T. , The PIMS Principles: Linking Strategy to Performance (New York, NY: The Free Press, 1987), Ch. 6.

Blackburn , op. cit.

Buzzell Gale , op. cit. This observation has also been made by Hayes, Wheelwright Clark , op. cit., Ch. 5; and by Edmondson H.E. Wheelwright S.C. , “Outstanding Manufacturing in the Coming Decade,” California Management Review (Summer 1989), pp. 70–90.

Hill T. , Manufacturing Strategy, Text and Cases (Homewood, IL: Irwin. 1989). The same observation can be found in Hayes, Wheelwright Clark , op. cit., Ch. 12; in Edmondson Wheelwright , op. cit.; and, to some extent, in Buzzell Gale , op. cit., pp. 113–114.

Buzzell Gale , op. cit., pp. 117–118.

Most clearly found in Edmondson Wheelwright , op. cit., p. 75; and in Hayes Wheelwright Clark , op. cit., pp. 375–376.

Buzzell Gale , op. cit., pp. 204–205.

Stalk Hout , op. cit.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Jaikumar R. , “Postindustrial Manufacturing,” Harvard Business Review (November/December 1986), pp. 69–76; quoted from p. 70.

Hayes R.H. Wheelwright S.C. , “Link Manufacturing Process and Product Life Cycles” Harvard Business Review (January/February 1979), pp. 133–140. Some of the limitations of the product-process matrix are already mentioned in Hayes R.H. Wheelwright S.C. , Restoring Our Competitive Edge: Competing Through Manufacturing (New York. NY: John Wiley, 1984).

Buzzell Gale , op. cit., p. 206.