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Ravi Kathuria: Saint Joseph's University, Haub School of Business, Department of Management, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Introduction
Manufacturing flexibility can be a critical source of competitive advantage, yet it is one of the most difficult goals to achieve (Gupta and Somers, 1996; Upton, 1994). Gustavsson (1988) recognized the difficulty in achieving manufacturing flexibility early on and suggested that it should not be treated as a commodity that could be bought off-the-shelf and put directly to use; it should rather be planned and managed carefully. Realizing the importance of management of flexibility, companies are becoming increasingly anxious to build supporting infrastructure at the plant level that would help them accomplish flexibility (Upton, 1995). Manufacturing flexibility may manifest in the ability of a manufacturing plant to introduce new designs or new products into production quickly, adjust capacity rapidly, customize products, handle changes in the product mix quickly, and handle variations in customer delivery schedule (Boyer et al., 1997; Nemetz, 1990; Suarez et al., 1996; Wood et al., 1990).
The difficulty in accomplishing flexibility may, in part, be due to a lack of "applied focus" on the managerial aspects of flexibility (Gerwin, 1993). Despite the shifting emphasis of competition toward flexibility (Beckman, 1990; Ferdows and De Meyer, 1990), there are hardly any guidelines as to what kind of infrastructure facilitates the management of flexibility. Lack of research on the administrative aspects of flexibility leads us to the following question: should manufacturing managers still manage work as they did when the manufacturing priorities were to improve labor productivity and to run plant at peak efficiency? Or should they be more flexible in their approach as companies increasingly emphasize manufacturing flexibility? This paper attempts to answer the above question by investigating managerial practices that manufacturing managers strongly demonstrate in the wake of a high emphasis on flexibility.
Background and the research question
Manufacturing flexibility has long been recognized as a competitive priority (Fine and Hax, 1985; Hayes and Wheelwright, 1984; Skinner, 1978, 1985). Despite an upsurge in the research focusing on flexibility (see Gupta and Somers, 1996; and Suarez et al., 1996 for recent literature reviews), few studies have investigated specific managerial practices that could facilitate accomplishment of the so-called "difficult" goal of achieving flexibility at the plant level. Some studies...