Strategic Manufacturing Management: A Proactive Approach

Effective manufacturing management calls for integration between strategic subsystems. In manufacturing, this means that decisions on structure and infrastructure must be co‐ordinated and support the competitive strategy. Traditionally, manufacturing management has, to a large extent, been reactive in nature, but today′s competitive situation calls for a more proactive manufacturing posture. In the article, a model for an integrated proactive manufacturing strategy is presented and suggested. This article presents empirical data in the form of case studies and survey analyses in the area of technology implementation. The survey data show that differences in the length of plan horizons for manufacturing technology, work organisation and control systems create significant problems in manufacturing, especially with personnel and quality issues. The case analyses show that this phenomenon in part can be explained by a lack of integration between these systems. Integration at an early stage is therefore concluded to be essential to the strategic capabilities at factory level. It is suggested that this integration is important to a proactive manufacturing strategy, and managerial implications are discussed.