Manufacturing strategies supporting competitiveness in SMME

Paper in proceeding, 2011

Research on manufacturing strategies has been quite extensive during the past 40 years. The work has however been mostly focused on large companies. It has also mostly had a top-down approach, emerging from the view of top management based on market requirements, not taking production capabilities into consideration. It is however necessary to make a reconciliation of capabilities and competitive factors. In this paper we present the first results from a project on manufacturing strategies in small and medium sized manufacturing enterprises, SMMEs, in Jönköping region Sweden. This first step of the three year project is a survey and diagnosis of the present situation in the participating companies. We can see that the companies show different degrees of strategic maturity, which to some extent could be the consequence of them acting in different industrial areas with varying requirements, traditions and values. A common learning is that, even if the company does have a well-developed manufacturing strategy and ideas about future development, the communication out in the organization to employees is lacking. This leads to reduced sense of responsibility and commitment among the personnel.