Manufacturing supporting strategies in SMME

Paper in proceeding, 2011

Small and medium sized manufacturing enterprises (SMMEs) constitute the backbone of European industry, employing several times the number of people compared with larger companies. It is necessary that these smaller companies continuously work actively in developing their understanding about how they can compete on the market and how they in the best possible way can develop and utilize their major investments in manufacturing resources. Manufacturing strategies describe companies’ roadmaps in doing that. The manufacturing strategy maturity among Swedish SMMEs varies but there is a strong will to learn and to develop. There are however some obstacles on the way.