Analysis of the congruence between manufacturing strategy and production system in SMME

Journal article, 2002

A production system must reflect a company's manufacturing strategy and the chosen competitive priorities. Tools to assess the congruence between the manufacturing strategy and the production system can hence support the companies' competitive position. In this paper,the usability of an analysis model suggested by Miltenburg [How to Formulate and Implement a Winning Plan, Productivity Press, Portland, OR, 1995], aiming at mapping manufacturing strategy and production system,is investigated. The usefulness of the analysis model is investigated in terms of how easy it is to use and in terms of the obtained results. The investigation is performed by means of empirical studies in two medium sized manufacturing companies. The result is that the model seems to be useful in the sense that, if knowledge about the underlying principles in the analysis model is at hand, it is possible to investigate the congruence between a manufacturing strategy and a producition system. It is, however, believed that the analysis model needs some further development to be considered an easy to use too, e.g. for a SMME production manager.