Linking supply chain management with mass customization capability

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of supply chain management in enabling manufacturers\u27 mass customization capabilities. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is based upon survey data from 262 manufacturing plants, spanning nine countries and three industries. Responses from multiple employees were aggregated for each item. Hypothesized relationships between variables were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings: The results generally indicate that plant mass customization capabilities are driven by customer-focused product design and reduced supplier lead times. In turn, these factors are driven by management\u27s emphasis on supply chain planning. Post hoc tests show that the effects of supply chain planning on mass customization capabilities are fully mediated by customer-focused product design and reduced supplier lead time. Originality/value: While the literature suggests that mass customization depends upon a dynamic extended enterprise, extant empirical work has focused on internal firm characteristics. The paper is among the first to examine the significance of supply chain management upon the development of mass customization capabilities. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited

When to mass customize: The impact of environmental uncertainty

Previous research on mass customization (MC) has focused on what it is and how it is implemented. In this study we examine when MC is an appropriate strategy for firms to follow by scrutinizing the effects of three environmental uncertainty variables (demand uncertainty, competitive intensity, and supply chain complexity) on the MC-performance relationship. Specifically, we distinguish the direct effect of environmental uncertainty on MC ability and the moderation effect of environmental uncertainty on MC ability\u27s impact on customer satisfaction. We examine six competing hypotheses using data collected from 266 manufacturing plants. Our results show that competitive intensity has a direct positive impact on MC ability. However, demand uncertainty moderates the relationship between MC ability and customer satisfaction, and the direct and positive relationship between MC ability and customer satisfaction holds only when customer demand is highly uncertain. Supply chain complexity neither has a direct relationship with MC, nor moderates the MC-performance relationship. Implications of these research findings are discussed and future research directions are identified. © 2012 Decision Sciences Institute

Impacts of supply chain planning and integration on mass customization

Purpose: Effective mass customization (MC) depends on accurately identifying customer needs and procuring appropriate components from supply base to manufacture the required product configurations in a timely manner. In essence, effective MC for a focal firm is contingent on effective supply chain management. However, extant literature is not very clear on how supply chain (SC) planning and integration activities affect MC. The purpose of this paper is to fill the gap by examining the impacts of SC-planning and SC-integration on MC. Design/methodology/approach: Organizational information processing theory is used to link SC-integration with MC ability, and a link is hypothesized between SC-planning and SC-integration. The structural equation model is then analyzed using data from 262 manufacturing plants. Findings: It is found that SC-integration fully mediates the relationship between SC-planning and MC-ability. Research limitations/implications: The SC-integration measure is from a focal manufacturer’s standpoint, rather than the standpoint of the entire SC. Practical implications: The results indicate that using a SC perspective in planning activities helps a focal firm integrate with key stakeholders along the SC, which subsequently helps the firm mass customize. Practitioners should recognize the added importance of SC-planning and SC-integration if they want to mass customize. Originality/value: This study provides a theoretical foundation for the relationship between SC-integration and MC. It also provides a more comprehensive conceptualization of SC-integration, which includes supplier integration, customer integration, as well as internal functional integration which was neglected in many previous studies

Lean production and operational performance: The influence of organizational culture

The use of lean production methods to drive sustainable competitive advantage has been a cornerstone of worldwide manufacturing strategy since the early 1980\u27s. Unfortunately, success from using lean has been mixed. Some researchers suggest that contextual variables play a central role in explaining the inconsistent results. This study evaluates the role of one critical contextual variable, organizational culture, in realizing operational improvements from lean. We investigate the influence of four distinct organizational cultures, as well as a hybrid culture and a firm\u27s ability to be culturally ambidextrous, on the relationship between lean and operational performance, as measured by cost, quality, delivery and flexibility. We find that lean is able to maximize cost reduction in any organizational culture setting, but requires a supportive organizational culture to maximize quality, delivery, and flexibility improvements. Further, realizing quality improvements from lean is particularly sensitive to organizational culture. We also find that a developmental culture is the most supportive of lean; it outperforms all other individual cultures and performs as well as more complex cultural arrangements, such as a hybrid culture or a firm\u27s ability to be culturally ambidextrous. Since a developmental culture is characterized by flexibility and an ability to embrace change, we propose that these organizational attributes unleash an advanced implementation of lean which results in superior operational performance

Impacts of information technology on mass customization capability of manufacturing plants

Purpose: The impact of information technology (IT) on mass customization (MC) capability has been implied in the literature but seldom subjected to empirical examination. This study seeks to theoretically relate four types of IT applications with MC capability and empirically examines these relationships. Design/methodology/approach: This study identifies four types of IT that potentially support MC capability, including product configurator IT, new product development IT, manufacturing IT, and supplier collaboration IT. Drawing on organizational information processing theory, this study associates the four IT types with a manufacturer\u27s MC capability. A structural equation model is tested using survey data collected from a sample of manufacturing plants that focus on product customization. Findings: The empirical results indicate that two of the four IT types strongly support a manufacturer\u27s MC capability. Research limitations/implications: No strong relationship between configurator IT and MC was observed, which calls for further investigation. Data used are cross-sectional in nature. A set of refined IT measures should be developed in future studies. In addition, future studies could control for the effects of more variables that may impact IT use by mass customizers. Practical implications: The paper identifies managerial opportunities for investing in IT to support or enhance MC capability. Originality/value: This study provides a theoretical foundation for the IT-MC relationship and develops a classification framework of IT applications in manufacturing plants. The study is one of the first efforts that empirically examines the impact of multiple types of IT applications on MC. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Assessing the performance impact of supply chain planning in net-enhanced organizations

This paper presents a conceptual framework that hypothesizes the nature of the relationships between a firm\u27s use of Internet-based information technology (IT), supply chain planning capability, and operational performance. Using data from 266 manufacturing sites and structural equation modeling, we show that the impact of IT on operational performance is contingent upon the intent of its use. Specifically, our results suggest that IT\u27s use in exploiting existing opportunities has both a direct effect and an indirect effect, mediated through supply chain planning capabilities, on operational performance. In contrast, when IT is used to explore new opportunities, it has neither a direct nor an indirect effect on operational performance. Implications of these research findings are reported. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009