Manufacturing strategy, product customisation and the marketing/manufacturing interface

The manufacturing strategy literature is reviewed and it is found to centre on content and process models. However, a number of other issues are present in the literature whose relationship to the central process and content models is less clear. These include the trade-off, focus, flexibility, and generic manufacturing strategies. It is noted that the manufacturing strategy literature does not fully address product customisation. The literature relating to the interface between marketing and manufacturing is found to concentrate either on the identification of conflict areas, or on strategic reconciliation between the functions. Writers in this field do give greater emphasis to product customisation. A case-study method is adopted for the research and the design involves four firms in varying industries. The firms manufacture fork-lift trucks, microswitches, telephone switching systems and diaries, respectively. The case-studies comprise quantitative and qualitative data, and each case chapter includes case-specific analysis. The analysis of all the cases finds that customisation has a very important effect on manufacturing performance. The firms have inconsistencies within their manufacturing strategies, but these are found to rest not only on the firms' manufacturing products with different volume requirements in the same plant, but also on the fact of some of the products being custom-designed. The interface between marketing and manufacturing is found to be more complex and variable than the literature would suggest. The role that customised products play in relationships with customers also varies, although this is inconsistently recognised by the firms.Based on the case-data, a model of product customisation is proposed. This incorporates customisation, flexibility, product architecture, the manufacturing strategy trade-off and the competitive criteria

Indirect capabilities and complex performance:implications for procurement and operations strategy

Purpose – The paper argues that indirect capabilities – the ability to access other organizations’ capabilities – are an important and neglected part of firm strategy in PCP (Procuring Complex Performance) settings, and that this is especially so if these settings are treated as genuinely complex, rather than merely complicated. Elements of indirect capabilities are identified. Design/methodology – This is a theoretical paper, drawing on complexity notions and Penrose’s analysis of endogenous innovation to drive a disequilibrium-oriented discussion of the capabilities required by firms in a PCP setting. Findings – Six inter-related elements of indirect capabilities are proposed and discussed: IT infrastructure; boundary management practices; contracting; interface artefacts; valuing others’ capabilities and relating direct to indirect capabilities. These are important in PCP settings and in other operations and supply settings characterised by complexity. Originality/value – This paper reconsiders the way complexity has been treated in the PCP literature, and develops an extended discussion of the notion of indirect capabilities. It potentially provides the basis for an operations and supply strategy more attuned to the demands of shifting inter-organizational networks

Are knowledge-intensive business services really co-produced?:overcoming lack of customer participation in KIBS

Customer participation is considered necessary for the delivery of effective Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS). However, for different reasons, KIBS customers are not always able to participate actively during the delivery process and providers have to compensate for this in order to deliver effective solutions. We conducted case-based research to understand how KIBS providers do this. The three cases studied suggest that, besides customer education, providers use preventive and problem-management strategies to counterbalance limited customer participation. These three strategies are used in a complementary way and are enabled by the expertise of KIBS providers. They also contribute to the delivery of effective KIBS. The research outcomes refine the existing knowledge of customer participation in KIBS, which has so far focused mainly on the causes and consequences of it and overlooked other related issues. Our results also suggest that practitioners could use the level of customers' ability and willingness to participate as segmentation criteria and then define their strategies and allocate their resources accordingly

Coordination in service supply networks:insights from “Airport Collaborative Decision Making”

We examine the relationship between governance (alignment of interests) and coordination (alignment of actions), of mutually-dependent organisations in extended service networks. Research on governance has explored the interplay of contractual and relational mechanisms, mainly in dyads. In service operations management, interaction between provider and customer is understood as ‘co-production of value’. We examine the link between the two, and how coordination is achieved among several closelyinterdependent organisations on a single site. ‘Collaborative Decision-Making’ practices in airport operations provides the setting for the study, and we propose an initial framework to explain the role of information sharing and coordination mechanisms

Wind tunnel test results for the direction controlled antitank DCAT missile at Mach numbers from 0.64 to 2.50

Wind tunnel test results are presented to show aerodynamic characteristics over the Mach number range of 0.64 to 2.50 of the DCAT missile. Data are presented showing the interference created by the rear mounted reaction control system. Two candidate fins were installed on the model during tests: a flat folding fin and a curved wrap around fin

Product biographies in servitization and the circular economy

This paper questions the assumption in much of the marketing and product-service literature that products can be treated as stable platforms for the delivery of services. Instead, it uses the notion of the product biography to argue that products are chronically unstable, both physically and institutionally, and focusses on the managerial and institutional effort required to temporarily stabilise and qualify products for exchange or service value-creation. The context of the circular economy, which presents particularly acute challenges of qualification, is used to stimulate insights into how the product biography approach can inform the servitization debate. In particular, the circular economy perspective emphasises the need to see products as qualified by and constitutive of a distributed network, rather than defined once and for all by their producer, and points to entrepreneurial opportunity in the moments of transition between singularised, unique specimens and general, commodified, manageable objects – and vice versa. The wider and multiple product biographies occasioned by the circular economy also lead to reconfiguration of networks, as new potential valuations give rise to new entrepreneurial spaces

Supply chain alignment as process:Contracting, learning and pay-for-performance

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand how buyers and suppliers in supply chains learn to align their performance objectives and incentives through contracting. Design/methodology/approach Two longitudinal case studies of the process of supply chain alignment were conducted based on 26 semi-structured interviews and 25 key documents including drafts of contracts and service level agreements. Findings The dynamic interplay of contracting and learning contributes to supply chain alignment. Exchange-, partner- and contract framing-specific learning that accumulates during the contracting process is used to (re)design pay-for-performance provisions. Such learning also results in improved buyer-supplier relationships that enable alignment, complementing the effect of contractual incentives. Research limitations/implications The study demonstrates that the interplay of contracting and learning is an important means of achieving supply chain alignment. Supply chain alignment is seen as a process, rather than as a state. It does not happen automatically or instantaneously, nor is it unidirectional. Rather, it is a discontinuous process triggered by episodic events that requires interactive work and learning. Practical implications Development of performance contracting capabilities entails learning how to refine performance incentives and their framing to trigger positive responses from supply chain counterparts. Originality/value The paper addresses supply chain alignment as a process. Accordingly, it stresses some important features of supply chain alignment

Contracting for innovation in public services:Capabilities, institutions and intermediation

This paper investigates how innovation intermediaries support UK public buying organisations and suppliers to contract for innovation. We find that intermediaries fill gaps in indirect capabilities related to innovation procurement and adoption by contributing expert knowledge, brokering connections and facilitating cooperation. Intermediaries also leverage their institutional capabilities and engage in institutional work to help shape an institutional environment that fosters public sector innovation. However, there is no conclusive evidence as to whether the deployment of intermediaries’ institutional capabilities makes a difference in terms of the scale and rate of innovation procurement and adoption

Decoupling Interrupts From Virtual Machines in Smalltalk

Architecture must work. Given the trends in client-server epistemologies, statisticians dubiously note the evaluation of e-commerce. WIN, our new solution for introspective communication, is the solution to all of these problems