THE LINKAGE AMONG MANAGEMENT-SYSTEMS, PRACTICES AND BEHAVIOR IN SUCCESSFUL MANUFACTURING STRATEGY

Examines the role and influence of management systems, practices and b ehaviour in successful manufacturing strategy, based on the developmen t of manufacturing strategy into a comprehensive concept which contain s three paradigms: manufacturing as a source of competitive advantage, that the choices of manufacturing processes and other related charact eristics are contingent on one another, and there is a relationship be tween best practice and performance. The study employed a survey of 46 Japanese factories in the machinery, electronics and automotive indus tries, with 26 people in each factory. The factories were examined on how closely they used ''best practices'' management. In addition, fact or analysis, cluster analysis, t-tests on differences between the grou ps and correlations among clusters, practices and performance were con ducted. The results supported the study's three hypotheses: factories report different levels of use of the best practices; best practices a re linked into certain sets of practices; and the use of best practice s is related to performance. The discussion and conclusions address th ese findings and are used to offer support for Voss's recent claim tha t manufacturing strategy should be considered ''a continuous loop'' am ong the three paradigms of manufacturing strategy.