STRATEGICALLY FLEXIBLE PRODUCTION - THE MULTI-FOCUSED MANUFACTURING PARADIGM

Defines a new manufacturing paradigm and investigates its adoption and performances, within the assembly industry on a global basis. The def inition of the paradigm is based on a set of basic principles to desig n and manage production systems which discard the traditional way of o rganizing manufacturing activities, and pool companies which pursue di fferent manufacturing strategies and implement different innovative te chniques. The paradigm is characterized by the simultaneous implementa tion of three principles: strategic multi-focusedness, integration of business processes across functions, and process ownership. Starting f rom an operationalization based on fuzzy logic, explores the hypothese s about the adoption and the performance improvements of the multi-foc used manufacturing paradigm using a sample from the International Manu facturing Strategy Survey (IMSS) database. The paradigm has been adopt ed widely across countries and industries involved in the IMSS survey. Shows that process ownership is poorly implemented by most of the com panies at the moment, while multi-focusedness and integration are more on hand. Companies which have adopted the paradigm are improving thei r performance significantly better and quicker than partial or nonadop ters. Highlights different possible patterns that the companies can fo llow to reach care adoption of the multi-focused manufacturing paradig m.