Manufacturing operations and strategic flexibility: survey and cases

The ability of manufacturing companies to adapt to their changing environme nt is frequently a key to long-term success. As a consequence the strategic flexibility of manufacturing operations has become an increasingly importa nt issue for organisations. There have been much theoretical work and some case studies in this domain. This paper reports part of a major study in th e area. A key stage in this work has been an empirical study of UK manufact uring to investigate a broad range of issues surrounding manufacturing oper ations and strategic flexibility. In part this has been carried out through a questionnaire survey. This paper summarises some of the principal findin gs. These include respondents' descriptions of their business strategies, t he Dart played by manufacturing the interfaces with customers, and the role of the information system and its contribution to manufacturing This is co mplemented by a summary of 32 interviews/case histories which allow these i ssues to be explored further and which provide the input to the subsequent stages of the overall project.