Manufacturing competitiveness and fitness landscape theory

Manufacturing organisations recognise that the business environment has var ying levels of unpredictability. To serve such unpredictability, they utili se forecasting and decision modelling techniques at all levels (strategic t o operational), but with business and customer demands intensifying, the le vels of unpredictability have been increasing and the confidence in such te chniques is reducing. In order to satisfy customers and remain competitive, manufacturing organisations must be able to "sense and respond". This pape r provides an introduction to the concept of developing and applying fitnes s landscape theory to help manufacturing managers make decisions in such a manner. This approach treats the organisational system and its decisional s ituation as a complex adaptive system, which is continually coevolving with its environment, whilst searching for solutions and making decisions. Alth ough this theory has biological origins, it has been applied to various are as including economic and organisational studies. In summarising, this pape r argues that managers should learn from nature and develop decisions, whic h rely less on inaccurate forecasts and more on the ability to sense and re spond (adapt). The paper concentrates on the process of making strategic de cisions and the resulting organisational forms. (C) 2000 Published by Elsev ier Science B.V.