Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Future competitiveness: viewpoints from manufacturers and service providers

Future competitiveness: viewpoints from manufacturers and service providers Purpose – This paper aims to compare and evaluate competitive priorities between manufacturers and service providers. A concern over the trends of moving manufacturing/production units overseas, while maintaining essential service operations at the companies' headquarters, encouraged senior administrators of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) to suggest the study. This study was part of an effort to support FTI members facing separate locations between manufacturing and services operations, and to help evaluate its initiatives' usefulness towards these members. Design/methodology/approach – The survey, developed by Takala, was modified to gather the opinions from top executives of 75 manufacturers and service providers. This survey consisted of six criteria or competitive priorities with a total of 31 dimensions. The basic statistical techniques such as Cronbach's α were applied. Findings – The paper finds that in general, top executives from manufacturing and service operations shared and agreed that delivery/service provision and quality represented their future competitive priorities. Practical implications – The selection of these two competitive priorities was generally consistent with several previous studies. These findings supported past and current initiatives by the FTI as well as its policy on working together with key public agencies/organizations towards an achievement of excellent quality. Top executives, facing a challenge on separate operations – manufacturing plant in one location while maintaining service operations at another location, could synchronize and coordinate their future efforts such as strategies and plans around delivery/service provision, and quality. Originality/value – The knowledge on competitive priorities could potentially help companies, regardless of operational types, to further formulate operational strategies, and later develop action plans. This knowledge could also serve as feedback (e.g. usefulness and effectiveness) and a milestone for the FTI's support and initiatives for its members. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Industrial Management & Data Systems Emerald Publishing

Future competitiveness: viewpoints from manufacturers and service providers

Download PDF
17 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/future-competitiveness-viewpoints-from-manufacturers-and-service-hNg3qOJDyZ
Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Emerald Group Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.
ISSN
0263-5577
DOI
10.1108/02635570810847572
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Purpose – This paper aims to compare and evaluate competitive priorities between manufacturers and service providers. A concern over the trends of moving manufacturing/production units overseas, while maintaining essential service operations at the companies' headquarters, encouraged senior administrators of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) to suggest the study. This study was part of an effort to support FTI members facing separate locations between manufacturing and services operations, and to help evaluate its initiatives' usefulness towards these members. Design/methodology/approach – The survey, developed by Takala, was modified to gather the opinions from top executives of 75 manufacturers and service providers. This survey consisted of six criteria or competitive priorities with a total of 31 dimensions. The basic statistical techniques such as Cronbach's α were applied. Findings – The paper finds that in general, top executives from manufacturing and service operations shared and agreed that delivery/service provision and quality represented their future competitive priorities. Practical implications – The selection of these two competitive priorities was generally consistent with several previous studies. These findings supported past and current initiatives by the FTI as well as its policy on working together with key public agencies/organizations towards an achievement of excellent quality. Top executives, facing a challenge on separate operations – manufacturing plant in one location while maintaining service operations at another location, could synchronize and coordinate their future efforts such as strategies and plans around delivery/service provision, and quality. Originality/value – The knowledge on competitive priorities could potentially help companies, regardless of operational types, to further formulate operational strategies, and later develop action plans. This knowledge could also serve as feedback (e.g. usefulness and effectiveness) and a milestone for the FTI's support and initiatives for its members.

Journal

Industrial Management & Data Systems – Emerald Publishing

Published: Mar 14, 2008

Keywords: Competitive strategy; Manufacturing industries; Services

References

  • The formalisation of manufacturing strategy and its manufacturing strategy and its influence on the relationship between competitive objectives, improvement goals, and action plans
    Acur, N.; Gersten, F.; Sun, H.; Frick, J.
  • Service operations strategy, flexibility and performance in engineering consulting firms
    Aranda, D.A.
  • Taxonomy of the manufacturing strategies of large Spanish industrial companies
    Avella, L.; Fernandez, E.; Vazquez, C.J.
  • System Engineering and Management
    Blanchard, B.
  • Competitive priorities: investigating the need for trade‐offs in operations strategy
    Boyer, K.; Lewis, M.
  • The impact of operations competitive priorities on hospital performance
    Butler, T.W.; Leong, G.K.
  • Competitive strategies and manufacturing logistics: an empirical study of Hong Kong manufacturers
    Chan, J.
  • The manufacturing strategy and competitive priority of SMEs in Taiwan: a case study
    Chen, W.
  • A mapping of competitive priorities, manufacturing priorities, manufacturing practices, and operational performance in groups of Danish manufacturing companies
    Christiansen, T.; Berry, W.; Bruun, P.; Ward, P.
  • An exploratory study of manufacturing strategy practices of machinery manufacturing companies in India
    Dangayach, G.; Deshmukh, S.
  • Flexibility: the next competitive battle the manufacturing futures survey
    De Meyer, A.; Nakane, J.; Miller, J.; Ferdows, K.
  • The international competitiveness of Japanese service industries: a cause for concern
    Enderwick, P.
  • Supply chain risk management in SMEs: analysing the barriers
    Faisal, F.; Banwet, D.; Shankar, R.
  • Lasting improvements in manufacturing performance: in search of a new theory
    Ferdows, K.; de Meyer, A.
  • A taxonomy of manufacturing strategies revisited
    Frohlich, M.; Dixon, J.
  • Organisational learning categories: their influence on organizational performance
    Garcia‐Morales, V.; LLorens‐Montes, F.; Verdu‐Jover, A.
  • Restoring our Competitive Edge: Competing through Manufacturing
    Hayes, R.; Wheelwright, S.
  • Managing organizational performance: linking the balanced scored to a process improvement technique
    Hoehn, W.
  • Focusing computer training to user needs: the impacts of online and offline training on learning
    Hsu, J.; Turoff, M.
  • Service industries – improving competitive performance
    Johnston, R.
  • Thai service sector: adjustment and liberalization
    Kasikorn Research Centre
  • Competitive priorities and managerial performance: a taxonomy of small manufacturers
    Kathuria, R.
  • The effect of manufacturing strategies on financial performance
    Kazan, H.; Ozer, G.; Cetin, A.
  • Operationalizing manufacturing strategy: an exploratory study of constructs and linkage
    Kim, J.; Arnold, P.
  • Critical factors for achieving manufacturing flexibility
    Lau, R.
  • Manufacturing strategies and business practice between Korea and Japan: a comparative study of their development and perceptions in the electronics industry
    Lee, C.
  • Research in the process and content of manufacturing strategy
    Leong, G.; Snyder, D.; Ward, P.
  • New realities in global markets and Thailand's economy today
    Manasserian, T.
  • Organisational knowledge and learning: leveraging it to accelerate the creation of competitive advantages
    Melton, C.; Chen, J.; Lin, B.
  • A taxonomy of manufacturing strategies
    Miller, J.; Roth, A.
  • Measuring Business Performance – Why, What and How
    Neely, A.
  • SERVQUAL: a multiple‐item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality
    Parasuraman, A.; Zeithaml, V.; Berry, L.
  • Roles of performance measurement in SMEs' management processes
    Phusavat, K.
  • Supplier management: past, present, and future perspectives
    Phusavat, K.; Kanchana, R.; Helo, P.
  • Greening production: a South‐ East Asian experience
    Rao, P.
  • Defining quality: alternatives and implications
    Reeves, C.; Bednar, D.
  • A survey of manufacturing strategies in China‐based enterprise
    Robb, D.; Xie, B.
  • Productivity Management: Planning, Measurement and Evaluation, Control and Improvement
    Sink, D.S.
  • Planning and Measurement in your Organization of the Future
    Sink, D.; Tuttle, T.
  • A taxonomy of operations strategies of high performing small and medium enterprises in Singapore
    Sum, C.; Kow, L.; Chen, C.
  • Analyzing and synthesizing multi‐focused manufacturing strategies by analytical hierarchy process
    Takala, J.
  • Competitive Priorities of Manufacturing Strategies – Case Study at Wartsila
    Takala, J.; Hirvela, J.; Galczynska, A.; Lehtonen, M.; Rinta‐Rahko, S.; Virta, K.
  • Prospects for foreign direct investment and the strategies of transnational corporations, 2005‐2008
    UNCTAD
  • Production competence and business strategy: do they affect business performance?
    Vickey, S.; Droge, C.; Markland, R.
  • Manufacturing strategy in context: environment, competitive strategy and manufacturing strategy
    Ward, P.; Duray, R.
  • Critical success factors creating value‐driven e‐business models in the Asia Pacific region
    Wickramasinghe, N.
  • Competitive priorities of enterprises in mainland China
    Zhao, X.; Yeung, J.; Zhou, Q.