Manufacturing strategy is a plan for moving a company from where it is to where it wants to be. Determining the best manufacturing strategy is not easy because of the wide range of choices and constraints a company faces. Manufacturing strategy frameworks or models are helpful because they identify the objects that comprise manufacturing strategy and organize these objects into a structure that...

This paper presents the results from a pilot study in which the consequences of outsourcing manufacturing on companies’ competence and their ability to develop lasting competitiveness are discussed. Based on a literature study and five case studies the analysis shows that outsourcing of manufacturing engenders a dilemma for many engineering companies, regarding the balance between learning from...

During the past half century, market competition has been very intense and production companies have been trying to find more efficient ways to manufacture their products. While during the period 1960 to 1970 manufacturing cost was the primary concern, later it was followed by product quality and delivery speed. New strategies had to be formulated by companies to adapt to the environment in whi...

The purpose of this paper is to propose a text mining approach to evaluate companies’ practices on affective management. Affective management argues that it is critical to take stakeholders’ affects into consideration during decision-making process, along with the traditional numerical and rational indices. CSR reports published by companies were collected as source information. Indices were pr...

This paper examines the patterns of subsidiary autonomy at the organizational periphery: at multinational companies’ (MNCs) manufacturing subsidiaries in Hungary. It investigates the impact of upgrading on subsidiary autonomy. Our case study-based investigation (27 in-depth interviews at 14 manufacturing subsidiaries) integrates three previously isolated lines of research: 1) subsidiary upgradi...

In recent decades, by introducing lean manufacturing the vulnerability to system disturbances has increased and so, the demand for dependable production equipment. The need for having high production equipment availability causes companies to need a more effective and efficient maintenance strategy in order to stay competitive. Despite the increasing demand on reliable production equipment, few...

Global warming, rising energy prices and increasing awareness of “green” customers have brought energy efficient manufacturing on top of the agenda of governments as well as of industrial companies. The industrial sector still accounts for about 33% of the final energy consumption. This paper will contribute to a more energy efficient manufacturing by demonstrating how energy efficiency can be ...