Bhattacharya, A. K. (1999) The new manufacturing: executive summary. EdD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

The world of manufacturing organisations has changed considerably in the past few years which give rise to three research areas which constitute the context of what i have called The New Manufacturing

1. What is the current state of affairs in the trading relationships between partners in the supply chains and what would be a best practice model for such relationships?
2. What is the impact on the strategy process of the changes in the trading relationships and focus on cross-functional and cross-organisational business processes?
3. How do you integrate the new competitive factors of speed and flexibility with the need for agility and re-invention and implementation of world class lean manufacturing practices?

The portfolio is divided into three distinct parts. The first part develops the ‘external context’ of manufacturing organisations by analysing the trends in trading relationships between supply chain partners through a EU funded research project on European automotive industry. The second part explores the link between the ‘internal’ and the ‘external’ context by developing the concept of ‘re­positioning’ as a new dimension to existing strategy development approaches. The third part explores the ‘internal context’ and seeks new solutions to issues in strategy formulation and manufacturing systems design, using ‘time’ and ‘turbulence’ as key change drivers along with the traditional ‘focus’ approach.

The analysis of the ‘external context’ uses a cohesive ‘best practice’ model incorporating 11 characteristics as the fixed point comparator for analysing 24 supply chains in 6 car assemblers. The findings show significant changes in both the ‘structural’ and ‘relationship management’ characteristics such as greater outsourcing and systems purchase, single sourcing at part number level, greater design and development delegation by the vehicle manufacturers, open book costing, leaner manufacturing pipeline and long term contracts. A key finding is the emergence of ‘multi-customer’ suppliers - suppliers with close, non-adversarial relationships with a number of key customers. This multi-customer structural feature was investigated using four theoretical trading structures in a detailed case study of an automotive supplier and was found to reflect characteristics of all four.

The changes in the supply chains underlined the need for a ‘re-positioning’ methodology for suppliers hoping to change their ‘value boundary’, in addition to existing strategy formulation methods, which did not address this specific requirement. Thus the second part of the portfolio proposes a new ‘re­positioning’ methodology, which represents the link between the external and the internal context, which was then validated through a study of a supplier who had ‘re-positioned’ and through application in two SMEs.

The ‘internal context’ analysis represents the major part of the portfolio, and was carried out at two companies using approaches and techniques new to the companies. In one of them, a new process focused strategy formulation was used to develop strategic goals for the two key processes. In the same company, a complete manufacturing analysis was carried out using ‘time’ as the strategic driver, as part of an overall ‘systems’ approach, which was a major change for the company. As a result, a number of changes were proposed of which some have been implemented and a key success has been the reduction of manufacturing lead time from over 6 weeks to 3 weeks or less with corresponding reduction in inventory. At the other company, the project scope was limited to improving performance of machining cells. Again using ‘time’ as a key driver of change as part of a ‘systems’ approach, a number of new practices were introduced which led to improvement in lead times, inventory and service levels for pilot components. A key innovation in both companies was the development of the concept of ‘turbulence' to analyse manufacturing issues which was then integrated with the well known ‘focus’ approach and the more recent ‘time compression’ into a generic multi-dimensional approach to the design of manufacturing systems.

Item Type:	Thesis (EdD)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Manufacturing industries, Manufacturing processes, Business logistics, Industrial management, Manufacturing industries -- Technological innovations
Official Date:	1999
Dates:	Date Event 1999 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Engineering
Thesis Type:	EdD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Gibbons, Anne M.
Sponsors:	Brite Euram II, European Union, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)
Extent:	70 leaves
Language:	eng

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