IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/vlg/vlgwps/2004-21.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The manufacturing profile of flexible and low-cost producers: an empiral study

Author

Listed:
  • Vereecke, A.
  • Pandelaere, E.

    (Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School)

Abstract

Since the introduction of the concepts of lean manufacturing, agility and mass customization it is questioned to what extent the trade-off between cost and flexibility still holds. It has been the objective of our research to test the trade-off theory empirically using the data of the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS). Our research confirms the well accepted manufacturing profile of low cost producers, which typically use a line process, and of flexible producers, which typically produce in a job shop. However, we also observe that some companies manage to overcome the cost/flexibility trade-off, by introducing the concept of postponed manufacturing. These companies are characterized by an assembly-to-order policy of standardized semi-finished products, produced in a line process. Flexibility and low cost are thus obtained by playing with the position of the decoupling point.

Suggested Citation

  • Vereecke, A. & Pandelaere, E., 2005. "The manufacturing profile of flexible and low-cost producers: an empiral study," Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School Working Paper Series 2004-21, Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School.
    • Handle: RePEc:vlg:vlgwps:2004-21
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.vlerick.be/en/2644-VLK/version/default/part/AttachmentData/data/vlgms-wp-2004-21.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    manufacturing strategy; mass customization; flexibility Note;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:vlg:vlgwps:2004-21. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Isabelle Vandenbroere (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vlgmsbe.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.