Articles Week 2

Question 1

What are the key points in: Manufacturing - the missing link in corporate strategy

Answer 1

• Don’t separate the corporate strategy from the manufacturing.
• The decisions made by manufacturing influences if the company is able the withhold the strategy.
• Top-down manufacturing
• The cost and high efficiency are not the main objective in all production processes (for some companies it is of greater importance to have a flexible and fast production)

Question 2

What are the key points in: Beyond World Class

Answer 2

• A true manufacturing strategy is a plan for developing the skills and capabilities that will enable a company to do certain things better than competitors over the long haul.
• Often companies apply some parts of an operations strategy but they fail when implementing it.
• “Quick fix” - considered solutions to specific problems and not a whole philosophy → they overlook the power of these programs = the ability build new capabilities.
• You cannot say that you have implemented lean, cause it is an ongoing process.
• Vid investeringar - tänk på vad för capabilities som företaget utvecklar. - kan vara svårt att motivera investeringar i short-term.