| The achievement of flexibility by a manufacturing organization is receiving increasing amounts of attention from both academics and practicing manufacturers, particularly as it becomes a competitive issue for U.S. manufacturers. This research addresses the achievement of manufacturing flexibility by exploring both the reasons for wanting flexibility and the mechanisms available to a manufacturing organization to provide flexible responses. Further, it integrates the requirements and mechanisms in a single model that enhances understanding of the tradeoffs involved in the achievement of flexibility in a manufacturing business.; Five primary requirements for manufacturing flexibility are identified and characterized: Demand variability including product line breadth, product mix fluctuation and volume fluctuation; supply variability including timeliness and quality of supplier deliveries as well as introduction of new materials; new product introduction and frequency of product change; new process introduction, both technological and organizational; internal variability including absenteeism, labor turnover, equipment downtime and the like.; A broad set of mechanisms that can be used by various levels of a manufacturing organization in response to the requirements for flexibility is then developed. Response mechanisms include both tactical or resource deployment activities that can be undertaken by the various functions of a manufacturing organization, and organizational structuring mechanisms. Tactical response mechanisms comprise use of inventory, dedicated equipment, cross-trained labor, and the like. Organization structuring mechanisms include the creation of self-contained tasks, creation of slack resources, and increases in both lateral and vertical communication.; Using the constructs underlying structural contingency theory, the requirements for flexibility are integrated with the sets of response mechanisms in a single model. The model highlights the tradeoffs that can be made between the various mechanisms and among the various functions in a manufacturing business to achieve flexibility. A set of hypotheses to be tested with information from existing "real-world" manufacturing organizations is drawn from the model.; Data was collected from over forty, autonomous manufacturing organizations of a large, multi-national electronics manufacturer. Extensive questionnaires were administered, and follow-up done in plant visits and interviews with plant management.; Statistical analysis of the resulting data provided some interesting results. For the demand and supply variability dimensions of flexibility, strong support was found for the contingency theory arguments. For new product introduction as a source of variability, the results were less clear. The findings also suggest that conflicts may arise in organizations that are attempting to achieve flexibility along multiple dimensions. |
