رابطه ساخت استراتژی - تکنولوژی در میان تامین کنندگان خودکار

Each manufacturing plant has to develop its own path to success based on contingencies and on manufacturing practices links. On the basis of the latter, this paper tests the link between two of the most important manufacturing practices areas, manufacturing strategy (MS) and technology, without addressing causality or their combined effect on performance. This is done by selection fit, i.e. congruency adjustment. However, this paper goes beyond grouping both sets of practices in pairs, by using a more general selection view version, with practices from both sets related multidimensionally and subordinated by regression analysis to test for any congruent pattern. Regression results from a wide-ranging survey of auto supplier plants show that, in general, MS seems to have some kind of impact on technology, and that technology has some kind of influence on MS. In addition, a strong congruency between both practices areas is observed when using correlation. This suggests that when implementing or adjusting MS or technology, the other should also be considered; otherwise they may not operate effectively.

Each manufacturing plant must find its own unique path to success, based on contingent factors and the links between manufacturing practices. Previous studies on this topic still shed little light on the reasons why the application of the same manufacturing practices works well in some plants, but worse in others (Primrose, 1992, Olhager, 1993 and Nassimbeni, 1996). Thus, before the selection, adaptation (when required), implementation and interconnection of manufacturing practices, there should also be a strategic, well-conceived plan based on the particular situation of the company. Without it, the designed strategy will not have the desired effect: the achievement of success. All of the above should be linked to a planned path of continuous improvement. Hence plants should be dynamic, constantly drawing upon the best manufacturing practices for their possible inclusion as part of the manufacturing process. Such inclusion depends on both the context of the plant (contingency) and on the effect that the introduction of new practices will have by linking them to what the plant is already doing or is planning to do. This result in a synergy of processes designed to achieve a sustainable world-class competitive advantage by means of the continuous improvement of the manufacturing capacity (Schroeder and Flynn, 2001). However, achieving a sustainable competitive advantage, by means of using manufacturing practices, is itself an evasive goal: world class plants may sometimes have relatively poor implementation levels of practices. In such cases, it may well be that the success of the plant will quickly diminish when the conditions change, as the solid foundation of a correctly connected network of practices is not supporting the whole. Likewise, there may be cases where plants have implemented a high level of practices and still be unsuccessful. In the latter case, the plants need to consider whether they have chosen the correct practices for their own circumstances and whether the practices are appropriately linked to the overall strategy and with one another (Schroeder and Flynn, 2001). On the other hand, the effective use of technological resources—amongst other things—is essential for achieving a sustainable competitive advantage and for increasing the effectiveness of the company. Therefore, taking into account the importance of MS and technology, as well as the proposition that the lack of success in some plants may be partially due to a faulty link between practices (Schroeder and Flynn, 2001), the present study examines the link between practices from manufacturing strategy (MS) and from technology from an international auto supplier sector survey. The need to investigate the interconnection between strategy and technology has also been stressed by Porter, 1983 and Porter, 1985. Accordingly, the present paper is primarily centered on the following research question: are there any links between practices from manufacturing strategy and practices from technology? This is answered by way of exploratory and confirmatory research. A review of the literature is made in Section 2. Research propositions are described in Section 3 along with their respective hypotheses. The research methodology of this work is explained in Section 4, describing the constructs and concepts used. Subsequently (Section 5), the results are discussed. Finally, in Section 6, some conclusions and final considerations are outlined, highlighting the implications and limitations of this study.

Propositions were made to test whether an interconnection existed between a set of practices from manufacturing strategy and a set of practices from technology using the selection perspective, without the effect on performance being measured. Canonical correlation analysis demonstrated a high degree of congruency fit, which means that both production practices are in a state of mutual fit or adjustment. In managerial terms, it may be more advantageous for plants to implement them together, i.e. integrated with each other. Bearing the foregoing in mind, it may be said that the selection (congruency) model has demonstrated that there is some degree of association between technology and MS. Thus, when implementing one of these MPs, the other should also be considered. In other words, different levels of manufacturing strategy practices require different levels of technology, and vice versa, if the plant wants to be more competitive. This was partially confirmed by two unidirectional multivariate multiple regressions. Comparative evaluation of different methods to test fit and the relationship between the results and characteristics of the same sample may help to develop medium-range theories about what approach to take in the sector studied (Drazin and Van de Ven, 1985). It might be added that, in general terms, the use of an alternative method to correlation for the selection perspective has provided much more detailed information, since the regression analysis method shows multidimensional directions between both practices sets. The use of a confirmatory method not only partially corroborated the results of the previous method, but it also throws light on configuration details that the other model was unable to reveal. Thus, it was possible to assess the link between both manufacturing practices sets more fully. If correlation had been applied alone, this paper might have only had a partial view of the interrelationship. Hence, another main purpose of this research was to share this sort of methodology with POM researchers in what could be an important finding for obtaining a fuller view of the link between any two manufacturing practices sets by using two different methods of selection fit to complement each other. Returning to the managerial implications, this empirical research is relevant for plants that wish to adhere to manufacturing concepts relating to the link between manufacturing strategy and technology practices successfully resulting in continuous improvement. It indicates to managers: (a) that these practices are important for achieving at least competitive parity in the sector; and (b) the positive effects of the links between these same practices—aspects that had not been sufficiently clear to date. Again from a managerial and concrete point-of-view, auto supplier plants are able to understand more about the details of this kind of interrelationship in their sector, and whether, and how, they should apply these manufacturing practices to all of their plants. Thus, it was seen that three MS practices (anticipation of new technologies, formal strategic planning, and manufacturing-business strategy linkage), and three technology practices (interfunctional design efforts as part of product technology, and both effective process implementation and technology supplier involvement as part of process technology) have a bidirectional relationship. In more detail, this paper has also shown that multidimensionally MS practices seem to have a positive impact on two technology practices (interfunctional design efforts and effective process implementation). However, MS practices do not seem to have an impact on technology supplier involvement and formal strategic planning does not seem to impact on interfunctional design effort. In the other direction of the link, two technology practices (technology supplier involvement, and effective process implementation, both as part process technology) seem to have a positive influence on MS practices. Interfunctional design effort is the only technology practice that does not seem to have an impact on any of the mentioned MS practices and technology supplier involvement does not seem to have any influence on anticipation of new technologies. However, a high degree of correspondence between statistical methods and core theory assumptions does not mean that the natural selection approach itself is not problematic. On the one hand, using selection to check fit between MPs imposes a linear correspondence between two variables, and it is confined to being operationalized by correlation and/or regression. Thus, since linearity is an implicit assumption of all multivariate techniques based on correlation measures of association (including multiple regression); the most common way to assess linearity in regression is to examine the residuals (Hair et al., 1998, pp. 167–168, Hair et al., 2010). Since residuals from this paper fall randomly, with relatively equal dispersion about zero, the linearity assumption was met. In any event, selection fit has been chosen since it has proven to be the best way to examine how variables interact to explain each other's designs/implementations (Gerdin and Greve, 2004). To reinforce the results, this study has added a canonical correlation analysis to provide a basis for multivariate multiple regression (Umanath and Kim, 1992 and Umanath, 2003). As seen, both canonical correlation analysis and regression provided significant results for selection. However, this paper would like to highlight the fact that if there is a degree of congruency (as is the case of the fit found between manufacturing strategy and technology); it does not necessarily mean that variations in performance do not exist in reality. Furthermore, this paper disregards more complex relationships, such as the curvilinear (Burns and Stalker, 1961, Morse, 1977, Drazin and Van de Ven, 1985, Galunic and Eisenhardt, 1994 and Meilich, 2006), which are beyond the scope of this paper. However, these limitations may be overcome by future research that could extend and complement this study from another perspective, such as the interaction perspective (i.e. multiplicative with a curvilinear interaction function and matching with curvilinear performance functions), in order to outline a hypothesis which can be developed by a conditional association between the MS and T sets as independent variables with a dependent outcome (Drazin and Van de Ven, 1985, p. 514). In addition, using interaction may allow testing for differences between high and standard (i.e. rest of plants) performers, where, if they show values favouring high performers by giving a stronger relationship between MS practices and T practices, the results could be considered confirmatory for selection fit. However, an advantage of the selection model, when compared to the interaction approach, is that in interaction, the insight about how variables interact to explain each other's designs/implementations is lost. In addition, managerial implications of contingencies were also left out of this paper, knowing that plant management should also take into account the possible effects of contextual factors. Therefore, future studies should also investigate the possible interaction effects of contextual factors and these manufacturing practices from both MS and Technology. Finally, other future research studies are also possible. For example, regarding the managerial aspects there is still room to test whether this type of relationship between the two MP areas is found in other sectors with different features. Future research could also include longitudinal studies, examining the causal linkages between practices, and a more detailed examination of the relationships between the two areas of practices (MS and technology), identifying the exact nature of their interaction.