استراتژی عملیات های جهانی : هماهنگی شبکه های تولید

This paper presents a concept that describes how companies can manage their international operations so as to facilitate the coordination of their manufacturing networks. The research presented originates from a model that was developed at the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson in the mid-1990s, but has since then been further elaborated. More specifically, the purpose of this paper is to show how Ericsson Radio Systems incorporated the recent research on manufacturing networks found in literature in their global operations strategy, and to present the conceptual model that was the result of these efforts. The conceptual model described in this paper focuses on the blending of cost competitiveness, flexibility, and innovativeness; a combination termed the “transnational solution” in the literature. In addition to a literature review on manufacturing networks and global operations and the proposed conceptual model, the paper also contains a case illustration showing how Ericsson has implemented a version of the conceptual model so that their global operations strategy realizes the transnational solution.

The world of business is becoming more and more international. The last two decades shows an explosive increase in both international trade and foreign direct investment and no company can stay indifferent to the increase in world trade in manufactured goods. Many companies are becoming more and more international, in terms of both sales and manufacturing, and the role of manufacturing companies has changed to adapt to the global market, and is still changing. Johanson and Vahlne [1] discerned a trend already in the 1970s and the trend is still present; companies are changing from supplying domestic markets with products, via supplying international markets through export, to supplying international markets through worldwide local manufacturing.

This paper set out to present a conceptual model that would help managers to enhance the coordination of their manufacturing network, with a special focus on the transnational solution described by Bartlett and Ghoshal [20]. The model factory concept (MFC) as presented here is intended as an attempt to provide an understandable model that can be used by managers when establishing a global operations strategy. We also provide a case illustration of how the concept has been used by one of the giants in telecommunications operating on a global scale. Many scholars have identified the changes in the global market in terms of ever shortening product life cycles, a higher pressure on prices, and requirements on greater product varieties and customization, to name a few [3,18–20].