بررسی مجدد تحقیق تجربی بر روی تولید انعطاف پذیر

Manufacturing flexibility is widely recognized as a critical component to achieving a competitive advantage in the marketplace. A comprehensive look at the empirical research pertaining to manufacturing flexibility highlights the very fragmented nature of this body of work. We present a comprehensive contingency-based framework for examining the content related issues involving the relationships and variables included in past studies. We also examine several important research design/methodology issues (e.g., sampling, data collection and measurement) and propose solutions to some identified problems.

In today's fast paced environment, characterized by short product life cycles and increasing product variety, manufacturing flexibility is emerging as a key competitive weapon. Manufacturing flexibility reflects the ability of firms to respond to changes in their customers' needs, as well as to unanticipated changes stemming from competitive pressures. Companies are addressing these types of competitive pressures through a variety of improvement programs involving manufacturing flexibility, such as just-in-time manufacturing, mass customization techniques, time-based methods of competition, and agile manufacturing. Since Hayes and Wheelwright (1984) first advocated that manufacturing flexibility be one of the primary dimensions of the competitive strategy of a business, there has been a substantial growth in the amount of research on this topic. Although there has been a great deal of progress towards the enhancement of the knowledge base concerning manufacturing flexibility, a close examination of past studies reveals the fragmented nature of the overall body of literature. This paper has two main purposes. First, we will synthesize the growing body of empirical research regarding content-related issues and identify possible avenues for future research in the area of manufacturing flexibility. We center our discussion around a contingency framework that highlights the complicated interrelationships that surround manufacturing flexibility. This framework, which identifies four exogenous variables (strategy, organizational structure, environmental uncertainty, and technology) that moderate the relationship between manufacturing flexibility and performance, is used to structure our review of previous studies and to suggest future research directions. Second, we examine several important methodological issues regarding manufacturing flexibility research. An examination of past studies indicates several repeated methodological problems with regard to measurement validity and reliability, along with problems involving general design issues. In order to strengthen the validity and generalizability of the findings of future studies, we present several solutions to these methodological and design pitfalls.

Significant advances have been made in the empirical research on manufacturing flexibility over the past 10 years. However, further studies are necessary to more fully explain the complex nature of manufacturing flexibility. The proper fit between environmental and internal strategic, organizational, and technology variables can provide a firm with a competitive advantage and improved performance. The interrelationships, trade-offs, and synergies between the variables identified in the contingency-based framework presented here should be more thoroughly examined, so that firms can build their manufacturing flexibility capability in the most effective manner. At the same time, methodological and design improvements need to be made to strengthen the validity and generalizability of future studies. Addressing these issues will allow a fuller understanding of the complex processes surrounding manufacturing flexibility.