Don Fleet

Linking networks and plant roles: the impact of changing a plant role

Many manufacturing firms are expanding their global footprint to explore new opportunities for efficient and effective production. The strategic perspective on international manufacturing networks involves both the network level and the plant level. A key aspect is the relationship between the network and the role of plants. In this research, we investigate the relationship between the network and plant perspectives in international manufacturing networks. We use an embedded case study that includes five plants in two product networks over a period of three years. We analyse how changing the role of one plant affects the network as well as the roles of the other plants in the networks. We find that decisions on plant roles are, to a very high degree, network decisions and not decisions for individual plants. Based on the insights into the case study, we also develop a framework for mapping manufacturing networks, including market coverage, plant location and site competence.

Network integration for international mergers and acquisitions

Business activities are increasingly taking place across geographical and ownership boundaries. Post-Merger & Acquisition Integration (PMI) processes are more challenging in network organisations due to the extra complexity and interdependency associated with networks. However, network integration issues are not well addressed in the traditional M&A literature or the network organisation literature. Based on ten in-depth case studies across key industry sectors, this research identifies the essential network integration issues for international M&As with a configuration concept, and demonstrates different network integration patterns according to M&A objectives for growth and efficiency. This paper extends the theoretical understanding of PMI for network organisations. It can also provide practical guidance for managers to assess the feasibility of an M&A transition or to go through the PMI process successfully.

Understanding and conceptualising the global manufacturing virtual network

This paper seeks to gain a better understanding the practical and theoretical issues in collaborative manufacturing between companies in a value creation network. It proposes a conceptualisation for the global manufacturing virtual network (GMVN). It suggests that the GMVN-a new manufacturing architecture-has many distinguishing characteristics and is a promising example of the potential manufacturing configurations which could be based on a collaborative infrastructure and supporting ICT in order to address dramatic forthcoming changes in an increasingly fragmented market environment.