Joel D. Goldhar

Information flows, management styles, and technological innovation

Recent changes in both government and corporate attitudes towards R&D budgets make effective R&D management more important than ever. This research provides a data base for improving R&D management through better understanding of the information flow and management style variables in the innovation process. The research reported concentrates on the initial idea generation stage of innovation. It has four main parts: (1) a background discussion of technological innovation emphasizing idea stimuli and behavioral characteristics of innovators; (2) a description of the types, sources and channels of stimulus information; (3) a discussion of the role and importance of R&D management discussion making styles; (4) a new model for the idea generation stage which incorporates information flows and a variety of possible managerial and policy actions.

Weak links in the supply chain: measuring fragility and sustainability

Purpose – There is significant anecdotal evidence of increasing global supply chain fragility; and, for this reason, robustness and operational sustainability are of notable concern to senior executives. Though the issues are myriad, four factors dominate these concerns: increasing complexity of products, processes, and technologies, increasing structural complexity of supply chains, increasing diversity and global nature of business systems, and the environmental costs and impacts of extended supply chains. This paper aims to focus on these factors.Design/methodology/approach – This conceptual, theoretical paper differentiates corporate sustainability and operational robustness in terms of profitability and costs, then defines and develops internal, external, and uncontrollable fragility factors. A process that measures and integrates these factors is proposed for brainstorming and decision making. Additionally, methods to represent and compare alternatives, progress against internal or external targets,...

Computer‐integrated Manufacturing (CIM): Redefining the Manufacturing Firm into a Global Service Business

The transformation of US manufacturing, led by computer‐integrated manufacturing (CIM) systems, has already begun to take root. This article examines the potential benefits to firms which understand and can exploit CIM technology to its fullest extent. Because CIM simultaneously provides high product variety with low costs, conventional assumptions about competitive strategy and organisation design need reevaluation. As companies must work with increasingly scarce capital, human resources and time, CIM becomes an attractive option not only for highly capital‐intensive industries such as automobiles, but also for fast‐changing areas such as textiles, fashion design, and consumer appliances. CIM combines the benefits of economies of scope with the scale economies traditionally garnered only with large, rigid and dedicated factories. Success with CIM and other new manufacturing technologies depends on new organisational designs and incentives that foster fast innovation and cross‐functional integration. CIM′...

Advanced manufacturing and new directions for competitive strategy

Abstract This study examines the potential contributions that advanced manufacturing can make to the competitive strategy of the firm. Porters framework for describing generic competitive strategies in terms of low-cost leadership, differentiation, and focus is a useful way to begin looking at this linkage, and several cases of successful implementation of advanced manufacturing in U.S. companies are examined in this light. A closer examination of these cases and a deeper understanding of how companies are actually competing, however, lead to some new directions proposed for further thinking regarding advanced manufacturing and competitive strategy: i.e., dangers of differentiation and the advantages of pursuing low-cost leadership at increasingly higher levels of customer acceptability; opportunities available in focusing on customer valued complexity, which takes advantage of the strengths of computer and information technology; multiple niche competition as an addition to Porters competitive scope situations, the potential for economies of scope, the synergy between economies of scale and scope, and the simultaneous achievement of both low cost and differentiation; and finally advanced manufacturing competing as a service business.

Marketing implications of newer manufacturing technologies

Recent advances in product design and manufacturing technologies allow for high levels of product variety at low cost, leading to economies of scope. Economies of scope allow for multiple product operations without the cost penalty of traditional economy‐of‐scale‐based technology. Examines the implications of flexible manufacturing for marketing strategy and organization. Shortening of product life cycles, re‐acceleration of product differentiation strategies and more customer involvement in the entire manufacturing‐to‐marketing process are some of the effects of advanced manufacturing technology on the marketplace.

Uncertainty reduction through flexible manufacturing

The crucial strength of the CIM/FMS is the capability to produce variety at lower cost. This article provides a justification for the move towards computerized flexibility in manufacturing based upon the premise of uncertainty reduction in sales through extensive product differentiation. The economic feasibility of this marketing strategy is shown by delineating the sources of economies and diseconomies of scope in CIM/FMS production.

Manufacturing as a service business: CIM in the 21st century

Abstract The long term future impact of CIM upon our society as a whole will be to make a wider variety of products available at reasonable prices combined with high levels of variety, customization, timeliness, newness and quality. CIM changes manufacturing from a physical and mechanical system into an information and knowledge work activity subject to the laws of economy of “scope” as well as “scale”. This means that the factory will no longer be an economic barrier to rapid rates of innovation; and sophisticated, complex and intimate vendor-customer relations. However, in addition to investing in new technology, the firm will need to develop new strategies for each business area and new tactics for marketing; more flexible organizational structures designed to implement strategies based on timeliness, innovation, variety, niche markets and product augmentation; sophisticated policies for human resource management; and very different accounting systems and financial analysis algorithms. The ultimate result of CIM will be new ways for the manufacturing industries to serve society and a new style of competition in the global marketplace. Wage rates will be irrelevant in most industry sectors, as will scale economies. CIM will “level the playing field” but as the technology for achieving flexible, low cost, high quality production becomes available to all competitors the real competitive advantages will shift from production economies to innovation—the skills needed to: identify a market niche and its special needs; to design a “product/service” that will meet that need better than anyone else can meet it and in a way that is hard to copy; to quickly design, produce and distribute the product, to be able to quickly move onto the next product; and to be able to manage the complexity of many different products and many different customers being served from the same facility and at the same time. The benefits to society will come from changes in the nature of manufacturing work as well as the greater variety of reasonably priced products available. Manufacturing firms will have to learn how to recruit, train, mange, evaluate and reward “knowledge workers”, as machines and electronic controls take over the traditional “touch labor” and even most of the plant floor “skilled” labor of the past. Firms will also need to change their concepts of strategic thinking—from a focus on products and markets to a focus on competitive advantage in terms of process technology and systems and the institutional learning that allows the firm to effectively and efficiently utilized advanced technology—in effect an experience curve based upon a succession of non-repetitive (but conceptually similar) events. This will lead to business strategies based upon complexity (rather than the tactics of simplification popular in the 1980s); in terms of short product life cycles, customization, rapid design and production cycles and close coupling with the customer over an extended period of time. From an historical perspective this might be seen as the “deindustrialization” of manufacturing; a situation that can be called “the automation of custom manufacture” where the “client” has an opportunity to participate to at least some degree in the design of the product; and to decide how much “service” in terms of custom features and speed of delivery he is willing to pay for. This new concept of manufacturing as a service will be difficult for competitors to copy—especially if it is a one-time-only custom event. In effect, institutional learning of CIM utilization skills will be the competitive advantage of the firm, the switching cost to customers, and the barrier to entry for competitors.

Blurring the boundary: convergence of factory and service processes

Purpose – In order to emphasize the universality of operations management concepts, this paper develops an integrative view of the similarities and continuities between “services products” and operations; and “goods products” and factory operations. The purpose of this paper is to move toward a better understanding of the impact of this convergence.Design/methodology/approach – By reviewing the literature and trade press examples of evolution in both manufacturing and services businesses, it develop a model for understanding the observed phenomena.Findings – This paper finds that services operations are continually adopting the characteristics of traditional manufacturing as they seek to grow and gain increased profitability through economies of scale. At the same time, traditional manufacturing/factory operations continually seek to differentiate themselves by offering more services such as customization, flexibility, and just‐in‐time; without giving up their economies of scale. As goods and services pro...

Computer Technology and International Competition: Part 2: Managing the “Factory of the Future” to Achieve Competitive Advantage

Increased flexibility is discussed as the key to competitive advantage in the CIM factory. The treatment begins with the customer and works backwards to show how CIM technology affects competitive strategy – for example in economy of scope, truncated product life cycle, multi‐mission facilities, variety, as well as flexibility. Many of the CIM advantages can be best understood by considering it as an information system. Industrial examples are given to illustrate, and strategic principles for CIM are set out. The article concludes with a look at the future possible developments of CIM.

Computer Technology and International Competition: Part 1: The Factory of the Future

The issue of competitiveness in US manufacturing industry is addressed. The reasons for the decline and lack of competitiveness of US manufacturing companies after the Second World War are summarised and the present situation – the application of new technologies and the globalisation of markets and competition – is described. These changes are placed in an operational context and it is concluded that the adoption of computer integrated manufacturing concepts and technology is essential as a driving force of corporate strategy to enable manufacturing industry to remain competitive or to regain competitiveness.