Examines the adoption and strategic use of advanced manufacturing technologies (AMTs) by small manufacturing firms. Three major issues are explored: the differences between exporting and non‐exporting firms with regard to why they adopt AMT; the differences between exporting and on‐exporting...

This article investigates the relationship between the functional areas of manufacturing and human resources by analysing the practices of human resource management associated with the competitive priorities of manufacturing strategy, e.g. quality, delivery performance, flexibility and cost....

Reports on a benchmarking study conducted to quantify how well companies operating in various sectors of Turkish industry match up to best practice, both in the practices they adopt and in the operational outcomes that result, and to test the hypothesis that the closer a company is to best...

This paper reports a study that was carried out to obtain comprehensive performance ratings to gauge the productive and service quality performance of a public transit company using a recent performance measurement method called operational competitiveness rating (OCRA) analysis. The computed...

This paper intends to contribute to a better understanding of manufacturing strategy content by describing and analysing the content and formalisation of manufacturing strategies, and by exploring the relationships between the formalisation of manufacturing strategy, business/competitive...

The interest of both researchers and practitioners around the use of Internet‐based tools to support business processes has been quite high in the last few years. However, despite the initial enthusiastic expectations, it is still not completely clear whether these expectations have been...

Purpose – The textiles, clothing, and footwear (TCF) industry has struggled in Australia since the government commenced dismantling tariffs. By sourcing from Asia, middlemen undercut established suppliers, and retail chains set benchmark low prices with their imported “house” labels. The...

Purpose – This paper describes research that has sought to create a formal and rational process that guides manufacturers through the strategic positioning decision. Design/methodology/approach – The methodology is based on a series of case studies to develop and test the decision process....