Purpose – The servitization of manufacturing is a diverse and complex field of research interest. The purpose of this paper is to provide an integrative and organising lens for viewing the various contributions to knowledge production from those research communities addressing servitization....

Purpose – This paper aims to present a framework that will help manufacturing firms to configure their internal production and support operations to enable effective and efficient delivery of products and their closely associated services. Design/methodology/approach – First, the key...

The customer‐contact interface is discussed here. Defined as interactive service operations, it can be divided into two separate levels, first, the service operations interface between the firm and its customers and, secondly, the internal interactions of the firm′s operations driven by...

The ability of manufacturing companies to adapt to their changing environment is frequently a key to long‐term success. As a consequence the strategic flexibility of manufacturing operations has become an increasingly important issue for organisations. There have been much theoretical work and...

The impact of business operations on the natural environment has been a public concern for decades and a research concern for years. To date, the focus of environmental impact research has been almost exclusively on manufacturing industries. Environmental research specific to service industries...

This paper examines the role played by environmental issues during the new product design process. These issues are studied through an exploratory research project based on case studies of ten companies. The firms studied can be categorized into one of five major groups: innovators, early...

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in modern economies because of their flexibility and ability to innovate. In nearly every country, SMEs play a significant role in providing employment opportunities and supporting large scale manufacturing firms. However, there are not...

TQM is a philosophy mainly dominated by large companies. Small businesses are lagging behind larger ones when it comes to introducing and adopting new managerial philosophies and advanced technology. Many small companies have stopped at quality system certification, such as ISO 9000, in their...

Today, “lean” may no longer be fashionable but its core principles (flow, value, pull, minimizing waste etc.) have become the paradigm for many manufacturing (and service) operations. Given this pre‐eminence, the paper seeks to establish what impact it has had on the overall competitive...