The purpose of this paper is to analyze manufacturing networks and supply chains from an operations strategy perspective. These two areas have traditionally been treated as separate research tracks, but with the ongoing globalization of markets and operations there is a need to integrate these...

Product-mix flexibility is one of the major types of manufacturing flexibility, referring to the ability to produce a broad range of products or variants with presumed low changeover costs. The value of such a capability is important to establish for an industrial firm in order to ensure that...

In this paper we address flexibility and investigate the relationship between volume and product mix flexibility. One view of flexibility is that of being a capability in itself; another view is that of flexibility as an enabler, providing the manufacturing system with properties on which other...

Manufacturing firms aim at improving both internal and external processes to improve the competitive advantage. Such initiatives include lean practices as well as supplier rationalization and integration. In this paper, we analyze these improvement initiatives and their impact on business...