The Customer Enquiry Management (CEM) process is of strategic importance to non-Make-To-Stock companies but few empirical studies have explored the CEM practices adopted by firms in practice. A study on the Italian capital goods sector by Zorzini, Hendry, Stevenson, and Pozzetti (2008) provides...

Effective coordination is an important determinant of performance in globally dispersed offshored operations. This is an under-researched area particularly regarding the contextual factors that drive the choice of coordinating modes, and whether the most effective coordinating modes depend on...

The Workload Control (WLC) concept is one of few Production Planning and Control (PPC) solutions appropriate for Make-To-Order (MTO) companies yet its successful implementation is an enduring challenge. Most implementations reported are in large organisations yet it has been argued that WLC is...

This paper aims at investigating the relationships existing between postponement and modularization practices actually implemented by Italian companies and contextual factors mainly linked to product features. A multi-case study research strategy was adopted and statistical techniques applied...

The structure of the New Zealand merino industry has been through a period of rapid organizational change and marketing innovation over the past decade. This has seen it move away from a publicly regulated spot auction market structure characterised by undifferentiated product receiving pooled...

Card-based systems can be simple yet effective means of controlling production. But existing solutions, such as Kanban, do not typically apply to the job shops often found in make-to-order companies. In response, a card-based approach to Workload Control known as COBACABANA – COntrol of...

Subcontracting can be an important means of overcoming capacity shortages and of workload balancing, especially in make-to-order companies characterized by high variety, high demand variation and a job shop configuration. But there is a lack of simple, yet powerful subcontracting rules suitable...