Describes the results of a survey returned by 97 purchasing managers who were asked to assess current patterns of global sourcing as practised by North American firms. Some of the issues examined include primary sourcing allocations, supplier evaluation criteria, operational performance measures...

Introduces the concept of a manufacturing strategy based on a service orientation. Traditional manufacturing strategies have often been driven by cost minimization decisions and have encouraged the over‐reliance by managers on inventories to satisfy demand. In today′s business environment, a...

Examines the impact of the intensity level of design for manufacturability (DFM) on the time‐to‐market. Hypothesizes that companies which use the DFM technology strategically are more likely than their counterparts to exhibit a shorter time‐to‐market, introduce ew products and processes...

The service sector of the American economy is expanding very rapidly at a greater than 6 per cent annual growth rate during the 1984‐88 period. The extraordinary growth of the service sector in the last two decades has focused attention on the challenges of effective management of service...

The positive impact of just‐in‐time (JIT) programmes on production performance is well documented. JIT programmes consist of a number of different elements including change‐over reduction, kanban methods, and preventive maintenance programmes. Some researchers have proposed lists of...

Investigates empirically the impact of the different facets of manufacturing subsystems on just‐in‐time (JIT) success. Uses a sample of 130 large US manufacturing firms to test research hypotheses derived from an extensive literature review and a field study conducted by the authors....

Presents the result of a survey of US firms examining the effect of operations strategies on organizational performance. Seven commonly used operations strategies were considered. Eleven criteria were used to measure organizational performance. The results suggest that companies which are using...

Presents the findings of a comprehensive survey conducted among a wide variety of US machine shops. The objectives of the study were to develop the literature‐based just‐in‐time (JIT) machine shop model and to study empirically the changes taking place in the operation of machine shops in...