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Manufacturing practices: antecedents to mass customization

2004; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 15; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/0953728042000238827

1366-5871

Qiang Tu, Mark A. Vonderembse, T. S. Ragu‐Nathan,

Manufacturing Process and Optimization

Abstract Mass customization is a strategy that many firms are adopting to exploit the demand for products that meet the needs of individual customers. Mass customization capability is a firm's ability to manufacture products that meet a variety of specific customer requirements quickly at a cost that is comparable to mass-produced products. The challenge for manufacturing managers is to find ways to cope with environmental uncertainty and increasing product variety through mass customization without affecting lead-time, cost or quality. Based on data collected from 303 US firms, this study investigates manufacturing practices (re-engineering set-ups, preventive maintenance, cellular manufacturing and quality assurance) that enable firms to enhance mass customization capability. When the sample is divided into firms with high versus low environmental uncertainty, the results show that these manufacturing practices tend to have a greater impact on mass customization capability when environmental uncertainty is high than when it is low. Keywords: manufacturing practicesmass customizationenvironmental uncertaintyempirical research Acknowledgments QIANG TU is Assistant Professor of Management Information Systems at the College of Business of Rochester Institute of Technology. He received his bachelor's degree in Management Engineering and master's degree in Systems Engineering from Jiaotong University, China. He holds a PhD from the College of Business Administration of University of Toledo. He has published in academic journals including Information Systems Research, Journal of Operations Management, OMEGA: the International Journal of Management Science, Journal of Strategic Information Systems and Information Resources Management Journal. His research interests include information systems strategy, manufacturing strategy, technology management, and behavioral issues in information systems and manufacturing management. MARK A. VONDEREMBSE is a Professor of Management at The University of Toledo (UT). He earned a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from The University of Toledo in 1971 and an MBA from The University of Pennsylvania in 1973. He earned a PhD from The University of Michigan in 1979. He is currently Interim Director of UT's Intermodal Transportation Institute. He has published in academic and professional journals including Management Science, Journal of Operations Management, Decision Sciences, International Journal of Production Research, and Industrial Engineering Transactions. His research interests are time-based competition, manufacturing strategy, and supply chain management. T. S. RAGU-NATHAN is Professor of Information Systems and Operations Management in the College of Business Administration at the University of Toledo. He holds a PhD in Management Information Systems from the University of Pittsburgh. He has published in many journals including Information Systems Research, Decision Sciences, OMEGA: International Journal of Management Science, Journal of MIS, Journal of Information Systems, and Journal of Strategic Information Systems. His current research interests are in information systems strategy, quality issues in information systems, and use of information technology in manufacturing, Supply Chain Management, and e-Commerce.