Environment, Dynamic manufacturing Strategy, and Performance

As Bozarth and McDermott(1998) pointed out, studies on changes within in a manufacturing strategy or dynamic manufacturing strategy are very scarce. This study addresses the important research issues that Bozarth and McDermott have suggested: (1) How does a firm move from one type of manufacturing strategy to another one?; (2) Why does it do so?; and, (3) Are there multiple equally viable paths? This study, based on the quantitative and longitudinal analysis of Korean manufacturing industry, empirically identified three types of dynamic manufacturing strategy: (1) Synergistic- Incremental Change(incremental change in a predetermined direction), (2) Simultaneous-Radical Change (radical change in a predetermined direction), and (3) Selective-Radical Change(radical change in a contingent direction). It is found that these three dynamic manufacturing strategies were affected by four contingent factors: two internal ones(size and efficiency of resource utilization) and two external ones(dynamism and hostility). In addition, two kinds of manufacturing action programs(infrastructural and structural) contributed to realizing each dynamic manufacturing strategy in a different way. Performance differences were also found across the three dynamic manufacturing strategies.