International Manufacturing Strategies

Over the last twenty years, there has been an increasing number of factors that have placed the manufacturing strategies of companies and countries in a global context. This book reviews and addresses the global manufacturing strategy area through research in the four major economic areas of the world: Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia. International Manufacturing Strategies: Context, Content and Change is the result of a single major research project undertaken in twenty countries, focusing on the manufacturing strategies and practices in each, and uses research data to focus on factors specific to industrial countries or regions and those which are common across the group of countries or the entire sample
The core of this book is a set of chapters reviewing individual countries. Each country is reviewed in a format with an overall common approach: the socio-economic background; the distinctive results for that country from the research and the link between the two. Most will be illustrated by a small case study of a company. Following this is an integrating review of the findings from various countries, the different trajectories followed, and the impact on external variables and the socioeconomic context on those. The final part of the book is devoted to new ideas and developments in functional areas and in manufacturing strategy that have been developed from the analysis conducted during the research.

Preface. Part 1: Introduction. 1. Introduction: International Manufacturing Strategy: Context, Culture, and Change. Part II: Country Studies. 2. Manufacturing Strategy Put in Socio-Economic Context. 3. Manufacturing Strategy in Argentina: The Challenge of Change; M. Paladino, et al. 4. Manufacturing Modernisation in Brazil: Scope and Direction in the Metal Products, Machinery and Equipment Industry; P.F. Fleury, R. Arkader. 5. Denmark: Horse Sense Manufacturing; F. Gersten, J.O. Riis. 6. Finland: Changing from Technology-Based Towards Process-Based Manufacturing Strategy; M. Simons, et al. 7. Manufacturing Strategy in The Netherlands: Context and Perspective; H. Boer, D. Draaijer. 8. Italian Assembly Industry: Challenges and Responses to Globalisation and Innovation; E. Bartezzaghi, G. Spina. 9. Japanese Manufacturing Strategy: To Compete with the Tigers; H. Yamashina. 10. The Japanese Model - What is it and to What Extent Has it Diffused to the West? C.A. Voss. 11. Manufacturing Strategy of Norwegian ISIC 38 Industry: A Systematic Perspective; Hongyi Sun, et al. 12. The New Strategy for the Portuguese Industry; J.B. Gouveia. 13. Managing Manufacturing in an Economy in Transition: Spain's Challenges and Responses; G.A. Vargas. 14. Lead Time Reduction - Manufacturing Strategy in Sweden; P. Lindberg. 15. Manufacturing in the UK: Seeking Sustainable Industrial Renaissance; C.A. Voss. Part III: Patterns of Change. 16. Regional Trading Blocs and Manufacturing Strategies in the European Union, MERCOSUR, and NAFTA; C.A. Voss. 17. NAFTA: An Empirical Operations Perspective; F. Johnson, et al. 18. Trajectories of Change. 19. Environment and Manufacturing Strategy: Comparing Modernisation Paths and Performance in Brazil and Argentina; P.F. Fleury, etal. 20. A Study of Technological-Organisational Development and Market Dynamics in Denmark and Norway; J. Frick, et al. Part IV: New Ideas in Manufacturing Strategy. 21. New Ideas in Manufacturing Strategy. 22. The Network Cell as a Step to the Network Factory; R. Hyötyläinen, M. Simons. 23. Quality, Technology, and Global Manufacturing; J.E. Ettlie. 24. US Manufacturing in the 1990s: The Chase and the Challenge; J. Ettlie, P.T. Ward. 25. Manufacturing Strategies, Practices and Performance in Korea; B-H Rho, et al. 26. The Multi-Focused Manufacturing Paradigm: Adoption and Performance Improvements within the Assembly Industry; G. Spina, et al. Appendix &endash; Tables. Index.