Taxonomia de sistema de produção

Competitive advantage, customisation and a new taxonomy for non make-to-stock companies
Faculdade de Economia do Porto, Porto, Portugal Department of Management Science, The Management School, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
Keywords Competitive advantage, Customization, Empirical study, Manufacturing, Production planning Abstract Presents a new taxonomy for the non make-to-stock sector to enable a like-with-like comparison, arguing that existing taxonomies within the literature are inadequate for strategic research purposes. Presents empirical evidence which has been collected from 22 companies in three European countries ± the UK, Denmark and The Netherlands. The data support the structure of the proposed new taxonomy and provide insights into competitive advantage and customisation issues in the non make-to-stock sector. Finally, two new labels for this sector of industry are proposed. ``Versatile manufacturing company'' is used to describe those manufacturers which are involved in a competitive bidding situation for every order which they receive, customisation by individual order. In contrast, the ``Repeat business customiser'' may only be in this position for the first of a series of similar orders from a particular customer, customisation by contract.

Non make-tostock companies

349

Graca Amaro Ë

Linda Hendry and Brian Kingsman

Introduction Manufacturing companies differ in the way they meet their demand. Some deliver products to their clients from finished goods inventories as their production anticipates customers' orders; others, however, manufacture only in response to customers' orders. The literature addressing the needs of companies which produce in response to customers' orders is astonishingly modest. Most of the published research in the operations management area has tended to treat all companies the same, as make-to-stock (MTS) companies, and has neglected the needs of the make-to-order sector (Marucheck and McClelland, 1986;