Linkages between attributes of SME:s and manufacturing performance measures

• In the strategic planning of manufacturing, companies should assess their competitive advantage with the means of performance measures (PMs) and achieve a consistency with the decision making. The literature on PMs shows that there are mainly two views of PM development. The first view is the PM diversity view which highlights the importance of using a wide set of PMs. The other view is PM alignment, which advocates the alignment between PMs and manufacturing strategy. Although the rich literature on PMs, research on PMs in Small- and Medium sized enterprises (SMEs) is limited but shows that the use of PMs in SMEs is typically financially focused, informal, and unstructured. The use of this approach in SMEs is likely to hinder the achievement of strategic objectives. This paper contributes to the research of PMs in manufacturing SMEs by analysing the relationships between the use of PMs and certain attributes of the SME. The used approach is multiple case study for exploring linkages between PM diversity and alignment with the manufacturing strategy and firm context. The data collection of each SME includes several strategic manufacturing attributes such as type of production system, manufacturing capabilities, and no. of PMs and specific measurements. The findings indicate a strong relationship between PM diversity and firm turnover, whereas the relationship seems weak between PM diversity and manufacturing capability. Furthermore, the relationship between PM alignment and competitive priorities indicate no alignment for SMEs, whereas the alignment between production system and competitive priorities seems to be stronger.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik -- Produktionsteknik, arbetsvetenskap och ergonomi (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering -- Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Manufacturing industry

multiple case study

manufacturing strategy formulation

KPI

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)