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Strategic Management of Global Manufacturing Networks pp 67–84Cite as

Clarification of the Initial Strategic Situation

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Part of the book series: Management for Professionals ((MANAGPROF))

Abstract

This chapter starts of by putting manufacturing strategy within the contexts of overarching company strategy, and establishes a deeper understanding of site and network competencies, and their relationship to strategic differentiating factors and Strategic Excellence Positions (SEP). Subsequently, different strategy types from the real world will be presented, concluding with an overview of the process of strategy analysis and definition for a manufacturing network, using Mechanical Engineering Ltd. as an example.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Pümpin (1992a, b) for this term.

  2. 2.

    Cf. Brandenburger and Nalebuff (1995). Aside from the general analysis of the environment, a PARTS analysis also lends itself more specifically to the analysis of manufacturing networks. Here the playing field refers to the complete market environment of the company being considered, whilst for the network architecture, the individual sites of the manufacturing network are considered Players.

  3. 3.

    Bleicher (1995), p. 208.

  4. 4.

    See for example Slack and Lewis (2002), Miltenburg (2005) and, for a detailed examination of differentiating factors, Deflorin (2007).

  5. 5.

    Slack and Lewis (2002), p. 53f.

  6. 6.

    Deflorin (2007), p. 224ff.

  7. 7.

    Hill (1993), p. 36ff.

  8. 8.

    Hill (2000), p. 37.

  9. 9.

    Hill (2000), p. 38.

  10. 10.

    Kim and Arnold (1996) and Miltenburg (2009).

  11. 11.

    A good example for this can be found in Hallgren et al. (2011), who model the competitive plant competencies alongside the classic dimensions of differentiating factors.

  12. 12.

    Similar to differentiating factors, there is no conclusive definition of the categorisation or number of site competencies. A more detailed treatment can be found in Mapes et al. (1997), Colotla et al. (2003) and Miltenburg (2008).

  13. 13.

    Gulati et al. (2000), p. 203.

  14. 14.

    Shi and Gregory (1998) and Miltenburg (2009).

  15. 15.

    Shi and Gregory (1998), p. 209.

  16. 16.

    Colotla et al. (2003).

  17. 17.

    Shi and Gregory (1998).

  18. 18.

    Thomas (2013), p. 233ff.

  19. 19.

    The value of the goods in the survey was defined as follows: low-value products, such as pens or plugs; mid-value products, such as mid-range cars; high-value products, such as aircraft, ships.

  20. 20.

    Production networks’ pure sales or service sites were not considered in the contexts of this survey.

  21. 21.

    Cagliano et al. (2005), p. 704.

  22. 22.

    Miltenburg (2005), p. 240f.

  23. 23.

    Bartlett and Ghoshal (1990), p. 29ff.

  24. 24.

    Ghemawat (2011), p. 278ff.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ITEM-HSG, University of St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland

    Thomas Friedli

  2. REHAU GmbH, Muri b. Bern, Switzerland

    Andreas Mundt & Stefan Thomas

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  1. Thomas Friedli
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  2. Andreas Mundt
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Friedli, T., Mundt, A., Thomas, S. (2014). Clarification of the Initial Strategic Situation. In: Strategic Management of Global Manufacturing Networks. Management for Professionals. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34185-4_4

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