Design: a missing link in manufacturing strategy

Abstract

At present manufacturing strategy research is focused on the interaction between the manufacturing and marketing functions to the exclusion of product design. As product design aims to meet the needs of customers, market knowledge is vital to determine the products to design. However, without both market and product knowledge it is impossible to provide optimum manufacturing facilities. Thus product design should be considered as an essential aspect during the formulation of manufacturing strategy. Typically the validity of a manufacturing strategy is measured using a series of strategic product, order‐winning criteria. Initially discusses the effects of product design in relation to those strategic criteria and subsequently highlights the need to treat design as a manufacturing strategy content variable via a case study conducted within a medium‐sized, multi‐product batch manufacturing company.