Strategic manufacturing system and process innovation through elimination of trade-offs

Abstract

For many years, there has been a debate among researchers and practitioners about the notion of trade-offs and their role in manufacturing strategy. This paper examines the practical issues surrounding trade-offs and manufacturing strategy, and offers a framework for better management of trade-offs. The analysis indicates that current views on trade-offs are either impractical or static. The authors propose a consolidated approach in which the focus of strategic improvement process is divided into short-term and long-term strategies. It is suggested that in the short term, strategic initiatives must focus on overcoming ‘perceived’ trade-offs and system constraints in order to achieve the firm's Manufacturing Performance Potential. In the long term, they must focus on eliminating the ‘real’ trade-offs and technical constraints of the system in order to achieve world-class levels of performance. While the current approaches to trade-off improvement focus on compromises and/or application of current ‘best practices’, manufacturing system and process innovation are proposed as the key to the elimination of trade-offs. Two problem-solving methodologies, Theory of Constraints and Theory of Inventive Problem Solving, were found to provide useful tools necessary for system and process innovation. With the aid of a case study, we demonstrate how these methodologies can be used to eliminate manufacturing trade-offs, in order to improve a company's competitiveness.