A glance at global competitiveness: production in electronics industry

Abstract

Two of the main production programs (PPs) in manufacturing: Production strategy (PS) and technology management (TM) are here studied twofold: 1) testing and validating fit effects of the links between practices from such programs; and 2) Exploring the role played by the environment of plants as an inhibitor of the PS-TM fit. The paper is based on statistical analysis on a survey that involves 88 plants from the electronics industry, distributed among Austria, Canada, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and USA. Hence, the study proves the existence of fit between PS and TM practices. To do so, the paper provides analytical and empirical argumentations showing that PS and TM mutually reinforce each other’s practices in order to gain greater competitiveness, measured by operational performance. This may indicate that common implementation of studied production practices across the electronics industry is important in environments in which plants operate.

The paper suggests a pattern of improvements where PS and TM have to be implemented hand-in-hand to take better advantage of their effectiveness. Production practices linkages provide ground over which fit originates, spreading its benefits throughout the organization.

The research represents an attempt to operationalize and empirically validate linkages between production practices in an international industrial environment. Furthermore, the paper also provides original suggestions to practitioners and decision maker in plants on how to make the most out of implementing PS and TM in the international electronics industry.