Research in operations management suggests that firms can mitigate the negative impact of product variety on operational performance by deliberately pursuing modularity in the design of product family architectures. However, modularity is not a dichotomous property of a product, as different types of modularity can be embedded into a product family architecture. The present paper explores how manufacturing characteristics affect the appropriate type of modularity to be embedded into the product family architecture, and how the types of modularity relate to component sourcing. The study is based on a qualitative research design involving a multiple case study methodology to examine six product families belonging to six European companies. The themes derived through case analyses are synthesized in the form of empirical generalizations. Insights from these empirical generalizations are subsequently developed into two propositions explaining why and under what conditions these empirical generalizations might hold for a product family outside of the original sample. The theoretical results formalize, first of all, a type of modularity (i.e. combinatorial modularity) not currently described in literature. Second, the theoretical propositions suggest that when the desired level of product variety is low (high) relative to total production volume, component swapping modularity (combinatorial modularity) helps to maximize operational performance. Finally, the complexity of component families outsourced to suppliers and the geographical proximity of component family suppliers affect the extent to which the product variety-operational performance trade-off can be mitigated through modularity.

In order to improve performance at the operational level, more and more firms are developing explicit linkages with suppliers and with customers. While the question of "what beneficial impact do linkages with suppliers and with customers have for a firm" has been addressed in numerous studies, the equally important question of "why" this beneficial impact arises deserves further discourse and explication. This paper borrows and applies the Resource-Based View of the Firm, a theoretical perspective prevalent in the strategic management literature, to develop a conceptual framework to describe, explain, and predict the advantages of a firm's linkages with entities in its supply chain on its internal operations. The proposed framework can be used to justify decisions to develop, strengthen, and protect relationships with suppliers on the upstream side and with customers on the downstream side. The framework can also be used to evaluate practices implemented to link a firm to its suppliers and customers and to provide a decision roadmap for firms to better understand how to maximize operational performance benefits from these supply chain linkages.

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We provide conceptual clarity and new empirical findings for the question of whether or not TQM is universal in its applicability. At the conceptual level, we reposition and reframe the ''universality of TQM'' question in light of two conflicting theoretical perspectives in the international business literature -one that supports the universal applicability of TQM (i.e., the Convergence Hypothesis argument) and another that questions the universal applicability of TQM (i.e., the National Specificity argument). We do so to provide a stronger theoretical basis for the ''universality of TQM'' question and to motivate and initiate a ''strong inference'' epistemological approach [Platt, J.R., 1964. Strong inference. Science 146 (364), 347-353] to examine, at the empirical level, the applicability of TQM across multiple countries. For this empirical assessment, we compare both the adoption levels of the Deming-based TQM constructs and the patterns of Deming-based TQM relationships among German, Italian, Japanese, and USA plants, using secondary data from 143 plants in Round Two of the World-Class Manufacturing project. After assessing measurement quality (i.e., reliability and validity) and measurement equivalence (i.e., translation, calibration, and metric), MANOVA analysis and regression analysis were deployed to derive relevant empirical resultsempirical results that have implications not only for the question of whether or not TQM is universal in its applicability but also for the theoretical tension between the Convergence Hypothesis argument and the National Specificity argument. #

Integrating suppliers into new product development (NPD) projects offers manufacturers the potential for substantial improvements in the new product being designed. However, it also creates significant inter‐organizational integration diseconomies that can negatively affect the manufacturing cost and performance of the designed product. We propose that these diseconomies can be reduced to the extent that the manufacturer is able to design modular products — i.e., it has a modular design competence (MDC). We also suggest that such an effect tends to become weaker for high levels of product and process innovation. We test our hypotheses on an international sample of 165 NPD projects using hierarchical linear regression. Our results provide support for the moderation effect of MDC and partial support for the weakening of this effect under high product and process innovation. We discuss the implications for the literature of buyer‐supplier relationships in NPD, inter‐firm modularity and product‐process‐supply chain design as well as practice.

In order to survive, a great number of small companies are forced to offer a wide product variety and often to respond to the market with customised solutions. At the same time, fast delivery is often a key to win orders. As a result, a vital challenge for these companies is to overcome the trade-off between product variety and delivery time, without compromising cost structure. Recent developments in Information Technology made available also for small companies a class of software tools -called product configurators -that promise to reduce this trade-off. This paper reports a case study of the implementation of a product configuration software in a small manufacturing enterprise. The paper highlights that the company enjoyed significant benefits from the implementation of the software, especially in terms of delivery time. Moreover, the case evidences that product configuration software can be proactively used as a tool for improving interfirm coordination.

Much of the research on mass customization strategy implementation reflects a functional focus, considering product design, marketing, manufacturing or sourcing, individually. This paper takes a step towards integrating these perspectives into a more systemic view of mass customization strategy implementation. More precisely, the paper explores how a firm's supply chain - meant as the whole of its supply, manufacturing and distribution networks - should be configured when different degrees of customization are offered. The empirical research consists of a multiple case study including firms in the telecommunications, transportation vehicles and food processing equipment industries. Case analyses highlighted that the degrees of freedom customers have in specifying product features, heavily affects the supply-chain configuration, as well as product architecture and, ultimately, firm performances. Our findings further show that two peculiar supply-chain configurations can be identified, each one suggesting an isomorphism between market characteristics, product structure and supply-chain configuratio