The relationship between manufacturing integration and performance from an activity-oriented perspective

Abstract

Manufacturing integration with other functional areas and suppliers is a key aspect for achieving sustainable competitive advantage. The objective of this study is to analyze manufacturing integration from an activity-based perspective. We hypothesize that manufacturing integration with suppliers, marketing, and R&D is positively related to profit and sales growth when it occurs simultaneously in key internal activities. We surveyed 366 companies located in the southern region of Brazil, chosen from the SEBRAE (1) database. We used structural equations modeling to address validity and reliability issues. We evaluated common method variance (CMV) with the MTMM model and used path analysis to test the structural relations. We found that all manufacturing integration aspects are positively related to sales growth, but only manufacturing-R&D integration is positively related to profitability. Therefore, managers interested in improving the performance of their plants should favor the integration between manufacturing and R&D teams, at all hierarchical levels. We did not find any evidence, however, that direct interaction between manufacturing and marketing improves performance.

Research on Cooperative Innovation Behavior of Industrial Cluster Based on Subject Adaptability

“…In terms of cluster innovation, geographic concentration and the particularity of the network structure enable enterprises within the cluster to take the form of cooperative innovation so as to reduce the transaction cost [7], improve the efficiency of innovation [8], and have better access to external resources [9]. From microlevel, if each enterprise could make full use of cooperative innovation advantages in industrial cluster and be actively involved in the interaction, any of them can have better access to external knowledge, which is influenced by enterprise's technical learning ability [10], enterprise integration in research and development activities [11], the number of enterprises and partners in the alliance [12], mutual trust between each other [13], complementary level of their assets [14], participation and cooperation motivation factor [15], and so forth.…”

Barreiras e desafios para melhoria da integração interfuncional entre Desenvolvimento de Produto e Planejamento e Controle da Produção em ambiente Engineering-to-Order

“…Os benefícios advindos da integração das atividades no contexto organizacional são vários, entre eles: melhoria da comunicação; redução do tempo de atendimento de pedidos; aumento da qualidade; planejamento mais bem embasado devido ao compartilhamento de dados/informações; e ações de controle mais proativas em função da cooperação, coordenação e envolvimento na realização de atividades (Shapiro, 1977;Davenport, 1994;Vernadat, 1996;Song et al, 1998;Paiva et al, 2011;Sousa & Lengler, 2011).…”

“…Destaca-se a integração como uma forma de melhorar os processos organizacionais (Kahn, 1996;Paiva et al, 2011;Chen et al, 2013).…”

Effects of coexistence of marketing and operations on product innovation performance

“…As evidenced by the literature, further studies on the integration of marketing and operations in organizations is needed. Moreover, this subject is considered important for further research by both national (Paiva et al, 2011;Zanon, 2011;D'Avila, 2013) and international (Kahn & Mentzer, 1994, 1998Hausman et al, 2002;Malhotra & Sharma, 2002;Piercy, 2007;Kwortnik & Thompson, 2009;Tang, 2010;Song et al, 2010;Kong et al, 2015) authors. In this context, further studies on the integration of these areas, using theories from a cross-cultural perspective, especially considering developing countries (Keskin, 2006;Song et al, 2010;Kong et al, 2015), are of great value to the academy.…”