Operations strategies of engine assembly plants in the Brazilian automotive industry

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze the operations strategies (OSs) adopted by six of the all seven automobile engine manufacturers in action in Brazil during the years of 2005 and 2006. Design/methodology/approach – Semi-structured interviews were held with at least one of the top managers at each engine manufacturing plant to collect information about the aforementioned strategies. The questions were aimed at identifying possible changes, over a four years period, in some of the operations-related competitive priorities and decision areas. Findings – This research revealed the strategies adopted by six of the all seven major automobile engine manufacturers installed in Brazil in 2005, enabling a discussion of relevant themes from both the theoretical and practical standpoints. Competitive priorities and decision areas form a very inter-related system and any significant change of OSs requires significant investments, effort and time. Research limitations/implications – Case studies were carried out in a specific context of the automobile market in Brazil in 2005 and 2006. Firms must treat operations as a system that changes continuously. Practical implications – In dealing with operations as a system, managers should know and apply OS concepts. This is even more important at dynamic (economic) sectors/industries. Originality/value – This paper describes and discusses – via qualitative research and in a comprehensive way – the OSs of two groups (established and entrant manufacturers) of firms in a relatively dynamic context in Brazil.

Manufacturing and Supply Chain Flexibility: Building an Integrative Conceptual Model Through Systematic Literature Review and Bibliometric Analysis

“…The building blocks of the manufacturing and supply chain flexibility competence are the interconnected and reinforcing approaches to planning (the planning cluster), partners -in procurement (the purchasing cluster) and distribution (the distribution and MSCF sub-cluster) -, the processes that build manufacturing flexibility and finally information sharing and communication (the collaboration and MSCF sub-cluster) These can be considered as the key structural and infrastructural building blocks of manufacturing and supply chain flexibility (Slack 2005a;Merschmann and Thoneman 2011;Alves-Filho et al 2015). It is worth noting that these building blocks are still predominantly considered in isolation (Li et al 2018), providing opportunities for integrative studies (Kumar and Mishra 2017;Singh and Kumar 2017).…”

Competitive Priorities, Employee Management and Development and Sustainable Manufacturing Performance in Asian Organizations

“…For example, Peng et al [95] noted that emphasizing competitive priorities such as quality and delivery should be a driver of decisions relating to management practices. In addition, the study by Filho et al [96] identified factors including teamwork, multiple skills and education as important structural areas to be developed in the pursuit of competitive priorities such as delivery. The study by Yen and Sheu [97] went further and found a medium to high association between the competitive priority of delivery and labor skills.…”

Homogeneity of manufacturing choices in subcontractor SMEs

“…Different manufacturing choices are required for different missions, and the focus and choices need to change in accordance with changes in markets, products or technology (Hayes et al, 2005). Manufacturing choices may also affect one other, as well as competitive priorities (Alves Filho et al, 2015).…”

“…Since Hayes and Wheelwright (1984) introduced the concept of decision categories, numerous researchers have contributed to the development of these categories (e.g., Leong et al, 1990;Olhager and Rudberg, 2002;Dìaz Garrido et al, 2007;Alves Filho et al, 2015). Decision categories are divided into structural and infrastructural categories, as proposed by Hayes and Wheelwright (1984).…”