Ebook: Manufacturing strategy: how to formulate and implement a winning plan

To stay competitive and meet market expectations in a global economy, both domestic and foreign companies must realign their manufacturing processes, make improvements, and increase their manufacturing capabilities. With large numbers of employees working in a network of domestic and foreign facilities, production processes are as varied as the products being produced. Manufacturing managers need a manufacturing plan or strategy that will bring structure to this complex environment. In Manufacturing Strategy: How to Formulate and Implement a Winning Plan, 2nd Edition, John Miltenburg offers a sensible and systematic method to: (1) evaluate domestic and foreign factories and international manufacturing and (2) plan the appropriate manufacturing strategy to be first in the market. Incorporating comments and suggestions from managers who used the first edition of Manufacturing Strategy, John Miltenburg expands and improves on his focus in the areas of: International Manufacturing -- where the focus is on a company's international network of factories; Competitive Strategy -- where managers must understand the role manufacturing strategy plays in their company's business strategy; and Manufacturing Programs -- showing how programs such as quality management, six sigma, agile manufacturing, and supply chain management fit within the manufacturing strategy. Manufacturing Strategy gives managers a common language for dealing with manufacturing problems at both strategic and operational levels. It improves communication between manufacturing managers and those outside manufacturing (who will now have a better understanding of what manufacturing can and cannot do).;Publisher's Message -- Acknowledgements -- Chapter 1. Introduction -- Part I. Principles of Strategy -- Chapter 2. Principles of Competitive Strategy -- Chapter 3. Partnerships, Challenges, and Responses -- Part II. Manufacturing Strategy in a Factory -- Chapter 4. Manufacturing Outputs and Production Systems -- Chapter 5. Manufacturing Levers and Capability -- Chapter 6. Competitive Analysis: Selecting the Best Production System -- Chapter 7. Framework for Manufacturing Strategy in a Factory -- Part III. Manufacturing Strategy in an International Network of Factories -- Chapter 8. Principles of International Competitive Strategy -- Chapter 9. Manufacturing in the World's Major Trading Regions -- Chapter 10. International Manufacturing Networks -- Chapter 11. Network Outputs, Levers, and Capabilities -- Chapter 12. Factory-Types in International Manufacturing Networks -- Part IV. Manufacturing Strategy and Business Strategy -- Chapter 13. Integrating Manufacturing Strategy with Business Strategy -- Part V. Programs Used Frequently in Manufacturing Strategy -- Chapter 14. Improvement Programs in Manufacturing -- Chapter 15. Focus, Soft Technologies, Hard Technologies -- Chapter 16. Benefits of Experience and the Product Life Cycle -- Chapter 17. Evaluation of Investments in Manufacturing -- Part VI. Seven Production Systems for Focused Factories -- Chapter 18. Job Shop Production System -- Chapter 19. Batch Flow Production System -- Chapter 20. Flexible Manufacturing System -- Chapter 21. Operator-Paced Line Flow Production System -- Chapter 22. Just-In-Time Production System -- Chapter 23. Equipment-Paced Line Flow Production System -- Chapter 24. Continuous Flow Production System -- About the Author -- Index.