Managing Manufacturing Demand Strategically Post-Pandemic
When capacity is limited, even temporarily, how should manufacturers decide which orders get priority?
There are three dimensions to consider: 1. Which customer’s order it is 2. The organization’s ability to make and deliver it 3. The comparative profitability of different orders
What Does Organizational Structure Have to Do with Strategy?
Implementing the strategic change from machinery maker to solutions provider is difficult if the company is organized around its products, rather than its customers and their tasks.
Manufacturing Strategy is also Business Strategy
By expanding the range of their manufacturing capabilities, manufacturing leaders increase their strategic options for the business. Manufacturing strategy is a key element of business strategy.
Lean versus Buffered
Consumer and medical goods shortages during the global pandemic have inspired some media backlash against Lean Manufacturing practices; the Wall Street Journal even published an article saying we should “blame lean manufacturing” for paper towel shortages. Yet most...
Manufacturers in Business Ecosystems: When Iron Meets Software
We've been talking about challenges for incumbent manufacturers, and suggested in our last post that for manufacturers to thrive, they need to command privileged positions in at least some of the business ecosystems in which they participate. A privileged position...
Manufacturers in Business Ecosystems: Who Drank My Milkshake?
In the 2007 movie There Will Be Blood, a character explains how directional drilling can drain the oil reservoir under someone else’s land. “I drink your milkshake!” he proclaims, to the dismay of the character whose oil profits have vanished. With similar dismay,...