Differentiating manufacturing focus

Abstract

In order for a manufacturing firm to be competitive, by supporting the market requirements through the manufacturing function, manufacturing should focus on a narrow set of tasks. Focused manufacturing is concerned with the perspectives when designing a manufacturing facility, be it a factory, plant, or plant within a plant. Traditionally, focus has been on the product, the process, or the manufacturing task based on competitive priorities (order winners and qualifiers). So far, the literature implies that a certain facility should have only one focus. In this paper, we present a framework that differentiates focus with respect to different parts of the manufacturing value chain. The point around which focus needs to be differentiated is the customer order decoupling point. We associate alternative types of focus relative to the customer order decoupling point, separating the upstream and downstream parts, and create a framework for choosing focus and how to differentiate manufacturing focus.