Do best manufacturing practices depend on the plant role in international manufacturing networks?

In the last decades several companies have become manufacturing networks of plants, usually in an international context. These plants can serve different purposes and have different level of competences. This diversity has to affect the use and pay off of various operations management practices. This paper investigates the relationship between plant roles and the “goodness” of manufacturing practices using the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey. According to our results plants with higher competence (leaders and contributors) have more best practices than less competent plants. Servers can build their competences through interplant networking activities, while offshore plants utilize servitization to improve performance.