The effectiveness of manufacturing practices in different subsidiary types – consequences for CEE subsidiaries

In the last decades several companies have become manufacturing networks of plants, operating usually in an international context. These plants can serve different purposes and have different levels of competences. This diversity influences the use and effectiveness of different manufacturing practices, which has not yet been explored in the literature. This paper investigates the relationship between plant roles and the “goodness” of manufacturing practices using a sample of 471 plants from the sixth edition of the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey. The findings show that plants with higher competence have more best practices than less competent plants. Furthermore, more competent plants usually strengthen their differentiation performance, while less competent plants focus on and achieve cost performance improvements instead.