THE INFLUENCE OF CONTINGENCIES ON THE ADOPTION OF ACTION PROGRAMMES

Best practices in manufacturing are assumed to result in high performance, and are widely

implemented in manufacturing companies. Much literature considers best practices to be of generic

nature and applicable for all companies, irrespective of, for example, the market in which they operate,

their production process, positioning and size. However, considering the huge variation among

manufacturing firms and their context, there are reasons to doubt that best practices are best for all

firms. Hence, further research is needed on contingencies in operations strategy. This paper investigates

how production process types, company size, and market dynamics and competition intensity affect the

adoption of manufacturing improvement programmes.

Analysing data from the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS) IV, we find that

production process type seems to determine the adoption of supply chain management and quality

programmes, but not programmes aimed at organizational, manufacturing process or NPD

improvement. The adoption of all five groups of action programmes increases with company size,

which suggests company size to be the most important determining factor for the adoption of

manufacturing action programmes. Further, companies operating in dynamic markets adopt

programmes to improve the manufacturing process, probably due to the need for increased capacity.

Finally, companies facing intense competition appear to adopt programmes aimed at improving the

quality and new product development functions.