A research into the relationship between product strategy and manufacturing flexibility - A case study of an electric wire and cable company in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Yuan-Chieh Fan, 范元傑
• Other Authors: An-Yuan Chang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/d6y3me

碩士 === 國立虎尾科技大學 === 工業工程與管理研究所 === 99 === The literature of manufacturing strategy has highlighted that the enhancement of manufacturing flexibility to cope with market and change of environment is vital important for small-and-medium-sized companies. Manufacturing flexibility has been considered as a multi-dimensional concept and companies must select ones that fit with their product strategy and market niche to meet their strategic goals. To investigate the relationships between product strategy and manufacture flexibility and verify the impact of this matching on business performance are the main purposes of the present research. This study used a production line of D Wire and Cable Company as an example. Quality Function Development (QFD) is employed as the main approach for this study. Firstly, we used Analytic Network Process (ANP) to analyze interdependent of product strategy, it was employed to make pair comparison of product strategy factors, to weight and rank each of these factors. And then used QFD to analyze the correlations among manufacture flexibility types and obtained the weight of each type. Later, the relationships between product strategy factors and manufacture flexibility types were estimated using Grey Relational Analysis (GRA). Finally, through the House of Quality, the weight and importance ranking of each manufacture flexibility type was estimated. The results showed that among the product strategy factors, “diversification strategy” and “differentiation strategy” were given the highest weights, and considered as the reference of business strategy for a manager in the D Wire and Cable Company. Under the impact of the product strategy factors, “volume flexibility”, “product flexibility”, and “market flexibility” were given higher weights, the enterprises through different products strategies, indicating that enterprises can increase their competitive advantages by developing the strategy of manufacture flexibility with high-mix low-volume production strategy, provide the capability of innovation, and products which can satisfy market demands.