Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

CiteULike is a free service for managing and discovering scholarly references - click here to get started.

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Organization Studies
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Lei, D.
Right arrow Articles by Goldhar, J. D.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Advanced Manufacturing Technology: Organizational Design and Strategic Flexibility

David Lei

Edwin L. Cox School of Business, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, U.S.A.

Michael A. Hitt

College of Business Administration, Texas, A&M University, College Station, Texas, U.S.A.

Joel D. Goldhar

Stuart School of Business, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.

This paper explains how investments in flexible, advanced manufacturing tech nologies (AMT) have special properties that can transform organization design and the economic bases of strategic flexibility. Investments in AMT that pro vide significant economies of scope (i.e. low-volume/low-cost manufacturing) produce strategic options that allow the firm to place a 'call' on related markets that it may potentially enter. The value of AMT investments grow with the increasing changes in the environment. In addition, CAD/CAM networks, a vital component of most AMT systems, enable the firm to work selectively with external designers, suppliers, customers and other firms to rapidly com press the product development and commercialization process. Firms seeking to maximize economies of scope and the option value of AMT need to recon figure their organizations into loosely coupled systems with a modular, open systems perspective. Flexible AMT systems facilitate the pursuit of emergent, product-based strategies based on the selective exercise of the process techno logy's option value. Furthemiore, AMT helps firms develop more complex competitive strategies (e.g. integrated low cost and differentiation) necessary for strategic competitiveness in global markets. Finally, AMT can facilitate the development of a learning laboratory in organizations.

Key Words: Descriptors: computer-integrated manufacturing • computer-aided design • modular organizations • options • economies of scope • loose coupling

Organization Studies, Vol. 17, No. 3, 501-523 (1996)
DOI: 10.1177/017084069601700307
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Journal of the Academy of Marketing ScienceHome page
J. L. Johnson, R. P.-W. Lee, A. Saini, and B. Grohmann
Market-Focused Strategic Flexibility: Conceptual Advances and an Integrative Model
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, January 1, 2003; 31(1): 74 - 89.
[Abstract] [PDF]