Manufacturing companies deploy many strategies in order to manage their operations. If we need to group those strategies, we can evaluate them in four basic categories.
1) LTO (Licence to Operate): Manufacturing companies provide services/products to their customers through their employees. So, Safety and quality are the priority elements of business continuity. Without worker and customer, you can not have business.
2) Market: Market is like ocean. Sometimes red sometimes blue. So, the companies are in need to decide which areas to go into by using economies of scale or economies of scope. Market sensitivity and produce according to customer demands are the key topics of marketing strategies.
3) Skills: If you ask my opinion about the priority of these listed issues, I would put skills issue on top of the strategic agenda. We are in agility era. So, need skilled person and advanced technology more than ever before.
4) Cost: Quality and speed are order winner. So, the companies have to be focused on these topics. But if you add low cost on top of those order winner, you would be best in your class. So, product development and manufacturing management costs must be reduced systematically by using lean and agile methods.
Thanks to Roland Hoyng and Özlem Sivrioglu for their contibutions
