Manufacturing strategy: understanding the fitness landscape

Abstract

This theoretical paper presents, extends and integrates a number of systems and evolutionary concepts, to demonstrate their relevance to manufacturing strategy formulation. Specifically it concentrates on fitness landscape theory as an approach for visually mapping the strategic options a manufacturing firm could pursue. It examines how this theory relates to manufacturing competitiveness and strategy and proposes a definition and model of manufacturing fitness. In accordance with fitness landscape theory, a complex systems perspective is adopted to view manufacturing firms. It is argued that manufacturing firms are a specific type of complex system – a complex adaptive system – and that by developing and applying fitness landscape theory it is possible to create models to better understand and visualise how to search and select various combinations of capabilities.

Citation

McCarthy, I.P. (2004), "Manufacturing strategy: understanding the fitness landscape", International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 24 No. 2, pp. 124-150. https://doi.org/10.1108/01443570410514858