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The impact of global operations on product architecture: an exploratory study

Sebastian Pashaei (Department of Industrial Management and Logistics, Lund University, Lund, Sweden)
Jan Olhager (Department of Industrial Management and Logistics, Lund University, Lund, Sweden)

International Journal of Operations & Production Management

ISSN: 0144-3577

Article publication date: 2 October 2017

1005

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore how global operations of manufacturing companies influence the choice of product architecture decisions, ranging from integral to modular product designs.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors perform a multiple-case study of three global manufacturing companies with integral and modular product architectures.

Findings

The authors find that the internal network capabilities, the number of capable plants, the focus of component plants, the focus of assembly plants, the distances from key suppliers to internal plants, and the number of market segments significantly influence the choice of integral vs modular architecture.

Research limitations/implications

This study is limited to three large manufacturing companies with global operations. However, the authors investigate both integral and modular products. The authors develop propositions that can be tested in further survey research.

Practical implications

The findings show that the type of global operations network influences the decision on product architecture, such that certain global operations characteristics support integral product designs, while other characteristics support modular designs.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge this paper is the first study on the explicit impact of global operations on product architecture, rather than the other way around.

Keywords

Citation

Pashaei, S. and Olhager, J. (2017), "The impact of global operations on product architecture: an exploratory study", International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 37 No. 10, pp. 1304-1326. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-06-2015-0367

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited

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