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Logisticians must make strategic level decisions in order to manage uncertainty, customer service and cost. This research explores the relationships between three strategic level decisions and selected product, operational and demand variables. The three strategic decisions are: make to order vs make to stock; push vs pull inventory deployment; and inventory centralization vs decentralization. The data used to study the relationships were collected in an international environment and analyzed with correlation analysis and logistic regression. Results suggest that the three strategic decisions are each explained by specific product, operational and demand variables.

The applicability of the customer life time value (CLV) concept goes beyond consumer markets. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to show how a make‐to‐order manufacturing company in a supply chain can set customer‐focus manufacturing strategies using CLV.

Data from an integrated steel plant is used to calculate the life time value of customers based on the past value, the potential value, and their loyalty. The past value of a customer is based on the historical data and the future value of a customer is then forecasted. The loyalty index of a customer is determined by survey results.

In general, it was found that the CLV for the most valuable customers increases exponentially and the top 28 percent of customers constitute 80 percent of the total value of all customers.

This study focuses on make‐to‐order manufacturing organizations and the three strategies suggested for business process improvement need to be re‐evaluated for make‐to‐stock or mass production.

Based on these results, the authors suggest three strategies for business process improvement and revenue growth for the plant.

This study constitutes an initial effort to develop a CLV model for make‐to‐order manufacturing organizations for improving plant performance. The model links customers with not only the front office functions but also with ERP systems. Organizations that are part of value chains can benefit significantly from CLV applications.

The purpose of this paper is to present the results on a model for manufacturing under the constraints and conditions of mass customization environment.

The proposed model is based on manufacturing features and entails the concept of modular design. That is, manufacturing features are identified and analyzed in a way that enables the generation of what is called “manufacturing core”. Manufacturing cores are semi‐finished products that have certain manufacturing features. The core can be used to manufacture a range of products after conducting certain manufacturing processes. Manufacturing cores are generated through two phases of optimization. The first phase is known as product's manufacturing features analysis which includes starting features identification. The second phase is known as manufacturing cores formation that ends with generation of manufacturing cores.

The methodology is implemented on real products (flanges) as a case study. The proposed model for mass customization is compared at make‐to‐stock and make‐to‐order policies in terms of a burden which includes the time and the cost that are required to fulfil a production order. Applying the proposed model of mass customization entails the minimum total burden required.

When the number of generic and variant features increases, an automated feature‐recognition module or sub‐system is required to facilitate the extraction of manufacturing features.

The proposed methodology is used for design of customized product through the application of integrated design for modularity and mass customization approach for production.

The proposed methodology entails development of semi‐finished products based on manufacturing features that can be used for design and manufacturing of a range of products.

Reviews the scale and scope of existing survey‐based studies of manufacturing plants and discusses the contribution which the UK Best Factory Awards Database may be able to make. Outlines the process of selecting the winners, proposes a working model which relates performance and strategy, and presents some initial illustrative results from an analysis of the 1993 entrants. Briefly discusses the feedback information which entering plants receive for benchmarking performance. Presents initial research findings which relate to the concept of manufacturing plant focus and indicates an asymmetric relationship for focus concerned with make‐for‐stock versus make‐to‐order/assembly to order foci. The evidence supports the view that dilution of a make‐for‐stock policy has a negative impact on ex‐stock service level while dilution of a make‐to‐order policy does not appear to dilute due‐date performance.

Presents a new taxonomy for the non make‐to‐stock sector to enable a like‐with‐like comparison, arguing that existing taxonomies within the literature are inadequate for strategic research purposes. Presents empirical evidence which has been collected from 22 companies in three European countries – the UK, Denmark and The Netherlands. The data support the structure of the proposed new taxonomy and provide insights into competitive advantage and customisation issues in the non make‐to‐stock sector. Finally, two new labels for this sector of industry are proposed. “Versatile manufacturing company” is used to describe those manufacturers which are involved in a competitive bidding situation for every order which they receive, customisation by individual order. In contrast, the “Repeat business customiser” may only be in this position for the first of a series of similar orders from a particular customer, customisation by contract.

This paper aims to develop and test a model of buyer–supplier relational investment that links supply chain integration (SCI) to supplier flexibility performance (SFLEX) advantages in different manufacturing environments. Relational stability (RS) and information quality (IQL) are viewed as key indicators of intermediating commitment investments in supplier relationships to help support supplier accommodations for special requests for order flexibility. The model is applied to investigate the relative importance of manufacturer relational investments with suppliers in both make-to-stock (MTS) and make-to-order (MTO) production environments.

A survey of 206 US manufacturing firms was used to test the proposed research model using structural equation modeling and multiple-group analysis techniques.

Social exchange investments in relationship stability and information quality are found to fully mediate the positive performance relationship between supply chain integration and supplier flexibility performance for manufacturers. However, the relative importance of each form of investment in enhancing supplier flexibility performance varies based on the buyer’s (manufacturer’s) order fulfillment environment (make-to-stock versus make-to-order).

The proposed model may assist manufacturers make more informed relational exchange investments and supply chain configuration decisions that most conducive to enhancing supplier flexibility performance for different production environments.

The theories of transaction‐cost economics, the resource‐based view and the core competencies approach have been used extensively to justify the rationale behind strategic decisions on outsourcing, but their validity has not been investigated yet in comparative empirical research. Additionally, no study has examined the operational effects of these decisions in‐depth. The purpose of this paper is to fill these two gaps in the academic literature.

A literature review confirms the existence of these gaps and informs hypotheses based on the three theories. Additionally, the model for continuous decision making on outsourcing is used to systematically collect data from five cases studies. The cases – all make‐to‐order or engineering‐to‐order – have been analysed on effects for operational performance and control resulting from strategic decision making on outsourcing.

From this evaluation, it appears that these companies perform weakly on the control of the outsourced activities. Furthermore, it seems that the (manufacturing) strategy is disconnected from outsourcing practices and that outsourcing hardly contributes to competitive advantage. Moreover, from some of the case studies it appears that the decision for strategic outsourcing is irreversible. Finally, traditional criteria and behaviour during decision making prevail, i.e. a cost‐driven perspective, which does not address contemporary challenges.

Despite being explorative and based on only five cases, these findings indicate that strategic decision making on outsourcing based on the three theories insufficiently accounts for operational issues that emerge later during manufacturing; it might be necessary to revise the theoretical base for outsourcing to include management of outsourced manufacturing activities.

The findings imply also that managers in companies, in any case those firms that operate on the basis of make‐to‐order or engineering‐to‐order, should be less “rushed” into strategic decision making on outsourcing that has adverse effects. Rather, outsourcing requires integral decision making in contrast to factual decision making that displayed signs of bounded rationality (particularly expressed through the focus on cost savings).

The dominant, one‐sided view of the cost perspectives contributes to the notion that the shareholders' interests for short‐term profitability conflict with long‐term organisational health (apparent through the impact on operational management of outsourcing activities).

Stakeholders involved in strategic decision making might use this research to evaluate fundamentally decisions that cover outsourcing. At the same time, for consultants and practitioners it offers insight that is complementary to the often one‐sided strategic decision making with its focus on cost reductions. Furthermore, this paper demonstrates the limited validity of current theories that underpin strategic decision making on outsourcing and provides an impetus for academics to develop more appropriate theory.

This study attempts to identify the supply chain risks (SCRs) induced during the COVID-19 disruption in an Indian handloom saree industry and determine suitable risk mitigation strategies (RMSs) to overcome the impact of the epidemic disruption.

This work determined 11 SCRs through an extensive literature review in the context of the handloom apparel industry and validated through the experts. Further, a multiple case-based approach is used in this research. Within case and cross-case analyses of four relevant Indian handloom “make-to-order” saree manufacturing firms are conducted to determine the severity of the SCRs considering the pandemic situations to identify appropriate strategies to mitigate the shock of SCRs.

This study identified the critical SCRs in the context of the Indian handloom “make-to-order” saree industries that emerged during the COVID-19 and proposed a risk mitigation strategy matrix (RMSM) to address the SCRs based on their criticality and predictability dimensions.

The study provides a novel contribution to the body of knowledge on supply chain risk management (SCRM) in the form of the RMSM tool. Supply chain managers from the different sectors can extend the proposed RMSM to overcome the SCRs. Multiple case analyses facilitate supply chain professionals working in handloom apparel industries to benchmark and adopt the proposed RMSs in their firm.

This research is one of its kind that carried exploratory investigation of the handloom apparel industry cases to assess and determine the strategies for mitigating the SCRs caused during a pandemic outbreak.

This paper relates to make‐to‐order (MTO) manufacturing environment. Initially, the various issues of concern and problems encountered in relation to typical MTO systems are presented to emphasize why agility is required in such systems. The need to have better performance measures is discussed. How some of the problems related to typical MTO systems were dealt with in the past is discussed, by highlighting the salient features of some selected contributions made towards enhancing agility in MTO systems. An outline of the system presently being developed by the author for concurrent and integrated management of MTO manufacturing organisations, which is conceived mainly as an agile management system for MTO environment, is also presented.

A Decision Support System (DSS), specifically designed to address the needs of small‐to medium‐sized make‐to‐order companies, is currently being developed. It includes two of the most important features in such a system. First, it aims to integrate the production and marketing functions within a firm. Second, it is a hierarchical system which addresses two decision levels – the customer‐enquiry stage and the job‐release stage. That part of the DSS developed for the job‐release stage is described. At this stage the aim of the system is to maintain low work‐in‐progress inventory levels whilst ensuring that all jobs are released in time to be delivered by their promised delivery dates. An approach which uses input/output control is proposed to achieve these objectives. The major advance of the proposed approach is its ability to control the total manufacturing lead times of jobs rather than just considering the shopfloor throughput time.