Competitive priorities, capabilities and practices of best performers: evidence from GMRG 4 data

Abstract

Global Manufacturing Research Group is a group of enthusiasts that researches manufacturing practices all around the world. So far the group has collected 1493 filled plant questionnaires, from 25 countries [Whybark, C., Wacker, J., & Sheu, C. (2009). The evolution of an international academic manufacturing survey. Retrieved from September 5, 2010, from http://www.decisionsciences.org/DecisionLine/Vol40/40_3/dsi-dl40_3pom.pdf]. This research divided the sample into three groups (low performers, medium performers and best performers). An extensive exploratory research on the data is conducted to find out why the best performers are better than the others and what should the others do to become more profitable. First, best performers are identified and then their competitive priorities and applied manufacturing practices are analysed. The results show that quality is most important to best performers. Best performers score better in comparison with their competitors, they score higher in the usage of most explored ‘best practices’, and the level of rejects of the incoming material is significantly higher for the best performers. This result can be interpreted as that lower and medium performers should review their incoming material inspection and lower their manufacturing costs accordingly as these are considerably higher in the group of middle and low performers in comparison with high performers.

Keywords:

• manufacturing
• competitive priorities
• best practices
• GMRG