Implementation of technology and production strategy practices: relationship levels in different industries

Abstract

Many industries face open, global markets with requirements for rapid response and low costs. Given the major role that technology plays in business competitiveness, proper technology management (T) in combination with a good production strategy (S), is important to address current challenges. This paper analyzes the nature of T & S implementation in different industrial contexts to examine whether there are differences in how T & S are implemented in different sectors, whether implementation is linked to performance, and whether contextual factors explain the differences. A database from the High Performance Manufacturing Project is used to test the research questions based on a survey of 267 plants across nine countries in three different industrial contexts (machinery, electronics and auto suppliers). The findings show some differences between the T and S practice modes in the three industries. T and S implementation is observed to be related to performance, but not in the same way. Three of the eight contextual factors are found to differ in the three sectors, which may explain the differences found in T and S implementation. The results imply that plants should consider the joint implementation of T and S as their interdependencies may affect performance, outweighing the possible differences between industries in which plants operate. However, when implementing a specific technology practice, not all plants necessarily consider the same production strategy practices across industries. Likewise, when adopting a certain production strategy, it is not necessarily influenced by the same technology practices across industries.