Taxonomy of the manufacturing strategies of large Spanish industrial companies

This work presents a classification of the manufacturing strategies of large Spanish industrial companies in Spain. For this purpose the various international empirical studies on alternative manufacturing strategies have been taken as a reference, reviewed and compared. The database used in this study is made up of information on 114 factories and has been designed using the information from a survey mailed to the industrial companies which have production plants in Spain and which in the financial year of 1994 (reference date of this research) employed over 200 workers. Cluster analysis methodology has been used and the classification criterion taken was the competitive advantages or strengths of each factory concerning the five competitive priorities in manufacturing: efficiency, flexibility, quality, delivery and customer service. Finally, this work identifies a taxonomy of the manufacturing strategies of a sample of the largest industrial companies in Spain, differentiating three alternative production strategies: flexible market-oriented manufacturers, low-cost quality manufacturers and delivery-based manufacturers. Large industrial companies analysed compete in manufacturing, basically following a choice of three criteria: flexibility, quality or delivery. The companies belonging to each of the three categories identified maintain common and lasting manufacturing objectives and policies.