Manufacturing Flexibility Improvement: Case Studies and Survey of Thai Automotive Industry
To deal with dynamic and uncertain business environments, agile manufacturing is of interest to academics and practitioners. However, in order to achieve agile manufacturing, one of its dimensions is of major importance - manufacturing flexibility. It is not possible to achieve agile manufacturing w...
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| Format: | Thesis (University of Nottingham only) |
| Language: | English |
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2008
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/10552/ |
| _version_ | 1848791097395904512 |
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| author | Ngamsirijit, Wuttigrai |
| author_facet | Ngamsirijit, Wuttigrai |
| author_sort | Ngamsirijit, Wuttigrai |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | To deal with dynamic and uncertain business environments, agile manufacturing is of interest to academics and practitioners. However, in order to achieve agile manufacturing, one of its dimensions is of major importance - manufacturing flexibility. It is not possible to achieve agile manufacturing with ineffective management of manufacturing flexibility. Most firms acknowledge how flexibility can be improved but few can successfully implement it to its full potential. In addition, manufacturing firms today tend to improve and implement manufacturing flexibility at a strategic level. This means higher perception of benefits and better awareness of risks.
This research studied the current awareness and practices of manufacturing flexibility improvement in a manufacturing setting, particularly the Thai automotive industry. Through case studies, they can extract more information about the experiences of companies in the planning, implementation and operations of manufacturing flexibility. Thus, the following contributions were made:
First, this research will provide comprehensive overviews and insights on various manufacturing flexibility improvements on aspects of pragmatic management perspectives. Second, this research explored the issues or factors taken into account when manufacturing firms, especially Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), improve their flexibility. Third, the research also explored and validated the major problems in achieving manufacturing flexibility and operating issues critical to manufacturing flexibility performance within manufacturing and supply chain aspects, especially suppliers. The underlying concepts to enhance manufacturing flexibility as well as barriers and enhancers of manufacturing flexibility within individuals and between OEMs and suppliers can be then obtained. In consequence, a framework of manufacturing flexibility improvement incorporating key elements from case studies and surveys was derived.
Finally, the decision-making framework including managerial guidance and strategic evaluation methodology for better evaluating flexibility improvement strategies and achieving manufacturing flexibility were developed and tested. This is sought to create a formal and rational process that guides manufacturers through the strategic evaluation process in relation to manufacturing flexibility improvement. These can be the basis for follow up research in a specific area within flexibility improvement and enhance the development/deployment of flexibility in automotive and other manufacturing enterprises. Overall, an operations strategy can be well established and the highest level of manufacturing flexibility can be achieved. Hence, the firm can maintain or increase its competitive advantages and profitability under uncertain circumstances of manufacturing and supply chain. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T18:23:05Z |
| format | Thesis (University of Nottingham only) |
| id | nottingham-10552 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T18:23:05Z |
| publishDate | 2008 |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-105522025-02-28T11:08:45Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/10552/ Manufacturing Flexibility Improvement: Case Studies and Survey of Thai Automotive Industry Ngamsirijit, Wuttigrai To deal with dynamic and uncertain business environments, agile manufacturing is of interest to academics and practitioners. However, in order to achieve agile manufacturing, one of its dimensions is of major importance - manufacturing flexibility. It is not possible to achieve agile manufacturing with ineffective management of manufacturing flexibility. Most firms acknowledge how flexibility can be improved but few can successfully implement it to its full potential. In addition, manufacturing firms today tend to improve and implement manufacturing flexibility at a strategic level. This means higher perception of benefits and better awareness of risks. This research studied the current awareness and practices of manufacturing flexibility improvement in a manufacturing setting, particularly the Thai automotive industry. Through case studies, they can extract more information about the experiences of companies in the planning, implementation and operations of manufacturing flexibility. Thus, the following contributions were made: First, this research will provide comprehensive overviews and insights on various manufacturing flexibility improvements on aspects of pragmatic management perspectives. Second, this research explored the issues or factors taken into account when manufacturing firms, especially Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), improve their flexibility. Third, the research also explored and validated the major problems in achieving manufacturing flexibility and operating issues critical to manufacturing flexibility performance within manufacturing and supply chain aspects, especially suppliers. The underlying concepts to enhance manufacturing flexibility as well as barriers and enhancers of manufacturing flexibility within individuals and between OEMs and suppliers can be then obtained. In consequence, a framework of manufacturing flexibility improvement incorporating key elements from case studies and surveys was derived. Finally, the decision-making framework including managerial guidance and strategic evaluation methodology for better evaluating flexibility improvement strategies and achieving manufacturing flexibility were developed and tested. This is sought to create a formal and rational process that guides manufacturers through the strategic evaluation process in relation to manufacturing flexibility improvement. These can be the basis for follow up research in a specific area within flexibility improvement and enhance the development/deployment of flexibility in automotive and other manufacturing enterprises. Overall, an operations strategy can be well established and the highest level of manufacturing flexibility can be achieved. Hence, the firm can maintain or increase its competitive advantages and profitability under uncertain circumstances of manufacturing and supply chain. 2008 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en arr https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/10552/1/Wuttigrai_Ngamsirijit_PhD_Thesis.pdf Ngamsirijit, Wuttigrai (2008) Manufacturing Flexibility Improvement: Case Studies and Survey of Thai Automotive Industry. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham. Manufacturing Flexibility Resource-Based Theory Case Study Survey Analytic Hierarchy Process |
| spellingShingle | Manufacturing Flexibility Resource-Based Theory Case Study Survey Analytic Hierarchy Process Ngamsirijit, Wuttigrai Manufacturing Flexibility Improvement: Case Studies and Survey of Thai Automotive Industry |
| title | Manufacturing Flexibility Improvement: Case Studies and Survey of Thai Automotive Industry |
| title_full | Manufacturing Flexibility Improvement: Case Studies and Survey of Thai Automotive Industry |
| title_fullStr | Manufacturing Flexibility Improvement: Case Studies and Survey of Thai Automotive Industry |
| title_full_unstemmed | Manufacturing Flexibility Improvement: Case Studies and Survey of Thai Automotive Industry |
| title_short | Manufacturing Flexibility Improvement: Case Studies and Survey of Thai Automotive Industry |
| title_sort | manufacturing flexibility improvement: case studies and survey of thai automotive industry |
| topic | Manufacturing Flexibility Resource-Based Theory Case Study Survey Analytic Hierarchy Process |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/10552/ |