Strategic Capacity Management: Balancing Technological Demands and Performance Criteria

Although manufacturing determines mostly the current performance of companies, few companies deal with the issues related to strategic capacity management. Besides decisions on outsourcing, this involves triggering process development and improving performance by adapting organisational structures. Action Research in companies reveals the importance of capacity management at a strategic level. The methods as proposed in this paper provide industrial companies with a tool for implementing their manufacturing strategy. Through matching product configurations with product-market strategies and product development, the methods point areas of improvement. These improvements lead to decisions on investments for resources, resource utilisation and development of processes, including initiation of manufacturing technologies.