Manufacturing Strategy Formulation and Implementation: TheEducation and Training Role

Manufacturing strategy needs to be appropriate to the needs of the organization acceptable to all employees, and capable of subsequent renewal by management. To achieve this, attention needs to be paid not only to the objectives and framework of the manufacturing strategy, but also to the processes through which the manufacturing strategy is formulated, implemented, and adapted. Argues that these processes are essentially iterative passing through a series of cycles in response to a changing set of conditions. Whilst education and training issues are central to these processes, little research has been carried out. Puts forward one possible approach to dealing with these issues where education and training are handled by analysts external to the organization. This temporary resource or “locum” team works with the organization to achieve the ultimate aim of managers being able to formulate, implement, and review their own manufacturing strategy. This is achieved by helping managers to formulate a manufacturing strategy, providing guidance to them to implement the strategy and setting up monitoring and review mechanisms.