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Centralism or Autonomy? Insights into the decision allocation within International Manufacturing Networks

2024-02 , Fabian Specht , Jens Kaiser , Gwen Louis Steier , Kevin Gleich , Thomas Friedli , Gisela Lanza

The right balance between centralization and autonomy in International Manufacturing Networks (IMNs) is the subject of an intensive debate within academic literature and practice. As part of a focus group with 18 industry experts at IMN management, we examined this topic in more detail. We could contribute to the scientific discussion with the latest insights from industrial challenges by identifying and evaluating the most critical challenges and the decision allocation within 14 diverse manufacturing companies.

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Standortspezifische Leistungsziele in globalen Produktionsnetzwerken-Empirische Erkenntnisse aus einer internationalen Benchmarking-Studie

2022 , Verhaelen, Bastian , Kaiser, Jens , Remling, Dominik , Peukert, Sina , Lanza, Gisela , Friedli, Thomas

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Company-Specific Plant Role Models in International Manufacturing Networks – Empirical Evidence on the Design and Deployment

2024-02 , Jens Kaiser

Scholars generally recognize that managing international manufacturing networks (IMNs) is crucial for a firm’s competitive advantage. However, managers seem overwhelmed with this complex management task, causing many firms to fail to benefit from their IMNs fully. The concept of strategic plant roles – first introduced by Ferdows (1989) – helps to overcome this complexity by assigning targeted roles to globally dispersed plants. Yet, Ferdows’s model lacks the right level of detail to make it operational. Consequently, multinational corporations (MNCs) have ventured to design and deploy their own plant roles – fitting their specific contextual conditions. However, hardly any research exploring these “real-world” roles can be found in the literature. Filling this gap is the purpose of this thesis. Three studies build the empirical base of this thesis. Study 1 investigates the content of plant role models; it uses a database of 29 MNCs’ models. As a result, a conceptual framework is suggested for managers aiming to build their own plant roles. Study 2 explores dynamics related to plant role models. The multiple-case study of four IMNs using plant role models reveals important principles when creating and deploying plant roles. Results indicate that plant roles should only be applied for specific (sub-) networks. Plant leaders and adjacent functions such as R&D should get closely involved in the role-creation process. Last, study 3 explores the plant role introduction process at an internationally operating medical technology company in a single-case study. The study systematically integrates the individual level of plant leaders as key decision-makers who determine a plant’s conduct in IMNs. The findings indicate that network managers should use plant roles for regular plant roadmap building, role-specific performance management, and the global allocation of products and technologies. The three studies’ findings are synthesized in a step-by-step guide for designing and deploying plant roles in the general discussion of the thesis. When designing plant roles, network managers need to (1) embrace the plant role legacy, (2) get buy-in for plant role creation, (3) define the content of the model, and (4) clarify use cases. For its deployment, network managers need to (1) roll out the roles, (2) manage their IMNs by means of the roles, (3) monitor network effects, and (4) adapt the architecture of the model. To the author's knowledge, this is the first thesis systematically exploring the “companyspecific” part of plant roles. Given the unique access to industrial plant role models, this thesis thoroughly explores how companies build their own versions. Hence, shortcomings of plant role articles in IMN literature – such as oversimplification, missing network perspective, and missing investigation of related dynamics – could be addressed by this thesis.

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Internationale Standortwahl: Erschließung von Länder- und Wettbewerbsvorteilen am Beispiel eines Automobilzulieferers

2023-12 , Benedikt Saretz , Jens Kaiser , Thomas Friedli

Zur Erschließung neuer Märkte, zur Risikomitigation oder um Zugang zu günstigen Kosten zu erhalten, erweitern Unternehmen ihre Produktionsnetzwerke mit neuen Standorten. Der vorliegende Beitrag zeigt eine systematische Standortauswahl passend zur Netzwerk- und Standortstrategie. Neben der Länderattraktivität wird in dem Auswahlprozess die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit des Unternehmens in dem jeweiligen Land berücksichtigt. Die Standortauswahl wurde für einen deutschen Zulieferer in der Zielregion Südostasien durchgeführt.

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Entscheidungsfindung in der Gestaltung und Koordination von globalen Produktionsnetzwerken

2022-09-01 , Khan, Zara , Kaiser, Jens , Steier, Gwen , Seeger, Tom , Friedli, Thomas , Lanza, Gisela

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Strategic site reasons re-visited, digging deeper in the rationale of global manufacturing networks: An empirical study from a headquarters perspective

2022-08 , Kaiser, Jens , Saretz, Benedikt , Friedli, Thomas

The site role concept developed by Ferdows and empirically tested by Vereecke et al. discusses the specific advantages of globally distributed manufacturing plants. It conceptualizes the primary reasons for manufacturing sites to exist–the strategic site reasons. This article presents the results of a multiple case study further examining the reasons to establish a site, the sites' main advantage today, and related contingency factors. The findings show that the main reasons to establish or acquire a manufacturing site are access to low-cost labor, new technologies, and reliable transportation. The most stable reason over time is access to skills and know-how.

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Company-Specific Plant Roles - A Reference Process for the Design and Deployment

2024-02-11 , Jens Kaiser , Thomas Friedli

The interaction between a firm’s headquarters and its plants is crucial to ensuring that the manufacturing network generates a competitive advantage. The concept of plant roles, first introduced by Ferdows (1989), is a suitable tool to facilitate the headquarters-plant relationship. Although many articles deal with Ferdows’s plant roles, hardly any can be found that discusses how companies can design and deploy their own plant roles. Thus, this article proposes a step-by-step guide for network managers.

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Globale Produktionsstrategien in der Praxis –Strategieformulierung und -implementierung Empirische Erkenntnisse aus einer internationalen Benchmarkingstudie

2022-12 , Schalm, Karl Gerhard , Kaiser, Jens , Friedli, Thomas

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Managing International Manufacturing Networks in Today’s Business Environment

2021 , Kaiser, Jens , Remling, Dominik

To profit from cost differences, growth opportunities in emerging markets, lower transaction costs, and fewer trade barriers, manufacturing companies have strongly driven their internationalization efforts over recent decades. Today, these companies produce at globally distributed manufacturing sites and the individual steps of the value chain take place at different locations in the network. However, uncertainties caused by shifting economic forces, conservative winds, and protectionism as well as events such as the COVID-19 pandemic reveal the strong vulnerability of International Manufacturing Networks. Consequently, companies are reevaluating their optimization efforts of often opposing target dimensions such as efficiency, flexibility, time, and quality. In this chapter, we examine today’s business environment of International Manufacturing Networks and its implications on the management of those networks by presenting relevant success factors.

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Current Topics in International Manufacturing - Implications from Industrial Use-Cases

2024-02-11 , Kevin Gleich , Gwen Louis Steier , Jens Kaiser , Fabian Specht , Gisela Lanza

Designing the strategy, configuration and coordination of international manufacturing networks is a complex task, influenced by a variety of internal and external factors. Therefore, there is no one-size-fits-all approach for the design and management of international manufacturing networks, especially with the rising volatility of the last years. For this purpose, four different industrial use cases are presented to show topics in international manufacturing that companies are currently dealing with and how they are addressing them.