Improving trade-offs in manufacturing: Method and illustration

The analysis of trade-offs between competitive priorities is one of the core issues in manufacturing strategy research. However, past studies focused mainly on empirical validation of the trade-off concept. There has been limited research on practical aspects of trade-off management, especially methods for trade-off improvement and the incorporation of trade-off analysis into manufacturing strategy formulation. This study presents a heuristic method for the improvement of manufacturing trade-offs. The method incorporates the concepts of dynamic trade-offs and improvement trajectories into a decision-making process. An example of implementation is given, based on the case of a British manufacturer.