Missing link in competitive manufacturing research and practice: Customer-responsive concurrent production

Manufacturing management, in its evolving theory, research, and practice, is plagued by mindsets that are narrowly focused on factory efficiency, with insufficient emphasis on customer responsiveness and its dominant role in competitiveness. In our presentation of these issues we describe and advocate customer-oriented manufacturing practices, in the realm of factory infrastructure. This approach, which we call concurrent production or CP, involves configuring, equipping, and operating factories with a primary focus on synchronization with customer demand. We call on OM researchers to consider these topics in furthering the cause of market competitiveness.