【正文】
In recent years, many corporate restructuring efforts have moved to flatten organizational structures to focus on crossfunctional integration and employee participation. Corporate munication is then facilitated by a structure that is free from departmental boundaries and limitations. An ultimate goal is to turn the entire production process into modules and to create a dynamic work of skills and capabilities that allows the rapid integration of resources to customize products or services. Mass production of standardized products is no longer a feasible way to meet the challenge of changing market demand and shortened product life cycles. In fact, the usual method of first identifying a fixed petitive priority, such as cost, quality, time, flexibility, or innovation, and then devoting all resources to meet it will no longer provide a sustainable petitive advantage. Worldclass manufacturers must obtain strategic flexibility to cope with more uncertainties than just changing demand patterns and production volumes. Strategic flexibility is not an improvement program, but is rather the ability to adapt and the readiness for change. The goal of strategic flexibility is to provide more options so that a firm can shift from a current manufacturing strategy to a new one with minimal penalties in cost, time, or performance. True strategic flexibility can be achieved only through the development of skills and manufacturing capabilities, which eventually lead to plete organizational transformation. Source: Lau, . “ Strategic flexibility: a new reality for worldclass manufacturing”. SAM Advanced Management Journal, 1996(3):P1115. 譯文 : 戰(zhàn)略柔性:一個世界級制造業(yè)新的現(xiàn)實 由于 20 世紀(jì) 60 年代前期相對穩(wěn)定的市場結(jié)構(gòu)和較小的競爭壓力,柔性概念的發(fā)展已經(jīng)逐漸運用到制造業(yè)文化中。 and, best of all, their unique nature means that no one else can copy them easily. Strategic flexibility allows a manufacturing firm to shift from one dominant strategy to another, from one petitive priority to another, but also implies a longterm mitment of resources and a plan of action. Progress, therefore, depends on the current state of the firm39。s dictum that customers can have any color as long as it39。 (3) to cover historical and economical analyses of flexibility。 (2) to investigate the relationship between flexibility and performance。s ability to cope with uncertainties. Not only can worldclass manufacturing firms adapt to the changing environment swiftly, but they also can influence market demand (., by creating uncertainties or customer expectations that petitors cannot deal with). Both reactive and proactive approaches have proved to be equally important and require different types of flexibility. Instead of focusing on one particular dimension of flexibility, worldclass manufacturing firms need a strategic perspective of flexibility the ability to quickly adjust their petitive objectives to meet new business conditions. In a stable petitive environment like decades ago, a petitive strategy simply involved defining a petitive position and then defending it. Since the petitive environment has changed rapidly and unpredictably, however, new knowledge and capabilities are needed to support any strategy to create a sustainable petitive advantage. Therefore, the goal of the latest developments in manufacturing strategy is to attain strategic flexibility. Competitive advantage monly refers to the creation of a productiondistribution system that has a unique advantage over its petitors. Achieving petitive advantage does not imply that the pany must always do better than the petitors in all areas. The key is to do certain things better in most of the areas. Deciding which areas to target is the central issue of petitive priorities. Competitive advantages traditionally have been acplis