Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2013) 64:459–474
DOI 10.1007/s00170-012-3991-9
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Configuration of manufacturing strategy decision areas
in line production system: five case studies
Sanjay C. Choudhari & Gajendra K. Adil &
Usha Ananthakumar
Received: 4 July 2011 / Accepted: 7 February 2012 / Published online: 3 March 2012
# Springer-Verlag London Limited 2012
Abstract The objective of this research is to study the
configuration of decisions in manufacturing decision areas
for a line production system. A case study approach is used
by analyzing the decision choices selected by five case
companies that satisfy characteristics of line production
system. The paper identifies decision choices specific to line
shop as well as decisions that are influenced by non-process
specific factors such as competitive priorities (order win-
ner), strategic orientation of manufacturing (stages in H–W
model), top management decisions, and size of the company.
Findings on several decision choices are new to manufactur-
ing literature. These research findings should be helpful to
practitioners and researchers.
Keywords Line production system . Manufacturing
strategy . Manufacturing decision areas . Decision choices .
Case studies
1 Introduction
Manufacturing function can play strategic role in providing
competitive success in the market [39]. Competitive priori-
ties and decision areas define the content of manufacturing
strategy [27]. Basic competitive priorities in manufacturing
S. C. Choudhari : G. K. Adil (*) : U. Ananthakumar
Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, Indian Institute
of Technology Bombay,
Powai,
Mumbai, India 400076
e-mail: adil@iitb.ac.in
are cost, quality, delivery reliability, delivery speed, flexi-
bility, and innovation [37]. The manufacturing decision
areas include various elements such as (1) production plan-
ning and control, (2) organization structure and control, (3)
sourcing, (4) process technology, (5) facilities, and (6) human
resources [27, 31]. Choudhari et al. [8–10] presented a list of
54 decision types in these 6 decision areas from a wide range
of literature. Each decision type consists of few alternatives
choices that are available for manufacturing companies (see
Fig. 1). It is imperative that the company must make appro-
priate choices in decisions to make their production system
competitive.
Generic classification of production systems (also called
process choices) are job, batch, line, and continuous flow
[20, 21]. This classification relates the product volume and
varieties to the process choice. Some past studies provide
description of decisions made under each process choice (i.e.,
job, batch, and line) based on conceptual or empirical research
[4, 14, 31, 32, 34–36]. However, the list of decision types
considered in these studies is not comprehensive. Choudhari
et al. [8–10] proposed a research framework that considers
influence of several factors for a given “process choice” to the
decision choices in a production system (Fig. 1). The frame-
work indicates that a specific choice selected by a company is
either affected by the process choice or other non-process-
specific factors as indicated by arrows. The non-process-
specific factors are product complexity, competitive priorities
(order winner), strategic orientation of manufacturing (stages
in H–W model), top management decisions, and size of the
company.
Kotha and Orne [26] defined “product complexity” as a
composite of product variety, product volume, end-product
complexity, and end-product experience. Some authors [4,
460 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2013) 64:459–474

Fig. 1 A framework to study Decision area Decision types Decision choices

choices in manufacturing Type of Production system
• Planning strategy** Chase/Level/Mixed**
strategy decisions in a line 1 Production
• ------------ (e.g., Process Choice)
planning and Line shop
production system (Adapted • -----------
control (15*)
• ………….
from Choudhari et al. [8–10])
• -----------
2 Facilities (6*) • ---------- •Product volume and
• ----------- varieties
3 Sourcing (8*) • ---------- - Product complexity
• ………. •Competitive priorities
4 Process • ---------- - Order winners
technology (10*) • --------
5 Organization • -----------
structure and • ----------
control (6*) •Strategic orientation of
• ----------- manufacturing
6 Human -stages in H&W model
• ----------
Resource (9*) •Top management
decisions
Total (54*)
•Size of the company

Note:
*number of decision types included in that particular decision area (total for all areas are
54). **Planning strategy is one of the decision types in “Production planning and control” area
for which three options Chase/Level/Mixed are available to a manufacturing company.

18, 41] point out that decisions such as planning strategy
and master planning schedule in production planning deci-
sion area are related to product complexity. Wheelwright
and Hayes [45], in their four-stage (H–W) model, suggest
that companies in different stages of strategic orientation of
manufacturing exhibit different preferences in their decision
choices irrespective of process choice. Some authors sug-
gest that decision choices are related to the competitive
priorities of the firms [33, 35, 36, 44]. Some decisions are
influenced by considerations of top management for the
reasons such as location decision and investment capability
of the company [38, 40]. For example, the size of the
company is determined by investment capability of company
or market size. These decisions may also influence other
decisions. For instance, the size of company is also found to
influence many other decisions in production system [6, 41,
43].
The knowledge through case studies on how manufac-
turing decisions (process choice specific as well as others)
are made will be of great help to the managers in configur-
ing their production system. This is a highly under
researched area. Studies on process-specific factors of deci-
sion choices are conceptual needing empirical validation
and/or cover very few decisions. Further, non-process-
specific factors are paid very little attention by the research-
ers. To fill this gap, Choudhari et al. [9] investigated
process-specific and non-process-specific decision
choices for batch production systems using case studies
of six companies. Later, they extended this study for job
production system (see, [10]). Similar research for line
production system is not available in literature and hence this
research.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2
reviews the relevant literature and identifies research gaps
for this study. The research methodology is explained in
Section 3. To investigate the proposed research framework,
within-case, and cross-case analyses of five case companies
are presented in Section 4. Summary and concluding
remarks are provided in Section 5.
2 Literature review
This section initially introduces the literature on manufac-
turing decision areas. Later, it discusses the literature on
process-specific decisions in line production system. Finally,
review of literature pertaining to non-process-specific deci-
sions is presented.
2.1 Decision areas in manufacturing
Skinner [39] mentions five decision areas where strategic
decisions have to be made to assure a fit between business
strategy and manufacturing. Hayes and Wheelwright [22]
have classified decision areas into two groups: structural and
infrastructural. Since then, numerous authors [5, 16, 22, 31,
39] have re-organized decision areas in many different
ways. Leong et al. [27] compares (see, Table 1, Leong et
al., [27]) previously published organizing frameworks for
decision areas and argue that there is essential agreement
among these authors on the areas that are important for
manufacturing strategy. Miltenburg [31] studied these
frameworks and rearranges decisions into six manufacturing
decision areas: (1) production planning and control, (2)
facilities, (3) sourcing, (4) process technology, (5) organiza-
tion structure and control, and (6) human resource. Being
comprehensive, the current paper considers the framework
provided by Miltenburg [31].