ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGY FOR CIM

Since the oil crisis of the mid 1970s, the previously stable manufacturing model which had existed happily until then began to fall apart. As new entrants appeared, markets became more and more competitive, and the shift away from price factors towards non-price factors emerged. It was the Japanese who set new standards of performance on these factors, forcing change to follow on in the West. Also emerging at this time was the recognition of the importance of manufacturing as a strategic function within a firm - and the 1980s proved to be the point at which the recognition of manufacturing strategy took place. The challenge continues, though, and for the 1990s it is posed in terms of not just one of which products to make for which markets, but in terms of the availability and capability of a manufacturing function to support them. A new set of priorities will be needed, requiring new technologies and organizational frameworks. This paper gives an outline of possible trends in the future of such issues.