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This paper aims to investigate the manufacturing strategies for the manufacturing systems in the context of 3D printing, referring to ecosystem-based manufacturing systems, rather than firm-based and network-based ones. A case study approach was adopted for this research, as the data was mainly collected via semi-structured interviews with staff members of companies in China. Besides the elements of strategic choices and manufacturing capabilities identified in the extant literature, this research verified three additional strategic choice elements (functional role, platform and solution) and identified two factors (platform openness and solution diversity) to classify an ecosystem-based manufacturing system. Meanwhile, four manufacturing capabilities of the ecosystem-based manufacturing system have been identified: collaborative manufacturing flexibility, rapid thriftiness ability, self-customisation and co-evolved design capability. The research results contribute to the area of manufacturing strategy via expanding its view from the firm and network levels to the ecosystem level. Meanwhile, the research results present operations managers with an understanding of the strategic choices and manufacturing capabilities of an ecosystem-based manufacturing system in the context of 3D printing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hitherto marginalized in the extant innovation studies is the role of intermediaries in innovation ecosystems, which require greater coordination and orchestration between manifold organizations. We conduct qualitative research on the Precision Engineering Centre of Innovation to understand how this government-affiliated intermediary in Singapore takes the initiative in shaping an innovation ecosystem through which local/foreign precision engineering firms, government agencies, and multinational corporations harmoniously co-develop advanced manufacturing capabilities. By analyzing the qualitative data through the theoretical lenses of innovation ecosystem and intermediary, our findings reveal that intermediaries nurture ecosystems in four major steps: (1) developing the ecosystem vision, (2) forming the ecosystem community, (3) orchestrating the ecosystem resources, and (4) materializing the new value proposition. Based on this process model, the implications for innovation intermediary research, innovation ecosystem studies, and innovation policy are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Objective The COVID-19 pandemic is a biosecurity threat, and many resource-rich countries are stockpiling and/or making plans to secure supplies of vaccine, therapeutics, and diagnostics for their citizens. We review the products that are being investigated for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of COVID-19; discuss the challenges that countries in sub-Saharan Africa may face with access to COVID-19 vaccine, therapeutics, and diagnostics due to the limited capacity to manufacture them in Africa; and make recommendations on actions to mitigate these challenges and ensure health security in sub-Saharan Africa during this unprecedented pandemic and future public-health crises. Main body Sub-Saharan Africa will not be self-reliant for COVID-19 vaccines when they are developed. It can, however, take advantage of existing initiatives aimed at supporting COVID-19 vaccine access to resource-limited settings such as partnership with AstraZeneca, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovation, the Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunisation, the Serum Institute of India, and the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Technology Access Pool. Accessing effective COVID-19 therapeutics will also be a major challenge for countries in sub-Saharan Africa, as production of therapeutics is frequently geared towards profitable Western markets and is ill-adapted to sub-Saharan Africa realities. The region can benefit from pooled procurement of COVID-19 therapy by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in partnership with the African Union. If the use of convalescent plasma for the treatment of patients who are severely ill is found to be effective, access to the product will be minimally challenging since the region has a pool of recovered patients and human resources that can man supportive laboratories. The region also needs to drive the local development of rapid-test kits and other diagnostics for COVID-19. Conclusion Access to vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics for COVID-19 will be a challenge for sub-Saharan Africans. This challenge should be confronted by collaborating with vaccine developers; pooled procurement of COVID-19 therapeutics; and local development of testing and diagnostic materials. The COVID-19 pandemic should be a wake-up call for sub-Saharan Africa to build vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics manufacturing capacity as one of the resources needed to address public-health crises.

Manufacturing strategic decisions and competitive priorities have effects on competitive advantage of firms. The focus of this study is on the relationship between the manufacturing strategic decisions and competitive priorities and its influence on the firm’s performance in the automotive supply industry of Iran. A survey has been conducted by the means of a questionnaire to collect data. Data was analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics (bivariate correlation and multiple linear regression). In this study, after classifying the manufacturing strategic decisions (according to competitive priorities), its influence on the fulfillment of competitive priorities and business performance has been distinguished. Findings indicated that some of the decisions had more effects on profit, cost, quality, flexibility and delivery capabilities. Introduction: The manufacturing strategy seeks to answer the question “How to compete” (Voss, 2005). Competitive priorities and manufacturing strategic decisions are the most important components of the manufacturing strategy. The importance of making manufacturing strategic decisions should be sought in resource constraints. In other words, organizations have to choose the goals and priorities, and in order to fulfill them, they should be able to choose the most effective measures that on the one hand fulfill their priorities with least using resource, and, on the other hand, by doing so, improve their total business performance, such as profitability (Größler, 2010). In this study, after clarifying the competitive priorities in the automotive supplier industry and its relevance to the decisions made by the companies, two fundamental questions are answered. First, whether decisions made to fulfill competitive priorities have the maximum influence on generating manufacturing competence and competitive potentials, and that there is a combination of strategic manufacturing measures that if organizations pay attention to them, they will be able to better fulfill competitive capability. After answering the first question, the second question seeks to answer whether decisions that have the most influence on the fulfillment of competitive priorities have the maximum influence on total performance of companies. Literature on studies performed on manufacturing strategy can be distinguished in different categories. In the first category, the relationship between competitive priorities (or capabilities) and the importance and type of relationship they have with each other has been examined. In the second category, companies have been classified (clustered) according to competitive priorities and the performance of each cluster has been examined. In the third category, structural and infrastructural decisions have not been omitted and in fact, they have been considered as a part of the manufacturing strategy (McCarthy, 2004). In addition, some researchers have studied the best practice companies (Shah & Ward, 2003; Voss, 2005). Methodology/Approach: Considering the field's relationship with the research question and access to information, active companies in the automotive supplier industry of Iran are selected as the statistical community. With regard to the subject and the possibility of better access to the suppliers, a list of companies in Sapco and Sazehgostar was prepared. The questionnaire was sent to all 215 companies in the list and 48 companies responded, which means a response rate of over 22%. In this study, measurement is used to collect data and information about competitive priorities, manufacturing strategic decisions and performance. For this purpose, a questionnaire is used. Spearman correlation coefficient is used to find the relationship between competitive priorities and manufacturing strategic decisions. Also, to investigate the effect of manufacturing strategic decisions on companies’ performance (including cost, quality, flexibility, delivery) and business performance (including profitability, return of investment rate, sales growth and market share), multiple linear regression is employed. In this study, a stepwise approach is used. Findings and Discussion: In this study, after identifying the common manufacturing strategic decisions in the automotive supply industry to meet their competitive priorities, the influence of such decisions on the fulfillment of competitive priorities was studied. Since the influence of such decisions on the fulfillment of competitive priorities was less than what expected to be, efforts were made to identify those decisions that had the most influence on the fulfillment of competitive priorities. After identifying such decisions, they were referred to as the best manufacturing strategic decisions (Table 1). Table1. The influence of common strategic decisions and best strategic decisions on the performance of competitive priorities Competitive priority Best manufacturing strategic decisions R R2adj Sig. Manufacturing strategic decisions in the model Sig. Cost --- --- --- --- --- --- Quality Supplier relationship management QFD Quality management system (ISO 9000) Computer-based technology (CAPP,CAD, CAM) 0.600 0.329 0.000 Supplier relationship management Computer-based technology (CAPP,CAD, CAM) 0.001 0.038 Flexibility FMS Kanban QFD TQM Computer-based technology (CAPP,CAD, CAM) 0.697 0.446 0.000 Kanban QFD Computer-based technology (CAPP,CAD, CAM) 0.007 0.006 0.032 Delivery Kanban MRP & MRP2 TPM JIT Industrial automation (AMHS, AGV, DNC, AS/RS) Employee motivation ISO-TS 0.790 0.568 0.000 Kanban Employee motivation TPM MRP & MRP2 Industrial automation (AMHS, AGV, DNC, AS/RS) 0.000 0.000 0.005 0.017 0.037 After clarifying the influence of common strategic decisions and best strategic decisions on the performance of competitive priorities, it was necessary to clarify the effect of both of these decisions on business performance. Profitability was the only index among the indexes of business performance that was significant in the calculation. In Table 2, the influence of both common and best decisions on profitability is addressed. Table2. The influence of common strategic decisions and best strategic decisions on the business performance Manufacturing strategic decisions Common decisions Best decisions R R2adj R R2adj Cost 0.322 0.081 --- --- Quality 0.535 0.268 0.375 0.120 Flexibility 0.464 0.193 0.543 0.259 Delivery 0.588 0.315 0.682 0.419 Conclusions The main aim of this study was to find the relationship between manufacturing strategic decisions, competitive priorities and its influence on the performance of companies in the automotive supply industry of Iran. For this purpose, three subjects of competitive priorities, manufacturing strategic decision and business performance were analyzed. Identifying and counting competitive priorities was the first step in achieving the main aim of study. In this paper, four priorities included cost, quality, flexibility and delivery. Then, the decisions that the companies made in order to fulfill their competitive priorities were identified and its effect on the achievement of competitive priorities was observed. It was found that although the common manufacturing strategic decisions of the automotive supply industry had a positive effect on the fulfillment of competitive priorities, they would not help companies in fulfilling their competitive priorities as expected. After identifying the low influence of common manufacturing strategic decisions on the creation of competitive capability in companies, an attempt was made to identify those combinations of decisions that had the most influence on the creation of competitive capability. Thus, the best manufacturing strategic decisions on competitive priorities were determined and categorized. Best manufacturing strategic decisions in comparison with common manufacturing strategic decisions, in addition to having a greater influence on the fulfillment of competitive priorities, had the capacity to increase the profitability of companies (with the exception of one case). Regarding the above mentioned finding, it seems that the manufacturing strategic decisions are influenced by competitive priorities to gain more profit, and the fulfillment of competitive priorities cannot justify the profitability of companies alone. It is desirable that other factors affecting profitability should be identified and investigated in future study. References Größler, A. (2010). "An exploratory system dynamics model of strategic capabilities in manufacturing". Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 21(6), 651-669. McCarthy, I.P. (2004). "Manufacturing strategy: understanding the fitness landscape". International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 24(2), 124-150. Shah, R., & Ward, P.T. (2003). "Lean manufacturing: context, practice bundles, and performance". Journal of Operations Management, 21(2), 129-149. Voss, C. (2005). "Alternative paradigms for manufacturing strategy". International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 25(12), 1211-1222.

Manufacturing capability (MC) is widely considered to depend on a strategic orientation of firms and institutional support. Remarkably, little is known about the influence of firm-specific orientations on manufacturing capability under institutional voids. This study examines the extent to which learning orientation (LO) and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) influence institutional support to enhance firms' MC. While EO prompts effective responses to institutional voids, institutional support reduces them and LO allows a firm to continuously learn in response to such voids. Drawing insights from the resource-based view (RBV) and institutional theory, this study tests this argument using partial least squares path modeling on a sample of 105 surveyed export manufacturers from Tanzania and Kenya. Findings indicate that although both LO and EO are the major antecedents of MC, firms must be entrepreneurially oriented in order to significantly influence the institutional support. Even though the literature states that institutional support plays a great role in enhancing MC, research findings suggest otherwise. Thus, focusing on the novel constructs relationship and importance-performance analysis, this study contributes to the RBV and institutional theory by providing theoretical and practical implications of the research findings for the contexts where national institutions facilitating business activities are inefficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic is a biosecurity threat, and many resource-rich countries are stockpiling and/or making plans to secure supplies of vaccine, therapeutics, and diagnostics for their citizens. We review the products that are being investigated for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of COVID-19; discuss the challenges that countries in sub-Saharan Africa may face with access to COVID-19 vaccine, therapeutics, and diagnostics due to the limited capacity to manufacture them in Africa; and make recommendations on actions to mitigate these challenges and ensure health security in sub-Saharan Africa during this unprecedented pandemic and future public-health crises.Main Body: Sub-Saharan Africa will not be self-reliant for COVID-19 vaccines when they are developed. It can, however, take advantage of existing initiatives aimed at supporting COVID-19 vaccine access to resource-limited settings such as partnership with AstraZeneca, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovation, the Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunisation, the Serum Institute of India, and the World Health Organization's COVID-19 Technology Access Pool. Accessing effective COVID-19 therapeutics will also be a major challenge for countries in sub-Saharan Africa, as production of therapeutics is frequently geared towards profitable Western markets and is ill-adapted to sub-Saharan Africa realities. The region can benefit from pooled procurement of COVID-19 therapy by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in partnership with the African Union. If the use of convalescent plasma for the treatment of patients who are severely ill is found to be effective, access to the product will be minimally challenging since the region has a pool of recovered patients and human resources that can man supportive laboratories. The region also needs to drive the local development of rapid-test kits and other diagnostics for COVID-19.Conclusion: Access to vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics for COVID-19 will be a challenge for sub-Saharan Africans. This challenge should be confronted by collaborating with vaccine developers; pooled procurement of COVID-19 therapeutics; and local development of testing and diagnostic materials. The COVID-19 pandemic should be a wake-up call for sub-Saharan Africa to build vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics manufacturing capacity as one of the resources needed to address public-health crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider three manufacturing capabilities: controllability, flexibility, and integrating capability. Controllability is a firm's ability to control its process to enhance efficiency and accuracy and to better meet specifications. Flexibility is a firm's ability to cope with uncertainty and variation, both internal and external. Integrating capability is a firm's ability to integrate and coordinate diverse functions and parts of its supply chain, embodied in overall operations effectiveness and new product innovation. We put forth two hypotheses. First, there is an inherent tradeoff between controllability and flexibility. Second, a firm's integrating effort across its supply chain enables it to overcome such a tradeoff, making it possible to improve both controllability and flexibility simultaneously. Using data from 193 manufacturing companies, we test our hypotheses. It turns out that the relationship between controllability and flexibility is convex-shaped, indicating there are two distinct regions: one in which the relationship is negative and the other, positive. Further, the firms in the positive relationship region make significantly more effort to integrate, that is to say coordinate and communicate, across their supply chains, implying that as the firm strives to integrate its supply chain functions, it can mitigate the tradeoff between controllability and flexibility to a considerable extent. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper is an empirical investigation of the major drivers of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) of export manufacturers from emerging economies. The paper asserts that there is scarcity of empirical research on EO in the contexts with weak institutions, as those in emerging economies. This research carries clear policy and practical implications regarding the factors supporting or constraining the development of EO. Drawing on the resource-based view and institutional theory, this study applies a partial least squares path modelling method to test conceptual predictions on the survey sample of 105 export manufacturers from two East African countries. It additionally uses importance-performance-matrix analysis to identify the most important predictor variables. Consistent with the resource-based view and institutional theory, research findings reveal that firms capitalise on all predictor variables, i.e. institutional support (IS), learning orientation (LO) and manufacturing capability (MC) to shape their EO. Furthermore, the research findings reveal that LO and MC mediate the relationship between IS and EO. This paper represents one of the very first original studies that have combined the resource-based view and institutional theory to establish the major drivers of entrepreneurial orientation in the contexts of weak institutions found in emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manufacturing strategic decisions and competitive priorities have effects on competitive advantage of firms. The focus of this study is on the relationship between the manufacturing strategic decisions and competitive priorities and its influence on the firm’s performance in the automotive supply industry of Iran. A survey has been conducted by the means of a questionnaire to collect data. Data was analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics (bivariate correlation and multiple linear regression). In this study, after classifying the manufacturing strategic decisions (according to competitive priorities), its influence on the fulfillment of competitive priorities and business performance has been distinguished. Findings indicated that some of the decisions had more effects on profit, cost, quality, flexibility and delivery capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manufacturing companies outsource their manufacturing process to achieve organizational performance. Companies can focus on improving their core business processes while leaving manufacturing process to companies that are more efficient and cost-effective. However, this leaves manufacturing companies with a dilemma as those outsourcing companies are also producing for competitors and companies’ brand is liable to the integrity of outsourcing companies. By having integrity capabilities, it is argued that companies can achieve organizational performance. This paper investigates the relationship between manufacturing outsourcing and organizational performance with the mediating effect of manufacturing integrity capabilities. This paper contributes to the body of literature by investigating the impact of manufacturing integrity capabilities with resource-based view and transaction cost economics theories. Furthermore, this paper also is practically useful for companies to understand integrity capabilities that are useful to increase organizational performance in the era of the dynamic business environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In this study, we have compared Germany's “Industry 4.0” and China's “Made-in-China 2025” and estimated China's locus in “Made-in-China 2025”. “Made-in-China 2025” has clear goals, measures and sector focus. Its guiding principles are to enhance industrial capability through innovation-driven manufacturing, optimize the structure of Chinese industry, emphasize quality over quantity, train and attract talent, and achieve green manufacturing and environment. Data show that currently China is no longer the lowest–cost labor market; it is being squeezed by newly emerging low-cost producers such as Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Meanwhile, China is not the strongest player in the high-tech arena; well-established industrialized nations, the US, Germany, and Japan, have all effectively deployed digital technology to create new industrial environments, produce new products, and improve their well-established brands. Having analyzed the data from the World Bank and China's National Bureau of Statistics, we find an upward trajectory in China in manufacturing capability development, research and development commitment, and human capital investment. However, implementing an ambitious strategic plan such as “Made-in-China 2025” is coupled with challenges. This research helps us understand the relationship between technological entrepreneurship and socio-economic changes in emerging economies such as China. Furthermore, the experience accumulated in China can be referenced by both emerging economies and developed nations to advance their technological entrepreneurship. Highlights • A comparison of China's “Made-in-China 2025” plan and German's “Industry 4.0” plan • Three critical factors that affect the implementation of “Made-in-China 2025” plan • Challenges that are coupled with the ambitious strategic plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study empirically tests a comprehensive set of strategic orientations that influence the development of manufacturing strategy, and examines manufacturing capability to show the impact of manufacturing strategy on a firm's financial and non-financial performance. The manufacturing strategy is posited to be influenced by customer orientation, competitor orientation, resource orientation, and innovation orientation. The findings of this study are based on a sample of the top management of 194 manufacturing concerns from the Canadian technology sector. The analysis using structural equal modelling informs that customer orientation impacts quality and flexibility strategies while competitor orientation influences cost and delivery strategies. Innovation strategy is impacted by innovation orientation. Resource orientation did not significantly impact manufacturing strategy. Quality strategy has the strongest influence on manufacturing capability, followed by cost, innovation and flexibility strategies. Manufacturing capability, in turn, influences both financial and non-financial performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cloud manufacturing offers the potential to make mass manufacturing resources and capabilities more widely integrated and accessible to users through network. Most related research assumes that there exists only one management center for all manufacturing resources and capabilities in a manufacturing cloud. However, this could cause the efficiency problem (e.g. scheduling time) and harm the quality of service (e.g. response time). Actually, a large-scale manufacturing cloud should have multiple management centers to deal with massive, widely distributed manufacturing resources and capabilities and users; meanwhile, the constraint of finite manufacturing resources and capabilities and the cost of remote collaboration should be taken into consideration. Thus, this article first presents the architecture for the multi-centric management with two-level scheduling strategy combining the advantages of the centralized and decentralized decision-making. Then, after quantifying the availability and the collaborative cost of the manufacturing resources and capabilities, we propose a global optimization model for the manufacturing resources and capability allocation under the multi-centric architecture. Finally, a case study adopting our new method shows that the utilization of the manufacturing resources and capabilities would be more balanced, while the cost of the total collaboration would be reduced, compared with the typical decentralized solution. The research results can support cloud manufacturing to effectively deal with the challenge of management and allocation for increasingly large-scale and distributed manufacturing resources and capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study has attempted to empirically analyze the mediating effects of small and medium venture firms' manufacturing capability and testing and inspection capability on the relation between their external information network heterogeneity and technology commercialization capability with a view to diversifying the research stream on the influential factors to small and medium firms' technology commercialization capability. By performing the ordinary least squares regression analysis, the Sobel test, and the Baron and Kenny test based on the 683 data of South Korean small and medium venture firms with the IBM SPSS version 23, this study provides the three empirical findings to be useful for future studies on the roles of small and medium venture firms' the manufacturing capability and testing and inspection capability. First, small and medium venture firms' manufacturing capability partially mediates the positive effect of their external information network heterogeneity on their technology commercialization capability. Second, their testing and inspection capability partially mediates this positive effect. Third, their manufacturing capability and testing and inspection capability jointly and partially mediates this positive effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While recent conceptual research and consultancy white papers have suggested that analysing and interpreting data in the supply chain could potentially lead to the creation of competitive advantage, its exploratory nature demands empirical investigation. Drawing upon the resource-based view, this study empirically investigates the linkages between data-driven supply chains, manufacturing capability and customer satisfaction. The survey data for this study were gathered from China’s manufacturing industry and analysed using structural equation modelling. Results suggest that data-driven supply chains are positively associated with multiple manufacturing capability dimensions (i.e. quality, delivery, flexibility and cost), which in turn, lead to customer satisfaction improvement. While delivery appears to have no significant effect on customer satisfaction, quality, flexibility and cost are significantly and positively associated with customer satisfaction. This study provides insight into the connection between supply chain big data intelligence and both operational and organisational performance improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The pharmaceutical industrial has five subsectors: medicines, cosmetics, phytotherapeutics, cleaning products and medical devices. The medicine subsector consists of organisations producing, importing and selling these products. Most studies about this industry have been guided by economic interests without assessing technological aspects of production. This article was aimed at proposing a methodology for assessing and describing the medicine sector according to its technological development by using the manufacturing capability concept. The main information was taken from the Colombian Medicaments and Food Surveillance Institute’s (Instituto Nacional de Vigilancia de Medicamentos y Alimentos - INVIMA) databases related to pharmaceutical plant production in Bogotá, including material transformation facilities. This study led to three characteristics being identified for defining the pharmaceutical industry’s manufacturing capability: that related to the pharmacological group to which active pharmaceutical ingredients belong, that linked to specifications regarding medicines’ sterility and that related to the technology required for manufacturing each pharmaceutical product. An analysis of these features has thus been presented and some technologies have been identified which have not been transferred or assimilated by the organisations being studied. It was found that manufacturing capability should be considered as being an indicator of the degree of technological development in these subsectors in Colombia.

Quality (Q), delivery (D), flexibility (F) and cost (C) may reinforce each other to form specific models of cumulative capability. Previous empirical studies reveal two dominant models of cumulative capabilities (Q–D–F–C and Q–D–C–F) without testing whether other models could better fit their data. The present study fulfils this gap and conducts a comparative analysis by testing various models of cumulative capabilities based on a survey of 368 Thai manufacturing plants, and concludes that Q–D–C–F is the best-fit model and further extends the models to reveal ‘simultaneous’ cumulative capability. The contributions are threefold. First, multiple methods are applied to robustly search for the best-fit model. Second, direct and indirect links between capabilities are revealed to add insights into the cumulative reinforcement patterns among capabilities. Third, we show that the widely accepted sand-cone model (Q–D–F–C) and competitive progression theory are not necessarily the dominant approaches for explaining cumulative capability patterns of manufacturers, especially from an emerging country. The results are also significant for practitioners as they understand how capabilities such as quality and delivery can simultaneously improve the next sequential capability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]