Measuring the Intangible Aspects of the Manufacturing Strategy - A Case Study from the Automotive Industry

Abstract : In this paper we focus on how manufacturing strategies should be measured in an increasingly complex manufacturing environment where the "traditional" quality and productivity measures are not sufficient. The paper discusses and illustrates measures, quantitative and qualitative, that are relevant for manufacturing strategies based on principles from different paradigms. From our case in the automotive industry we see that the company should measure intangible aspects, but that they could be difficult to measure and there is a risk of just measuring what could be counted. There could easily be a discrepancy between what are actually measured and what should have been measured according to the announced strategy.