Manufacturing strategy and governance

For a company to grow, expand and maintain a high competitive edge—in a context in which pressure on production costs is also growing and expanding and consumers are increasingly aware of the quality/price ratio of a product or service—means being able to make highly-strategic choices, including in its own manufacturing structure.
A top-level international company, irrespective of its type, size or manufacturing sector, is continuously called upon to make major, difficult decisions about its own manufacturing structure:

• the degree of vertical integration of its processes (make or buy);
• outsourcing choices (which phases, what sources, where, what type of integration);
• manufacturing offshoring choices with the resulting delocalization into distant countries offering low production costs and specialized competencies;
• organizational approaches through which to reorganize processes into a network of players (operational processes, competencies required, support technologies);
• ways of bringing into line corporate strategic goals with all the supply chains that are part of the system;
• the economic, social and environmental impact of manufacturing choices.