COURSEWORK 1

Manufacturing strategy can be defined as a set of co-ordinated objectives and action programmes applied to a firm's manufacturing function and aimed at securing medium and long term, sustainable advantage over that firm's competitors. The manufacturing function requires a strategy to ensure a match, or congruence, between the company's markets and the existing and future abilities of the production system. Manufacturing strategy generally addresses issues including:

• Manufacturing capacity
• Production facilities
• Use of technology
• Vertical integration
• Quality
• Production planning/materials control
• Organization
• Personnel

It is important for a company to gain the competitive business and it can be achieve through manufacturing strategy. Manufacturing can offer as part of the strategic strengths of a company by providing manufacturing processes which will give the business a distinct advantage in the market-place. In this way, manufacturing will offer to provide a marketing edge through distinct, unique technology developments in its process and manufacturing operations which competitors are unable to match. 

Then, strategic strengths of a company also can be gain through manufacturing by providing co-ordinated manufacturing support for the essential ways in which products win orders in market-place at a level which is better than its competitors are able to do. In this way, manufacturing develops a set of policies in both its process choice and infrastructure design such as controls, procedures, systems and structures which are consistent with the existing ways that products win orders at the same time as being able to reflect future developments in line with changing business needs.

In order to ensure that the strategic strengths of a company can be achieved, manufacturing needs to be involved throughout the whole of the corporate strategy debate to explain, in business terms, the implications of corporate marketing proposal and, as a result, be able to influence strategy decisions for the good of the business as a whole.