ABSTRACT
Manufacturing strategy has always been at the forefront of supply chain strategic thinking and fundamental to its successful application. Many conveniently forget that the peak of the industrial era saw manufacturing lead the supply chain out of the dark ages. The principles developed in manufacturing have taken most of a century to be applied to other logistical areas. As early as 1926, Henry Ford was achieving cash-to-cash cycle times of four days, driven largely by his use of continuous-process thinking to develop superior techniques in production line manufacturing. His contemporaries, however, were stuck in ‘batch think’ and still making deliveries by horse and cart or canal barge, unconcerned that they were taking weeks or months to cycle their working capital.
