ABSTRACT
The increasing competitiveness of the global marketplace is forcing manufacturers to become more customer-focused, with mass production being superseded by ‘flexible specialisation’ or mass customisation. Competitiveness is no longer dependent on price alone, but delivery times and quality are becoming as, if not more, important (Wiendahl and Scholtissek, 1994; Schonberger, 1996). Increased customer expectations lead to higher product variety, reduced product life cycles, shorter customer lead-times and unpredictable demand patterns (Higgins et al., 1996). The reaction has been to develop strategies that call for increased flexibility and responsiveness of manufacturing operations.
