A contingency view of time-based competition for manufacturers

The growing time-based competition (TBC) literature coincides with an increased emphasis on time in manufacturing organizations. In a 1993 survey, 93 percent of US and European managers identified reliable delivery times as having above average importance, while overall delivery speed was cited by 88 per cent and 89 per cent, respectively. At the same time, 82 per cent of Japanese managers rated rapid new product introduction as having above average importance. The authors highlight potentially different sources of time-based advantages. the factors described above are linked by a common emphasis on time, but the driving strategies and tactics used to achieve them can differ or possibly conflict. They present a framework of time-based competition for manufacturers. The paper demonstrates how differences between engineer-to-order, make-to-order, assembly-to-order and make-to-stock manufacturers result in the need to use different approaches to implement TBC.