Abstract
The concept of the trade-offs model was once the accepted paradigm to explain the relationships among competitive manufacturing capabilities in manufacturing strategy. Recently, however, the focus of the process theory of manufacturing strategy has moved from the trade-offs model to the cumulative model. The hypotheses obtained by the latter model provide a theoretical ground for the investment optimization in the implementation of manufacturing strategy. The objective of this article is to analyze the relationships among competitive manufacturing capabilities through a causal analysis based on the cumulative model.
