Abstract
Different manufacturing systems share some common approaches for dealing with changes and uncertainty, i.e., AUTONOMY, DISTRIBUTION, MODULARITY, and INTEGRATION. In this research, we analyze the relationships between these approaches. We used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to analyze sample data from various industries. The results show that AUTONOMY, DISTRIBUTION, and INTEGRATION support each other, i.e., a higher level in one approach can lead to a higher level in another approach. When we broke down the detail context of the MODULARITY, we found that different kinds of MODULARITY have different relationships with other approaches. Based on the results, we provided some suggestions for dealing with changes and uncertainty.
