Exploring Responsiveness and Flexibility in Multisite Production Environments: The Case of Norwegian Dairy Production

Abstract

Industrialized production most often takes place in large-scale systems consisting of multisite units, which are managed with central strategic planning, and decision units and local management teams in order to exploit capacity and scale benefits. Manufacturers are searching for new strategies that will increase their capability to be responsive to market needs while remaining competitive according to cost, time and service level criteria. Responsiveness has mainly been studied in one-dimensional production and supply chain environments, single production sites or the supply chain of a single production site. We argue in this paper that in the fast-moving consumer sector (FMCS) within a multisite production environment, where there is a need for coordination, responsiveness has to be further analyzed. We have explored responsiveness and flexibility in such an environment in order to identify the factors that require and enable responsiveness in a production networks system, and identified a number of factors, which are analyzed in the form of a case study.