Best Strategic Decisions in Management of Complex Operations

Abstract

This paper explores practice and presents further development on typologies for strategic integrative capability development. The study includes an inductive investigation comprising seven different cases exploring specific aspects of the operations in five competing engineer to order companies. The focal companies use the same best practice framework for integration of operations in their contract with the same customer. I describe how the case companies configure their operations and develop strategies and practices for their integrative capabilities. The paper expands the domain of integration research within operations management by providing a contextual description based on multiple case studies investigated by the use of focus group interviews in combination with conceptual development of ideal types based in the strategic configurational theory and concepts from supply chain integration. The empirical evidence is not used for theory testing, but exploration of industrial practice. The paper discuss and propose typologies for strategic decisions in management of complex operations with special attention to turbulent environments for engineer to order supply chains.