MAEER’s

MIT COLLEGE OF MANAGEMENT (MITCOM)

PUNE

Executive MBA Syllabus Semester – I

Subject Name: Manufacturing Strategy
Academic Year: 2013-2014 Marks: 100
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Section I
Developing a Manufacturing Strategy Structure: Manufacturing strategy in production /
operations, an overview of manufacturing strategy, from craft to strategic manufacturing,
evaluating the success of a manufacturing strategies, key reasons for having a manufacturing
strategy, manufacturing strategy, the importance of manufacturing strategy, Functional strategy,
Reasons for Manufacturing Reactive Role in Corporate Strategy Formulation, Functional Goals,
Developing Manufacturing Strategy, Strategic Integration,, Linking manufacturing to marketing,
The outputs of manufacturing strategy, Business Strategy, Business Strategy, Business
segmentation, Create a linked manufacturing strategy, strategic decision making categories,
Some tools for manufacturing strategy development, identifying manufacturing tactics, organize
for manufacturing tactics, manufacturing strategy goal alignment, five step approach to
manufacturing strategy development.

Section II
Methodology to develop Manufacturing Strategy: Checking markets, Substituting Customer’s
Behaviour for Customers Voice, Outcome of the market debate – (describing the competitor,
outcomes of the market debate, evaluation of the competitor, anticipating competitors actions,
identifying new competitors, phases of competition, market size estimation), Relating
Manufacturing to the agreed market – (describing and analysing the end users, identifying and
describing buyers, how buyers make a choice, environmental influences, building customer
profiles, analysing competition), Price – (methods of estimating perceived value, going – rate
pricing, sealed bid pricing, psychological pricing, the influence of other marketing mix elements
on price, company pricing policies, impact of price on other parties, adapting the price,
promotional pricing, economic lot size, product mix pricing, pricing situations, initiating and
responding to price changes, customer’s reaction to price changes, uses of price in positioning
strategy, competitor’s reaction to price changes, responding to price changes, pricing strategies,
Quality, Reliability, Delivery, Eight attributes of quality – (the strategic importance of quality, the
firm’s strategic response to quality, quality as the central focus in manufacturing, the evolution
from inspection to TQM), Product / Market Analysis, New – product Leadership, Organizational
Aspects

Section III
Process Choice: Manufacturing strategy / function, the types of process choice, technical
specification, technology strategy, manufacturing strategy and technological opportunities,
manufacturing’s strategic response

Section IV
Product Profiling: Product profiling, levels of application, profiling procedure, Enterprise Goals
and Objectives, Company based profiles, applying the same manufacturing strategy to two
different markets, reallocation of products due to downsizing

Section V
Focused Manufacturing: Economics of scale, trade-offs in focused manufacturing, progression
or regression in focused manufacturing, introduction – plant location, introduction plant layouts –
(objectives of plant layout, principles of plant layout, factors influencing plant layout, plant layout
types), moving to focused plants, manufacturing facilities design
Section VI
Make or Buy: Make or buy overview, Break – Even analysis for make or buy decision, effect of
managerial decisions on the breakeven point, usefulness of breakeven analysis, Issues involved
in decisions (the competitive environment, technological changes, financial considerations, the
manufacturing process), vendor selection / supplier selection (general problems of vendor
quality, a framework for vendor quality survey, supplier partnership, partnering, sourcing, supplier
rating), Just in Time Manufacturing (characteristics of JIT, goals of JIT, pre-requisites of JIT a
programme, components or elements of JIT, JIT principles, JIT approach to labour, JIT approach
to inventory, JIT approach to quality, JIT approach to product Flow and Flexibility, benefits of JIT,
limitations of JIT)

Section VII
Manufacturing Infrastructure Development: Manufacturing infrastructure issues,
Organizational Issues, Operational Effects of structural decisions, Strategy based alternatives,
operational control (control of quality, control of inventory, control of manufacturing), automation
in manufacturing (factory automation, engineering automation, planning control automation,
Integration in Manufacturing (Design for manufacturing, quality function deployment, computer –
integrated manufacturing, manufacturing strategy, the manufacturing task, manufacturing task:
three types, manufacturing strategy as the integrator)

Section VIII
Functional Perspective: Factors in decision making (portfolio management process,
approaches to investment decision making, common errors in investment management, the
theory of investment analysis, evaluation of financial attractiveness of projects, payback period,
return on investment, the discounted cash flow techniques, the DCF techniques – concluding
observations, risk analysis), sensitivity analysis, capital expenditure budgeting and control,
linking investment to product life cycles, value risk in portfolios, operating controls and
information, linking process investment decisions and evaluation of controls.

1 Text Books Manufacturing Strategy by John Miltenburg

2 Reference Books Manufacturing Strategy by Terry Hill