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Parvey

They also noted that the strategy should be easy to articulate and understand; it should provide a basis for improvement; it should be difficuit for competitors to match; it should focus only on a few key success factors; it should be durable; and it should imply internat performance criteria for measurement. Acceptance by employees of the strategy and building the necessary teamwork are the critical tasks in strategy implementation.

Schonberger (1986) defines “world class manufacturing” as a customer driven strategy that focuses on identifying and understanding the needs of customers all along the value chain. World class manufacturers manage their operations from an outside-in perspective; they employ special processes to capture information from their extemal customers about the Products and services offered. Complaint or problem-oriented information is important, but it is not sufficient — companies need to understand and predict their customer's futurę needs. A world class manufacturer has the ability to simultaneously fulflll customer demands for high quality, Iow cost, short lead times, and flexibility. This level of performance is difficuit to achieve if a business is managed only in terms of intemal oriented measures such as cost variances, intemal deliveries, efficiency, and utilization. Customer-driven metrics reflect what is important to extemal customers (i.e., ąuality, cost, lead time, and flexibility), yet these extemal measures of manufacturing success can be measured from inside the plant. For example, intemal measures of flexibility may be the number of certified jobs per operator, set-up times, or linę changeover times (Schonberger, 1986).

Management^ Role

Quality strategies cannot be fully implemented through either top-down or bottom-up initiatives. Success reąuires blended management. Schonberger proposes that management's main task is to develop the principles of manufacturing excellence. Nagel and Dove (1991) encourage managers to set bold goals that create enterprise-wide challenges, evoking personal commitment to long term goals from everyone in the enterprise. Managers need to coordinate, assign priorities, and allocate resource according to the firm's best interests. Managers can encourage creativity and initiative by identifying goals clearly, but remaining vague about means. The agile enterprise thrives on tmst, mutual responsibility, and localized decision making. High levels of employee involvement must be created, sustained, and rewarded. Individual contributors must be tied to the company through mutually perceived long-term benefits that anchor their loyalty.