The global dimension of competition brings new frontiers to the industry and demands that manufacturing be managed from a perspective that considers the integration between the areas of the organization. Like never before, today it is necessary to go beyond the old systems coined by Taylor and Ford to survive in today's business environment, and, who knows, to stand out. A good exercise in observing and identifying the competitive priorities that affect these areas can be very helpful.
Common standards for evaluating operations performance exist, and are well known – shorter product cycles, quality and reliability, meeting lead times, agility to produce new products, flexibility to adjust volume changes, speed and low cost.
The point is that, adapted to the new environment, competitive advantages seem to have multiplied, and identifying them has become a task as complex as it is urgent for those who want long-term results.
When the subject is the new world scenario faced by organizations and the logic of factors that trigger competitiveness, even scholars show different trends. Some attach more importance to ecological responsibility, others focus on technology and innovation. But, in the area of competitive advantage, most converge on the concept that information and its speed play a vital role and stand out more and more in the race for the market.
The importance of flexibility and Information Technology (IT) in the productive restructuring process, in times of intense need for change, is directly proportional to the dynamic efficiency of the organizations' responses in generating new ideas for an eager and disputed market at every inch .
An operation can consider itself flexible to the extent of its ability to not only resolve situations of fluctuating demand, but also all turbulence in the environment, which includes technological changes.
It is not by chance that the industrialization of the State of Paraná, much more recent than that of São Paulo, culminated in the second automotive hub in Brazil. The decision of companies in the automotive sector that settled there followed the route of strategic flexibility as a formula for competitiveness.
A cost/benefit path with short, medium and long-term resources and investments at various levels, which earned them the reputation of being the most modern companies in the world for headquarters, even though they are not the most automated. A success parameterized by innovation, time, cost and quality, which does not give up ambitious projects to train the workforce.
Once the homework is done, the assessment of how much each resource contributes to the responsiveness of change paves the way for the next steps. The new world order of business does not exempt us from keeping one eye on the fish and the other on the cat.
Frank Sowade, director of the Volkswagen-Anchieta plant, is vice president of SAE Brasil
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