IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ids/ijatma/v5y2005i1p18-30.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Delineating comparative flexibility in car assembly: the problem of "wide selection"

Author

Listed:
  • Dan Coffey

Abstract

Car assemblers often accommodate situations where the number of model specifications in a range significantly exceeds the expected lifetime volume of sales. This paper re-appraises the implications of this fact for the delineation of "flexibility" in assembly, broached from the viewpoint of relationships that might exist between total number of model specifications, finished product stocks, and customer lead times. The paper notes that a persistent and growing gap separates some Japanese firms from their Western competitors in terms of the width of selection permitted customers. There is a need for greater attention to detailed marketing strategy when studying differences in manufacturing capabilities. Formal parts of the analysis are developed in an appendix, and illustrative material is employed throughout.

Suggested Citation

  • Dan Coffey, 2005. "Delineating comparative flexibility in car assembly: the problem of "wide selection"," International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 5(1), pages 18-30.
    • Handle: RePEc:ids:ijatma:v:5:y:2005:i:1:p:18-30
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=6877
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ids:ijatma:v:5:y:2005:i:1:p:18-30. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sarah Parker (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalID=2 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.