Manufacturing strategy: Literature review and some issues

Manufacturing strategy has attracted serious research attention in the recent past. In this paper, an attempt is made to review the status of literature in manufacturing strategy. A literature classification scheme is suggested. A total of 260 articles from 31 referred journals and international conferences are classified into content (manufacturing capabilities, strategic choices, best practices, trans‐national comparison, literature survey, and performance measurement) and process‐related issues. We have categorized the methodology used in the literature into conceptual, descriptive, empirical, exploratory cross‐sectional and exploratory longitudinal approaches. Based on this, some possible research issues are also identified, viz., resource‐based operations strategy, sector specific manufacturing strategy, relevance of manufacturing strategy to small and medium enterprises, manufacturing strategy in the context of green manufacturing, effect of organizational culture on formulation of manufacturing strategy, and performance measurement.