Taxonomy of Production and Environment Uncertainty using Self-Organizing Map Neural Network

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the impact of alignment of production staretgy and environment uncertainty to improve business performance. In this research, taxonomy of strategies create by grouping companies to clusters with common attributes bases on gestalt approach using Self-Organizing Map. outputs of cluster analysis and cluster validity indices in 247 companies in Iranian food industries indicate four strategic clusters of production strategy and four clusters of demand and supply uncertainty Efficiency Companies in environment with low demand and low supply uncertainty, risk-hedging Companies in environment with low demand and high supply uncertainty, responsive Companies in environment with high demand and low supply uncertainty and Companies with flexible Companies in environment with high demand and high supply uncertainty have higher business performance.

Keywords

• alignment
• environment uncertainty
• production strategy
• self-organizing map neural network model