Triadic perspective on customization and supplier interaction in customer-driven manufacturing

Abstract

Customization and customer-driven manufacturing are both explicitly based on the focal actor’s interaction with the customer actor. The impact of these aspects on the internal operations of the focal actor is relatively well known compared to the limited number of studies performed on the impact on the focal actor’s supplier. The purpose here is therefore to investigate how the concept of customization complements the concept of customer-driven and how customer requirements affect interaction between a supplier and the supplier’s supplier in a triad. Frameworks for different perspectives are developed where match and mismatch between the actors on the perception of flow driver and flow differentiation is highlighted. The frameworks are then applied on a case company to illustrate application.

Keywords

• Triad
• customization
• supplier interaction
• customer-driven manufacturing
• decoupling points