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Abstract
Time performances and time-based competition concepts are analysed, introducing three types of time-based
competitors. A traditional and an innovative path towards time-based competition are then recognised, the former
achievable by over-resource applying, while the latter by practices related to just-in-time and concurrent engineering. It is
explained how making a "rm structurally faster leads a company to face a `conversion dilemmaa, i.e. to choose the
proper strategic orientation that can be de"nitely regarded as a!ecting its external con"guration, visible to the market, or
only the internal one, transforming the time advantage into a cost one. Finally a matrix linking market sensitivity to
external time performances and competitor typologies is proposed. 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
0925-5273/00/$ - see front matter 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 2 5 - 5 2 7 3 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 1 4 0 - 1
256 A. De Toni, A. Meneghetti / Int. J. Production Economics 66 (2000) 255}268
one, explaining how the latter leads a "rm to a and its receipt by the client. When referring to this
`dilemmaa about its own potential. Finally, a performance, attention shall be paid not only to the
matrix linking market sensibility to external average value, indicative of delivery speed, but also
time performances and strategic orientations is to its deviation, which can be related to delivery
proposed. punctuality, i.e. due date observing.
The above-mentioned performances can really
di!erentiate a company from its competitors, as
2. Time dimensions they are able to modify the price}quality relation
perceived by the consumer.
In the modern competitive environment the A "rm that provides quick response to cus-
meaning of time can be analysed from two di!erent tomers' needs is able to attract more clients and
points of view. It can be related to the external encourage brand loyalty, increasing its market
con"guration of the "rm, i.e. products and services share; it can even win a price premium for speed
provided, or to the internal one, concerning the set and punctuality of its deliveries. A certain degree of
of resources used by the "rm to perform its task [4]. elasticity to delivery time characterises not only
Two classes of time performances are so identi- consumers' demand, but intermediaries' too, due to
"ed: the external ones, visible to consumers and the lower risk for less anticipated replenishment orders.
internal ones, measurable by the company, but not Analogous advantages (i.e. increased market
manifest to customers. share and price premiums) can be gained by fre-
quently introducing new products to the market or
2.1. External time performances improving the existing ones, because of the tempor-
ary monopolium enjoyed as a "rst mover [5,2].
The new strategic role of time arises from the A signi"cant example is provided by the so called
awareness that two dimensions of supply are able H}Y war for supremacy in the motorcycle industry.
to condition customers' behaviour: innovativeness Honda, challenged by Yamaha, introduced or
of products and speed and punctuality of deliveries. replaced 113 models in just 16 months, increasing
As regards consumer goods, the taste for any- technological sophistication and making motor-
thing modern and unusual, coupled with the actual cycle design fashionable. In this way products
need of relieving common life di$culties, leads o!ered by Yamaha looked out-of-date and unat-
market to increase demand of products with an tractive compared to Honda's, determining its
innovative content. On the other hand, modern day defeat.
hustle and bustle makes clients prefer a quick re- The great potential of time as a source of com-
sponse, so that no time is wasted on meeting their petitive advantage leads to new strategic orienta-
requirements. Demand is so revealing elasticity to tions, giving companies a modern weapon to "ght
time, i.e. customers' preference is conditioned by with.
how fast their purchase orders can be carried out.
To each of these dimensions, signi"cant for their 2.2. Internal time performances
competitive potential, an external time perfor-
mance can be related. Innovativeness of supply can Time has recently assumed a growing relevance
be measured by the frequency of introducing new even from the point of view of internal con"gura-
products to the market or improving the existing tion. The time concept is evolving from a labour
ones (FI). The higher the frequency, in fact, the e$ciency indicator, as proposed by Scienti"c
more correctly the product brought to the market Management, into a resource in itself, which is
can be considered as involving the more advanced
technologies and the last stylistic trends. The ability
of a "rm to quickly satisfy customers' needs can be Punctuality is one of the possible dimensions of delivery
represented, instead, by delivery time (DT), de"ned reliability, which can be referred to quantity and mix besides
as the period between a purchase order placement time.
A. De Toni, A. Meneghetti / Int. J. Production Economics 66 (2000) 255}268 257
Fig. 3. Traditional path towards time-based competition. FI"frequency of introducing new products or improving the existing ones,
DT"delivery time (speed and punctuality).
In a similar way, higher speed of delivering and grows when facing a more and more turbulent and
punctuality can be reached by increasing inventory unstable environment. Thus a company might
at all levels (end product, work-in-process, raw undertake expenses without meeting expected re-
materials) or manufacturing capacity. Thus cus- sults.
tomer orders are quickly carried out and the com-
pany can be successful as a process time-based
competitor (see Fig. 3). 5. The innovative path towards time-based
An actual example of design over-capacity ap- competition
plication comes from clothes industry, when
`prompt-fashiona companies' performances are A di!erent approach to time-based competition
compared to the `planneda ones'. A prompt- consists in making a company structurally faster so
fashion "rm is able to prepare a collection of sam- that a higher frequency of introducing or modifying
ples in a very short time, often by copying more products and an improved delivery time are the
successful models present on the market, and also results of internal-built capabilities. Unlike tradi-
their quick manufacture. In this way it can bring in tional path expedients, these capabilities are stable
a new collection every two months. A planned "rm, once achieved [15] and guarantee a "rm the agility
on the contrary, is characterised by longer lead required to face turbulent and unstable environ-
times. Trying to attract customers that are more ments. Kumar and Motwani [16] relate agility to
and more sensitive to newness, the planned "rm a company's ability to accelerate activities on the
sometimes increases the number of collections critical path, while Gehani [17] underlines its #ex-
launched at a fast rate. This is well known as the ibility coupled with responsiveness. Blackburn [2]
`#ash collectiona case. The only way to support clearly a$rms:
such a pace without reducing development lead
The power of a time-based strategy is that, by
time is to employ design over-capacity, which shall
focusing on speed, the "rm develops world-class
be devoted to the realisation of models that do not
quality and the process #exibility to deliver
belong to the usual autumn/winter and spring/
a wider variety of products and services without
summer collections.
the burden of increased cost.
A company sustains high costs to become
a time-based competitor by applying excess re- The path towards external time performance
sources. If this choice can be very e!ective in the achievement implies a better use of time itself,
short term, yet deep doubts arise as extending time regarded as an internal resource. Lead time reduc-
horizon. It is right to wonder about the long-term tion within the supply}production}distribution
maintainability of such an approach. Costs may chain is, therefore, the mechanism for time-based
reach, in fact, unsustainable levels when competi- competition [18].
tion leads to a further increase in time-based di!er- The di!erent role played by time performances
entiation. Concerning over-stocks, for example, the within time-based competition is evident. External
risk related to high levels of inventory rapidly time performances represent, in fact, the objective
260 A. De Toni, A. Meneghetti / Int. J. Production Economics 66 (2000) 255}268
to be pursued in order to gain competitive advant- (b) creating cross-functional teams. In this way,
ages, while the internal ones are the means used to people with di!erent skills come into direct
reach this purpose. contact and make the reciprocal interdepen-
In the following sections some of the most impor- dence, which characterises the development
tant actions that lead a company to become a process, easier to manage. Since the real chal-
product or a process time-based competitor, as lenge for such teams is to develop a metric that
previously de"ned, are described. allows people from di!erent disciplines to as-
sess the impact of their decisions and their
5.1. Practices for product time-based competitors colleagues' ones on the entire project, the Re-
turn Map, a graphical representation of the
In order to become a product time-based com- contribution of all team members to product
petitor a "rm has to concentrate on the product success in terms of time and money [22], can
development stage. Firms with fast new product be introduced as a common standard of
development and introduction cycles are able to measurement;
signi"cantly increase their rate of innovation. In (c) creating a `project layouta, so that the project
fact team is together in the same place. Collocation
stimulates teamwork and fosters frequent,
If development and introduction lead times are
two-way communication between team mem-
very long, a company must try very hard to be
bers;
sure the introduction will be a success because
(d) emphasising project planning phase, involving
the long lead times mean that there will not
all functions. Objectives have to be clearly ex-
be much of an opportunity to modify the prod-
plained, trying to anticipate problems that may
uct2 The traditional company is under great
arise in the following implementation stage
pressure to make each introduction a success.
and that need time-expensive recycles;
This company is necessarily risk-averse and slow
(e) early involvement of suppliers in project teams,
to innovate. The faster company can risk a `near
to make their speci"c competence immediately
missa because it can respond to new develop-
available for problem solving;
ments in the market. This company is less risk-
(f) customer involvement. By bringing designers
averse and sets the pace of innovation in its
in touch with customers it is possible to deter-
industry [19].
mine the intersection between what is feasible
In the traditional approach product develop- and what is, instead, desired by the market.
ment is considered as a succession of activities to be McKenna [23], describing Philips NV's ex-
performed in chronological sequence and assigned perience, underlines how this interaction not
to independent functions, which privilege their only helps a company to better identify con-
members' specialisation and are connected by in- sumer needs, but also can speed up `time to
formation #ows also carried in a sequential way. acceptancea, i.e. the time it takes the market-
The main opportunities for a time-to-market re- place to accept a new product, thereby improv-
duction lie in this logic overthrow. Practices to be ing its chances of success;
applied are generally related to Concurrent Engin- (g) promoting institutional learning, by paying
eering. In particular, as analysed by several authors more attention to interiorising expertise during
[2,5,14,20,21] the fundamental actions are: the project closing phase. Such know-how
(a) introducing a certain degree of parallelism or can then be made available for future projects,
overlapping among the activities. Downstream avoiding incurring the same errors or tak-
stages can soon be triggered by temporary or ing advantage of solutions successfully imple-
incomplete information released by the up- mented. Editing the so called `lessons
stream phases. Therefore information is no learned booka is an interesting example of how
longer processed and transferred in large knowledge can be shared within an organisa-
batches, whose completion causes idle time; tion;
A. De Toni, A. Meneghetti / Int. J. Production Economics 66 (2000) 255}268 261
(h) creating a common data base, so all members As regards the procurement phase, lead time
involved in the process can share information reduction is mainly related to shifting relations
immediately; with suppliers from counterproductive tests of
(i) using Information Technology tools (CAD, strength, focused on the lowest price, to mutually
CAD/CAM, etc.), that provide operators with bene"cial ones [25]. Thus a decrease in the number
new potential in terms of processing speed and of suppliers, selecting them in order to assure fre-
communication. quent, on-time and quality consistent deliveries,
can be included in a time-based approach. Some of
Ward et al. [24], analysing Toyota's develop- the most e!ective practices are:
ment process, argue that a `set-baseda approach to
E improving information exchange with suppliers,
Concurrent Engineering can make some of the pre-
exploiting Information Technology potentials
viously described practices super#uous. While in
such as EDI, etc. Di!erent needs or con#icts can
the common `point to pointa method designers
soon be reconciled and due dates observed.
iterate on one alternative until a satisfactory solu-
Besides a continuous interaction on product per-
tion emerges, in the new approach they explicitly
formances allows keeping aligned the e!orts and
communicate and think about sets of alternatives,
expectations of both the involved subjects;
that are gradually narrowed converging slowly to-
E introducing a pull philosophy into the replenish-
ward a single solution. The `design spacea is broad-
ment process, so that materials are received only
ly explored, but within clearly de"ned sets of
when needed;
constraints; the existence of lessons learned books,
E making packaging consistent with receiving sys-
where each functional group has recorded in-
tems, such as to increase the speed with which
feasible designs, allows, in fact, each team to quick-
materials enter the shop-#oor;
ly identify the intersection between its own set of
E pursuing incoming quality certi"cation, so that
alternatives and sets acceptable to others. There-
time spent on input control can be removed.
fore set-based concurrent engineering allows
a greater parallelism in the process, with more Finally, considerable opportunities to shorten pro-
e!ective, early use of subteams. The simultaneous curement lead time come also from the transactions
transmission of a whole set of possibilities and the of the purchasing o$ce [26]. In fact processing
absence of changes moving outside of it lead to orders individually, instead of in batches, avoids
a lower frequency of communication and eliminate creating idle paperwork and leads to time saving.
the need for collocation. Leading administrative and overhead procedures
towards a continuous, no longer in batches, pro-
cessing #ow can be related to the extension of JIT
5.2. Practices for process time-based competitors principles to `white-collara activities [27].
Concerning manufacturing lead time, several
In order to pursue a faster and reliable material authors underline how it can be shortened by
#ow and become a process time-based competitor applying those practices which were traditionally
a company has to shorten the lead times of the regarded as the JIT core [2,5,9,10,16,17,28].
remaining stages (i.e. procurement, production and In particular, concerning production planning:
distribution) of the operation value chain. Practices
to be implemented can be mainly related to JIT. E a pull logic implementation allows one stage to
Although this philosophy initially emphasised produce only after an actual downstream re-
reduction in waste and therefore especially in costs, quirement has been communicated. Movement
it can be argued [2] that speed is its real linchpin. of excess items is so avoided and queue time
Thus the extension of JIT principles from the tradi- reduced;
tional manufacturing area to the whole value-deliv- E observing daily production plans lead to an
ery chain, from supply to distribution, leads a "rm easier management of appointments, therefore
to systematic time compression. removing undesirable delays;
262 A. De Toni, A. Meneghetti / Int. J. Production Economics 66 (2000) 255}268
E pursuing production #ow steadiness and re- E improving process visibility, by displaying, for
petitiveness "rst induces adherence to planned example, work standards, instructions and status
times and then creates opportunities for their boards, makes information retrieve faster and
compression. helps workers to accomplish their tasks.
Concerning the manufacturing process: Finally, distribution phase e!orts are "rst of all
directed towards improving communication with
E a plant layout consistent with production #ow
clients. Continuous monitoring of service levels and
allows a lower move time and a fast feedback
customer reactions seems to be the "rst step in
from downstream stages;
becoming more responsive to changing market
E application of group technology principles can
conditions [23]. Stalk and Webber [29] underline
signi"cantly contract set-up times by identifying
how successful time-based companies have de-
product or part families with similar routings.
veloped personnel with a superior insight into cus-
Lot sizes can so be decreased and their lead time
tomer needs and superior skills when it comes to
shortened;
using this knowledge.
E design for manufacturability and assembly re-
The extension of JIT principles to the last phase
duces complexity and prevents problems from
of the operation value chain leads to apply practi-
arising in a strictly productive phase. A better
ces such as those of Millen [30], Ferrozzi et al. [31]
#owing and lean process is achieved, with bene"-
and Daugherty and Pittman [32]:
cial e!ects on lead times;
E preventive maintenance avoids idle time for E reducing levels of inventory locations in the dis-
breakdowns; tribution network. Some warehouses can be
E statistical quality control allows throughput to transformed into `transit pointsa, where prod-
be monitored more rigorously at every produc- ucts arrive and are immediately dispatched,
tion stage, permitting early identi"cation of de- without lying in the structure for a long time;
fects and preventing them from spreading E making distribution points `accessorisation
downstream. Therefore, time for scrapped out- centresa. Signi"cant lead time reductions are
put or rework is saved; gained, in fact, by standardising products during
the manufacturing process and customising
As regards human resource management:
them as late as possible in the distribution chain,
E workforce training and education increase the lowering risks to meet demand;
ability to solve and prevent problems; E pursuing frequent small size lot deliveries per-
E empowerment for frontline decision making mits to shorten time customers are compelled to
allows solutions to be implemented as soon as wait. This can lead di!erent companies to opti-
problems arise, avoiding delays; mise transport, for example, by sharing the same
E multi-skilled workers provide a "rm with greater tracks for a more e$cient use of available space;
#exibility of personnel deployment, thus sup- E reorganising packaging and loading/unloading
porting work schedule adherence. Multifunc- activities, so that idle time can be removed;
tional employees also have a broader view of the E encouraging carrier job enlargement and em-
process, therefore improving their problem powerment, involving them in invoicing and
solving capability; loading activities, to gain signi"cant time
E team work, keeping people with di!erent skills in savings;
direct contact, fosters quick problem solving and E applying information technology tools (e.g. bar
encourages an interfunctional point of view; coding, EDI, etc.). Real time data allow inven-
E a faster #ow of information in both horizontal tory items of multiple locations to be managed,
and vertical directions not only allows correc- and to satisfy requests based on a regional
tions to be made, but also stimulates continuous search, increasing speed of carrying out customer
improvement by encouraging the workers' sug- orders. Direct connection with carriers makes
gestions; distribution more e$cient. Point-Of-Sale system
A. De Toni, A. Meneghetti / Int. J. Production Economics 66 (2000) 255}268 263
implementation provides a manufacturer with the productive campaign) have been introduced as
up-to-date information about shelf item amount the proper external and internal system time indi-
lying at every retail point and actual sales, so cators, respectively. Changes in the production
that future requirements are known in advance planning process have been revealed to improve the
and forecasting reliability is improved. internal system time performances and conse-
quently the external ones, con"rming the same rela-
Concurrent Engineering and Just-In-Time practi- tion highlighted for single "rms.
ces, therefore, can signi"cantly improve the use
of time as an internal resource and provide a
company with that agility needed to become a 6. The 99conversion dilemma::
time-based competitor.
Very little, instead, is known about the relation When a "rm reaches signi"cant internal time
between practices and time-performances when performances through the innovative path, it will
moving from a single "rm to the new forms of face a `dilemmaa.
organisation such as networks of "rms. As regards Lead time compression along the operation
the textile}apparel industry it has been shown [33] value chain, in fact, grants a "rm the agility to
how the decision variables of the production plann- become a time-based competitor and achieve com-
ing process (planning period length, material avail- petitive advantages based on its external time per-
ability and the link between production orders and formances. On the other hand, it reveals also an
customer orders as regards colour mix) can really excellent mechanism to decrease costs. These
a!ect the system's time performances. Since in the potentials related to time management have to be
textile}apparel industry production is ful"lled by deployed by identifying their competitive priorities.
successive campaigns, performances have to be A company has to decide if its strategic objective is
evaluated in relation to a whole collection; conse- to a!ect its external con"guration, i.e. the side vis-
quently, global measures are required and the ible to the market, or only the internal one. Here
weighted average delivery anticipation (which pro- the conversion dilemma, to be solved by choosing
vides an estimate of the system capacity to anticip- where time-based advantages have to be laid.
ate product realisation) and the weighted average Referring to Fig. 4, by applying Concurrent
anticipation of saturation (which describes the abil- Engineering (CE) practices to product development
ity of a system to load its available capacity during a shorter time-to-market can be achieved, which
Fig. 4. Innovative path and strategic options. Legend: CE"Concurrent Engineering; JIT"Just-In-Time; TTM"Time-To-Market;
LT"Lead Time; FI"frequency of introducing new products or improving the existing ones; DT"delivery time (speed and
punctuality).
264 A. De Toni, A. Meneghetti / Int. J. Production Economics 66 (2000) 255}268
means either an increased frequency of introducing Internal time compression, on the other hand,
and improving products or, keeping frequency un- allows the "rm to diminish the number of activities
changed, a decrease in costs of resources required performed in advance, before customer order
by development process. A "rm, that transforms receipt. Therefore, preferring to convert gained
internal time performances into those visible to time advantages entirely into lower costs, it would
its customers, strategically decides to become a be convenient to shift towards a purchase-to-order
product time-based competitor. Otherwise, prefer- (PTO) way of meeting demand, removing risks
ring to convert them entirely to lower costs, it related to forecast-based purchasing and manufac-
chooses to be a design cost-based competitor. turing. In this case customers will continue to
Implementing JIT principles to supply}produc- measure the same delivery time, without perceiving
tion}distribution chain grants a company shorten- any change (DT"DT). An intermediate solution,
ed lead times and therefore the choice of gaining a!ecting both external and internal con"guration,
improved delivery times or lowered costs related to is also possible. The "rm, in fact, may convert
lower inventory levels, to non-value-adding activity internal time performances partially into a slightly
elimination, to increased productivity, etc. The shorter delivery time (DT(DT) and shift to
former option singles out a process time-based a make-to-order condition (MTO) with lower risks
competitor, while the latter a production cost-based than the initial assemble-to-order one.
competitor. Fig. 6a and b show the cost-external time perfor-
By compressing lead times along the whole op- mance curves, concerning respectively the product
eration value chain, a company is able to become development process and the productive-logistic
a product and process time-based competitor or a stages along the operation value chain. Similarly
design and production cost-based competitor, accord- the cost}service curve proposed by Ferrozzi et al.
ing to which front is a!ected by conversion. [34], they represent the excellence positions, i.e. the
Consider, for example, an assemble-to-order "rm set of limit points about the costs}performances
(ATO), whose delivery time to customers (DT) is relation, where an improvement along one axis
therefore the sum of assembling and distribution implies a decrease in the other one.
lead times, as described in Fig. 5. A "rm standing at point A can therefore achieve
After shortening lead times by JIT implementa- a higher frequency of introducing and modifying
tion, it may decide to convert them into an external products (Fig. 6a, point B) or a greater delivery
performance, so that customers perceive a signi"- speed and punctuality (Fig. 6b, point B) by sustain-
cant improvement in delivery time (DT;DT). ing a signi"cant increase in associated costs. The
Fig. 5. E!ects of time conversion on product environments. Legend: De"Development, P"Purchasing, M"Manufacturing,
A"Assembling, D"Distribution, ATO"assemble-to-order, MTO"make-to-order, PTO"purchase-to-order.
A. De Toni, A. Meneghetti / Int. J. Production Economics 66 (2000) 255}268 265
The low-left quadrant identi"es a type of client Analysing the importance attached to the fre-
that does not regard frequency of introducing or quency of introducing new products to the market
modifying products and delivery time as dimen- or improving the existing ones and to delivery time,
sions able to di!erentiate products and services three di!erent types of time-based competitors
provided by a company (e.g. the built-in domestic have been proposed in this paper: product time-
appliance industry). In this case, a conversion to based competitor, process time-based competitor
external time performance appears not to be a win- and product and process time-based competitor.
ning solution, while signi"cant advantages could Then two paths towards time-based competition
come from a cost-based strategic orientation. are recognised. The traditional approach consists
A bond of coherence emerges, therefore, between in employing more resources in the development
a strategy adoption and the market con"guration. process or applying productive over-capacity and
This outlines how the choice of the proper kind of over-stocks, while the innovative one tries to link
time-related competition cannot prescind from external success to internal capabilities built by
a deep understanding of customer expectations. focusing on lead time reduction along the opera-
They prove themselves a key factor for a company tion value chain. The former leads a company to
to suppose future scenarios. sustain conspicuous costs; the latter, instead, grants
For example, the cases of some German motor it an agility based on a better use of its own
companies that meet with success in spite of a low resources, achieving several bene"ts that can or not
innovation rate and slow deliveries if compared to be displayed to customers. In this case the conver-
competitors are well known. Product exclusiveness, sion concept is fundamental, i.e. the mechanism by
in fact, rewards customers for the long wait and does which time compression potentials are transformed
not induce them to shift their preference. In such a mainly into external time performances or into cost
situation time-based competition would not appear advantages. The factor leading a "rm to the proper
convenient, while greater advantages can be derived time-related strategic orientation (time-based ver-
from a cost-based approach to time potential. sus cost based competition) is, in authors' opinion,
The proposed matrix has, however, to be con- the degree of market sensitivity to frequency of
sidered not only as a static, but also as a dynamic introducing or modifying products and delivery
framework. Changes in customer behaviour, deriv- speed and punctuality. A relation has been so iden-
ing from the development of a di!erent sensitivity ti"ed between environment characteristics and
to external time performances, can lead, in fact, to competitor types.
the need for a strategic adjustment. Then evolutive Stalk and Webber [29] outline the existence of
paths have to be taken into account. It is possible the `dark sidea of time-based competition that
for a company to gradually become a product and drives companies to more and more accelerated
process time-based competitor, by focusing at "rst paces, without improving their competitive posi-
on a single external performance and then shifting tion. This corroborates the opinion that the main
on both, displacing its position within the matrix. danger associated with time-related strategies is not
to pay enough attention to market conditions.
Whenever the customer sensitivity limit to external
8. Conclusions time performances is reached, as seems to happen
to many Japanese "rms, no further bene"t can, in
Time reveals new opportunities for companies to fact, be derived from pursuing a strategy that de"-
gain competitive advantages. Great attention is as- nitely standardises companies instead of di!erenti-
cribed to time-based competition, which considers ating them, leading them also to renounce more
external time performances as strategic weapons to bene"cial cost contractions. The authors' e!ort has
gain success. They are in fact able to in#uence been mainly addressed to calling attention to some
customer behaviour by inducing a perception aspects of time-based competition. In particular, we
of product and service di!erentiation among deemed it important to outline the di!erent role
competitors. played by external and internal time performances
268 A. De Toni, A. Meneghetti / Int. J. Production Economics 66 (2000) 255}268
within time-based competition: the latter as means, [16] A. Kumar, J. Motwani, A methodology for assessing time-
the former as objectives. This distinction made us based competitive advantage of manufacturing "rms,
recognise a new form of time-related strategy we International Journal of Operations and Production
Management 15 (2) (1995) 36}53.
have called the cost-based competition. A clear [17] R.R. Gehani, Time-based management of technology.
scenario of strategic opportunities and mechanisms A taxonomic integration of tactical and strategic roles,
associated with time management has so been iden- International Journal of Operations and Production
ti"ed. It could be usefully analysed by companies so Management 15 (2) (1995) 19}35.
as to avoid the `strategic trapa that, recent reports [18] R.J. Tersine, E.A. Hummingbird, Lead-time reduction:
The search for competitive advantage, International Jour-
from Japan underline, might represent the danger nal of Operations and Production Management 15 (2)
or `dark sidea of time-based competition. (1995) 8}18.
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