An Examination of the Cumulative Capabilities Model in Selected Asia-Pacific Countries

Abstract

A well-crafted manufacturing strategy enables a company to develop its key competitive capabilities (quality, delivery, flexibility and cost efficiency) and enhance its competitiveness in the marketplace. To date, three models have been proposed to guide companies on the development and improvement of these capabilities. These are the trade-off, cumulative and integrative models. Our study focuses on the popular cumulative model proposed by Ferdows and De Meyer (1990). The cumulative model not only suggests that firms can simultaneously compete on all four capabilities, but also defines how this can be done by following a specific pattern of capability improvements. There has been a wide deb..