Resource flexibility has been a topic of much academic research. The dual resource constrained literature has primarily concerned itself with labor flexibility issues while the group technology literature has concerned itself with machine flexibility issues. This study invetigates inventory and customers service performance differences among shops that use dissimilar combinations of machine and labor flexibility. Conclusions drawn from a series of simulation experiments indicate that firms should not promote one form of resource flexibility to the exclusion of another. Exploiting a moderate level of machine flexibility and a moderate level of labor flexibility together yield superior inventory and customer service performance and make shop performance less venerable to short term tactical decisions.
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