Internal and External Influences on Global Manufacturers

摘要

Around the world, manufacturers base their planning decisions on similar internal factors, such as previous sales, machine and labor capacity, and inventory levels. They are subject to many of the same external factors, such as customer order backlogs, customers' future plans, and sales forecasts. But companies in different countries may give greater or lesser priority to these factors depending on cultural differences. A statistical analysis based on data collected by the Global Manufacturing Research Group for six countries (U.S., Canada, Hungary,rnItaly, Taiwan, Lebanon) found that cultural factors do, indeed, influence the relative importance assigned to these internal and external factors affecting decision-making. The role of customer preferences and attention to the customer should be particularly interesting to those who manage supply chains or work with companies in other countries.