Strategic positioning of a manufacturer concerns choosing those service, production and supply chain related activities that an organisation should carry out internally, and those that should be external and under the ownership and control of suppliers, partners and customers. This paper describes research that has investigated how manufacturers make this decision and what, if any, are the characteristics of a successful approach to forming such decisions. Six UK manufacturing companies have been studied in-depth and, in each case, the decision making processes that practitioners actually apply have been explored, recorded and analysed. This study has revealed distinctly different styles of thinking across these companies. Based on this insight the paper proposes three key principles that manufacturers should adopt when forming strategic positioning decisions.

Formulating manufacturing business strategy is often fragmented in as much as current tools address upstream and downstream vertical integration with product integration, or more recently, product and infrastructure integration. Rarely do tools address all of these dimensions in an holistic manner. The research described in this paper is that undertaken in the MAPSTRAT project: a scoping study with industrial partners, aiming to satisfy this business need. A comprehensive literature study is described which is contextualized using six case studies. The paper stresses the importance of ‘joined‐up thinking’ and outlines plans for an appropriate tool that is under development.

Product‐sourcing practices can impact the competitiveness of an organization's products and services. Many sourcing practices exist and the challenge is to find the right practice, for the right product, at the right time. This paper describes a survey of 3,500 of UK companies, and reports on current and intended manufacturing sourcing practices; the associated decision‐making processes; and, the principal motives behind sourcing decisions. Key findings demonstrate a strong and ambitious trend towards open, integrated relationships between manufacturers and their principal suppliers; sourcing decisions increasingly based on well‐structured analysis of business needs and capabilities; and, the chief motivators being financial and market factors.

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