Evaluating and benchmarking operational performance of manufacturing facilities in networks of multinational corporations

Abstract

Many multinational corporations (MNCs) generate their revenue abroad and feature different manufacturing facilities in various countries. Within the network of a MNC, each facility exhibits its own functional strategies. Thus, the individual strategic role of each facility has to be considered in performance evaluations. However, popular evaluation and benchmarking methods do not take this adequately into account. Moreover, decision-makers are often overstrained with numerous performance measures, which make evaluations even more challenging. The purpose of this paper is to present a performance evaluation and benchmarking method, which provides the possibility to evaluate manufacturing facilities in networks of MNCs under consideration of their individual functional strategies without overstraining decision-makers with an excess of performance measures. Based on an aggregated single index of overall performance, each facility is evaluated. In this way, operational performance can be easily compared among all facilities in spite of their different functional strategy.