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Fifty Years Of The Strategic Trade-Offs Model: In Memory And Honor Of Wickham Skinner, Roberto Sarmiento, Garvan Whelan, Matthias Thürer, Francisco Arturo Bribiescas-Silva

Articles

In 1969, Professor Wickham Skinner, whom many consider as “the father of manufacturing strategy,” published a seminal paper entitled “Manufacturing-Missing Link in Corporate Strategy.” Among the many interesting insights outlined in that article, Skinner is particularly careful to explain the importance of acknowledging the existence of specific trade-offs in the design of production systems. For example, he warns that a failure on the part of executives to recognize the limitations and compromises that are inherent to all technology and human based systems will inevitably result in a diminished ability of firms to compete successfully in the marketplace. Fifty years after …