A multiple‐method study of environmental uncertainty and manufacturing flexibility

This paper addresses the relationship between environmental uncertainty and operational flexibility through research that utilized a mail survey of North American manufacturers, and structured field interviews of users of advanced manufacturing technologies (AMT). Results from these efforts include: (1) no relationship was found between the measures of environmental uncertainty and operational flexibility, (2) no relationship was found between a firm's performance and its effort to align the level of operational flexibility with its external environment, and (3) the sample of AMT users reported more certain external environments than the random survey sample of manufacturers. The qualitative data gathered during the structured interviews is used to help explain these results, which redefine the boundaries of existing theory on these relationships and provide direction for future research.