Understanding dynamism and complexity factors in engineer-to-order and their influence on lean implementation strategy

Complexity and dynamism are considered intrinsic features of engineer-to-order (ETO) business environment; it is, therefore, important to understand and manage them better. Based on empirical investigation into two case companies, this paper expands the existing literature on how and why complexity and dynamism context factors constitute not only external business environment issues but also subfactors within the boundary of the firm. It argues that most of the subfactors for complexity and dynamism identified for repetitive manufacturing are relevant for the high uncertainty capital goods manufacturing ETO with some exceptions such as short product life cycle and technological turbulence. A framework of configuration (on implementation of lean practices), and moderation (on the lean-operations performance relation) forms of influence from dynamism and complexity is proposed. Further arguments to be verified in future large-scale research include: (1) dynamism bears challenges, and complexity provides opportunities to foster implementation of relevant lean practices in ETO, (2) both complexity and dynamism positively mediate better operations performance and enriched value from implemented lean practices.