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The transformation of US manufacturing, led by computer‐integrated
manufacturing (CIM) systems, has already begun to take root. This
article examines the potential benefits to firms which understand and
can exploit CIM technology to its fullest extent. Because CIM
simultaneously provides high product variety with low costs,
conventional assumptions about competitive strategy and organisation
design need reevaluation. As companies must work with increasingly
scarce capital, human resources and time, CIM becomes an attractive
option not only for highly capital‐intensive industries such as
automobiles, but also for fast‐changing areas such as textiles, fashion
design, and consumer appliances. CIM combines the benefits of economies
of scope with the scale economies traditionally garnered only with
large, rigid and dedicated factories. Success with CIM and other new
manufacturing technologies depends on new organisational designs and
incentives that foster fast innovation and cross‐functional integration.
CIM′s promising role in transforming the manufacturing firm into a
service business across many different industries will spur many US
firms′ efforts to enter a global marketplace.

This paper explains how investments in flexible, advanced manufacturing tech nologies (AMT) have special properties that can transform organization design and the economic bases of strategic flexibility. Investments in AMT that pro vide significant economies of scope (i.e. low-volume/low-cost manufacturing) produce strategic options that allow the firm to place a 'call' on related markets that it may potentially enter. The value of AMT investments grow with the increasing changes in the environment. In addition, CAD/CAM networks, a vital component of most AMT systems, enable the firm to work selectively with external designers, suppliers, customers and other firms to rapidly com press the product development and commercialization process. Firms seeking to maximize economies of scope and the option value of AMT need to recon figure their organizations into loosely coupled systems with a modular, open systems perspective. Flexible AMT systems facilitate the pursuit of emergent, product-based strategies based on the selective exercise of the process techno logy's option value. Furthemiore, AMT helps firms develop more complex competitive strategies (e.g. integrated low cost and differentiation) necessary for strategic competitiveness in global markets. Finally, AMT can facilitate the development of a learning laboratory in organizations.