More important than simply determining the supply chain strategies in Table 4,
we wish to assess the degree of fit between the product characteristics and each
strategy. To do this, we examine the two product characteristics factors labeled
Functional and Innovative, as shown in the Appendix. The Functional scale is
labeled as such because the two items that load highly are both associated with
more functional products (Fisher, 1997; Selldin & Olhager, 2007). Namely, PC3
asks about the volume of each product type with higher responses indicating higher
volume and PC4 asks about the length of the introduction interval with a higher
number indicating longer intervals for new production introductions. In both cases,
the high loadings fit with a more functional product. The second scale is labeled as
Innovative because the two items that load highly are associated with innovative
products (Fisher, 1997; Selldin & Olhager, 2007). PC1 addresses the variation in
demand for each product, with higher responses equating to high variability, while
PC2 addresses the time-to-market with high responses equating to shorter times.
The high loadings fit well with an innovative product. As shown in the Appendix,
the two factors explain 67.3% of the variance.
Table 6 provides the results of an ANOVA of the two product characteristics
based on the supply chain strategy group from Table 4. The data generally fit
with the predictions of Fisher (1997) and Selldin and Olhager (2007). In particular,
the lean strategy group has the lowest value for Innovative and a relatively