This book provides some regional aspects considered by manufacturing
firms in their decisions to gain competitiveness and have effects on the
performance of their supply chains (SC). Some of the main aspects
considered are: government's policies, fixed costs, the availability and
quality of infrastructure services. This book also discusses the risks
for the SC; based on a perception approach, some aspects studied are:
demand, suppliers and production processes and how these are related to
other elements of the SC. The authors use structural modeling to analyze
the evaluation of some manufacturing practices and their impact on
customer service satisfaction, agility and flexibility of the SC. The
context of this study is immersed in the Mexican manufacturing industry
of exportation, also known as maquiladora industry of Ciudad Juarez,
México. This borderland is among the top 10 manufacturing Mexican
cities. World class industries are located in this region and have been
recognized around the world for their competitiveness and high
performance. Therefore, the methods and results exposed in this book may
be valuable and useful for readers and researchers of the SC worldwide.