Interfunctional Coordination of Service Offering Provided by Manufacturers

Interfunctional coordination (IFC) aims to develop cooperation between the different departments within a company. Ser-vices offered by companies improve customer orientation of a company and increase customer satisfaction. IFC and cus-tomer orientation are the main parts of market orientation. Market orientation is one of many possible ways of improving companies' business performance and competitiveness. The aim of this paper is to describe the main findings of the research, which was focused on the relationship between IFC and the extension of services provided by manufacturers. Manufacturers of electronic components and electrical equipment based in the Czech Republic were among the participants of the research. These two industries are extremely important for today's Czech economy, especially as many companies become subcon-tractors for the automobile industry and the mechanical engineering industry. A Likert scale questionnaire was prepared to gather information about IFC and services. The respondents were mainly directors or managers, i.e. employees with high-level competence and knowledge of IFC and services in this particular market. A total of 60 SMEs were included in the survey. The data was collected between February and November 2014. The Spearman's rank correlation test was performed to verify the relationship between IFC and services. The main findings show the following: (1) There is a significant rela-tionship between IFC and the development of new products and services aligned to customer needs; (2) There is a somewhat significant relationship between IFC and the quality of products and services provided in manufacturing; (3) No significant relationship exists between IFC and special services offered to VIP customers.