McKelvey (1975) reports that, a fundamental issue when performing a formal investigation of organisations is to order and classify them. This argument is based on the fact that a classification enables the storage and retrieval of information, to facilitate both the learning and the application of generalisations. Similarly, Rich (1992) suggests that organisational taxonomies can (1) help to strategically refine hypotheses; (2) help in the validity and utility of existing typologies based on logical and intuitive considerations; (3) serve as a basis for guiding organisational decisions on change and (4) permit researchers to readily specify boundaries from which their samples of organisations could be drawn.

As organisations are complex dynamic systems i.e. evolving and adapting continuously to their environment, it is recommended that a taxonomic evolutionary approach is adopted to understand how to develop and implement manufacturing strategies. A classification framework of manufacturing configurations in which the evolutionary relationships of the entities that compound the industry, as well as the relevant characters of each entity are illustrated could provide a positive source of information for management decisions. Therefore, the relevance of creating and using an evolutionary classification to analyse good practice, to identify the organisational characters responsible for such practice and to formulate the most effective development programme would appear to be beneficial.

The cladistic school of classification as defined by Fitch (1984) involves studying the evolutionary relationships between configurations with reference to the common ancestry of the group. This is referred to as phylogeny. Evolution provides the classification with an external reference point because lineages do not change with a researcher's interest in a particular aspect of an organisation. Thus, cladistics attempts to reveal a change-induced structure, and the similarity represented is a similarity of change. This process of identifying ancestral relationships provides a focus by which researchers make assumptions about organisational configurations and the defining characters. Phylogenetic classifications and their resulting evolutionary trees (i.e. cladograms) could provide the dynamic information required for a better understanding of the industries.

Also, Tsinopoulos and McCarthy (2000) suggest that cladistics can create frameworks that identify characters that would allow an organisation to adapt its routines to achieve change towards a different position (i.e. a new manufacturing configuration). They also claim that the cladogram can provide knowledge for the formulation of strategies and pathways to develop them and achieve them. In the context of this project, providing an insight of how to achieve strategies such as mass customisation is one of the main objectives. A pragmatic classification scheme provided by cladistics is believed of being capable of aiding the understanding of the main manufacturing characters that make mass customisation feasible and providing a pathway to acquire them and thus, achieve the strategy.

Classification methods are assessed on their ability to produce natural and objective classifications, rather than artificial and subjective classifications. Cladistics conforms to both criteria, because it represents a real, unambiguous and natural property of the entity (evolutionary relationships) and so a group of people, working independently should be able to agree on a classification. Any disagreements about the exact nature of organisational configurations (technology, processes and structure) could be addressed because the information (and the assumptions about industrial reality) is shown on the branches of the cladogram. This tree structure represents the diversity and the relationships between the different manufacturing forms. The networks of branches on the tree are organisational configurations that are different from each other due to the possession of certain characters. Each path is formed according to the acquisition and polarity of certain characters such as new technology; working practices; plant layout or management techniques.

Cladistics has proved to be a useful tool for biological taxonomy. Additionally, it has theoretically proved to be conceptually interesting in organisational taxonomy. In spite of the limitations identified, cladistics is believed to be capable of providing robust classifications that could aid to the achievement of manufacturing strategies. However, further research is required in two directions: to identify the best methodology to create cladograms and, to create a tool that links the theory of the classifications to the solution of pragmatic problems.