Session 7: Operations Strategy

Dr. Kishore Morya

Lecture Outline

• Strategy Formulation
• Competitive Priorities
• Operations’ Role in Corporate Strategy
• Strategy and the Internet
• Strategic Decisions in Operations
• Strategy Deployment
• Issues and Trends in Operations
Four Steps for Strategy Formulation

• Defining a primary task

– What is it a firm doing to be in the business?
• Assessing core competencies
– What does the firm do better than anyone else?
• Determining order winners and order qualifiers
– What wins the order?
– What qualifies an item to be considered for purchase?
• Positioning the firm
– How will the firm compete?
Competitive Priorities
• Cost
• Quality
• Flexibility
• Speed
Cost
• Maruti Suzuki
• Big Bazar
• Tata Nano
• Wal-Mart
Competitive Priorities: Quality
• Sony
• Toyota
• Subway
• Honda Activa
• Himalaya
• Audi
• Mercedes
• Honda
• Honda
• L’Oreal
• Philips
Competitive Priorities: Flexibility

• Google
• 3M
• HP
Competitive Priorities: Speed

• Citicorp - advertises a 15-minute mortgage approval

• Domino’s Pizza
• Hewlett-Packard - produces electronic testing equipment in
five days
• General Electric - reduces time to manufacture circuit-breaker
boxes into three days and dishwashers into 18 hours
• Dell - ships custom-built computers in two days
• Caterpillar
• Zara
• Samsung
Operations’ Role in Corporate Strategy

• Operations provides support for a

differentiated strategy
• Operations serves as a firm’s distinctive
competence in executing similar strategies
better than competitors
 Corporate Strategy
Environmental Scanning
Core competencies
Core processes
Global strategies Market Analysis
Market segmentation
Needs Assessment

Competitive Priorities
Cost
Quality
Time
Flexibility

New Service/Product
Development NO
Design
Analysis
Development
Full Launch Perfor
mance
Operations Strategy Yes Gap?

Competitive Capabilities
Decisions
Current
Managing Processes
Needed
Managing Supply Chains
Planned
Operations Strategy at Wal-Mart
Strategy and the Internet

• Internet can be used to create a distinctive

business strategy
• Amazon
– Supply chain management expertise
• eBay
– unlimited capacity and a huge market
– all work is done by buyers and sellers and there is no marginal cost
• Cisco
– integrated value chain is its competitive advantage
• flipKart
– free delivery, familiarity with local market
Strategy and the Internet (cont.)
• Internet can be used to strengthen existing competitive
advantages by integrating new and traditional activities
– GE’s Trading Process Network: an automated Web-based
purchasing system
• cut average purchasing cost in half
• enabled a much larger group of suppliers to bid on jobs
• customers were able to track their orders through shop in real time
– Intel
• sells $2 billion a month over the Internet
• purchases 80% of its direct materials online
• replaced 19,000 sales-order faxes received daily
Strategy and the Internet (cont.)

• Lessons from the dot com shakedown

– Internet is the great equalizer
• allows innovations to be copied with little investment
• companies may reach larger market
• customers have more information and can compare
prices and features of their products.
• These benefits are temporary unless…
– Companies provide unique value to customer
Strategic Decisions in Operations

Services Process
Products and
Technology

Human
Resources Quality
Capacity

Facilities Sourcing Operating

Systems

15
Operations Strategy: Products and Services

• Make-to-Order
– products and services are made to customer
specifications after an order has been received
• Make-to-Stock
– products and services are made in anticipation of
demand
• Assemble-to-Order
– products and services add options according to
customer specifications
Production Strategy: Processes and technology
• Project
– one-at-a-time production of a product to customer order
• Batch Production
– systems process many different jobs at the same time in groups
(or batches)
• Mass Production
– large volumes of a standard product for a mass market
• Continuous Production
– used for very high volume commodity products
Product-Process Matrix

Source: Adapted from Robert

Hayes and Steven Wheelwright,
Restoring the Competitive
Edge: Competing Through
Manufacturing (New York: John
Wiley & Sons, 1984), p. 209
 Continuous Production
A paper manufacturer produces a

e
lum
continuous sheet paper from wood

Vo
pulp slurry, which is mixed, pressed,
er dried, and wound onto reels.
gh
Hi
–

Mass Production
d
ize

Here in a clean room a worker performs

rd
da

quality checks on a computer assembly line.

an
St

Batch Production
e
or
M

At Martin Guitars bindings on the guitar frame are

installed by hand and are wrapped with a cloth
webbing until glue is dried.

Project
Construction of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz was a huge
project that took almost 10 years to complete.
Service Strategy: Processes and Technology

• Professional Service
– highly customized and very labor intensive
• Service Shop
– customized and labor intensive
• Mass Service
– less customized and less labor intensive
• Service Factory
– least customized and least labor intensive
 Service-Process Matrix

Source: Adapted from Roger Schmenner, “How Can Service Businesses Survive and Prosper?” Sloan
Management Review 27(3):29
 ive
ns
n te
Service Factory
rI
bo
Electricity is a commodity available
La

continuously to customers.
ss
Le
d-

Mass Service
ze
mi

A retail store provides a standard array of

s to

products from which customers may choose.

Cu
ss
Le

Service Shop
Although a lecture may be prepared in advance, its
delivery is affected by students in each class.

Professional Service
A doctor provides personal service to each patient based
on extensive training in medicine.
Operations Strategy: Capacity and Facility

• Capacity strategic decisions include:

– When, how much, and in what form to alter capacity
• Facility strategic decisions include:
– Whether demand should be met with a few large
facilities or with several smaller ones
– Whether facilities should focus on serving certain
geographic regions, product lines, or customers
– Facility location can also be a strategic decision
Operations Strategy: Human Resources

• What are the skill levels and degree of autonomy required

to operate production system?
• What are the training requirements and selection criteria?
• What are the policies on performance evaluations,
compensation, and incentives?
• Will workers be salaried, paid an hourly rate, or paid a
piece rate?
• Will profit sharing be allowed, and if so, on what criteria?
Operations Strategy: Human Resources (cont.)
• Will workers perform individual tasks or work in teams?
• Will they have supervisors or work in self-managed work
groups?
• How many levels of management will be required?
• Will extensive worker training be necessary?
• Should workforce be cross-trained?
• What efforts will be made in terms of retention?
Operations Strategy: Quality

• What is the target level of quality for our

products and services?
• How will it be measured?
• How will employees be involved with quality?
• What will the responsibilities of the quality
department be?
Operations Strategy: Quality (cont.)

• What types of systems will be set up to ensure

quality?
• How will quality awareness be maintained?
• How will quality efforts be evaluated?
• How will customer perceptions of quality be
determined?
• How will decisions in other functional areas
affect quality?
Operations Strategy: Sourcing

• Vertical Integration
– degree to which a firm produces parts that go into
its products
• Strategic Decisions
– How much work should be done outside the firm?
– On what basis should particular items be made in-
house?
– When should items be outsourced?
– How should suppliers be selected?
Operations Strategy: Sourcing (cont.)

– What type of relationship should be maintained

with suppliers?
– What is expected from suppliers?
– How many suppliers should be used?
– How can quality and dependability of suppliers be
ensured?
– How can suppliers be encouraged to collaborate?
Operations Strategy: Operating Systems

• How will operating systems execute strategic

decisions?
• How does one align information technology and
operations strategic goals?
• How does information technology support both
customer and worker demands for rapid access,
storage, and retrieval of information?
• How does information technology support decisions
making process related to inventory levels,
scheduling priorities, and reward systems?
Issues and Trends in Operations

• Global Markets, Global Sourcing, and Global

Operations
• Virtual Companies
• Greater Choice, More Individualism
• Emphasis on Service
• Speed and Flexibility
Issues and Trends in Operations (cont.)

• Supply Chains
• Collaborative Commerce
• Technological Advances
• Knowledge and Ability to Learn
• Environmental and Social Responsibilities
 Changing Corporation

20th-Century 21st-Century
Characteristic Corporation Corporation
• Organization • Pyramid • Web
• Focus • Internal • External
• Style • Structures • Flexible
• Source of strength • Stability • Change
• Structure • Self-sufficiency • Interdependencies
• Resources • Physical assets
• Information

Source: Reprinted from John Byrne, “Management by Web,” Business Week (August 28, 2000), p. 87 by special
permission, copyright 2000 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
 Changing Corporation (cont.)
20th-Century 21st-Century
Characteristic Corporation Corporation
• Operations • Vertical integration • Virtual integration
• Products • Mass production • Mass customization
• Reach • Domestic • Global
• Financials • Quarterly
• Real-time
• Inventories • Hours
• Months
• Strategy • Bottom-up
• Top-down

Source: Reprinted from John Byrne, “Management by Web,” Business Week (August 28, 2000), p. 87
by special permission, copyright 2000 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
 Changing Corporation (cont.)
20th-Century 21st-Century
Characteristic Corporation Corporation
Leadership • Dogmatic • Inspirational
Workers • Employees • Employees, free agents
Job expectations • Security • Personal growth
Motivation • To compete • To build
Improvements • Incremental • Revolutionary
Quality • Affordable best • No compromise

Source: Reprinted from John Byrne, “Management by Web,” Business Week (August 28, 2000), p. 87
by special permission, copyright 2000 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.