Chapter 2 - Operations Strategy and Competitiveness

Operations Management by R. Dan Reid & Nada R. Sanders 4th Edition Wiley 2010

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The Role of Operations Strategy

Provide a plan that makes best use of resources which;

Specifies the policies and plans for using organizational resources Supports Business Strategy as shown on next slide

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Business/Functional Strategy

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Background: Business Strategy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYF2_FBCvXw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehMAwIHGN0Y

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Importance of Operations Strategy

Companies often do not understand the differences between operational efficiency and strategy

Operational efficiency is performing tasks well, even better than competitors Strategy is a plan for competing in the marketplace

Operations strategy is to ensure all tasks performed are the right tasks
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Developing a Business Strategy

A business strategy is developed after taking into many factors and following some strategic decisions such as;

What business is the company in (mission) Analyzing and understanding the market (environmental scanning) Identifying the companies strengths (core competencies)
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Three Inputs to a Business Strategy

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Examples from Strategies

Mission: Dell Computer- to be the most successful computer company in the world Environmental Scanning: political trends, social trends, economic trends, market place trends, global trends Core Competencies: strength of workers, modern facilities, market understanding, best technologies, financial know-how, logistics
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Example: Nokia
Nokia extended its already formidable dominance of the global handset business on Jan. 24, announcing it had achieved 40% market share in the fourth quarter of 2007. But perhaps the biggest surprise was that the Finnish company achieved this long-promised and psychologically important milestone while also becoming more profitable.
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jan2008/gb20080124_974301.htm?chan=search

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Developing an Operations Strategy

Operations Strategy is a plan for the design and management of operations functions Operation Strategy developed after the business strategy Operations Strategy focuses on specific capabilities which give it a competitive edge competitive priorities
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Operations Strategy Designing the Operations Function

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Competitive Priorities- The Edge

Four Important Operations Questions: Will you compete on Cost? Quality? Time? Flexibility? All of the above? Some? Tradeoffs?
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Competing on Cost?

Offering product at a low price relative to competition

Typically high volume products Often limit product range & offer little

customization

May invest in automation to reduce unit costs Can use lower skill labor

Probably use product focused layouts

Low cost does not mean low quality
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Competing on Quality?

Quality is often subjective Quality is defined differently depending on who is defining it Two major quality dimensions include

High performance design:

Superior features, high durability, & excellent customer service

Product & service consistency:

Quality needs to address

Meets design specifications Close tolerances Error free delivery

Product design quality product/service meets requirements Process quality error free products

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Competing on Time?

Time/speed one of most important competition priorities First that can deliver often wins the race Time related issues involve

Rapid delivery:

Focused on shorter time between order placement and delivery

On-time delivery:

Deliver product exactly when needed every time

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Competing on Flexibility?

Company environment changes rapidly Company must accommodate change by being flexible

Product flexibility:

Easily switch production from one item to another Easily customize product/service to meet specific requirements of a customer

Volume flexibility:

Ability to ramp production up and down to match market demands

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The Need for Trade-offs

Decisions must emphasis priorities that support business strategy Decisions often required trade offs Decisions must focus on order qualifiers and order winners

Which priorities are Order Qualifiers? e.g. Must have excellent quality since everyone expects it Which priorities are Order Winners? e.g. Southwest Airlines competes on cost McDonalds competes on consistency FedEx competes on speed Custom tailors compete on flexibility

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Competitive Priorities front & center

http://www.businessweek.com/magazin e/content/06_13/b3977009.htm http://www.businessweek.com/magazin e/content/06_13/b3977010.htm?chan= search http://www.businessweek.com/technolo gy/content/dec2007/tc20071228_10685 7.htm?chan=search

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Translating to Production Requirements

Specific Operation requirements include two general categories Structure decisions related to the production process, such as characteristics of facilities used, selection of appropriate technology, and the flow of goods and services Infrastructure decisions related to planning and control systems of operations
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Translating to Production Requirements

Dell Computer example structure & infrastructure

They focus on customer service, cost, and speed ERP system developed to allow customers to order directly from Dell Product design and assembly line allow a make to order strategy lowers costs, increases turns Suppliers ship components to a warehouse within 15 minutes of the assembly plant - VMI Dell set up a shipping arrangement with UPS
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Strategic Role of Technology

Technology should support competitive priorities Three Applications: product technology, process technology, and information technology

Products - Teflon, CDs, fiber optic cable Processes flexible automation, CAD

Information Technology POS, EDI, ERP, B2B

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Technology for Competitive Advantage

Technology has positive and negative potentials

Positive

Improve processes Maintain up-to-date standards Obtain competitive advantage

Negative

Costly Promotes dependency Risks such as overstating benefits

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Technology for Competitive Advantage

Technology should

Support competitive priorities Can require change to strategic plans Can require change to operations strategy

Technology is an important strategic decision

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Measuring Productivity

Productivity is a measure of how efficiently inputs are converted to outputs

Productivity = output/input

Total Productivity Measure:

Total Productivity = (total output)/(total of all inputs)

Partial Productivity Measure:

Partial Productivity = (total output)/(single input)

Multifactor Productivity Measure:

Multi-factor Productivity = (total output)/(several inputs)

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Total Productivity: example

Bluegill Furniture makes kitchen chairs. The weekly dollar value of its output, including finished goods and work-in-progress, is $14,280. The value of inputs (labor, materials, capital) is approximately $16,528. What is the total productivity measure for Bluegill? Total productivity = output/input = $14,280/$16,528 = .864 or 86.4%

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Partial Productivity: example

Bluegill Furniture has hired 2 new workers to paint chairs. Together they have painted 10 chairs in 4 hours. What is labor productivity for the pair? Labor productivity = output/labor = (10 chairs)/(2 x 4 hr) = (10 chairs)/(8 hr) or 1.25 chairs/hr

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Multifactor Productivity: example

Bluegill Furniture averages 35 chairs/day. Labor costs average $480, material costs are typically $200, and overhead cost is $250. Bluegill sells the chairs to a retailer for $70/unit. Find multifactor productivity. Multifactor productivity = (value of output)/(labor + material + overhead costs) = ($70/chair x 35 chairs)/(480+200+250) = ($2450)/($930) or 2.63
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Interpreting Productivity Measures

Productivity measures must be compared to something, i.e. another year, a different company Raw productivity calculations do not tell the complete story unless there are no major structure differences.

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Interpreting Productivity Measures

Other productivity measure questions;

Productivity measure provides information on how the firm is doing relative to what is critical to the firm

Is this partial productivity measurement enough to make an investment decision? Should you also look at productivity measures for the two major competitors for comparison?

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Productivity, Competitiveness, and the Service Sector

Productivity is a scorecard on effective resource use

A nations Productivity effects its standard of living US productivity growth averaged 2.8% from 1948-1973 Productivity growth slowed for the next 25 years to 1.1% Productivity growth in service industries has been less than in manufacturing

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Productivity and the Service Sector

Measuring service sector productivity is a unique challenge

Traditional measures focus on tangible outcomes Service industries primarily produce intangible outcomes Measuring intangibles is challenging

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Operations Strategy Across the Organization

Business strategy defines long-term plan Operations strategy support the business strategy Marketing strategy needs to fully understand operations capability Financial plans in effect support operations activities.
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Review of Learning Objectives

Define the role of Business Strategy Explain how a Business strategy is developed Explain the role of Operations Strategy in the organization Explain the relationship between business strategy and operations strategy Describe how an operations strategy is developed
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Review of Learning Objectives

Identify competitive priorities for of the operations function Explain the strategic role of technology Define productivity and identify productivity measures Compute productivity measures

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Chapter 2 Highlights

Business Strategy is a long range plan and vision. Each individual business function develop needs to support the business strategy An organization develops its business strategy by doing environmental scanning and considering its mission and its core competencies. The role of operations strategy is to provide a longrange plan for the use of the companys resources in producing the companys primary goods and services. The role of business strategy is to serve as an overall guide for the development of the organizations operations strategy.

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Chapter 2 Highlights

The operations strategy focuses on developing specific capabilities called competitive priorities. There are four categories of competitive priorities: cost, quality, time, and flexibility Technology can be sued by companies to gain a competitive advantage and should be acquired to support the companys chosen competitive priorities Productivity is a measure that indicates how efficiently an organization is using its resources Productivity is computed as the ratio or organizational outputs divided by inputs
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Example: Detroit Edison

DTE's journey into the distributed-energy business began in 1994 when CEO Anthony Earley took over Detroit Edison. Convinced that the utility industry was on an eventual collision course with customer needsDistributed generation soon became a strategic goal of the company. The idea behind distributed generation is that a school, hospital, or office complex can produce its own power just as cheaply as it can buy it from the grid. When rates go up, it can produce extra energy and sell it back to the grid. When rates go lower, it can shut down its generator and buy the cheaper electricity from the utility. This approach allows customers to get slightly cheaper electricity from a more stable source that won't suffer interruptions (which is especially important to computer-intensive companies) and can flexibly meet changing demands.
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/jul2001/nf2001072_224.htm?chan=search

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Example: Nestle
Brabeck's other strategic goal is transforming Nestle from a set of far-flung operations into a single global machine. He has inked a $200 million deal with SAP to link its five e-mail systems and permit Nestle's headquarters in Vevey, Switzerland, to know for the first time how many raw materials its subsidiaries buy, in total, from around the world. The company then will be able to negotiate better contracts with suppliers and centralize production. Last year alone, Brabeck closed 38 different factories. All told, he has slashed $1.6 billion in costs, without labor strife.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/01_24/b3736644.htm?chan=search

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