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Summary Operations strategy in depth questions
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In depth questions of the book "Operations Strategy" by Slack & Lewis, 4th edition
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Important questions of Operations strategyStrategic decisions are those that set broad objectives that
direct an enterprise towards its overall goal, plan the path that
will achieve these goals, stress long-term rather than short-
term objectives, deal with the total picture rather than with
individual activities, and are often seen as above or detached
What is strategy?
from routine day-to-day activities. Furthermore, the strategy as
espoused by an organization may not always be reflected in
what it actually does. This is why strategy is often taken to be
the ‘pattern of decisions’ that indicate the company’s overall
path
Operations strategy is the total pattern of decisions that shape
What is operations
the long-term capabilities of any kind of operation and their
strategy?
contribution to overall strategy, through the ongoing
reconciliation of market requirements and operation resources.
How should operations corporate strategy should be reflected in the strategies of each
strategy reflect overall business unit, which should, in turn, inform the strategy of each
strategy (top-down) business function
The operations strategy is governed by the decisions that set
Top-down
the overall strategic direction of the organization
one that is based on observing how strategy happens in
Bottom-up practice) is the bottom-up perspective, which stresses how
strategic ideas emerge over time from actual experiences
Companies adopt strategies partly because of their ongoing
experience, sometimes with no high-level decision making
How can operations
involved. The idea of strategy being shaped by experience over
strategy learn from
time is also called the concept of emergent strategies. Shaping
operational experience
strategy from the bottom up requires an ability to learn from
(Bottom-up)
experience and a philosophy of continual and incremental
improvement
Two important elements within markets are customers and
competitors. This market position can be characterized in
How do the requirements
terms of how the company wishes to compete for customers’
of the market influence
business. By grouping competivie factors into the five
operations strategy
performance objectives, market requirements are translated
into a form useful for the development of the operation.
The content of operations strategy is the building blocks from
which any operation strategy will be formed. This includes the
definition and prioritizing of the five performance objectives. It
What is the content of also includes the structure and options available in the four
operations strategy decision areas of capacity, supply networks, process
technology, and development and organization. Performance
objectives and decisions areas interact in a way that can be
described by the operations matrix
The process of operations strategy is the procedures that are
used to formulate operations strategy. It determines how an
What is the process of operation pursues the reconciliation between its market
operations strategy requirements and operations and operation resources. The
success of effective operatoins strategy is closely linked to the
style and skills of the leaders who do it
The arrangement of transforming resources and the way in
Processes
which transformed resources move through them
Input university Students, lectures, researchers
output university graduated students, knowledge
, goal university Education of students, doing scietific research
Sugar beets, people (3 months), high educated people (9
input sugar refinery
months)
sugar (3 months), preventing machine from breakdown (9
output sugar refinery
months)
Producing sugar (3 months), maintenance of machine (9
Goal sugar refinery
months)
Goal paint manufacturer Producing paint
input paint manufacturer Raw materials, people, knowledge
output paint manufacturer paint
movement from products from a producing company to a
Physical distrubtion
customer
Material management
management of restoring materials for the production function
What does the four V's That all operations are not the same. Processes differ in terms
explain of the nature of demand for their products or services
What are the four v's Volume, variety, variation, visibility
A high volume of output means a high degree of repeatability,
Volume
making a high degree of specialization
producing a high variety of products and services must involve
variety
a wide range of different activities
Processes are easier to manage when they only have to cope
Variation
with predictable deand. When demnad is unpredictable, extra
resources will have to be designed into the process
it indicates how much of the value added by the operation is
visibility
experienced directly by its customers
Is there a limit to Yes, because markets are intrinsically unstable on the long-
strategy? term, thus there is a limit to the usefulness
Difference of operations Long-term/short-term, Organization-wide decision/smaller
from operational decisions, Abstract/tangible
Content of operations it's the collection of decisions that is made within the operations
strategy strategy domain. it's the outcome of the reconciliation of market
requirements and operations resources
Process of operations The way in which operations strategies are formulated. it's the
strategy reconciliation of top-down and bottom-up perspectives
Each operation will see quality and the other performance
Critics on the
objectives in different ways. It's very important that the
reconciliation model
operation have a clear mind of their performance objectives
Capacity What should be the overall level of capacity, how many sites
Concerns how operations relate to the interconnected network,
Supply Networks
including customers and suppliers
Process technology Concerns the choice and development of systems
Development and Concerns the set of broad and long term decisions governing
organizations how the operation is run on a continuing basis
It describes the operations strategy as the intersection of a
Operation strategy matrix
company's performance objectives with its decision areas
Steps of process Formulation, implementation, monitoring, control
how to distinguish By classifying them as order-winners, qualifiers or delights
What are performance Quality, speed, dependability, flexibility and cost. Each of these
objectives has both internal and external effects
Do the role and key Both are true. Markets and the capabilites will develop over
performance objectives of time. The role and the key performance will change.
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