Page 263 - Operations Strategy

238 CHAPTER 7 • ImPRovEmEnT sTRATEgy
table 7.2 the degree of process change can be characterised by changes in the arrangement and
nature of process activities

Degree of process change
Modification Extension Development Pioneer
Arrangement of Minor Redesign of Redefinition of Novel/radical change
activities (what is rearrangement of sequence or routing purpose or role
done) activities between activities activities
Nature of activities No or little change Minor change in Some change in Novel/radical change
(how it is done) to nature of nature of activities core methodology/
activities technology process
Example: thin film New reel-change Clean-room High-energy drying High-capacity
precision coating unit, allows faster filtering technology allowing shorter machine with
process changeovers introduced, drying path and ‘fluid ­electron’­
which reduces energy savings vacuum
contamination coating, which
gives ­exceptional­
quality and low costs
Example: health Patient completes Nurse performs Internet-based Total remote testing/
monitoring/ pre-check-up initial checks at pre-visit routine monitoring service
diagnostics process questionnaire and clinic, including new allows test using ‘body shirts’,
brings it to regular combined heart and programme to which download via
check-up respiration testing be customised the internet
for each patient,
plus after-visit
monitoring of
patient health
routine

changes to the process. Breakthrough improvement is usually assumed to mean what
we have termed ‘development’ or ‘pioneer’ process change. For example, illustrations of
business process re-engineering described in the press tend to be at this end of the scale,
although some examples of BPR are relatively minor – what we have called ‘extension’
change. The most important issues here are, first, that the greater the degree of process
change the more difficult that change is to manage successfully and, second, that many
small changes need managing in a different way from few, relatively large changes.

Improvement cycles

A recurring theme in operations process development is the idea that continuous
improvement is cyclical in nature – a literally never-ending cycle of repeatedly question-
ing and adjusting the detailed workings of processes. There are many improvement cycles
that attempt to provide a prescription for continuous improvement – some of them pro-
posed by academics, others devised by consultancy firms. And although most of these
cycles are not ‘strategic’, the concept of improvement as a cycle can be translated to mean
an ongoing readjustment of strategic understandings, objectives and performance. In
fact, the model of operations strategy and reconciliation between market requirements

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