Page 334 - Operations Strategy

ChapTer
9 The process of operations strategy –

formulation and implementation

Introduction
The process of operations strategy formulation is concerned with ‘how’ to reconcile
market requirements with operations resources over the long term. The reason for
these final two chapters is simple: in practice, achieving this alignment is much more
difficult than it sounds, and although any simple step-by-step model of how to ‘do’
operations strategy will inevitably be a simplification of a messy reality, we shall use
a four-stage model to illustrate some of the elements of ‘process’. This stage model is
shown in Figure 9.1. It divides the process of operations strategy into: formulation,
implementation, monitoring and control. In this chapter we examine the first two of
these stages: formulation and implementation. The following chapter looks at the final
two stages: monitoring and control.

Key quesTIons

● What is the ‘formulation’ of operations strategy?
● What analysis is needed for formulation?
● What is operations strategy implementation?

Figure 9.1 This chapter concerns the formulation and implementation stages of the
process of operations strategy

This chapter

Operations strategy Operations strategy
formulation implementation

Operations strategy Operations strategy
control monitoring

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