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326 CHAPTER 9 • THE PRoCEss of oPERATions sTRATEgy – foRmulATion And imPlEmEnTATion
appropriately, a performance measurement system that acknowledges that flexibility
must be promoted, a new product/service development policy that stresses appropri-
ate types of customisation, a supply network strategy that develops suppliers and cus-
tomers to understand the needs of high-variety customisation, a capacity strategy that
deploys capacity where the customisation is needed and so on. In other words, all the
decision areas complement and reinforce each other in the promotion of that par-
ticular performance objective. The main problem with achieving coherence is that so
many decisions are made that have a strategic impact that it is relatively easy to make
decisions that inadvertently cause a loss of coherence.

Correspondence
Equally, an operation has to achieve a correspondence between the choices made against
each of the decision areas and the relative priority attached to each of the performance
objectives. In other words, the strategies pursued in each decision area should reflect
the true priority of each performance objective. So, for example, if cost reduction is the
main organisational objective for an operation, then its process technology investment
decisions might err towards the purchase of ‘off-the-shelf’ equipment from a third-party
supplier. This would reduce the capital cost of the technology and may also imply lower
maintenance and running costs. Remember, however, that making such a decision will
also have an impact on other performance objectives. An off-the-shelf piece of equip-
ment may not, for example, have the flexibility of more ‘made-to-order’ equipment.
Also, the other decision areas must correspond with the same prioritisation of objec-
tives. If low cost is really important, then one would expect to see capacity strategies
that exploit natural economies of scale, supply network strategies that reduce purchas-
ing costs, performance measurement systems that stress efficiency and productivity,
continuous improvement strategies that emphasise continual cost reduction and so on.

Criticality
In addition to the difficulties of ensuring coherence between decision areas, there is
also a need to include financial and competitive priorities. Although all decisions are
important and a comprehensive perspective should be maintained, in practical terms
some resource/requirement intersections will be more critical than others. The judge-
ment over exactly which intersections are particularly critical is very much a pragmatic
one that must be based on the particular circumstances of an individual firm’s opera-
tions strategy. It is therefore difficult to generalise as to the likelihood of any particular
intersections being critical. However, in practice, one can ask revealing questions such
as, ‘If flexibility is important, of all the decisions we make in terms of our capacity –
supply networks, process technology, or development and organisation – which will
have the most impact on flexibility?’ This can be done for all performance objectives,
with more emphasis being placed on those having the highest priority. Generally, when
presented with a framework such as the operations strategy matrix, executives can iden-
tify those intersections that are particularly significant in achieving alignment.

What is operations strategy implementation?
Operations strategy implementation is the way that strategies are operationalised or
executed. It involves the processes that attempt to ensure that strategies are achieved.
It is important, because no matter how sophisticated the intellectual and analytical

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