Page 367 - Operations Strategy

342 The proCess oF operaTIons sTraTegy – monITorIng and ConTrol

What are the differences between operational and strategic
monitoring and control?
Strategic monitoring and control involves the monitoring and evaluation of activities,
plans and performance with the intention of corrective future action if required. The
procedure should be capable of providing early indications (or a ‘warning bell ’, as some
call it) by diagnosing data and triggering appropriate changes in how the operations
strategy is being implemented. In some ways this strategic view of monitoring and con-
trol is similar to how it works operationally. But at a strategic level there are differences.
At an operational level, monitoring and controlling an operation’s activities seems a
straightforward issue. Having created a plan for the operation, each part of it has to be
monitored to ensure that planned activities are indeed happening. Any deviation from
what should be happening (i.e., its plans) can then be rectified through some kind of
intervention in the operation. Hopefully this will bring the operation back on course,
which itself will probably involve some replanning. Eventually, however, some further
deviation from planned activity will be detected and the cycle is repeated. Figure 10.2a
illustrates this simple view of control.
At a more strategic level, control is less clear cut. Figure 10.2b shows just some of the
many objections to its use in an operations strategy context. For example, are strate-
gic objectives clear and unambiguous? Ask any experienced managers and they will
acknowledge that it is not always possible (or necessarily desirable) to articulate every
aspect of a strategic decision in detail. Many strategies are just too complex for that. Nor
does every senior manager always agree on what the strategy should be trying to achieve.
Often the lack of a clear objective is because individual managers have different and
conflicting interests. For example, if two parts of an organisation are to be reorganised
so that their activities are combined, the managers of each part are likely to have differ-
ent views of how the merger is to be accomplished (presumably wanting less disruption
to the resources for which they are responsible); even if they are agreed on the need for,
and broad outline of, the new merged unit, at the margin they may favour different
ways of bringing it about. In some public-sector organisations there may be explicit
and well-accepted differences of interests. In social-care organisations, for example,

Figure 10.2 monitoring and control is less clear at a strategic level

(b) Simple strategic control model
Can we predict
(a) Simple operational control model Are objectives outcomes? How evident
clear? is progress?
Operation or
Input process Output
Objectives Operations strategy Implementation
formulation plans
Intervention Monitor
Plans Change assumptions Track
or strategy progress
Plans
Compare/
replan
Compare/
replan
Frequency?

M10 Operations Strategy 62492.indd 342 02/03/2017 13:28