Page 50 - Operations Strategy

WHAT is THE ‘COnTEnT’ Of OPERATiOns sTRATEgy? 25

Figure 1.9 the content of operations strategy reconciles the market requirements and
operations resource perspectives; the process of operations strategy reconciles the top-
down and bottom-up perspectives

Top-down

Operations
strategy content

Operations Market
resources requirements

Operations
strategy process
Bottom-up

What is the ‘content’ of operations strategy?
Operations strategy is concerned with the reconciliation of market requirements and
operations resources. It attempts to influence the way it satisfies market requirements
by setting appropriate performance objectives. It attempts to influence the capabili-
ties of its operations resources through the decisions it takes in how those resources
are deployed. So, the content of operations strategy is the interaction between the
operation’s performance objectives and the decisions that it takes concerning resource
deployment. Figure 1.9 illustrates this idea. It particularly highlights the importance of
● understanding the relative importance of the operation’s performance objectives;
and
● understanding the influence on them of the decision areas that determine resource
deployment.

Operations strategy performance objectives

In Figure 1.10, the market requirements perspective on operations strategy is summa-
rised in terms of five generic performance objectives: quality, speed, dependability,
flexibility and cost. Their purpose is to articulate market requirements in a way that
will be useful to operations. However, before we can pursue the idea of performance
objectives further, we must take a step back in order to consider market positioning and
how competitive factors are used to describe positioning.

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