Literature: Operation Strategy

Operations strategy

Before proceeding to the definition of operation strategy, the concept of operations management is to be described first.

Operations Management: is the management of all processes and activities undertaken in a business in order to produce the deliverable good or services. It has a high role in the business’s environment as it manages the transformation organisation’s inputs in to transformed products or services according to James (2011, pp. 8). These processes are existent in all departments of the business such as (HRM, Marketing, manufacturing, finance, etc.)

Diagram 1.

James (2011, pp. 8) and (Lewis and Slack, 2007, pp. 25) describe the business operational management recourses in to two main categories that produce deliverable goods to consumers –Transforming recourses and Transformed resources (see diagram 1); Transforming recourses such as facilities (e.g. equipment, hardware and buildings), Staff which includes all people who have a role in the operations processes. Transformed recourses are defined in to three main types; 1) Materials which can be converted physically (eg. Manufacturing), ownership such as retail and so on, 2) Information which can be converted by property such as Location (eg. Telecommunications) or storage (Libraries), 3) Customers which can be transformed physically such as (Hotels, airlines, hospitals, etc).

A company can transform these recourses and outperform rivals if it delivers greater value for customers at a lower cost, or comparable value with competitors. The difference between organisations will be the strategy made to perform the hundreds of activities required to create, produce and deliver these goods to consumers with relatively low cost. (Porter, 1996, pp. 62)...

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...titive edge: competing through manufacturing. Wiley New York, 8.

James, T. 2011. Operations strategy. Ted James & Ventus Publishing Aps.

Johnson, G., Scholes, K., Johnson, G. and Whittington, R. 2011. Exploring strategy. 8th ed. Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall.

Lee, H. L., Padmanabhan, V. and Whang, S. 1997. Information distortion in a supply chain: the bullwhip effect. Management science, 43 (4), pp. 546-556.

Lewis, M. and Slack, N. 2007. Operations management. 5th ed. London: Prentice Hall.

Porter, M. E. 1996. operational effectiveness is not strategy. Harvard Business Review, pp. 61-77.

Skinner, W. 1969. Skinner, W. 1969. Manufacturing-Missing Link in the Corporate Strategy. Harvard Business Review, 47 (3): 136-145. Revista Base (Administracc~ao e Contabilidade) da UNISINOS, 5 (1).

Skinner, W. 1974. The focused factory. Harvard Business Review, pp. 113-121.