PS4S26, Operations
Management and Research
Dr Gareth RT White
Module Format
• Weekly lecture and tutorial
• Team
– Gareth RT White
– Ademola Afoloyan
Module Format
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Wk1
Wk2
Wk3
Wk4
Wk5
Wk6
Wk7
Wk8
Introduction
Operations
People
Quality
Processes
Assignment Workshop
Sustainability
Assessment Review
Module Assessment
• Reflective Analysis
– The Portfolio shall be 2000-2500 words in length.
– At the beginning of the module you will identify ONE personal skill that you
aim to develop and improve.
– Your Reflective Analysis will detail WHAT YOU DID to improve that skill and
HOW EFFECTIVE your efforts have been.
• Report
– The Report shall be 3000-3500 words in length.
– It will require you to examine the Job Description for an Operation Manager’s
position.
– Using appropriate theory, literature, techniques and approaches that you have
encountered in the module, discuss the following:
• What are likely to be the operational challenges that the successful candidate would
face? (20%)
• How would you address the main issues?
(80%)
Operations – Strategic Significance
• “For most countries, manufacturing is the most significant wealthcreating activity” (Hill & Hill, 2009, p4)
– Traditional manufacturing nations have lost ground
– Emerging nations are competing on a global scale
Operations – Strategic Significance
• Losing ground in the manufacturing
sector:
–Failing to recognize competition
–Over-capacity
–Lack of R&D investment
–Short term focus and lack of
experience
Operations – Strategic Significance
• “Overcapacity means…productivity will remain key
to an organization’s success” (Hill & Hill, 2009, p9)
– this reinforces the strategic importance of
Operations Management
Operations – Strategic Significance
• Comparative Measures:
– Country vs Country
– Sector vs Sector
– Company vs Company
– Site vs Site
• Productivity
– Labour Productivity
– Total Factor Productivity
Operations – Strategic Significance
•
Corporate strategy may be defined as:
– The direction and scope of an organization over the long term, which achieves
advantage in a changing environment through its configuration of resources
and competences with the aim of fulfilling stakeholder expectations (Johnson,
Scholes and Whittington, 2008)
– A firm’s theory about how to gain competitive advantage (Barney and
Hesterly, 2008)
Operations – Strategic Significance
•
Manufacturing strategy may be defined as
– The development and deployment of manufacturing capabilities in total
alignment with the firm’s goals and strategies (Swamidass, 1989)
– The patterns of decisions in major areas of manufacturing operations, and the
domain of manufacturing as those activities that encompass product design
and manufacture, including production planning and control policies, plant
layout and location, logistics, manufacturing process technology decisions,
degree of vertical integration, and assignment of activities to plants in a multiplant network (Weelwright, 1984)
– How the operations management function contributes to a firm’s ability to
achieve its competitive advantage in that marketplace (Davis, Aquilano and
Chase, 2003)
Operations – Strategy Development
• The components of corporate and functional
strategy are usually simplified:
Marketplace
Corporate Strategy
Marketing Strategy
Manufacturing Strategy
SWOT and STEEPLE frameworks
Finance Strategy
Operations – Strategy Development
• Internal stakeholders
– Employees
– Trade Unions
– Functional or Departmental Managers
•
When developing complementary functional strategies the Functional or
Department Managers are always significant stakeholders.
•
Forms of Internal Stakeholder Power:
–
–
–
–
–
Formal, through the ability to make decisions
Informal, by being charismatic
By having control of important resources
Through possession of specialist knowledge and skills
By having power over others through negotiation
(Adapted from Johnson, Scholes and Whitington, 2008)
Operations – Strategy Development
• Different stakeholders have different levels of
interest and power, and are managed
differently:
low
Level of Interest
high
low
A
B
C
D
Level of Power
high
A – Minimal Effort
B – Keep Informed
C – Keep Satisfied
D – Key Players
Operations – Strategy Development
• “Since operations accounts for some 60-70 per cent of assets,
expenditure and people, operations managers must be more
involved in strategic decisions and senior executives must
fully appreciate their arguments” (Hill & Hill, 2009, p14)
Decline in
Manufacturing Output
Decline in Skilled
Operations Managers
Operations – Strategy Development
• Other factors can also influence manufacturing strategy development
and effectiveness:
– Organisational culture and learning (Fang and Wang, 2006)
• “firms that wish to raise their manufacturing quality and capability
should also be concerned about organizational structure, decision
models and managerial styles.”
– Organizational culture (Bates, Amundson, Schroeder and Morris, 1995)
• “a manufacturer with a well-aligned and implemented
manufacturing strategy exhibits a group-oriented culture with
coordinated decision making, decentralized authority and a loyal
workforce.”
Operations – Strategy Development
• Generic plan of strategy development:
Operations – Strategy Development
• “The failure of a company to monitor its competitors is at
best a mark of corporate complacency and at worst a sign of
strategic naivety” (Hill & Hill, 2009, p97)
Can be undertaken in different ways:
– Internal comparison between areas of the same company
– External against direct competitors
– External against similar non-competitors
– External against dissimilar industry leaders
Operations – Strategy Development
• Strategies are:
– Market-driven
– Market-driving
– Combination of both
– Developed iteratively
strategy must change to fit shifting markets
strategy may change to accommodate changes in capabilities
Operations – Strategy Development
• The process of strategy development can be
broadly divided into two phases and five
stages:
Analyze Markets
Agree
markets
Determine market
order-winners and
qualifiers
Develop an Operations Strategy
Identify key
strategic
task
Review current
performance and
identify
improvements
Prioritize
investment and
development
See: Exhibit 4.1, p112-113
Operations – Strategy Development
• Business Focus:
Operations – Strategy Development
•
Operations Focus:
– Individual manufacturing facilities will also require focusing upon the needs
of their intended market and their intrinsic capabilities.
Operations – Strategy Development
• Maintaining Focus
– Strategy development is iterative
corporate strategy cascades into manufacturing strategy while
manufacturing capabilities feed into corporate strategy
manufacturing strategy needs to harmonize with other functional
strategies
– Strategies are dynamic
corporate strategy must take account of changes in the marketplace
as well as changes (improvements) in internal capabilities
Activity
• Identify the ONE SKILL that you will improve
upon over the duration of this module.
• Also
– Explore the skill of ‘reflective writing’.
– Prepare the first part of your Portfolio: reflect
upon this week!