Needs for trade- offs - business strategy, Operation Management

Assignment Help:

Needs for Trade- offs - Business Strategy

In recent years another reason for questioning the need for trade-offs has arisen. In manufacturing industries great efforts have been expended in developing process technologies, and in particular the application of computers, to create production systems capable of mass customisation. Unlike a mass production system, which produces a standard product at low cost, a mass customisation system would produce 'specials' (traditionally the province of the high-cost job shop) at similar low cost. Such a system has been developed by Levi Strauss, the jeans manufacturer, allowing customers to have their jeans made to measure.

The customer's sizes are sent electronically to the factory, where a computer-driven production system automatically produces the jeans to the specified sizes. A few days later the customer may collect the jeans. Impressive though such technology may be, it raises issues. What then to measure? Ideally, the measures chosen will relate directly to the business qualifiers and order winners. However, care is required in the choice of operations performance measures; the order winners themselves may be inappropriate. For example, consider a business which has identified low price as the prime order winner. Price is an external (market) variable, which may rise or fall for reasons other than operational performance eg in response to competitors' pricing, sales promotions, seasonal price variations, etc. It would be unreasonable to measure the week-to-week performance of operations personnel on the basis of such a variable, which can change substantially for reasons outwith their control. What is needed is an internal (operational) variable, relevant to the order winner concerned: in the case of price it might be appropriate to measure unit cost, labour productivity or equipment utilisation.


Related Discussions:- Needs for trade- offs - business strategy

Find the net present value, The company is considering a capital expenditur...

The company is considering a capital expenditure of $480,000. It has an estimated life of 4 years and no salvage value. The estimated net income and new cash flow from the project

Logical process modelling, What is logical process modelling? What is physi...

What is logical process modelling? What is physical modelling?

Short term financial conditions of improving productivity, What are the lon...

What are the long and short term financial consequences of improving productivity in a business?

Explain a global corporation, A global corporation sees the world as its la...

A global corporation sees the world as its labor source as well as its marketplace. Therefore, a global corporation will locate an operation wherever it can accomplish its goals in

OPERATTION MANAGEMENT, DISCUSS THE ADVISABILITY OF USING MODULAR ASSEMBLIES...

DISCUSS THE ADVISABILITY OF USING MODULAR ASSEMBLIES IN MANFACTURING

Explain personal and professional lives, How can you see the integration an...

How can you see the integration and the modern management theory integrated into your own personal and professional lives? Pick only one theory for there are hundreds

Aid how to enter the answer after the equal sign using excel, Can someone s...

Can someone show me how to enter the answer after the equal sign using excel 2010

Explain marketers collect both primary and secondary data, Today's marketin...

Today's marketing research personnel have far greater access to both primary research tools as well as widely published and accessible secondary data. How has the Internet changed

Operation Management and POM QM sums , The assignment consists of 3 exercis...

The assignment consists of 3 exercises, and the marks for each question varies. Printouts provided with the prose solutions and explanation of the POM-QM solutions must be original

Write Your Message!

Captcha
Free Assignment Quote

Assured A++ Grade

Get guaranteed satisfaction & time on delivery in every assignment order you paid with us! We ensure premium quality solution document along with free turntin report!

All rights reserved! Copyrights ©2019-2020 ExpertsMind IT Educational Pvt Ltd