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

Explain how does a leader differ from a manager, How does a leader differ f...

How does a leader differ from a manager and when would it be more advantageous to be a manager rather than a leader?

Project MAnagement, A firm uses three machines in the manufacturing of thre...

A firm uses three machines in the manufacturing of three products: Each unit of product 1 requires three hours on machine 1, two hours on machine 2 and one hour on machine 3.

Explain how the market value of the shares, St James Ltd. Has just paid a d...

St James Ltd. Has just paid a dividend of £0.22 per share. The market expects this dividend to grow constantly in each future year at the rate of 7% p.a. The cost of capital for St

Line balancing, what do you understand by line balancing

what do you understand by line balancing

Explain variations in the material characteristics, Rivets used to secure t...

Rivets used to secure the stainless steel sheet metal of aircraft wings are designed to withstand certain shearing forces. It is known that because of random variations in location

Production volume of bushings as well bearings are the same, 1. A powder me...

1. A powder metal (PM) manufacturing line produces bushing in three steps, compaction, sinter-harden, and rough/O?nish turn, which are accomplished at three single machine stations

Explain how technology has created a more efficient process, Type your ques...

Type your question hereHRIS systems have allowed HR to automate a variety of functions, including performance management, training, employee development, staffing, compensation, an

What is acquisition management, In your own words, what do you think acquis...

In your own words, what do you think acquisition management is and what are your impressions on how it is done in the DoD?

Explain widget is identical and requires a machining cycle, 3,000 widgets m...

3,000 widgets must be machined on workstation during week. Each widget is identical and requires a machining cycle time (Tc) of 36.5 minutes. All of the machining centres in the sh

Explain what is the maximum possible output per week, An assembly line with...

An assembly line with 7 tasks is to be balanced. The longest task is 8 minutes, the shortest task is 2 minutes, and the sum of the task times is 53 minutes. The line will operate f

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