Lecture 2

Question 1

Three levels of operations performance

Answer 1

1. Societal level - operations sustainablity
2. Strategic level - operations strategic impact
3. Operational level - operations performance objectives

Question 2

Five performance objectives of operations

Answer 2

• Quality > Being right
• Speed > Being fast
• Dependability > Being on time
• Flexibility > Being able to change
• Cost > Being productive

All leads to competetiveness

Question 3

External and internal benefits of quality

Answer 3

External: Improves product/avoids customer complaints
Internal: Reduces cost, increases speed, increases dependability

Question 4

Speed external and internal benefits

Answer 4

External: higher customer satisfaction
Internal: reduced cost, increased dependability

Question 5

Dependability external and internal benefits

Answer 5

External: Avoids customer complains and helps retention

Internal: Reduces extra costs, increases speed

Question 6

Flexibility external and internal benefits

Answer 6

External: Ability to serve wide customer segments, avoid customer complains and lost sales due unavailability
Internal: Reduces cost, increases speed and dependability

Question 7

4 perspectives of operations strategy

Answer 7

-Top-down (reflection of what the whole business wants to do)
-Bottom-up (operations improvements cumulatively build strategy)
-Outside-in (translating market requirements into operations decisions)
-Inside-out (exploiting the capabilities of operations resources in chosen markets)

Question 8

4 stage model for evaluation of the role and contribution of the operations function

Answer 8

Stage 1: Internal neutrality (Holding company back from competing effectively)
Stage 2: External neutrality (Operations function begins comparing itself with similar organizations in the outside market)
Stage 3: Internally supportive (Gaining a clear view of the company’s competetive/strategic goals and supporting it by developing appropriate operations resources
Stage4: Externally supportive (Operations are long-term, it forecasts likely changes in markets and supply, deveops operations-based capabilities used to compete in future market conditions)