PROCESS TECHNOLOGY & SUSTAINABLE OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT Flashcards
What is process technology?
What is process technology strategy?
“the set of decisions that define the strategic role that direct and indirect process technology can play in the overall operations strategy of the organisation and sets out the general characteristics that help to evaluate alternative technologies.”
We can further classify two types of process technology: the first is that contributing ‘directly’ to the production of goods and services; the second type is the ‘indirect’ or ‘infrastructure’ technology that acts to support core transformation processes. Process technology strategy is the set of decisions that define the strategic role that direct and indirect process technology can play in the overall operations strategy of the organisation, and sets out the general characteristics that help to evaluate alternative technologies.
Any technology strategy is likely to be planned in consultation with other parts of the firm, maybe using some kind of formal planning process such as technology roadmapping. A technology roadmap (TRM) is an approach that provides a structure that attempts to assure the alignment of developments (and investments) in technology, possible future market needs and the new development of associated operations capabilities.
What are some points to analyze regarding process technology?
- What is the difference between this technology and other similar ones?
- What are the constrains that using this technology will affect the operation
- What are the necessary skills?
- What is the necessary capacity for each unit of technology?
- What is the lifetime of the technology?
What issues are associated with process technology?
- All operations need to understand the analytical dimensions for identifying the technical, managerial and ‘operations strategy’ characteristics of technology
- Used to increase efficiency in machines and systems
- Used in all functions of the business
- Big impact in operations process
What is a technology roadmap?
Technology roadmap (TRM) is an approach that provides a structure that attempts to assure the alignment of developments (and investments) in technology, possible future market needs and the new development of associated operations capabilities. A TRM is essentially a process that supports technology development by facilitating collaboration between the various activities that contribute to technology strategy. It allows technology managers to define their firm’s technological evolution in advance by planning the timing and relationships between the various elements that are involved in technology planning.
What are suitable dimensions for characterizing process technology?
- The scale of the technology (that is, its capacity, not its physical size).
- The degree of automation of the technology (what the technology does itself as opposed to requiring human intervention).
- The degree of coupling of the technology (the degree to which different parts of the technology are integrated or linked together).
How can process technologies be evaluated?
Evaluation process technology
- The feasibility of the process technology – that is, the degree of difficulty in adopting it, and the investment of time, effort and money that will be needed.
- The acceptability of the process technology – that is, how much it takes a firm towards its strategic objectives, or the return the firm gets for choosing it.
- The vulnerability associated with the process technology – that is, the extent to which the firm is exposed if things go wrong and the risk that is run by choosing the technology.
What is the product-process matrix and what does it detail?
- There is a “natural diagonal” or line of fit between the product or service offerings that a company has
- Any deviation away from the natural line of fit has cost consequences
What are some factors to access the acceptability of a process technology?
How can we evaluate strategically?
What is sustainable operations management?
Sustainable OM as the set of skills and concepts that allow a company to structure and manage its business processes to obtain competitive re- turns on its capital assets without sacrificing the legitimate needs of internal and external stakeholders and with due regard for the impact of its operations on people and the environment
What are some of the challenges of information technology?
The dominance of information technology (IT) has caused a rethink of how technology fits into operations strategy. Although there is a positive connection between adopting IT and productivity growth, it is not guaranteed. But where failure occurs it is usually caused by managerial, implementation or organizational factors. Moreover, different kinds of IT pose different kinds of challenge. Limited ‘function IT’, such as CAD, facilitates a single function or task. Enterprise IT extends across the entire organisation. Because of this it will need potentially extensive changes to the organisation. Network IT facilitates exchanges between people and groups inside and/or outside the organisation. However, it does not necessarily predefine how these exchanges should work. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is an example of enterprise IT. It integrates the planning, resource allocation and control activities of all parts of the business – the better to make informed planning and control decisions. However, the practical implementation of this idea has proved to be very complex and expensive. If a business’s current processes do not fit with the structure of whatever ERP package is purchased, they can either change their processes to fit the ERP package or modify the software within the ERP package to fit their processes. But both of these options involve costs and risks.
What are some dimensions to assess impact on sustainable competitive advantage
Explain the triple bottom line
- The triple bottom line aims to measure the financial, social, and environmental performance of a company over time.
- The TBL consists of three elements: profit, people, and the planet.
- TBL theory holds that if a firm looks at profits only, ignoring people and the planet, it cannot account for the full cost of doing business.
Explain sustainability’s role in operations management
What procedure can be used for planning sustainability operations strategies?
