ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABLE OPERATIONS
What are the reasons for formulating and implementing an operations and supply chain strategy?
Describe a possible operations mission that fits the following business situations:
Ambulance service.
Production of hybrid automobile batteries.
Production of electronics products that have a short product life cycle.
An operations manager was heard complaining, “The boss never listens to me—all the boss wants from me is to avoid making waves. I rarely get any capital to improve operations.”
Does the business have an operations strategy?
What should be done about the situation?
Define the following terms in your own words: operations mission, order winner, order qualifier, and distinctive competence.
How would you determine whether a company has an operations and supply chain strategy? What specific questions would you ask, and what information would you gather?
Evaluate a couple of local hospitals in terms of its emphasis on the four operations objectives: cost, quality, delivery, and flexibility. Are all departments focused on the same objectives? What are the order winners and the order qualifiers?
Define some of the strategic decisions that might be required in a grocery store’s operation and its supply chain depending on whether the strategy was emphasizing imitation or innovation.
Find examples of operations and supply chain strategies. Write a few paragraphs describing the strategies being pursued.
Describe an operation where higher quality will cost more. What is your definition of quality? Why does higher quality cost more? If you use a different definition of quality, will higher quality cost less?
What is the distinctive competence of the following companies?
Starbucks Coffee Company
Hewlett Packard
Burger King
Explain how a distinctive competence in operations can be the basis for competition in the company.
Give two examples of a distinctive competence that can be sustained and not easily duplicated. Explain why it is hard to copy these distinctive competencies.
Give an example of a global business with which you are familiar. How has globalization affected its operations and its supply chain?
What are the practical consequences of a lack of strategic linkage between the business and the operations function
