Completed notes of the course

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OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT LESSON 1 - OPERATIONS STRATEGY STRATEGY All companies, to survive over time, have to build and keep a specific advantage that differentiate them from competitors. Managing this differentiating advantage is the essence of strategy. We identify three strategic levels: - corporate: we allocate resources between different markets and products -> where do we compete? - business unit: we define what are the market needs and how to satisfy them -> how do we compete? - functional: we support the company in satisfying market needs According to the traditional approach, we define the business unit strategy which develops into the marketing strategy which develops into the operations strategy. Past believes about operations are: - operations are mostly technical - operative aspects are details These statements are no longer true because the world has changed. External relevant factors are: - offer > demand, the offer is much higher than the demand - customisation, the customer asks for a product that fits perfectly with his request - globalisation, the number of suppliers to choose from is very high - high speed of technological development Internal factors influencing company’s resources are: - cultural: the educational level of workers is higher than in the past, everyone can give a contribution - technological innovation: the many new technologies enable companies to be more competitive - economical: wealth increase, customers are becoming richer - social: authority acknowledgment, companies have to be transparent According to the innovative approach, functional strategies cannot be independent one from another, nor they can be the sequential outcome of the business strategy; rather necessity to communicate and interact to define the strategy at business…