Advances in information technology and global
competition have had a major influence on operations
management.
The Internet, e-commerce, e-business
Six sigma: a process of reducing costs, improving quality,
and increasing customer satisfaction.
Agility: the ability of an organization to respond quickly
to demands or opportunities.
Lean systems: systems that uses minimal amounts of
resources to produce high volume of high-quality goods
with some variety.
Competitiveness,
Strategy, and
Productivity
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This chapter focuses on three separate, but related
ideas that are vitally important to business
organizations
Competitiveness
Strategy
Productivity
Competitiveness:
How effectively an organization meets the wants and
needs of customers relative to others that offer similar
goods or services
Organizations compete through some combination of
their marketing and operations functions
•What do customers want?
•How can these customer needs best be satisfied?
Identifying consumer wants and/or needs:
The ideal is to achieve a perfect match between those wants
and needs and the organization’s goods and/or services.
Pricing and quality:
are key factors in consumer buying decisions.
Advertising and promotion:
are ways organizations can inform potential customers
about features of their products or services, and attract
buyers.
1. Product and service design: Special characteristics or
features of a product or service can be a key factor in consumer
buying decisions.
2. Cost: is a key variable that affects pricing decisions and
profits.
3. Location: can be important in terms of cost and convenience
for customers.
4. Quality: refers to materials, design, and service.
5. Quick response: bringing new or improved products or
services to the market, quick delivery of orders, quick handling
customer complaints.
Operations has a major influence
on competiveness through:
6. Flexibility: is the ability to respond to changes (design
features, high demand volume)
7. Inventory management: effectively matching supplies of
goods with demand.
8. Supply chain management: involves coordinating internal
Operations has a major influence
on competiveness through:
