Corporate Strategy and its Connection to Operations Corporate

Corporate Strategy and its Connection to Operations

Corporate Mission • The mission of the organization – – defines its purpose, i. e. , what it contributes to society states the rationale for its existence provides boundaries and focus defines the concept(s) around which the company can rally • Functional areas and business processes define their missions such that they support the overall corporate mission in a cooperative and synergistic manner.

Corporate Mission Examples • Merck: The mission of Merck is to provide society with superior products and services-innovations and solutions that improve the quality of life and satisfy customer needs-to provide employees with meaningful work and advancement opportunities and investors with a superior rate of return. • Fed. Ex: Fed. Ex is committed to our People-Service-Profit philosophy. We will produce outstanding financial returns by providing totally reliable, competitively superior, global air-ground transportation of high-priority goods and documents that require rapid, time-certain delivery. Equally important, positive control of each package will be maintained utilizing real time electronic tracking and tracing systems. A complete record of each shipment and delivery will be presented with our request for payment. We will be helpful, courteous, and professional for each other, and the public. We will strive to have a completely satisfied customer at the end of each transaction.

Defining the Corporate Strategy Responsiveness (Reliability; Quickness; Flexibility; e. g. , Dell, Overnight Delivery Services) Competitive Advantage through which the company market share is attracted Cost Leadership (Price; e. g. , Wal-Mart, Southwest Airlines, Generic Drugs) Differentiation (Quality; Uniqueness; e. g. , Luxury cars, Fashion Industry, Brand Name Drugs)

Defining the Corporate Strategy • Corporate Strategy: The organization’s positioning in terms of – responsiveness, – cost leadership and – product differentiation requirements, i. e. , the sought competitive advantage(s). • The corporate strategy dictates the detailed strategies for each functional area (i. e. , Operations, Finance, Marketing) but it is also affected by those areas. • Collectively, all these strategies seek to exploit (external) opportunities and (internal) strengths, neutralize (external) threats, and address (internal) weaknesses

Fit Between Corporate and Functional Strategies (Chopra & Meindl) Corporate Competitive Strategy Product Development Strategy Supply Chain or Operations Strategy Information Technology Strategy Finance Strategy Human Resources Strategy Marketing and Sales Strategy

Factors affecting Corporate Strategy • External – Emerging strengths and weaknesses of competitors => new threats and opportunities, respectively – New industry entrants – Development of substitute products – Development of new technologies – Legal developments (e. g. , environmental concerns and regulations) – Economic and political developments (e. g. , new international agreements, political crises) • Internal – Company politics and restructuring – Modified relationships with customers and suppliers – Product Life Cycle

Strategy and Issues during a Product’s Life (J. Heizer & B. Render, “Operations Management”, Prentice Hall) Introduction • Best period to increase market share • R&D engineering critical Growth • Practical to change price or quality image • Strengthen niche Maturity • Poor time to change image, price or quality • Competitive costs become critical • Defend market position Decline • Cost control critical Sales Time • Frequent product and process changes • Short production runs • High production costs • Limited models • Attention to quality • Forecasting critical • Products and process reliability • Increase capacity • Shift towards product focus • Enhance distribution • Standardization minor product changes • Optimum capacity • Process stability • Long production runs • Little product differentiation • Overcapacity in the industry • Reduce capacity and eventually prune line to eliminate items not returning good margin

The operations frontier, trade-offs, and the operational effectiveness Responsiveness Cost Leadership Differentiation

Expanding the operations frontier: Dell’s “revolution” in the PC market • Dell’s competitive advantage: Provide customized PC configurations, with short delivery times and affordable prices. • Dell’s success in PC market:

PC SUPPLY CHAINS Customer Distribution Channels PUSH Manufacturer Suppliers Typical PC Supply Chain (Compaq, HP, IBM, etc. ) Virtual Integration PULL Dell Suppliers Dell Supply Chain PUSH

The Critical Success Factors underlying Dell’s competitive advantage • Very high product (configurable) variety – mass customization! • Direct fulfillment - no intermediaries • No production launch until customer order booked (pure pull!) • Very low finished goods inventory (costs) – high inventory turns (raw material inventory influenced by “recommended configurations”) • High velocity material flows & fulfillment

Supporting Dell’s competitive advantage through a new operational model • Focused on strategic partnerships: suppliers down from 200 to 47 • Suppliers maintain nearby ship points; delivery time 15 minutes to 1 hour • Suppliers own inventory until used in production • Demand pull throughout value chain – “information for inventory” substitution • Demand forecasting is critical – changes are shared immediately within Dell and with supply base • Customers frequently steered to “recommended configurations” with high availability to balance supply and demand • External logistics supplier used to manage inbound supply chain

Emerging factors and trends enabling Dell’s strategy • The commoditization of the PC industry – Standardized and interchangeable components – Emergence of reliable manufacturing service providers • Recent advances in Supply Chain Management – Information Technology (IT) platforms that allow the effective and efficient information exchange and coordination across the entire supply chain – 3 rd party logistics service providers – Emerging emphasis on virtual rather than vertical company integration

The primary “drivers” for achieving strategic fit in Operations Strategy (adapted from Chopra & Meindl) Corporate Strategy Operations Strategy Efficiency Facilities Responsiveness Inventory Transportation Information Market Segmentation

The role of Facilities • Facilities: The locations where inventory is – processed and transformed into another state (manufacturing) or – staged before being shipped to the next stage (warehousing) • In general, centralization boosts efficiency, while decentralization boosts responsiveness (but not always…) • Primary decisions: – Location • • • Proximity to the customer Proximity to resources Access to markets (ability to circumvent quotas and tariffs) Infrastructure Operational costs and tax incentives – Capacity • Capital cost vs. responsiveness – Operations Methodology for Manufacturing Facilities • Product vs. functional focus • Flexible vs. dedicated capacity – Warehousing methodology • Storage modes and material flow organization • Cross-docking

The role of Inventory • Primary inventory components: – Raw Material – Work In Process (WIP) – Finished Goods • It exists because of the finiteness of the production and transportation rates (Little’s Law: I=TH*T) • Types of Inventory – Cycle Inventory: It is incurred in an effort to control the impact of “fixed” ordering and set-up costs. – Safety Inventory: It is used to deal with the randomness in the experienced demand; it is set so that it helps the supply chain meet some “service level” (i. e. , control the probability that no stock-out will be experienced at any replenishment cycle). – Seasonal Inventory: It is used to help the supply chain deal with predictable variability in demand. – Opportunistic Inventory: Takes advantage of “bargains”. • Sourcing: Determine the set of suppliers / subcontractors to be used, and develop the contracts that will govern the relationship.

The role of Transportation • Transportation: The SC element that moves product between its different stages. • Primary decisions: – Mode(s) of Transportation • • • Air: fastest but most expensive Truck: Relatively quick, inexpensive and very flexible mode Rail: Inexpensive mode to be used for large quantities Ship: Slowest but often the most economical choice for large overseas shipments Pipeline: Used (primarily) for oil and gas Electronic transportation: for goods as music and movies – Route and Network Selection – In-house or Outsource to some 3 PL provider

The role of Information • Information exchange is necessary for the most extensive modes of coordination sought in contemporary supply chains. It allows the supply chain to improve simultaneously its efficiency and responsiveness. • Information-related decisions – – – Push vs. pull Extent and modes of information sharing and coordination Forecasting and Aggregate Planning schemes Pricing and revenue management policies Enabling Technologies: • Electronic Data Interchange (EDI): Enables paperless transactions, primarily for “backend” operations of the SC. • The Internet and the WWW. • Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP): enables transactional tracking and global visibility of information in the SC. • Supply Chain Management (SCM) software: decision support tools.

The opportunities and challenges of globalization

Some basic definitions • International business: A firm that engages in cross-border transactions. • Multinational corporation (MNC): A firm that has extensive involvement in international business, owing or controlling facilities in more than one country.

Building competitive advantage through globalization • Cost reductions: labor, transportation, taxation (free trade zones), tarrifs, etc. • Easier access to local markets; ability to understand adjust better to the local markets and cultures; • Ability to create new markets and expand the life cycle of existing products • Ability to tap to the local expertise or unique resources • Ability to interact with and learn from the local industry

The challenges underlying the deployment and support of global operations • The provided products and services need to appeal to the local markets => need for broader product lines and (mass-)customization • Need to coordinate the production activity across a geographically dispersed network • Need to understand systematically assess the pros and cons offered by the various geographical locations – – – Technological infrastructure Labor skills and education Political stability and legal issues (prod. Liability laws, export restrictions) Economic factors (tax and interest rates, availability of raw materials, etc. ) Social and cultural aspects (language, work ethic, etc. ) • Need to align the provided products and services, as well as the deployed production and business functions to the local culture and ethics

Reading Assignment Chapter 1: Sections 1. 4 -1. 9