This paper reports on research aimed at operationalising the Hayes and Wheelwright four‐stage model describing the strategic role of operations. Although this model has classic status in operations management, it is little tested in practice. A questionnaire derived from the model was administered in a large‐scale postal survey of managers in a variety of UK manufacturing and service organisations. Analysis of the responses indicates that only a little over half of respondents were able to provide an assessment of their organisation's operations that fitted the logic of the four‐stage model. This seems to imply that managers have difficulty in assessing the strategic role played by their operations in an internally consistent and coherent manner. The results question the utility of the model and raise concerns about its validity.

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Despite its widespread acceptance, little practical application of the Hayes and Wheelwright four-stage model is reported in the literature. This paper formulates a questionnaire to classify manufacturing companies under the Hayes and Wheelwright four-stage model and assesses the reliability of the instrument. In an application of the questionnaire to three small manufacturing companies, the paper finds that half of the questions asked are statistically reliable according to the Interclass Correlation method. An in-depth cross-case study of the three organisations reveals patterns of management which further support the statistically reliable questions. The overall conclusion is that further research on questionnaires as instruments for exploring the four-stage concept is necessary before a reliable method is available.

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