Rethinking Skinner’s model: strategic trade-offs in products and services

Purpose To survive in a competitive landscape, companies are required to identify, develop and continuously improve upon the operations capabilities that have the greatest impact on the overall competitiveness. This paper aims to evaluate critical operations capabilities for competitive manufacturing in a high-cost environment. Design/methodology/approach Critical operations capabilities for competitive manufacturing were extracted in a literature review and then evaluated from the perspective of a high-cost environment in a focus group study. The focus group included a quantitative (questionnaire) and qualitative (discussion) evaluation of the extracted critical operations capabilities. Findings The empirical findings revealed that all the capabilities identified in the literature review are considered critical in a high-cost environment, albeit with varying emphasis. Companies located in a high-cost environment tend to emphasize a broad set of capabilities related to quality, cost, time, flexibility and innovation rather than only cost-related capabilities. Research limitations/implications The research is based on a focus group that was limited to 14 representatives from five Swedish manufacturing companies. This can reveal some limitations with regard to the generalizability of the conclusions drawn. Hence, this research should be considered as an initial step in gaining a more in-depth and complete understanding of the research topic under investigation. Practical implications The research outcome enables managers to design their operations strategy more systematically and effectively, to be consistent with their targeted capabilities. The operations capabilities are important for both the company’s competitiveness and its future direction. Originality/value The paper presents an updated understanding of how companies achieved a competitive advantage in a specific manufacturing environment such as a high-cost context. It additionally provides an overview of what capabilities are developed for implementing successful operations strategies.

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“…The ability to provide a wide range of products with different features Pooya and Faezirad (2017), Sarmiento et al (2016) Volume flexibility…”

Section: Product Line Flexibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of critical operations capabilities for competitive manufacturing in a high-cost environment

Sansone

Hilletofth

Eriksson

2020

JGOSS

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“…So even for the hypothetical case that a company has no trade-offs and can offer everything, a customer may choose a different, far worse-performing company. Still, as long as the strategic laws of trade-off satisfactorily explain phenomena that occur in the everyday world (Sarmiento et al , 2016), decision-makers should take into account its dictates and implications to augment the probabilities of implementing a strategy that will result in a successful company.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On strategic trade-offs: does the principle of energy conservation explain the trade-offs law?

Thürer

Stevenson

Sarmiento

et al. 2017

MRR

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to reaffirm the suggestion that there are at least two distinct types of laws of trade-off that affect all firms and, in doing so, to contribute toward resolving the persistent trade-off debate in the literature. Design/methodology/approach Conceptual study using implicit deductive reasoning. Findings Two types of trade-offs are identified: “internal” can be understood following the dictates of the law of diminishing returns, while “external” can be modeled using the principle of energy conservation. Research limitations/implications New insights are provided by discussing the impact of both laws of trade-off on the resource-based view of the firm, on new capabilities such as sustainability and innovativeness and on key strategic choices. Practical implications The study explains why trade-offs occur and outlines contextual factors that determine the “strength” of the trade-offs. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous study has attempted to investigate the topic of strategic trade-offs on the basis of the principle of energy conservation.

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“…It is literally a question of choiceas there is not a logical or causal relationship between what the customer wants and what the firm can provide. This recognition of the nature of strategic choices is the essential subject of the trade-off and cumulative models of operations strategy that have been extensively examined in the operations literature (Noble, 1997;Schmenner and Swink, 1998;Rosenzweig and Easton, 2010;Sarmiento et al, 2013Sarmiento et al, , 2016 . For example, the trade-off model claims that the decision MRR 42,3 of a firm to focus on one set of customer attributes means that the firm must necessarily choose not to provide some other set of customer attributes.…”

Section: The Integration Of Operations Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

On the integration of manufacturing strategy: deconstructing Hoshin Kanri

Thürer

Maschek

Fredendall

et al. 2019

MRR

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Structured AbstractPurpose: To show that Hoshin Kanri has the potential to integrate the operations strategy literature into a coherent structure. Hoshin Kanri's planning process is typically described as a top-down cascading of goals, starting with the senior management's goals and moving to the lowest organizational level. We argue that this misrepresents a firm's actual cognitive processes in practice because: (i) it implies reasoning from the effects to the cause; and (ii) it assumes a direct causal relationship between what the customer wants and what is realizable by the system. Design/methodology/approach: Conceptual; abductive, based on the literature. Findings:The actual strategic thought process executed in an organization consists of three iterative processes: (i) a translation process that derives the desired customer attributes from customer/stakeholder data; (ii) a process of causal inference that predicts realizable customer attributes from a possible system design; and, (iii) an integrative process of strategic choices whereby (i) and (ii) are aligned. Each element relies on different cognitive processes (logical relation, causal relation and choice). Research implications:By aligning the thought and planning processes, the competing concepts of manufacturing strategy are integrated into a coherent structure.Practical implications: Different techniques have to be applied for each of the three elements.Since each element relies on different cognitive processes (logical relation, causal relation and choice), the use of unifying tools (e.g. in the form of matrices, as often presented in the literature) is inappropriate.Originality/value: The first study to focus on the thought processes underpinning manufacturing strategy.

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Rethinking Skinner’s model: strategic trade-offs in products and services

Cited by 18 publications

References 52 publications

Evaluation of critical operations capabilities for competitive manufacturing in a high-cost environment

Evaluation of critical operations capabilities for competitive manufacturing in a high-cost environment

On strategic trade-offs: does the principle of energy conservation explain the trade-offs law?

On the integration of manufacturing strategy: deconstructing Hoshin Kanri

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