Strategic Management Overview

Order Qualifiers

• Minimum standards of acceptability for customers.
• Must be achieved by a company to avoid being eliminated from consideration.

Order Winners

• Differentiate a company from its competitors.
• Can lead to an increased market share.

Key External Factors

• Influence an organization's strategic decisions.
• Include economic, political, legal, technological, competitive, and market conditions.

Key Internal Factors

• Internal strengths and weaknesses relevant to an organization's success.
• Include factors like cost structure, flexibility, skill level, and capacity.

Quality and Time Strategies

• Focus on maintaining or improving the quality of products and services.
• Can be implemented through quality-based strategies.

Team-based Strategies

• Utilize teams to improve efficiency and decision-making.
• Emphasize collaboration and shared responsibility.

Communication Strategies

• Employ various communication channels to effectively disseminate information.
• Increase visibility and transparency within the organization.

Operations Manager Role

• Responsible for managing and overseeing the production and delivery of goods or services.
• Oversee the operations function, which consists of activities related to producing goods or providing services.

System Design Decisions

• Long-term strategic choices regarding the organization's operations.
• Include decisions related to facility location, layout, capacity, and equipment acquisition.

System Operation Decisions

• Short-term tactical decisions affecting the day-to-day running of the organization's operations.
• Include decisions related to personnel management, inventory control, scheduling, project management, and quality assurance.

Mathematical Models

• Simplified representations of real-life situations.
• Can be used to analyze and solve complex problems.

Keys to Successfully Using a Model in Decision Making

• Ensure the model accurately represents the real-life situation.
• Understand the limitations of the model.
• Use the model to inform decision-making, not replace it.

System Approach

• Emphasizes the interrelationships among various subsystems within an organization.
• Recognizes that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Craft Production

• Characterized by skilled artisans who manually produce goods.
• Limited to small-scale production.

Division of Labor

• Introduced by Adam Smith in 1776.
• Specializes workers in specific tasks, leading to increased efficiency.

Scientific Management

• Developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor, known as the "Father of Scientific Management."
• Focused on optimizing work processes to improve productivity and efficiency.
• Emphasized time and motion studies.

Establishing Priorities

• Prioritizing tasks based on their impact and urgency.
• Ensures that resources are allocated effectively.

Multifactor Productivity

• Measures the efficiency of multiple inputs used in production.
• Calculates output per unit of input.

Process Yield

• Measures efficiency of a process in producing a desired output without defects.
• Calculated as the ratio of good units produced to total units produced.

Total Factor Productivity

• Measures economic efficiency by capturing the portion of output growth that cannot be explained by changes in inputs alone.

Factors Affecting Productivity

• Influencing productivity levels include:
  • Capital: Investment, quality, and utilization.
  • Quality: Quality of product, process, and standards.
  • Technology: Automation, innovation, and improvements.
  • Management: Effective leadership, critical thinking, strategic planning, employee development, and successful management.
  • Other Factors: Standardization, quality, internet utilization, and computer viruses.

Improving Productivity

• Enhance organizational effectiveness through various actions:
  • Develop productivity measure
  • Determine critical (bottleneck) operations
  • Develop methods for productivity improvement
  • Establish reasonable goals
  • Get management support
  • Measure and publicize improvements
  • Don't confuse productivity with efficiency.

Layout Decisions

• Focus on the arrangement of equipment, workspaces, and resources.
• Optimize for efficiency, minimize waste, and enhance safety.

Work Design and the Human Element

• Involves organizing tasks, responsibilities, and workflows within production systems.
• Considers the human aspect of work by recognizing the importance of employees.

Outsourcing

• Contracting out specific business functions or processes to external providers.
• Allows organizations to focus on core competencies while benefiting from external expertise.

Product and Service Design

• Involves translating customer wants and needs into product and service requirements.
• Refines existing products and services, develops new offerings, and collaborates between marketing and operations departments.

Layout Decisions

• Focus on the arrangement of equipment, workspaces and resources.
• Optimize for efficiency, minimize waste, and enhance safety.
• Influences by decisions made in product and service design.

Work Design and Human Element

• Involves organizing tasks, responsibilities, and workflows within production systems.
• Emphasize human aspect by recognizing employees as crucial assets.
• Aims to improve job satisfaction, motivation, and productivity.

Explore the critical aspects of strategic management, including order qualifiers and winners, key external and internal factors, and various strategies. This quiz tests your understanding of how these elements influence organizational success and efficiency.