perspectives on operations strategy

relation to the breadth and depth of the literature, the following section examines various perspectives on operations strategy as classified by Slack et al (2016).

Manufacturing strategy, in this context, provides a structured approach to decision making in order to facilitate economic production. Operations management is the planning, scheduling, and control of activities that transform inputs into finished goods and services that evidently links with production economics’ administrative role. Manufacturing strategy is subordinated to operations management, i.e. strategy comes before management. These pressures have raised firms’ awareness of competitive priorities and operational capabilities (Pisano and Shih, 2012). The business strategy generates competitive advantage, which should then be applied to the operations strategy (Hayes and Wheelwright, 1984).

The definition of an operations strategy must include two major components (Pisano and Shih, 2012)). The first element refers to the goals of the operations function and can be defined as the priorities that a company wants to have in order to compete (Hayes and Wheelwright, 1984). Priorities are desired capabilities, or areas that should be emphasized, that a firm wants to have in the future (Dawar, 2013). Priorities (or objectives) direct management actions toward the development of the most appropriate operational capabilities (Hasket et al. 2008). The second element is a pattern of decisions made by a company that determines the actual capabilities of the operations system (Hayes & Wheelwright, 1984). In other words, operations capabilities are realized capabilities, i.e. those attained after management actions are implemented. Lastly, Haskett et al. (2008) and Dawar (2013) work confirmed that the success of firms was built on core manufacturing capabilities.

The goal of businesses is to develop difficult-to-copy capabilities that help a company stand out among its competitors. According to researchers, the primary basis for firm competition is their operational capabilities (Hayes and Pisano, 1994). Management actions are based on knowledge and the company’s limited resources. Management makes decisions under the constraints of limited resources, and not all capabilities can be maximized (Collis and Montgomery, 1995). As a result, operational capabilities highlight the importance of strategic management in adapting and integrating resources to meet customer expectations (Slack et al., 2015).

Several manufacturing firms have relocated their manufacturing operations to higher performance areas in order to gain a competitive advantage (Lafley et al., 2017). This is a well-established business practice that has been going on since the 1960s (Jensen and Pedersen, 2012). There are numerous studies on operations strategy in the existing literature in the operations management field that identify critical priorities and operations