Hayes and Wheelwright Strategic Model Essay

In their four- storey model, convert and Wheelwright (1984) categorize different types of placements ground on their attitude towards their trading operations. The four stage model is underpinned by their belief that an transcriptions operations dope forget a witness of war-ridden advantage. It brush aside only do this if the operations black market is managed strategically.A stage 1 brass section finds it impossible to manage its operations strategically, as its operations performance objectives are continually changing between low cost, change magnitude flexibility, improved grapheme, etc. Because operations managers never meet the time to focus on a consistent execute of objectives, a stage 1 plaque is characterized by a reactive advent to operations management. In such an government, operations can never pass on a source of competitive advantage. A stage 2 organization manages its operations by want to emulate those of its competitors. It is likely to copy the frequent best practices of its exertion, such as JIT (just-in-time), TQM (total quality management), BPO ( duty process outsourcing) etc. However, as they ceaselessly adopt these techniques in the wake of fabrication leaders, they are never likely to read developed the same level of expertise in their application.The best that such an approach can achieve is to match the operations performance of its competitors. Although the combination of operations practices take by a stage 2 organization may be considered by some as amounting to an operations scheme in that they are consistent, they will non be overtly linked to melodic line strategy. Indeed, it may be that such an operations strategy is inappropriate for the organizations business strategy. In whatever event, a stage 2 organizations operations cannot provide the basis for competitive advantage.A stage 3 organization has an operations strategy that is linked to and derived from its business strategy. This means th at its operations performance objectives are aligned with, and supportive of, its business objectives, offering the possibility that operations can provide the means of achieving a competitive advantage. The chances of achieving competitive advantage will be easily increased if the organization has adopted industry best practice in its operations.A stage 4 organization is radically different to one at any of the other stages. It uses its operations excellence as the basis for its business strategy an perations-based strategy. The operations of a stage 4 organization are at the forefront of developments in best practice in that they set industry standards in ways that relish customers. Thus, the organizations operations enable it to retain its existing customers and attract bleak ones. For an operations-based competitive advantage to be sustainable, the organization must continually develop its operations, as any source of advantage is probable to be imitated by competitors.To remain at stage 4, an organization needs to look how to make the most of its existing resources and competences to ensure how to develop new capabilities. Recent advances in the understanding of organizational performance have emphasized the importance of path dependence (i.e. how organizations got to their present position), the dynamic nature of the capabilities on which organizational success ultimately depends and the theatrical role of organizational learning.