Manufacturing – Still a missing link?

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jom.2014.09.001
• Date: 01 November 2014
• Author: William Youngdahl,Kannan Ramaswamy,Daniel Krause
• Published date: 01 November 2014

Journal

of

Operations

Management

32

(2014)

399–402

Contents

lists

available

at

ScienceDirect

Journal

of

Operations

Management

j

o

ur

na

l

ho

mepage:

www.elsevier.com/locate

/jom

Introduction

Manufacturing

–

Still

a

missing

link?

a

b

s

t

r

a

c

t

This

paper

introduces

the

special

issue

on

“Implementing

Operations

Strategy

for

Competitive

Advantage.”

We

initiated

the

call

for

papers

for

this

special

issue

with

this

question:

“How

do

we

identify,

promote,

and

implement

transformational

initiatives

that

put

into

place

operational

capabilities

that

provide

new

sources

of

firm-level

competitive

advantage?”

Collectively,

these

papers

provide

insight

into

how

important

operations

can

be

to

a

company’s

success,

while

also

reinforcing

how

important

it

is

for

operations

to

be

integrated

with

other

functions,

internally,

to

achieve

that

success,

as

well

as

externally

with

suppliers.

Before

introducing

the

papers

included

in

the

forum,

the

authors

provide

thoughts

on

operations

strategy

research,

drawing

from

the

past

and

looking

forward.

©

2014

Elsevier

B.V.

All

rights

reserved.

1.

Introduction

Operations

management

research

has

evolved

from

its

more

siloed

beginnings

as

an

area

of

inquiry

focused

largely

on

the

inner

workings

of

manufacturing

processes,

techniques,

and

quality

control

approaches

to

a

much

broader

and

increasingly

inter-

disciplinary

domain.

Over

the

past

decade,

the

acceleration

of

globalization

and

its

consequent

impact

on

offshoring

and

the

critical

role

of

supply

chain

management

have

accentuated

and

ele-

vated

the

role

that

operations

management

plays

in

enabling

and

even

driving

the

overall

organizational

strategy.

As

predicted

by

early

operations

strategists

(Skinner,

1969;

Hayes

and

Wheelwright,

1984),

operations

capabilities

have

become

a

cornerstone

of

competitive

advantage

in

many

organiza-

tions.

For

example,

Reliance

Industries,

the

Indian

petrochemical

giant,

owes

its

competitive

advantage

to

its

operational

abilities.

Much

of

its

advantage

in

the

cost-sensitive

commodities

business

depends

on

its

ability

to

dynamically

manage

alternative

input

feedstocks,

reduce

cycle

time,

and

eliminate

waste

along

the

pro-

cess.

Relying

on

its

operations

prowess,

the

company

has

created

a

world-class

plant

with

processes

that

have

become

the

envy

of

its

global

competitors.

Along

similar

lines,

many

of

the

consumer

prod-

ucts

companies

such

as

Procter

and

Gamble

have

been

able

to

build

on

their

knowledge

management

systems

expertise

using

a

combi-

nation

of

information

technology,

distributed

offshore

operations,

and

smart

analytics

to

drive

predictive

models

of

consumer

behav-

ior

on

a

global

basis.

Global

giants

such

as

Wal*Mart,

Apple,

Toyota,

and

Unilever

have

been

able

to

leverage

significant

strengths

in

supply

chain

management,

an

operations

competency,

to

deliver

sustainable

competitive

advantage.

These

are

but

a

few

of

many

examples

where

leadership

in

operations

has

delivered

tangible

results

in

organizational

performance

and

competitive

advantage.

Despite

these

examples

of

companies

implementing

opera-

tions

strategies

that

enable

competitive

capabilities,

anecdotal

evidence

suggests

that

the

implementation

of

strategy

through

operations

initiatives

that

provide

new

enabling

technologies

is

neither

straightforward

nor

routinely

successful.

In

his

2007

paper

(p.

330),

Skinner

notes

that

he

still

sees

a

conflict

between

a

“company’s

competitive

strategic

situation”

and

its

manufactur-

ing

policies

at

95%

of

the

companies

he

visits

(Skinner,

2007).

We

contend

that

the

time

to

bridge

the

gap

between

operations

strat-

egy

and

competitive

advantage

is

at

hand.

By

highlighting

how

well-selected

and

well-implemented

operations

initiatives,

often

involving

cross-functional

or

supply-chain

capabilities,

can

truly

enhance

overall

competitive

advantage,

operations

management

researchers

will

be

better

positioned

to

influence

top

manage-

ment

strategic

planning

within

organizations.

To

bridge

the

gap

between

operations

management

research

and

practice,

we

pos-

itioned

this

special

issue

to

focus

more

on

“how”

than

on

“what.”

How

do

we

separate

yet

another

operations

project

from

a

strategic

operations

initiative

that

will

be

transformational

in

its

ability

to

enable

competitive

advantage?

How

do

we

implement

the

initia-

tive

to

ensure

positive

results?

How

does

operations

management

thinking

dovetail

with

competing

imperatives

across

functions

to

allow

the

organization

to

achieve

quantum

leaps

in

strategic

per-

formance?

It

is

axiomatic

that

one’s

perspective

is

colored

by

one’s

vantage

point

in

evaluating

the

challenges.

Thus,

while

a

finance

man-

ager

may

tend

to

see

an

operations

problem

in

financial

terms,

or

an

HR

manager

might

see

it

in

behavioral

terms,

it

is

clear

that

successful

implementation

of

strategic

initiatives

requires

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jom.2014.09.001

0272-6963/©

2014

Elsevier

B.V.

All

rights

reserved.