As an operations manager there are four basic strategies you can implement in your operations management to help it perform better. These are product focus, process focus, repetitive focus and mass customization. These strategies can help you to improve your operations.
Process strategy is the pattern of decisions made in managing processes so that they will achieve their competitive priorities. A process involves the use of an organization's resources to provide something of value.
What are the main characteristics of Repetitive Focus? It is a product-oriented process that uses modules (parts of components previously prepared in a continuous process. This type of production (with modules) allows more customizing than a product-focused facility. Modules are assembled to get a quasi-custom product.
For example, when an insurance company specializes in 'crop insurance' only or a bank has concentrated on 'housebuilding loans', we can say that they are pursuing focus strategy. After identifying the niche-markets, $ company can decide to enter into one or more of the niches with its products.
Business Process Design - Three Types of Business Processes
- Operational process.
- Supporting process.
- Management process.
Focus strategy involves targeting your products to a niche market or targeted audience. The idea behind focus strategy is developing, marketing and selling products or services to a niche market, such as a particular type of consumer, a specific product line or a targeted geographical area.
“An entrepreneur with a product/customer focus is one that clearly understands the needs and wants of their customers and thereby producing and developing products that enhance people's lives, but also products that meet and satisfy customer needs and wants.”
Market focus means knowing the overall dynamics and forces in the marketplace, and understanding how those forces might impact the business. A product-focused business looks at their offerings, and strives to continually improve them. Market focus seeks to identify opportunities and then capitalize on them.
4 examples of customer focusTo show that customer experience matters across the business, Zappos connects the organization through customer-centric values. For example, every employee takes customer service calls during their first two weeks at the company.
Apple has a legendary focus on the customer experience. Every customer touchpoint (products, the website, ads, app store, and retail store) yields a consistent Apple experience. Over the last 10 years, Apple has aggressively expanded the areas where the Apple experience is part of daily life.
A product strategy outlines a company's strategic vision for its product offerings by stating where the products are going, how they will get there and why they will succeed. The product strategy enables you to focus on a specific target market and feature set, instead of trying to be everything to everyone.
Mass customization is a marketing and manufacturing technique that combines the flexibility and personalization of custom-made products with the low unit costs associated with mass production. Other names for mass customization include made-to-order or built-to-order.
Like many other technology firms, Apple tries to create new innovative products by utilizing the strengths of their production teams. However, Apple is not only product oriented. They do take on a market orientation approach as well as they also spend time figuring out what the customer wants through market research.
A value proposition refers to the value a company promises to deliver to customers should they choose to buy their product. A value proposition can be presented as a business or marketing statement that a company uses to summarize why a consumer should buy a product or use a service.
Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. (
The product is the final result of a development cycle. The process is a sequence or set of steps that should be followed to create a product. Product development focus is on final outcome. The process focuses on each step to be followed during software product development.
A Focused Factory strives for a narrow range of products, customers and processes. The result is a factory that is smaller, simpler and totally focused on one or two Key Manufacturing Tasks. The Focused Factory rests on three underlying concepts: There are many ways to compete besides low cost.
Advantages of product layouts include:
- Output. Product layouts can generate a large volume of products in a short time.
- Cost. Unit cost is low as a result of the high volume. Labor specialization results in reduced training time and cost.
- Utilization. There is a high degree of labor and equipment utilization.
5 Radical Ways to Rethink Managing the Manufacturing Line
- Forget output, focus on profits. Instead of asking workers to meet manufacturing output targets, open the books and show them how they contribute to profits.
- End the annual review.
- Rethink teamwork.
- Recognize process rather than results.
- Take a lesson from gamers.
There are four basic types of layouts: process, product, hybrid, and fixed position. Process layouts group resources based on similar processes. Product layouts arrange resources in straight-line fashion. Hybrid layouts combine elements of both process and product layouts.
Product Layout refers to arranging machines in the sequence of production while Process Layout refers to setting up of different processes in isolation of each other.
Static Product Layout or Project Layout or stationary Layout: The manufacturing operations require the movements of men, machines, and materials, in the product layout and process layout generally the machines are fixed installations and the operators are static in terms of their specified work stations.
In manufacturing engineering, a product layout refers to a production system where the work stations and equipment are located along the line of production, as with assembly lines. Usually, work units are moved along line (not necessarily a geometric line, but a set of interconnected work stations) by a conveyor.
Here are five ways to motivate your factory workers and get your production line running like a well-oiled machine:
- Encourage Bottom-Up Communication for Factory Workers (and learn from it)
- Find New Ways to Streamline Processes and Save Time.
- Providing Ongoing Training and Upskill Support.
