Strategic Consensus in
Operations Strategy
Authors: Kenneth K. Boyer and Christopher M. McDermott
Content

Abstract

Introduction

Strategic consensus

Research proposition

Data collection

Operational constructs

Results

Discussion/Conclusion
Abstract
Operations strategies of some companies are very detailed, but they do not have
a good communication across the organization and they are not ready when its
come to change. A good strategy should be appropriate , should have a good
communication and understood throughout the organization. Most companies
only have one informant for their business. Some companies invest more in
technology than managers.
Introduction
During the past decade, in term of quantity and quality, many research of
operation strategy has made significant progress. Many companies focus only in
competition with other companies, but it is not the competition that gives
companies success. To be successful, the critical operation strategies is how the
company makes it priorities and how these priorities are translated to the
organization. Any company should have a list of priorities and how it take these
priorities. The goal of this study is to examine the need for strategic consensus
within operations.
Strategic consensus

Strategic consensus is the level of agreement within an organization
regarding the relative importance of cost, quality, delivery and flexibility to
the organization’s operational goals, as well as the relationships between
these competitive priorities and operational policies.
Cost, quality, flexibility and delivery is the key of competitive priorities. Some
searchers define manufacturing strategy as a sequence of decisions that enables
a business to be successful. Many studies on operations strategy implicitly assume
that some level of agreement is necessary for the organization, and a detailed
plan is a critical component of a successful operation strategy.
Strategic
consensus
Fig 1. Operations strategy
model
Fig 1 (A) shows that managers and
operators have a good
communication and how they view
the company’s competitive
priorities, structural and
infrastructural decisions.
Fig 1 (B) shows that the managers
and operators have a bad
communication. Managers and
operators have different view of
the company.

Research proposition
Searchers did their research to collect data and know where the problem of the
company is, and they give three proposition:
Proposition 1: the managers and operators have the same organization level, the
same competitive priority
Proposition 2: infrastructural improvement program such as worker
empowerment, quality leadership and use of teams is the same based on the
organizational level of the respondent.
Proposition 3: a company investment in advanced manufacturing technologies is
the same based on the organizational level of the respondent.
Data collection
The searchers use different research methods for the data collection. They use a
combination of case study and survey-based so they can collect a valuable
information. The survey’s questions was based to the competitive priorities of
the plant, as well as the infrastructural and structural investments used to
support this strategy. This survey used two different groups of respondents. The
first group was the middle and upper level of managers who have authority over
operational decisions and the second group consisted to the operational level
employees. Table 1 provides the overview of plants participating in study.
Data collection
Operational constructs

Competitive priorities
The competitive priorities have four essential composition: cost, quality,
flexibility, and delivery. The scales used to measure each of these four priorities
are based on those used by the Boston University Futures Survey.

Infrastructural policies
To measure investments in infrastructure, three scales are drawn from three
different sources: worker empowerment, quality leadership and the use of small
teams.
-The worker empowerment’ scales is labeled WEMP and consist of the average of
the seven items.
Operational constructs
-The quality leadership scale was developed to measure the role of management
in providing quality leadership within a Total Quality Control
-Use of small team scale consists of the average of three items.

Structural investments
Advanced Manufacturing Technologies are used by three scales to measure
structural investment. AMTs are used to collect numerous studies. It exists three
type of AMTs: Design-based AMTs focus on the design product and processes;
Manufacturing-based AMTs focus on manufacturing and physical transformation of
the product; Administrative-based AMTs are used to track operations inputs and
out
Results

Competitive Priorities
Results

Infrastructural investments
Results

Infrastructural investments
Results

Structural investments
Discussion/Conclusion
The theme of this study was to study the strategic consensus for seven
companies. After examining seven manufacturing plants, the researcher noticed
that managers and operators have different views on competition priorities in
some companies. These companies are limited, such as a lack of strategy
consensus. Researchers and managers should have a divergent viewpoint to form
a complete holistic view of the firm. The results showed that the degree of
strategic agreement is variable from company to company.