Name: Zaria haque

ID: 17241053, CT2, Course: OM

Answer 1

Flexibility: it’s a characteristic of a firm’s operations that enables it to react to customer needs
quickly and efficiently.

There are five ways companies can respond to the need for flexibility:

 Scenario building: Strategists plan several different outcomes for each initiative, thus
permitting quick responses to competitive threats.
 Reality checks: key decision makers meet regularly at short intervals to assess ways that
rivals might make inroads in the market place.
 Communication: to get everyone’s thinking of the effects of the change on their
operations executive announce strategy shifts to employees within hours of decision.
 Hires: employers fill jobs with people who thrive on change and ambiguity.
 Shortening the budget cycle: to ensure individual and department goals are properly
revised, managers link the budget review to strategy review.

Answer 2

Difference between competence and ore competence are given below:

Competence: an internal activity that a company performs better than other internal activities.

Example: decision making, risk taking etc

Core competence: these are the unique resources and strengths that an organization’s
management considers when formulating strategy.

Example: conflict resolution

Workforce can differentiate the performance of two similar companies in many ways. A well
trained and flexible workforce can offer many advantages.

• Will respond better to market needs in a timely fashion.

• Offer better service and quality products.

• Adapts better to organizational changes

• Ability to perform various kinds of tasks with competency.

• Specially in the service industry a workforce can be the core competency of a company

Answer 3

Joint venture: two firms agree to produce a product or service. This approach is used by firms
to gain access to foreign markets.

Like, a firm wants to do a business in India will set up a joint venture with a firm there.

Green field investment: A green-field (also "greenfield") investment is a type of foreign direct
investment (FDI) in which a parent company creates a subsidiary in a different country, building
its operations from the ground up.

Like, In 2006, Hyundai Motor Company received approval to make around one billion euros
with a major greenfield investment in Nošovice in the Czech Republic. The automaker
established a new manufacturing plant that employed up to 3,000 individuals in its first year of
operation. The Czech Government provided tax relief and subsidies to prompt the Greenfield
investment, in hopes of boosting the country’s economy and lowering the unemployment rate.

Turn key operation: A Turnkey operation is defined as a product or service concept that is
complete, installed and ready to use upon delivery or installation. The product or service is then
leased or sold to an individual to run as his/her own venture. Like, An oxygen plant supplied and
installed in a petrochemical facility

Merger and acquisition : Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are defined as consolidation of
companies. Differentiating the two terms, Mergers is the combination of two companies to form
one, while Acquisitions is one company taken over by the other. M&A is one of the major
aspects of corporate finance world. Like, In 2005, Google acquired Android for an estimated $50
million. At the time of the deal, Android was an unknown mobile startup company. The move
made it possible for Google to compete in a market owned by Microsoft with Windows Mobile
and Apple’s iPhone.

Franchising: A continuing relationship in which a franchisor provides a licensed privilege to the

franchisee to do business and offers assistance in organizing, training, merchandising, marketing
and managing in return for a monetary consideration. Franchising is a form of business by which
the owner (franchisor) of a product, service or method obtains distribution through affiliated
dealers (franchisees). Like, Mcdonals, KFC, Pizza Hut etc.

Answer 4

Competitive priorities: A customer driven operation strategy reflects a clear understanding of

firm’s long term goals as embodied in its corporate strategy. It also requires a cross functional
effort by marketing and operations to understand the needs of each market segment and to
specify the operating advantages that the firm needs to outperform competitors.
There are 8 competitive priorities that fall into four groups. They are given below:

 Cost: lowering price can increase demand for product and services. Example: Walmart
o Lowering operational cost.
 Quality: quality is a dimension which is defined by the customers. Example: Tesla car
o High performance design: it means superior features.
o Consistent quality: measures frequency with which product or service meets
design specifications.
 Time: fastest service can increase the demand. Example: Pizza hut
o Fast delivery time: it means the elapsed time between receiving a customer’s
order and filling it.
o On time delivery: frequency with which delivery time promises are met.
o Development speed: how quickly a new product or service is introduced.
 Flexibility: it’s a characteristic of a firm’s operations that enables it to react to customer
needs quickly and efficiently.
o Customization: ability to satisfy the unique needs of each customer by changing
product and service design. Example: Japan Unilever’s personalized shampoo
laborica.
o Volume flexibility: ability to accelerate the rate of production quickly to handle
large fluctuation in demand. Example,

Answer 5

Manufacturing strategies are given below:

 Make to stock strategy: firms that hold items in stock for delivery, thereby minimizing
customer deliver times, uses make to stock strategy. Example: FMCG Companies can
produce items on large batches that allows for economies of scale and low cost per unit.
 Assemble in order strategy: it’s an approach to produce customized products from
relatively few assembles and components after customer orders are received. Example:
when a consumer wants to buy a PC, then the finished goods such as CPU, monitor,
keyboard etc are combined from different operations to make a final product.
 Make to order strategy: manufactures that make products to customer specifications in
low volumes tend to use a make to order strategy. Example: cars. This products is
customized as per customers need.