Operation Strategy of a Firm - Essay Example

Operation in any firm refers to a process to produce the firm’s products and services. Operations strategy, on the other hand, concerns itself with the provision of a general guideline crucial for achieving the firm’s goals (Barney, 2001, 632). Slack (2007) asserts that the resource-based view of the firm is one of the most influential current theories in operations strategy. Resource-based view is a main contributor to a firm’s competitive advantage. It implies the use of both tangible and intangible resources of the firm, to gain attributes that let it outperform its competitors (Shrivastava, 1994).

Resource-based view (RBV) is a major determinant during the selection of a firm’s location. These resources include the firm’s assets, management skills, organisational processes and routines, and the information and knowledge it controls. To begin, human resources is important for a firm’s success as it encourages convergence and interaction of operations strategy and human resource issues (Thornhill & Amit, 2003). The economics and finances of a firm largely depend on RBV. A firm’s return is hoisted depending on the resources at its disposal. Thus, in selecting a location, the firm should consider the possibility of positive returns in its new location, and this, however, may be hindered by the firm’s heterogeneity (Barney, 2001, 638). RBV is entirely, as well, a vital tool in expanding research and entrepreneurial developments in a firm. Through the entrepreneurial process of understanding market opportunities, and the coordination of innovativeness and knowledge in the firm, the firm’s inputs can be easily translated to heterogeneous returns. Thus, the firm gains a competitive advantage over its competitors (Barney, 2001, 639).

The selection of a new location for a firm is supposed to be based on other factors like marketing and customer preferences. Changing to a new location may alter the utilisation of RBV resources, and this may have the effect of either customer value creation or depreciation. Thus, RBV plays a big role in the determination of a new location for a firm. It may lead to a heterogeneous output for the firm if all the RBV resources are utilized with a prior market analysis (Belderbos et al., 2008).

The design role of any firm is to come up with an operations strategy that takes into consideration, the resources at a firm’s disposal. The strategic design is mainly aimed at specifying the policies and plans for using a firm’s resources. The process of developing an operations strategy lies in the firm’s mission, analysis an incisive understanding of the market and even identifying the firm’s strengths and weaknesses (Pedersen, 2013). On the other hand, the role of management in the firm is to ensure that all operations, designs and processes run smoothly for the attainment of the firm’s objectives. The management ensures that the operations are efficient - use of as few resources as needed – and effective in terms of customer satisfaction (Samson & Sing, 2008).

 Both the roles of management and design in an organisation are dependent on each other. Granet (2011) agrees that even though, an organisation's core objective is the highest outcome for minimal input; it is necessary to spend on innovation and modern design to achieve maximum profits from the operations of a company (Dess, G. 2012). The interaction between managerial roles in the firm and technical roles is important to the firm’s success. An organised interaction is necessary in the design role of the firm to make sure that the instruments, processes and other operations are coordinated for the smooth running of the firm. A small discrepancy in the design role can bring the operations of the firm to a halt, and this has a significant effect on the firm's return (Wheeler, 2003).

Moreover, the role of management is directly dependent on the design operations. An organised interaction within managerial functions and between design controls is crucial to the firm’s dominance in the market (Ng. K., 2002, 75). It is, however, important to note that a glitch in a managerial role can be easily solved by the firm’s executives and thus, is not as effective to the firm’s performance as is a fault in a design role.