Exercise – Putting the four-stage model into practice.

Teaching the importance of the strategic role of operations using the Hayes and Wheelwright Stage 1 to Stage 4 model is best done (we have found) by relating it directly to the students’ experience.

We have found it difficult to use this model within a case study. Any case study that incorporates all the relevant information would be excessively long. Instead, try the following exercise.

When Hayes and Wheelwright first proposed their four-stage model, they probably meant it to be a broad-brush conceptual tool whose main point was to demonstrate that operations should think about the extent of their contribution to the company’s competitiveness. However, it can form the basis of an analysis tool that can be used by companies to calibrate themselves in terms of where they fall on the 1 to 4 scale. One way of doing this is to deconstruct the elements of how Hayes and Wheelwright describe each stage. Their descriptions mainly cluster around four issues, namely,

• the way the operations relates with its external customers and the way it manages its internal customer relationships;

• the degree to which it has an understanding and knowledge of its operations practices;

• the way it links operations processes and resources with competitive strategy, and

• the degree of innovation shown within the operations function.

The table ‘At what stage is your operation?’ fleshes this idea out. It takes each element and attempts to describe the nature of each as they progress from Stage 1 through to Stage 4. So, for example, in terms of relationship with internal and external customers, Stage 1 operations are continually managing crises, Stage 2 operations are concentrating on establishing appropriate performance monitoring systems, Stage 3 operations are using the performance monitoring systems as a basis for improvement, while Stage 4 operations are exploring new ways of developing internal and external relationships through an in-depth understanding of internal and external customers and suppliers operations.