Production Strategy

Ahmed Ata Khan

Production Strategy
Production strategies are broad long-term action plans. They are
made for achieving the main objectives of organisation.
The main strategies used in production planning and control are:
 Chase strategy
 Level production
 Make-to-stock
 Assemble to order.

Six steps to create an efficient production strategy

Step 1 – Set challenging long-term goals.
Step 2 – Identify an expert.
Step 3 – Identify where the potential is greatest.
Step 4 – Draw up a thorough situation analysis
Step 5 – Develop the strategy.
Step 6 – Visualize and confirm the development strategy
Production Strategy
While the business operations framework is a continuous
cycle in which each stage informs the next, developing a
strategic plan is the best place to start.
During the strategic planning process, an organization
performs three steps:
 Builds or modifies the foundational strategic vision and
mission
 Commits to goals that drive overall health
 Develops a long-term plan to achieve the goals

A strong strategic plan positions the organization for success

and clearly defines it at every level.
A common mistake we see businesses make is starting
tactical initiative execution without first communicating and
aligning on the goal. Skipping these important steps can leave
your organization without direction.
Strategy Pyramid
Define Your Vision
An organization’s vision statement is an aspirational
description of what it wants to achieve in the future.
A vision statement serves as a clear guide for choosing current and
future courses of action — a definition of where you want your
organization to be in the long term. It sets the tone and provides a
North Star on the horizon.
Warby Parker’s (the online prescription glasses retailer) vision
statement has two parts:
“We believe that buying glasses should be easy and fun. It should
leave you happy and good-looking, with money in your pocket.
We also believe that everyone has a right to see.”
Warby Parker has always touted its “Buy a Pair, Give a Pair”
program that donates glasses to people who can’t otherwise afford
them.
A powerful vision statement helps company employees focus their
work in the right direction — and a strong vision statement will do the
Create Your Mission
While your vision is an organization-wide goal, your
mission is how you plan to achieve the vision.
Without a mission, your organization lacks the why and how. If
everyone in your organization has their own interpretation of the
vision, it can lead to conflicting strategies and initiatives.
Warby Parker’s mission statement is:
“By circumventing traditional channels, designing glasses in-
house, and engaging with customers directly, we’re able to provide
higher-quality, better-looking prescription eyewear at a fraction of
the going price.”
After the founding team realized early on that one large company
dominated the eyewear industry with inflated prices, they decided to
find a way to lower prices and increase quality, while also turning a
profit.
The resulting actions included bringing many traditionally
outsourced services in-house, such as design and consumer
marketing/sales.
Set Your Objectives
Objectives are specific results that a person or system aims
to achieve within a time frame.
Defining success early lets you know if you are on the path to
achieve your mission and vision. Clearly articulating your objectives
creates goal posts by which your organization can measure its
overall health and the impact of strategic initiatives.
Good objectives should be clear, measurable and be supported by
multiple strategic initiatives across the organization.
For the ‘Buy a Pair, Give a Pair’ program, Warby Parker’s relevant
objective might be aimed at growing the program, while the
innovation priority may be tied to the objective of innovating to
meet the strategic vision and mission.
The issue of responsible sourcing could lead to an objective of using
all recycled packaging or becoming carbon neutral.
In the Annual Report, the top issues cited are the ‘Buy a Pair, Give a
Pair’ program, customer experience, innovation, product safety, and
responsible sourcing.
Develop Your Strategy
Your strategy is a long-term plan that enables you to
achieve your organization’s objectives.
An effective strategy brings together vision and execution. Strategies
are much more specific than an organization’s vision, mission, and
objectives.
They are typically only shared within an organization and ideally
built around an organization’s needs and market context.
Strategies should map long-term plans to objectives and actionable
steps, foster innovative thinking, as well as anticipate and mitigate
potential pitfalls.
By the end of 2019 Warby Parker had distributed seven million pairs
of glasses to 23 countries through the ‘Buy a Pair, Give a Pair’
Program and will be likely focus on expanding those numbers in
2021 and beyond.
Like Warby Parker’s eyeglasses process, the company allows a trial
period for contact wearers, who can request 6 days of contacts in
their prescription before committing to a full 90-day supply.
Outline Your Approach
An approach provides a methodology for executing your
strategy.
The approach is a framework for answering key questions that will
later determine tactics. Plus, it guides an organization on how to
execute the strategic plan.
Within our Warby Parker example, each strategic plan included an
approach that guided the leadership team in their analysis and plan
execution.
Two big projects were: the Pupil’s Project expansion and the launch of
the contact lens brand Scout.
Pupil’s Project was the distribution of free glasses in schools and
identifying them, and delivering them was the main approach.
Scout was the new contact lens brand and as it was a new business for
the company, it was required that what a daily contact lens should be
—high quality, moist, breathable, comfortable, innovative, and
affordable.
Get Down to Tactics
Tactics are focused initiatives, projects, or programs that
allow organizations to execute a strategic plan.
Tactics are the key to execution. They are the actions you take to make it
all happen.
Within each decision Warby Parker made, the company used different
tactics to move it from an idea to actual product or program.
While each decision could have dozens of tactics, or two examples for
each are highlighted.
For Pupil’s Project, one necessary tactic was bringing together the design
and logistics teams to narrow down the style options that would be
appealing to kids, cost effective, and easy to produce in large numbers.
For the Scout contact lens launch, the tactics were to find material and
construction that fit the criteria of “high quality, moist, breathable,
comfortable, innovative, and affordable.”
On the surface, each tactic might not seem connected, but as you dig
deeper, you’ll find that effective tactics should always tie back to the
strategy, objectives, mission, and vision of the company.
Operations Strategy
Operations strategies drive a company's operations, the part
of the business that produces and distributes goods and
services.
“Operations strategy is the total pattern of decisions which
shape the long-term capabilities of any type of operations
and their contribution to the overall strategy,”
Here are some common operational strategies an
organization can use to enhance efficiency, boost
capabilities and improve competitive advantage:
 Corporate strategy.
 Customer-driven operational strategy.
 Core competencies strategy.
 Competitive priorities strategies.

Thought of the Week