Chapter 3 Operations processes and life cycles
The Evolution of process types
1. The craft era: before the industrial revolution and characterized by artisans making
customized goods usually from their own small businesses
- Simple project – e.g. simple house construction
- Job shop – e.g. auto repair shop, print shops
- Batch process – wine making (or hipster beer)
2. The mass production era: period of large-scale production and the growth of large operations
which fabricated relatively standard outputs; assembly products on a product line
- Complex projects – bridges or sky scrapers outputs on much larger scale &
more complexity than a simple project; such projects were a result of 3 main
influences: availability of entirely new materials, mechanization or automation of
some elements of the activity, development of specialist expertise
- Batch production – (sort of standardized job shop) small engineers production
system in which an operation is broken down into distinct processes that are
completed on a small number or ‘batch’ products at a time
- Assembly line – computers, cars (think of the T-ford)
- Flow process – e.g. glass manufacturing, oil and steel production continuous
production of commodity products
3. The strategic operations era: more is required of businesses to meet the increasing demands
of customers; covers last forty years; low-cost output; features of craft era (individualized
products) incorporated into features of mass production
- Lean production – Toyota; the removal of all ‘waste from processes to improve
- Agile manufacturing – Zara or HM; the ability to alter aspects of an operation to
meet demands, to react on market changes
- Mass customization – Dell; low cost goods customized for individual customers
- Innovation and continuous improvement (CI) – ASML, Dyson
- Servitization – manufacturing firms becoming service providers with added-
value-services for customers who buy their products; IBM
- Ubiquitization – strategy adopted by service firms in order to physically distribute
their products and services ‘everywhere’
- Low-cost competition – compete on costs that are significantly lower than the
established players in the market; airlines
- Globalization – arguable if it is a operations strategy; but making products or
delivering them on a global basis has very significant implications for how
operations are managed
4. Fourth industrial revolution (i4.0): combi of web-based and digital technologies that have
transformed industrial and service processes (technologies = IoT, robotics, artificial
intelligence, 3D printing)
Four major trends: automation, web-based services, co-creation (can get involved in
the delivery in a number of different ways: crowdfunding, co-creation, co-marketing,
service delivery), big data and analytics
Process choice
Hayes and Wheelwright state that there are 5 fixed process types (strategic era process types are in
the right corner) look at picture in the book, page 80
The Evolution of process types
1. The craft era: before the industrial revolution and characterized by artisans making
customized goods usually from their own small businesses
- Simple project – e.g. simple house construction
- Job shop – e.g. auto repair shop, print shops
- Batch process – wine making (or hipster beer)
2. The mass production era: period of large-scale production and the growth of large operations
which fabricated relatively standard outputs; assembly products on a product line
- Complex projects – bridges or sky scrapers outputs on much larger scale &
more complexity than a simple project; such projects were a result of 3 main
influences: availability of entirely new materials, mechanization or automation of
some elements of the activity, development of specialist expertise
- Batch production – (sort of standardized job shop) small engineers production
system in which an operation is broken down into distinct processes that are
completed on a small number or ‘batch’ products at a time
- Assembly line – computers, cars (think of the T-ford)
- Flow process – e.g. glass manufacturing, oil and steel production continuous
production of commodity products
3. The strategic operations era: more is required of businesses to meet the increasing demands
of customers; covers last forty years; low-cost output; features of craft era (individualized
products) incorporated into features of mass production
- Lean production – Toyota; the removal of all ‘waste from processes to improve
- Agile manufacturing – Zara or HM; the ability to alter aspects of an operation to
meet demands, to react on market changes
- Mass customization – Dell; low cost goods customized for individual customers
- Innovation and continuous improvement (CI) – ASML, Dyson
- Servitization – manufacturing firms becoming service providers with added-
value-services for customers who buy their products; IBM
- Ubiquitization – strategy adopted by service firms in order to physically distribute
their products and services ‘everywhere’
- Low-cost competition – compete on costs that are significantly lower than the
established players in the market; airlines
- Globalization – arguable if it is a operations strategy; but making products or
delivering them on a global basis has very significant implications for how
operations are managed
4. Fourth industrial revolution (i4.0): combi of web-based and digital technologies that have
transformed industrial and service processes (technologies = IoT, robotics, artificial
intelligence, 3D printing)
Four major trends: automation, web-based services, co-creation (can get involved in
the delivery in a number of different ways: crowdfunding, co-creation, co-marketing,
service delivery), big data and analytics
Process choice
Hayes and Wheelwright state that there are 5 fixed process types (strategic era process types are in
the right corner) look at picture in the book, page 80
