Chapter Nine

Value Chain Management: Functional Strategies for Competitive Advantage

McGraw-Hill/Irwin

Copyright 2009 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights

Learning Objectives
1. Explain the role of functional strategy and valuechain management in achieving superior quality, efficiency, innovation, and responsiveness to customers Describe what customers want, and explain why it is so important for managers to be responsive to their needs Explain why achieving superior quality is so important and the challenges facing managers and organizations that seek to implement total quality management
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Learning Objectives
4. Explain why achieving superior efficiency is so important and the different kinds of techniques that need to be employed to increase efficiency 5. Differentiate between two forms of innovation, and explain why innovation and product development is a crucial component of the search for competitive advantage

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Four Ways to Create a Competitive Advantage

Figure 9.1
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Functional Strategies and Value-Chain Management

Functional-level strategy
plan of action to improve the ability of each of an organizations departments to performs its task-specific activities in ways that add value to an organizations goods and services

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Question?
What is the coordinated sequence of functional activities necessary to transform inputs into finished goods? A. Input chain B. Transformation series C. Value chain D. Value string
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Functional Strategies and Value-Chain Management

Value chain
coordinated series or sequence of functional activities necessary to transform inputs into finished goods or services that customers value and want to buy

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Functional Activities and the Value Chain

Figure 9.3

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Functional Strategies and Value-Chain Management

Value-chain management
development of a set of functional-level strategies that support a companys businesslevel strategy and strengthen its competitive advantage

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Functional Strategies and Value-Chain Management

Product development
engineering and scientific research activities involved in innovating new or improved products that add value to a product

Marketing functions task is to persuade customers a product meets their needs and convince them to buy it

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Functional Strategies and Value-Chain Management

Materials management function
controls the movement of physical materials from the procurement of inputs through production and into distribution and delivery to the customer

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Question?
Which function provides after sales service and support? A. Production function B. Sales function C. Customer service function D. Call center function

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Functional Strategies and Value-Chain Management

Production function
responsible for the creation, assembly or provision of a good or service, for transforming inputs into outputs

Sales function
plays a crucial role in locating customers and then informing and persuading them to buy the companys products

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Functional Strategies and Value-Chain Management

Customer service function
provides after sales service and support Can create a perception of superior value by solving customer problems and supporting customers

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What Do Customers Want?

1. A lower price to a higher price 2. High-quality products 3. Quick service and good after-sales service 4. Products with many useful or valuable features 5. Products that are tailored to their unique needs
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Customer Relationship Management

Customer relationship management
technique that uses IT to develop an ongoing relationship with customers to maximize the value an organization can deliver to them over time

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Impact of Increased Quality on Organizational Performance

Figure 9.4

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Total Quality Management

Total quality management (TQM)
focuses on improving the quality of an organizations products and stresses that all of an organizations value-chain activities should be directed toward this goal

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Steps to Successful TQM Implementation

1. Build organizational commitment to quality 2. Focus on the customer 3. Find ways to measure quality 4. Set goals and create incentives 5. Solicit input from employees

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Steps to Successful TQM Implementation (cont.)

6. Identify defects and trace to source. 7. Introduce just-in-time (JIT) inventory systems. 8. Work closely with suppliers. 9. Design for ease of production. 10. Break down barriers between functions.

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Facilities Layout, Flexible Manufacturing, and Efficiency

Facilities Layout
strategy of designing the machine-worker interface to increase production system efficiency

Flexible Manufacturing
strategy based on the use of IT to reduce the setup costs associated with a product assembly process

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Three Facilities Layouts

Figure 9.5

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Discussion Question?
Which facilities layout is the best to use? A. Product layout B. Process layout C. Fixed position layout D. Contingency layout

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Facilities Layout
Product layout
machines are organized so that each operation is performed at work stations arranged in a fixed sequence

Process Layout
self contained work stations not organized in a fixed sequence

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Facilities Layout
Fixed-Position Layout
the product stays in a fixed spot and components produced at remote stations are brought the product for to final assembly

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Changing a Facilities Layout

Figure 9.6
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Flexible Manufacturing
Aims to reduce time required to set up production equipment By redesigning the process, setup times and costs can be drastically reduced Able to produce many more varieties of a product than before in the same amount of time

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Just-in-Time Inventory and Efficiency

Just-in-time (JIT) inventory system gets components to the assembly line just as they are needed to drive down costs Major cost savings can result from increasing inventory turnover and reducing inventory holding costs

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Self-Managed Work Teams and Efficiency

Self-managed work teams produce an entire product instead of just parts of it Team members learn all tasks and move from job to job Can increase productivity and efficiency

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Process Reengineering and Efficiency

Process Reengineering
fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of the business process to achieve dramatic improvement in critical measures of performance

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Two Kinds of Innovation

Quantum product innovation
results in the development of radically different kinds of goods and services because of fundamental shifts in technology brought about by pioneering discoveries

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Two Kinds of Innovation

Incremental product innovation
results in gradual improvements and refinements to existing products over time as existing technologies are perfected, and functional managers learn how to perform value-chain activities in better ways

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Strategies to Promote Innovation and Speed Product Development

Product development
management of the value-chain activities involved in bringing new or improved kinds of goods and services to the market

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A Stage-Gate Development Funnel

Figure 9.7
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A Stage-Gate Development Funnel

Product development plan
specifies all of the relevant information that managers need to make a decision about whether to go ahead with a full-blown product development effort

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Managing the Value-Chain: Some Remaining Issues

It is managers job to collect relevant information about the competitive environment 1. Future intentions of competitors 2. Identity of new customers 3. Identity of new suppliers

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Boundary-Spanning Roles
Boundary-Spanning roles
Interacting with individuals and groups outside the organization to obtain valuable information from the environment

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The Nature of Boundary-Spanning Roles

Figure 9.9
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Movie Example: Youve Got Mail

How well do the workers respond to customers in the Fox Bookstore?

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Video Case: Understanding Toyotas Success

How do the Toyota employees interviewed in the video illustrate the companys practice of TQM? How has kaizen driven innovation at Toyota? Why is Toyota able to spread knowledge so fast throughout the company?

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