Chapter 1 Introduction

High levels of industrial competition created a stark new reality in the 1980s. Manufacturing companies in most industrial nations struggled to survive by restructuring and downsizing their activities. This signalled an economic change that continued into the 1990s and has even increased pace into the new millennium.

Despite this new challenge, most Western companies still believe operations should focus on short-term issues and leave strategy to the marketing and finance functions. However, this book argues that an operations strategy is essential for companies to compete in domestic and world markets. Without one, it will not be able to survive, let alone grow its market share.

This chapter compares the performance of nations and businesses over the past 30 years. It shows that newer ones are outperforming those with strong industrial traditions by using different operations management approaches. This has further increased the level of competition and the need to use operations as a strategic force both within businesses and between nations.

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