Operations strategy

Standardization has been a powerful strategy in consumer markets, but it's reached the point of diminishing returns. And diversity is not the only chink...

Breakthrough innovations--not just steady improvements--in operations can destroy competitors and shake up entire industries. Just look at Dell, Toyota,...

And what companies can do about it.

“You can’t be serious!” Mike Trail, the president and fourth-generation owner of Trail Manufacturing, stared at five older men standing uncomfortably in his small office. “I’m afraid we are, Mike.” Sandy Mulder, the most senior of the five, was polite but firm. “We won’t switch over to the new equipment. We want to continue to […]

Few people outside the supply chain function used to care where products came from. Nowadays, everyone from company leaders to interest groups to consumers...

But lean management can help.

After all, we interact with our phones 150 times a day.

Sixty percent of maternal deaths in the United States are preventable.

Few economic decisions are as difficult as those involving the choice between present and future consumption. Some people, unable to place much faith in the future, happily borrow to fund present pleasures; others, with longer time horizons, are wary of such “fly now, pay later” policies. They fear that the required payments, when viewed up […]

In both entrepreneurial and larger companies, we too often spend time focusing on the desired financial performance target, rather than the inputs that...

What will it take to reverse a decades-long shift to global supply chains?

Don't look for low-hanging fruit.

Research on cross-border acquisitions shows that, contrary to conventional wisdom, they don't hamper domestic operations--they add to their efficiency...

Virtually all manufacturers aspire to "world-class" status. But even those who attain it will only be as good as their toughest competitors. This explains...

Four in 10 workers say that switching between tools is a major drag on their productivity.

When the author agreed to accept the top job at UPS, the global shipping service, in late winter of 2019, she expected to steer the company toward a brighter...

Think joint ventures are the only way to go? Think again.

Most companies do a great job promoting efficiency within their own walls, streamlining internal processes wherever possible. But they have less success...

In the 1990s, Hewlett-Packard's PC business was struggling to turn a dollar, despite the company's success in winning market share. By 1997, margins on...

A playful, but not implausible, look at what the machines want us to know.