1. When an organisation is stepping up production or availability of a service what are the dominant operations performance objectives?
Answer: This is a very difficult question. The broad answer is yes, focus is just as relevant today as it always has been, because of the natural limitations. Organisations are very rarely as efficient in producing one off specials as well as large quantities simultaneously. This analysis works for most organisations. Consider the University of Strathclyde Graduate School of Business. Could this organisation also deal with large first year undergraduate classes equally efficiently as smaller post graduate classes?
The answer is no, however, there are now more exceptions than ever before. These exceptions are often the result of technological or organisational advances. Car manufacture, one limited to the manufacture of identical items in very large quantities today, the car companies change designs radically every eighteen months and can still handle millions of variants on a one-by-one basis. Teleworking companies can route calls around the world into different time zones to offer the customer 24-hour service as well as sort individual needs and match available resource.