Exploring the trade‐off concept
International Journal of Operations & Production Management
ISSN: 0144-3577
Article publication date: 1 July 2001
Abstract
The concept of the “trade‐off” is increasingly seen as central to operations strategy because it forms the foundation of how we conceptualise the improvement process. A case‐based methodology is employed to explore managers’ cognition regarding the idea of operations trade‐offs. Findings from the five case studies examined indicate that the idea of trade‐offs is not the problematic issue for practising managers that it is for academics, indeed it is an easily understood concept which describes the operational compromises routinely made by managers. The significance of specific trade‐offs within any operation is likely to be governed by two factors. These are, first, the degree of “importance” of the trade‐off, in terms of the impact it will have on overall operations competitiveness. The second is the “sensitivity” of the trade‐off. Sensitivity is the degree of change that will be caused to one element of the trade‐off when changes are made to the other.
Keywords
Citation
Da Silveira, G. and Slack, N. (2001), "Exploring the trade‐off concept", International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 21 No. 7, pp. 949-964. https://doi.org/10.1108/01443570110393432
Publisher
:MCB UP Ltd
Copyright © 2001, MCB UP Limited