Product Process Matrix

Every company will focus on supplying a service, product, or both. How and where the product is made plays a crucial role in the company’s success. In order to help visualize how the products are made process maps are formatted. These process maps can help to identify areas that need improvement. In order to implement improvement, process development will be implemented. The form of good that a company supplies is also important and to ensure that the best product is distributed product development is conducted. Target Corporation is a complex company, which provides consumers with their necessities.

4.1.3 How can an E-Business strategy help The Broadway Café attract customers and increase sales?

Changing technology may affect the demand for a firm’s products and services but on the other hand due to technology businesses can have systems that provides faster services like the retail businesses have systems that does stock control, cash and customer service.

By grafting its system of custom direct sales onto the Internet infrastructure, Dell has transformed these activities, creating an innovative and efficient procurement, production, and distribution network. The innovative advance made by Dell in deploying Internet communication as the foundation of its production network, is a process innovation. Although to some extent, the Internet has enabled Dell to create a new product -- a PC custom-configured through Internet communication -- it is the process of organizing flows of materials and information within its network, from customer order to procurement, production and delivery, by means of Internet communication, that defines the innovation at the Firm. The case supports this notion by stating “While most other PCs were sold preconfigured and pre-assembled in retail stores, Dell offered superior customer choice in system configuration at a deeply discounted price, due to the cost-savings associated with cutting out the retail middleman. Additionally, an important side-benefit of the Internet-based direct sales model was that it generated a wealth of market data the company used to efficiently forecast demand trends and carry out effective segmentation strategies. This data drove the company’s product development efforts and allowed Dell to profit from information on the value drivers in each of its key customer

Barney, J. (2004). Firm resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage. Strategy: Process Content Context: an international perspective, de Wit & Meyer , 285-292.

The changing demands in product delivery have forced businesses to review internal processes to meet customer demands for quality and quicker services. According Čiarnienė and Vienažindienė, (2013), over the last five years businesses faced increasing amounts of pressure from consumers and competitors to improve services without affecting product or service qualities, and increasing cost. In today’s business market customers have higher expectations from business providing products and services, and businesses can meet these expectations by increasing a product’s quality, reducing delivery time and minimizing products or a combination of the three (Čiarnienė and Vienažindienė, 2013). This issue has forced many industries to implement new

The competitive strategy of two companies are incomparable in many different levels. In most cases, one organization can provide a service at a lower cost whereas another organization can provide the same services at a higher cost. Business processes such strategy development, product development, systems to produce goods and services, and order fulfillment are imperative in a competitive market place. Thus, with the right business processes; organizations such as Midas can strive towards improved operating efficiencies.

This is a case study analysis on Nissan Canada Inc. (NCI) and its plan to move from a “make to stock” to a “make to order” process and the implementation of NCI’s Integrated Customer Ordering Network (ICON). Involved in the implementation of ICON, NCI is faced with several challenges in the conversion of its outdated ordering process to Manugistics, an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. (Hunter, 2007)

In today’s environment, it is extremely essential for retailers to embrace technology in the course of their businesses. This is mainly because a significant number of consumers can be attracted and accessed through technological measures. It is essential to appreciate the fact that data, infrastructure and e-commerce software form the basis of United Parcel Service’s technological superiority. All these tools play a pivotal role in supporting the company’s e-commerce strategy and the company’s business strategy as a whole. One of the key attributes of United Parcel Service is its commitment to investing in researching emerging technologies. This gives it an exceptionally competitive advantage. United Parcel Service (UPS) consistently seeks to embrace technologies that that enhance the company’s efficiency (Russell Baker, 2008). The company’s commitment to technological advancement made the company appear in InternetWeek’s top 100 companies in 2004 (Russell Baker, 2008). On the other hand, InfoWorld ranked the company as the seventh company with the most significant contribution to technological infrastructure.

The marketplace has been dynamic and competition between companies in the same industry has been increasingly intense (Ranchhod, 2004). Having dynamic capabilities contributes to a company’s “long-term survival or competitive advantage” (Johnson et al., 2008: 84). This is especially essential

E-business uses the digital technology to optimize the business activities of organization in order to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of operation and gain competitive advantages. E-business provides the solution that allows the organization to instantly share database, information of products and services, financial figures and data and nearly anything else that the organization may need to operate the business activities effectively and efficiently (Nguyen, 2013). E-commerce which is the abbreviation of electronic commerce is the subset of e-business. It focuses on the online transaction which includes selling of products or service by using computer network, primarily the Internet.

To begin with, heterogeneity of capabilities and resources of firms, which is explained as “enduring and systematic performance differences among relatively close rivals”, provides a foundation of the resource-based view (Song, et al.,2006). The implication of this assumption is that core competence conveys the valuable and unique feature of products to customers. The RBV disagrees with the opinion that the resources are homogeneous; if homogeneity is assumed to be essential to develop a proper strategy, the strategy can be easily copied by competitors, which will ultimately result in the dissipation of above-normal rents. Conversely, the unique and fixed resources on hand will lead to outstanding performance and ultimately turn to be a competitive advantage, under the circumstances that sustainable competitive advantage is achieved in an environment where competition does not exist.

Another concept from class is the application of key information technology systems a company will employ that helps them manage these daily operations effortlessly. This can be done with the use of service technology applications, in process technologies applications, and information technology (IT) applications. All three will have a direct bearing on productivity, costs, and effectiveness. While, product and service technologies help the company develop new products, services, and processes. Process technology represents the methods, procedures, and equipment the company will use in order to produce the goods and

Competitive advantage is explained by Mahoney and Pandian (1992) as the function of industry analysis, organizational governance and the firm’s effects in the form of resource advantages and strategies. In order for a firm to be competitive it must adapt to the volatile business environment and through strategic management decisions establish a competitive advantage that will ultimately produce superior performance relative to its competitors (Akimova 2000).

III. CAPABILITY IS FORMED BY THE INTEGRATION OF RESOURCES Table I shows that competitive advantage is gained by the strategic deployment of some resources, capabilities, and/or competencies. Literature review suggests that concepts such as resources, capabilities, competencies, and core competencies are not clearly defined. We have found that only the resource itself is defined with a wide range of meanings. On one hand, resources are defined as “anything which could be thought of as a strength or weakness of a firm” [9]. This “anything” may include physical resources (e.g., raw materials, equipment, financial endowment, etc.), human resources (e.g., training, experience, skills, etc.), as well as organizational resources (e.g., firm image, process, routines, etc.) [4], [14]. Note that with this definition, capabilities are considered as part of resource. On the other hand, capabilities are not part of resource because of their dynamic “doing” nature. Many authors argue that capabilities are the result of resource deployment and organizational processes. Capabilities use resources and, therefore, are more dynamic and complex entity and should be treated independent to resources [15]. We feel more comfortable with Grant [5] definition who argues: “Resources are inputs into the