Competitve Priorities

In any industry, there are Competitive Priorities that are established and followed.  Competitive Priorities are critical for any supply chain or process in order to be able to satisfy their internal and external customers.
Competitive Capabilities are the dimensions that a supply chain or process actually possess and that the company is able to deliver which include: 1. Cost, 2. Quality, 3. Time and 4. Flexibility.

1. Cost: Under the Cost Competitive Priority is "Low-cost operations".  This mean that the service or product or service has been delivered at the lowest possible cost to the standards of either the external customers or internal customers in the supply chain or process.  In order to reduce costs, the process be created and controlled properly so they can become efficient.  This is achieved through an intense set of process analysis that attends to the workforce, any scrap or things that need to be re-done, the methods used, overhead, and any other factors that may make an impact, such as the investment in new machinery, technology, or automated facilities that will be used to lower the cost of each unit of the service or product provided


2. Quality: There are two sections under the Quality priority: 1. "Top quality" and "2. Consistent quality".

• The meaning behind "Top quality" is the capability of delivering stellar products or services.  Any establishment seeking to deliver a stellar performance must have a great levels of contact with their costumers, respect, aid, and accessibility to servers when needed.
• For "Consistent quality" it means that the products or services are being replicated consistently and as advertised to the customers.  The process designed to achieve this has be watched closely in order to lesson any errors, be able to prevent any possible defects, and must be consistent in performance.  The "level" of the quality being provided is not a factor, as long as that level being achieved is being consistent.

 3. Time: Regarding time, there are three usual routes establishments take: 1. "Delivery speed", 2. "On-time delivery", and 3. "Development speed".

• "Delivery speed" is pretty self-explanatory.  This is when a customer's order is filed quickly.  You must design a process that reduces the lead time, the time between receiving the order and filling it, by keeping extra capacity as backup, and using quality transportation alternatives.
• "On-time deliver" is also self-explanatory.  It means that you meet the promised time of delivery.  Including the process that decreases the lead time and early planning, which includes making the correct forecasts, scheduling, and keeping a safe amount of capacity, will be used to enlarge the percentage of delivering orders to customers at the time that was promised.  The percentage that is usually set as a goal is 95%.
• "Development speed" mean that you as a company introduced new services or products at a great speed.  The processes that achieves this set goal is to create a cross-functional integration, this is the integration of people who have a different set of functional expertise that will work towards the same goal (Examples would be someone from marketing, another from finance, someone in operations etc.) and the involvement of key suppliers that belong to the product or service process.

4. Flexibility: Under flexibility there are three options that are used: 1. "Customization", 2. "Variety", and 3. "Volume flexibility".

• "Customization" is fulfilling the distinct need each and every customer by adapting their product or design in accordance to these needs.  A process that creates a service or product personalized to any customer will usually have a reasonably modest amount of volume, direct contact with aimed customers, and the capability to restructure any required process to satisfy the various individual needs of the customers.
• "Variety" seeks to provide a great range of products or services in a productive manner.  Any process that will support variety needs to be able to handle larger volumes rather than processes that are high in customization.  The products and services aren't particularly made to satisfy the individual needs of the customers, rather have more repetitive demands.
• "Volume flexibility" is being able to increase or decrease the speed at which products or services are produced at a pace that is able to tackle large irregularities in demand.  The process that is used for this has to be planned for a surplus amount of inventory and capacity to deal with the ups and downs of cycles that can stretch from days to weeks or months.  This is a priority that also be completed with a that regulates the amount of capacity without creating a buildup of inventory or too much capacity.

Outback Steakhouse has them in order of:

Quality:
Outback Steakhouse produces consistent products that meet customer satisfaction on a consistent basis. Their food is always fresh and if it isn’t up to the customers standards they will take it back and redo the meal to the customer's liking.  No matter which Outback Steakhouse you may go to, the quality is consistent with variance dependent upon locals' taste in the region they are located; but the variance is consistent in each region.

Cost:
Outback Steakhouse is price friendly.  The reason as to why this is their second priority is because even though they aren't expensive they could improve on expanding the range in the pricing.

Time:
One of the lean system items that Outback Steakhouse can improve on is the waiting time.  This is why it is Outback Steakhouse's third priority.  Still, they lean more towards "delivery speed" than the other two categories.

Flexibility:
Outback Steakhouse puts the least priority on their flexibility.  They don't have much customization, as their menu items are set.  The are low in their volume flexibility since one of wastes they contain is overproduction, which be further talked about in a further section.  The closest they get to flexibility is their variety.  Although their menu items are set they do have enough variety that satisfies their customers, but they do need improvements.