Project – Company Alignment

Project – Company Alignment

The operations strategy of a business needs to be aligned with the business strategy for the entire company to be effective. The business mission, vision, and goals of a company need to be aligned with the operations strategy for them to be achieved (Reid & Sanders, 2016). Zara aligns its operations strategies with its mission. The following is an analysis of the company’s alignment strategy. The paper discusses the core competencies of the company, how the core competencies are aligned with the company’s mission, and the company’s ability to turn inputs into outputs.

Core Competencies of the Company

            Core competencies refer to the resources that give a business a strategic advantage. These may include the company’s knowledge and technical capacities that enable a business to be competitive in its respective industry. Zara’s core competency is the systemization of the design and production process. This company’s ability to maintain consistent production quality is what gives it a competitive advantage. The interviews with a Zara manager for this project revealed the key processes that this company takes to develop its versatile and quality fashion. The company has developed a vertically integrated model of design and production combined with other strategic partnerships that facilitate the consistent production of quality. Vertical integration is a competitive strategy where a company has full control over one or more levels of production (Jasti & Kodali, 2015). Zara has full control over the design and manufacturing levels of its production. This gives the company increased control over its inputs and outputs, thus enabling it to have an increased capability for producing large outputs. This is something that most fashion companies have not been able to develop. Therefore, Zara can get a competitive advantage from this factor.

Alignment of the Core Competencies to the Company’s Mission Statement

Zara’s mission is to give its customers an exclusive choice of fashion by providing a quick turnover in comparison to other fashion brands (Inditex, n.d). Zara’s customers can be able to enjoy the benefits of choice because of the high production rate of new stock and fashion designs every few weeks. The project interview revealed that the company changes its store stock every two weeks. Thus, the new production of completely new designs has to occur in this short period.

            Zara’s core competency is aligned with this mission. The core competency of a vertically integrated production process was designed specifically to meet the high demand for production at the company. The company is fully in control of the design process gives it the opportunity to control when and how new designs are to be developed. Zara has hired more than 300 designers who work around the clock to develop new fashion ideas depending on market trends and customer preferences. Owning the design process is part of Zara’s Just-in-Time (JIT) strategy. The designers ensure that the company has new clothing ideas just in time for production for a new demand season.

Additionally, Zara’s being fully in control of the manufacturing process has also contributed to its mission of providing quick turnovers. This company produces a very large quantity of clothing in a short period. The fact that it has full control over the manufacturing facilities gives it the power to make room for new demand just in time for the new demand to be fulfilled.  In fact, Zara clears up to 80% of its production facilities during new manufacturing periods to meet the demand for new turnover. Therefore, the core competency of systemization of design and production process is the main reason why this company hacks the high inventory production in short periods to fulfill the mission of offering versatile selections for customers.

Analysis of the Company’s Ability to Turn Inputs into Outputs

The analysis of Zara’s operations processes and the company’s core competencies shows that this company has a relatively high ability to turn inputs into outputs. From a customer’s perspective, Zara has successfully met its mission of offering customers the chance to choose from its versatile range of fashion. Every two weeks, one can be certain that they can find new designs at a Zara physical or online store. This accomplishment is a result of the company’s well-designed operations process. Zara has developed enough facilities to meet the production demands of the market, it determines its outputs based on market trends, and it is equipped with resources such as adequate employees to manage the expected demand. Thus, Zara is able to turn its inputs into outputs.

Conclusion

            The operations management process is critical to a business’s strategy. This is seen in the way Zara’s operations processes and tactics contribute to its strategy of versatility. Zara’s mission is to give its customers a variety to choose from. Its alignment of the operations processes with this mission is what has given the company a competitive advantage.

References

Inditex (n.d). AboutUs: Our Brands-Zara https://www.inditex.com/about-us/our-brands/zara

Jasti, N. V. K., & Kodali, R. (2015). Lean production: literature review and trends. International Journal of Production Research, 53(3), 867-885.

Reid, R. D., & Sanders, N. R. (2016). Operations Management, Binder Ready Version: An Integrated Approach. John Wiley & Sons.

 

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The sixth part of your course project focuses on company alignment. Review the company mission statement, its core competencies, and its ability to transform inputs into desired outputs that the customer is willing to buy, and summarize your findings.