There is now general agreement that the production strategy of the company is made of a mixture of management focus on cost, quality, delivery and flexibility. The strategy involves a priority among these elements, and overall understanding of the strategic objectives of the company is necessary for effective implementation. The plant everyday decisions on the shop floor can have as much or more influence on the final strategic position as a "higher-level" management decisions. Strategic consensus may break or because management clumsily announces his strategy or because the administration is sending mixed signals. Data on the extent and nature of the breakdown of consensus on the level of infrastructure solutions, is based on the survey of ten managers and ten hourly workers in each of the seven firms metalworking. For example, we found a much greater differences in the perception of the operator's empowerment than managers, suggesting that managers have difficulty articulating how much "power" they expect employees to shoulder. The most critical areas of concern in the study examined the competitive priorities and differences among respondents were confused. Suggestions are offered to improve the consensus at the operational level strategy. "Hide
by Christopher McDermott, Kenneth K. Boyer Source: Business Horizons 8 pages. Publication Date: July 15, 1999. Prod. #: BH030-PDF-ENG
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