Ops Management...

copy pasted from my other blog...vjaykrish.blogspot.com

so, today was the second operations management class. the class started on a very interesting note, a story about a few young hungarian soldiers, to highlight the distinction between business strategy and operations strategy.here is the story...six young hungarian soldiers decided to take time off from their camps and decided to visit the alps in the nearby country of switzerland. they made it to the mountains in the afternoon with bright sunshine. by evening, the weather worsened and it started snowing heavily and light deteriorated rapidly. they were totally lost.they were not properly clothed and werent prepared for the fickle weather and soon they were desparate to save their lives. they decided to regroup and one of them took a map from his pocket. glancing at the map they got a sense of direction and used their common sense to locate slopes in the mountains to get down finally. they located a town closeby and got into the bar and ordered beers to celebrate their victory. one of them pulled out the map which saved their lives. All of them shouted in bewilderment. it was a map of 'china'.so what does the story imply ? keep doing the things that you are good at. the 'map' is the business strategy and how you make it there is your operations strategy. so here comes the definition " Operations strategy is the total pattern of decisions which shape the long term capabilities of any type of operation and their contribution to the overall strategy"does the story convey what it is supposed to ? what role did the map play in saving the men's lives ? sometimes just knowing that you have something up your sleeve does give you confidence, or doesnt it ? the story indeed is food for thought.