This week’s topics
Operations Strategy and Competitive Advantage
- Strategic fit and operational alignment
- Order winners and order qualifiers
- Trade-offs between cost, quality, speed, and flexibility
- Triple-bottom-line sustainability as a competitive differentiator
- Week 03: Lecture 11: Link between Corporate & Supply Chain Strategy
- Strategic Fit in Supply Chain
What you will be able to do
- 1.3 Assess how effective operations and supply chain management can enhance competitiveness.
Activity
Start with this week’s 2 videos, then: Seminar, guided reading and a short written task: assess how effective operations and supply chain management can enhance competitiveness.
Study materials
Videos
- From Cost Center to Competitive Advantage - The Coming Decade of Supply Chain Management · YouTube · MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics · 47 min · for registered students
- The New Competitive Edge: Analytics-Driven Supply Chain Design for Value Creation · YouTube · MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics · 45 min · for registered students
- Lecture 2: Competitiveness, Strategy & Productivity | Updated 2026 · YouTube · Eddy Witzel · 11 min · for registered students
- Assessing Strategic Fit | SCMT 4653 · YouTube · Walton College Supply Chain Management · 8 min · for registered students
Further resources
- Operations Management (Fanshawe), ch. 2: Operations Strategy & Competitiveness · Reading · Other, textbook chapter; PDF pp. 53–84 · for registered students
- MIT OCW 15.769 Operations Strategy (Fall 2010), Frameworks for strategy and the decision category approach · PDF · MIT OpenCourseWare, slides · for registered students
- Supply Chain Sustainability: A Practical Guide for Continuous Improvement, 2nd ed. (UN Global Compact & BSR, 2015) · PDF · Un, guidance; 76 pages · for registered students
Materials marked “for registered students” open in the student portal, which is set up as soon as you receive final acceptance.
