Selecting appropriate operations strategy using project management concepts: an economic analysis approach

Having an effective operations strategy (OS) is a key element in protecting competitive capabilities of any company. OS supports the business strategy and should be accurately selected in a way that the organisation can be positioned among the competitors. The main objective of this study is to provide valuable insights for project managers to select the most appropriate OS for their enterprise using economic analysis approach. We propose a seven-step algorithm which makes the decision-makers able to make an optimum decision for organisation's OS selection on the basis of economic analysis of OS alternatives. This is the first study which presents such an OS selection framework and incorporates project management and OS contents. First we consider each OS alternative as a program (a group of projects) and define some group of projects for actions required in intersections of OS matrix related to each program. Then, by determining the dependencies among the projects of each program as well as providing some information about the projects, we can estimate cash flows of programs. Thus, we can financially evaluate the programs and select the most profitable and appropriate OS. The presented algorithm assists the managers to apply the most financially effective OS for their company. The validity of the algorithm is demonstrated through conducting a case study.