Centre for Strategy and Performance

Publications - books and software

Workbooks

The Centre has published a number of workbooks which are listed below (click on each title for more information). These are aimed at managers in companies who wish to change or improve some aspect of their business. The idea is to target a certain business area or function and to provide the tools and the know-how to bring about the change. Workbooks are therefore self contained. In addition to worksheets they contain all the background and instructions for carrying out the change programme. Moreover they are low cost, written in an accessible way and laid out for ease of use. They are particularly valuable to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) who may not have the required expertise in-house. All are backed by extensive research and are thoroughly tested in real companies.

• Competing Through Competence
• Creating a winning business formula
• Getting the measure of your business
• Winning Decisions
• Make-or-Buy
• Regaining control [Not available from IfM]
• Competitive Manufacturing [Out of print]

To order IfM books, click here for a faxback order form

Conference Proceedings

Tackling Industrial Complexity - the ideas that make a difference.
Proceedings of the Manufacturing Complexity Network Conference 2002 [NOTE: this book is now out of print, however all the papers are available for free download from the conference website].

Information about all books published by the Institute for Manufacturing:

• IfM Publications

Software

We have developed a software tool called TAPS to assist managers in manufacturing action plan selection. The tool is implemented under the Microsoft Windows operating system using Microsoft’s Visual Basic 6.0 programming language. TAPS has four main modules: a) database; b) graphic user interface; c) algorithm, and d) evaluation. Please contact Kim Hua Tan for more information.

Workbook descriptions

Competitive Manufacturing (Ken Platts and Mike Gregory)

This is the first in the series and one of our most successful workbooks. It has sold in the region of 10,000 copies. Its aim is to provide a mechanism for auditing companies that wish to develop a manufacturing strategy. The workbook is divided into two main parts. The first asks if the company needs to introduce/ update its manufacturing strategy. This is done by contrasting its performance in key areas with what is expected by the market. Moreover the workbook recommends that several people in the company carry out the exercise. Contrasting different viewpoints is itself valuable.

The second part goes about developing/updating the strategy. It divides the product range into families defined by the way they are sold. Then the workbook provides a series of worksheets where the users decide in which key policy area they need to improve and then what they should do. From that the new strategy emerges.
Currently out of print

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Creating a winning business formula (John Mills, Ken Platts, Andy Neely, Mike Bourne and Huw Richards).

This takes over from where Competitive Manufacturing finishes. Whereas Competitive Manufacturing identifies what needs to be improved and by how much, this workbook provides a mechanism for developing specific actions. It too starts with an assessment of need, by contrasting current performance against what the market requires. It then looks at the business goals and asks the users to spell out the current manufacturing strategy to see if it supports these goals.

The strategy formation process employs a mapping technique. Using the same policy areas as Competitive Manufacturing, a strategy chart is developed that tracks the progress of current strategies. From this, the users identify what needs to be done further in support of the business objectives. These too are entered on the chart in a formal way. Finally the results are communicated to everyone via the chart.
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Getting the measure of your business (Andy Neely, John Mills, Ken Platts, Huw Richards and Mike Bourne).

The workbook is intended for companies wishing to develop a coherent set of performance measures that support the business objectives. The process starts with a questionnaire about the current state of the performance measurement system. This decides whether or not the exercise needs to be undertaken and in what areas.

The actual design of the measures is a two stage exercise. The first stage decides the top level measures. These are derived from the business objectives and the customer and other stakeholder needs. The requirement to ensure that the measures are compatible is ensured by a signing off process at this level.

Stage two then repeats the process at the next level within the business. The only difference is that the input for this stage is the high level measures developed in the first stage.
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Winning Decisions: Translating Business Strategy into Action Plans (Kim Hua Tan and Ken Platts)

This workbook provides a structured approach, supported by a software tool, the ‘Tool for Action Plan Selection’ (TAPS), for companies to translate business strategy into action plans. Using the ‘connectance concept’ and the ‘analytic hierarchy process’ TAPS assists managers to understand the relationships between different variables and given objectives. This enables them to identify the main drivers and select which course of action to adopt. TAPS enables the essence of a problem to be captured and communicated in an easy to understand manner.

The workbook provides a step by step guide to using the TAPS process and software tool. Examples, forms, and practical advice are included throughout the workbook.

The CD, provided with the workbook, contains the TAPS software, printable versions of the forms, agendas for workshops, workshop facilitation slides, and a database of management tools and techniques.
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Make-or-Buy (Laura Cañez, Ken Platts, David Probert).

This workbook is for companies faced with sourcing decisions. The central question to be answered by the process, is whether a specific part or family of parts should be made in-house or bought out

The methodology is a five stage process starting with a preparation phase where the team to carry out the work is selected and the part(s) to be analysed are selected Data are then gathered by the teams in a number of areas. These divide broadly into ranking issues i.e. those areas that are most important to the company; and into comparative issues i.e. how does making the item in-house compare to having it supplied.

From the two exercises a composite picture emerges that allows the team to reach a decision.
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Regaining control (Gerry Frizelle).

Companies who wish to get more from their manufacturing control systems are the target for this workbook.

The process has three stages. The first is to link the required performance of the manufacturing control system to the company objectives. The second stage is to assess if there are ways to simplify/make the present system more reliable. Issues such as data accuracy are addressed here.

The final section is to look at generic commercial control systems that are available and decide which is the most appropriate. On that depends whether to improve what already exists or go for something new.

[Published by IFS Ltd. , Bedford., ISBN 1-85423-093-X]

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Competing Through Competence (John Mills, Ken Platts, Mike Bourne and Huw Richards).

This is a combined workbook and education text which explains how to use the ideas of competence and capability. Through a pragmatic focus on gaining a dependable competence and capability viewpoint of their organisation managers can:

• Make more reliable and insightful choices between capabilities to build for the future, those to sustain and those to discard
• Access value previously hidden in under-utilised and unrecognised resources
• Improve their judgements on how to build and sustain a competitive advantage leading to faster benefits in volume and/or profit growth
• Take safer decisions on divestment and make versus buy, reducing "hollowing out" risks
• Improve their choice of acquisition targets, joint venture partners, suppliers and distributors
• Capture more reliably the value of resources and competences lying outside traditional company boundaries through improved management of such relationships
• Reduce downside risks when choosing new markets to enter and new technologies to access and develop

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