Exploring the trade-off concept

Abstract

The concept of the "trade-off is increasingly seen as central to operations strategy because it forms the foundation of how ice conceptualise the improvement process. A case-based methodology is employed to explore managers' cognition regarding the idea of operations tradeoffs. Findings from the five case studies examined indicate that the idea of trade-offs is not the problematic issue for practising managers that it is for academics, indeed it is an easily understood concept which describes the operational compromises routinely made by managers. The significance of specific trade-offs ivithin any operation is likely to be governed by tu-o factors. These are, first, the degree of "importance" of the trade-off, in terms of the impact it will have on overall operations competitiveness. The second is the "sensitivity" of the trade-off. Sensitivity is the degree of change that will be caused to one element of the trade-off when changes are made to the other. © MCB University Press.