Competitive priorities in operations: Development of an indicator of strategic position

The aim of this paper is to propose an indicator for positioning firms with regard to competitive priorities (cost, quality, delivery, flexibility, service and environment), as well as to identify any relationship with business performance that may exist. On the basis of the production competence approach, we developed an indicator of Strategic Position in Operations Priorities (SPOP). For the empirical test, we use a sample of 353 industrial firms that belong to various sectors of activity in Spain. The proposed indicator reveals the current situation of industrial firms with regard to the development of operations capabilities that allow these firms to achieve sustainable competitive advantages. The implementation of the SPOP indicator could be considered a valuable tool in performance management research. (C) 2011 CIRP.