Chapter 3: Production
The ideas that are generated by your Research and Development activities are brought to life by your Production activities. Production is the process of producing whatever it is that you sell. It is where your business directly adds the value that turns your inputs (i.e. labour, materials, etc.) into your final products and/or services. If a customer is in need of legal services, for example, production is the work done by the lawyer. Or if a customer wants a sit-down meal, production is the preparation of food by the chef.
Of course, this is not the only place that your business adds value. Research and development activities add value through innovative ideas, and delivery activities add value by making your products and services available more conveniently. From your customer's perspective, however, production activities are the most direct and obvious.
As we have done before, we'll organize your production process through integrated business systems. In the end, you may even have several very different production systems for several different products. That's not necessarily a bad thing, just watch that you don't spread your business too thin. Remember to stay true to your Operational Strategy. It's usually better to excel in a few areas than to be mediocre in many.
“Rapid growth is not necessarily the best measure of success. Indeed it is probably detrimental to most businesses.”