Distributing strategic objectives along manufacturers’ value chains: A framework and a decision model

This paper reports on the development and application of a methodology to evaluate functional-level projects based upon their ability to fulfill business-level strategic objectives. Targeted at electronics manufacturers, an attribute set and an activity model are developed to define the firms’ strategic business objectives and distribute those objectives along the firms’ value chains. Activity-by-activity evaluations with respect to the attribute set are elicited for proposed projects. In a multi-stage modeling process these inputs are amalgamated into point evaluations of the proposed projects. In trials at four U.S. electronics manufacturers, the system has shown that basing functional-level decisions on business-level strategic objectives is feasible and can be made systematic.