Project/services industries techniques

It is interesting, therefore, to note that the second highest performance score is recorded by the Project/Services grouping, which is by far the least frequent user of operations and production tools and techniques. One of the reasons for this may be that the Media Entertainment industry sector reported, as one of its clear objectives, the desire to discover unique products and to reposition strategically rather than to just focus on operational improvement (see Table 7.6) and it was in the strategic impact on the firm that this function reported the highest performance satisfaction score (0.92). This perhaps indicates that, while the Media Entertainment sector may not use function level tools and techniques as often as other industry sectors, when it does choose to use tools and techniques to assist strategic differentiation it is broadly satisfied with the outcome. 

The reason for this was because it was felt, initially, that process-based industries would tend to have higher tool and technique usage requirements than project-based industries, and that manufacturing industries would also tend to have more need than service base industries, with combined industries somewhere in between. The rationale here was that manufacturing and process-based industries would tend to need more routinised and standardised approaches to business that would favour tool and technique usage across all four functions. On the other hand it was hypothesised that project-based and services related industries, with a more ad-hoc and less routinised approach to business, would use tools and techniques much less across all of the four functions. 

Table 9.9 outlines the findings from a series of questions focused on the extent to which tool and technique inadequacy or internal barriers where responsible for failures of implementation. At the group level only the Process/Combined (with 61%) and the Project/Combined (with 57%) groups blamed tool inadequacy more than internal barriers for failures of implementation. All of the other groupings tended to blame internal barriers rather than tool and technique inadequacy as the primary cause of failure. At the industry sector level there was a wider differentiation. Those most blaming tool and technique inadequacy included Telecommunications (88%), Oil Gas (76%), Basic Chemicals (64%) and Computer Hardware (59%). Those most blaming internal barriers included Aerospace (78%), Retail Distribution (75%), Tourism Leisure (71%), Retail Financial Services (68%), Publishing (67%), IT Solutions (57%) and Confectionery (55%). 

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