Time-based competition definition and concepts

The emphasis in this definition is on timely. This means responding to customers needs on time - neither early nor late. The implication of this definition is that the organisation must focus its capabilities on being responsive to the customer. 

Traditionally, people often have the opinion that you cannot have low cost and high quality, or low cost and fast delivery, or fast delivery and high quality. The belief is that some kind of trade-off is necessary, meaning that more of one 

This leads to savings in detecting defects, by removing the need for inspection, and in avoiding the failures that lead to scrap and the cost of resolving customer complaints. The result is that overall quality costs (prevention + detection + failure) can be reduced by spending more on prevention. 

Understanding trade-off relationships lies at the heart of a focal firm s ability to achieve competitive advantage. Relationships that need to be imderstood and harnessed include recognising that  

Each of these trade-offs has important links with strategy. A focus on responsiveness to the customer means that a focal firm needs to change the way it goes about its business. This involves redesigning systems and processes to give priority to time. In these circumstances, cost plays a supporting role - since time and cost have distinctive strategy implications (section 1.4.3) and are not linearly related (section 3.3.2). 

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