Linking Strategic Objectives to Operations: Towards a More Effective Supply Chain Decision Making

Supply chain managers today face an unremitting challenge to their capabilities in both the volume and complexity of factors to be reconciled. In order to achieve more effective decision making, it is very necessary to link strategic objectives to operational actions. However, little is available to guide managers in translating a set of objectives into operations so far. This paper presents a comprehensive methodology to address this gap. In this methodology, strategic objectives are translated into performance metrics by qualitative strategy map and metric network firstly, and then quantitative techniques such as system dynamics simulation and optimization are adopted to take managers through the stages of strategy mapping, action evaluation and decision making. A case study, supported by a software tool, is carried out throughout the paper to illustrate how the method works