Time-Based Competition: Operations Management & Supply Chain (UON)

This report delves into the concept of time-based competition within organizational supply chains, emphasizing its role in accelerating processes. It provides an overview of time-based competition, highlighting key elements necessary for success in time-sensitive operations. A literature review explores the impact of globalization, technological advancements, and hyper-competition on the importance of time management. The report includes a case study of Toyota, illustrating how the company leverages time-based strategies for competitive advantage. Ultimately, the report concludes by underscoring the significance of time as a strategic asset in achieving and maintaining a sustainable competitive edge in today's dynamic business environment. Desklib provides access to similar assignments and study resources for students.

Running head: TIME-BASED COMPETITION
TIME-BASED COMPETITION
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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................2
Discussion......................................................................................................................2
Overview of time based competition.........................................................................2
Literature review on time based competition.............................................................3
Case study..................................................................................................................8
Toyota Company....................................................................................................8
Time based competitive advantage for Toyota......................................................8
Conclusion......................................................................................................................9
References....................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
This report aims to discuss the concept of time-based competition in the supply chain
of organisations. A brief overview of the topic and how the organisations utilise this for
making the processing of supply chain faster is provided in this report. A brief discussion of
the time-based competition by identifying the key elements that are required for being
successful in delivering the best quality in the operations that are time-sensitive is detailed in
this report. Lastly, this report concludes with an appropriate conclusion for this report.
The term time-based competition is the broad based strategy of competition that
emphasises on time as the main factor in achieving and maintain the sustainable advantage in
the competition (Demeter 2013). This seeks to compress time for proposing, developing,
manufacturing, marketing, and delivering the products. For executing this plan a firm must
alter the present processes and change the structures of decision that is used for designing,
producing, and delivering products to the customers.
Discussion
Overview of time based competition
The time based competition is the strategic advantage that is derived from the creation
of the cycle of order-to-delivery more efficient, compact and maximise the cost effectiveness
for both the consumer and the supplier (Godinho Filho and Saes 2013). This helps in the
compression of time of the whole organisation, across the flow of decisions, customer
processes, distribution, manufacturing, procurement, engineering and the order processing.
The demand conditions are the reason for the rise of advantages that are time based. When
the industries and the markets are experiencing the swift changes in the technological
advances, there is situation of decreased life cycle of products and hence the complete
horizon of profit-earning is compressed (Briglauer, Ecker and Gugler 2013). The operational

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time in the alteration of value would demand a strategic review for coping with the
compression of time and the pressure of the market that is based on the demand. The time
based competition presents in two varieties, which are fast to produce and fast to market. The
firms who are in competition with the speed of their respective market emphasize on the
reductions in the lead-time of design. Additionally, the firms can gain the time of minimising
the time for developing the new products or create swift changes in the design (Ontanón et al.
2013). The firms of fast-to-product emphasizes on the speed for responding to the demands
of the customers for the existing products. Wal-Mart is now able to dominate their industry
with replenishing the stores twice the speed as the competitors (Chandra 2015). The firms
that are competing in this sector now focus on the reduction of the lead-time overall the
system that starts from the moment the order is placed till the time, the customer finally
obtains the product. It includes the ability of reducing the time that is taken for manufacturing
of the products and the ability of reducing the time spent in confirming any order of the
customers and actually delivering the product (Hong et al. 2016). These significant reductions
in the lead time are commonly accompanied with the significant reductions in the levels of
inventory.
Literature review on time based competition
The major distinguishing feature of the competitive scenario in the present times are
the globalisation, alterations of the relations of space of the competition, dynamic conception
of the competition, an increasing complexity of the processes and the products, acceleration
of the innovation by technology, hyper competition, swift simulated of the innovations,
decreased life cycle of the technologies and the products (Zhang et al. 2013). All these factors
are the major reason for the thresholds of the globalisation. For resisting the pressure of the
global competition, the companies should have the capability of crossing the threshold of the

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globalisation where temporal horizon is concerned as these are constantly fighting for
survival.
Alongside this background, the increase in the high competition at the global level
consists of a problem of managing and interrupting the timeframe, which is progressively
enforced by a market (Costa et al. 2014). In comparison of the typical circumstances on the
proximity markets, in the places where the supply is not so high, it is observed that the
markets do not depend on the company and the internal structures of the timing, rather than
the company is dependent on the market (Beynnon et al. 2014). It is observed that globally, in
the over-supplied markets, the constraint of time grows to be the synchronising element for
the alteration of the periodical products, that means the introduction of an extensive model
range takes place in the market, in several prices and qualities range, which alters depending
on the intervals of the dictated by the leading companies on global market and this triggers
the situation of programmed obsolescence (Wolfbeis 2015). The periodical model alterations
leads to the evolution of standardisation that travels from the differentiated product to the
standard product. In the management of corporation, as the development of the global
markets takes place, the innovative models are implemented for the realisations and planning
of the products that uses the similar components in various processes of manufacturing and
hence achieves the crucial economies of the scale (El Shafeey and Trott 2014).
The effective explanation of the time constraint is particularly observed in the
philosophy of Ford and in the adjacent markets and in other instances connected to the saving
of cost and for the achievement of the economies of the scale for modular production, is
supplemented by the increasing attention of the values connected to the particular
requirements of the particular markets (Li, Lundholm and Minnis 2013). The alignment to the
marketing and the demand particularly of the adjacent markets and the international markets
cannot resist the force of the growth of the supply. This leads to the dissemination of the

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innovative perspective of the managers for the global markets that are over-supplied, on the
basis of the analysis of the competition (Dosi and Nelson 2016.). By the beating of the
competitors, who strive towards the meeting of the temporary requirements, it becomes a
strategic authoritative for the companies that are operating in the innovative contexts of the
competition, both in the future and in the present, of the worldwide markets (Briglauer 2014).
With the adoption of the competitor alignment for dealing with over-supply, but most
importantly for increasing the demand quantity, the companies use the resources of the
environment that are dominated by the assets that are product intangible like the factor of
time, and it is designed for thriving in the competition in all the sectors towards the instable
innovative structure of competition on the basis of the imperceptible factors that can help in
seeking a long-lasting competitive advantage (Liang et al. 2014). The major factor in the
strategic behaviour of a company is the time and it is comprehensively restoring the complete
company by reinterpreting the dimension of time in dissimilar, extensively dynamic context.
The performance of the global companies are increased with punctual and delocalisation and
prior to everything with better management of the incoming and the outgoing flow of the
information. The cycle of action-reaction and the subsequent reaction of the market, a
reaction that is triggered is the new cycle that originates with counter-reaction of the
questionable company (Giustolisi et al. 2015). By the consideration of a unique unit of
company from the inside, not only the reaction and the action can be identified, but also the
other component of cycle, the mechanisms of feedback and the feed-forward that are
intimately linked to the selection, collection, analysis and the processing of the information
that is action is retrospect. The mechanisms of the feedback are the returning information
about the process result that can be utilised for the rectification of the process input, the
process, for maintaining the intended levels of performance or for controlling the stability of
the system (Ben–Horin et al. 2013). The flow of the feedback information are indispensable

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as these allows the managers in performing and updating the SWOT analysis on the basis of
the changes in the competitive surroundings and the internal skills, and these presents the
backbone of the systems for measuring and controlling the performance of the company.
The amplified vitality is expressed by the environment of economy can be attributed
for increasing the quantity and quality of the information that is available to the companies,
for swiftly developing information technologies (Yin et al. 2013). The information and the
communications that are faster, richer provides mechanisms of feedback additional
immediate, that keeps the companies knowledgeable of the events of environment that occurs
in distant places. The feed-forward flows are determined as the action and the purposes that
are retrospect in nature and emerges when any particular action is not included, and the
presupposed outgoing and incoming flow of information, which allows the action of
amendment and control throughout the intervention course. On the global markets, the spread
and the development of the information technologies in the companies, the spread and speed
imitation of the innovation and demand for the products with delivery times that are shorter,
have created induction for the companies to combine in any network of the instable relations
that are short-term with the structure of the corporate that are combined and compact, but are
flexible in the relation to the boundaries and the external connections. The alteration that
takes place implies the requirement to amplify the reaction and the action cycles, decreasing
the required time for realising the complete cycle of development of the policies of market of
any company that is connected to the network.
In competitive conditions of particularly of the over-supplied global markets, the
dimension of time, as it has been indicated by the time-based competition, is considered to be
of huge significance for measuring and the characteristics of the systems of performance
measurement. The crucial measurements of the internal time are the time of setup and the
process time, as an instance for which the particular standard times occur, where the main

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concern is the external time, the major significant measurements are the time for marketing,
time of order completion and the times of lead for the provisioning and the manufacturing.
The over-supplies emphasizes the main importance of the time of choice, and exploiting the
opportunities and the profitability of physical exposure and the virtual exposure of the
particular products. The ratings of the performance are commonly used for comprehensively
in the policies of shelf of the manufacturing companies favours the performance with no-cost
that is defined in the quantitative non-monetary terms and it is expressed in the complete
values or using percentages, remotely associated with the factor of time. When timeframe of
the performance of the companies is crucial, that means the product sells-out from the point
of the sale, the indicator of performance that is utilised by the companies that are over-
supplied is the rotation index of the products. The retailers and the manufacturers commonly
compete with the non-antagonistic policies for creating temporary offers in short duration for
meeting the specific expectations of the instable aggregations of the end consumers with a
mutual goal of creating the stimulating shelf.
Another implication of adopting the performance indicators that are based on the
time: the companies that contest in the contexts that are not concerned with the over-supplied,
achieve the company goals of gaining the minimum of the flexibility by the processes
fragmentation; the expenditure on the warehouses creates the possibility of obtaining the
flexibility in manufacturing in any context of the rigid machines. The companies that are
operating in the wide areas of manufacturing deprived of any physical boundaries of global,
markets that are over-supplied due to the risky dynamism that differentiates them, determines
the inventory in the question, and consequently the speed of the consumption and
manufacturing processes are absorbed. The inventories are maintained at the minimum for
enabling the company for saving on the costs of the inventory. The inventories of the raw
materials should be kept in the possession in the required quantity and quality for ensuring

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the chances of any down times in the manufacturing due to the lack of the raw materials. The
measurements of performance that is based on the cost that can quantify the value of money
of the inventories are abandoned, for favouring the indices that are based on speed by which
the raw materials abandon the warehouse, like the rotation index of the inventory.
Case study
Toyota Company
The Toyota Auto Body co of Japan was built by Toyoda Kiichiro in 1933. Over the
present times, the TOYOTA motor has been gaining advantages in the competition of the
market with the low cost, high quality, and lower consumption of fuel. Towards the end of
the year 2010, the company with the annual sales 8 million 418 thousand, has defeated the
more popular companies in the sector (Chiarini and Vagnoni 2015). The corporation of
Toyota is vastly linked not only about the extensive performance of the Toyota Corporation,
but the main focus is on the series of developed concepts of management, the patterns of
management and the patterns of the organisation in production and management that are
attributed to the scholars of management. After several years, the production mode of the
company obtained growth in the downstream and upstream of the supply chain, creating the
lean supply chain (Yang and Yang 2013). With assisting the suppliers in eliminating the time
waste and the cost in supply chain, the company can execute mass customisation in large
range and perform transformation in the needs of the customers for obtain margins of profit
in the supply chain in short duration (Kurdve et al. 2014). An extensive partnership of supply
chain and the mechanism of benefit sharing ensures the creation of the complete competitive
advantage in the supply chain.
Time based competitive advantage for Toyota
The supply chain activity of the company Toyota is the series of increasingly
combined flow activities. The company compresses the time cycle of supply chain with

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shortening the time of business process. This enhances the time structure of the supply chain
with the pull of the organisation of supply chain, and it improves the efficiency and the total
efficiency of the supply chain and it practises the economic advantage of the supply chain
(Aguado, Alvarez and Domingo 2013). The supply chain activities of the company is
segregated into production plans, production instructions, sales activities and the activities of
procurement of parts. At the terminal of sales, the 4S stores of Toyota are located in the
whole country, and the network of sales is placed at the peak of complete country of the
Toyota automobile company. The sales company of the TOYOTA automobile would collate,
collect and perform calculation of the information from all the branches and then transmit the
information linked with the plan of production to the plant of production (Rüttimann and
Stöckli 2016). The information is acknowledged by the department of the production
management that is possible for the management of production, plan and purchase the
logistics in the factories of production. The department of production management is majorly
responsible for the plan making of the production, the promotion of new can and the
clearance of customs. The parts and components purchase is the main process of buying the
former parts to the factory of vehicle. The cars of TOYOTA utilises the Kanban mode for
realising the precision of purchase and the batch of the cycle of supply chain by the
conversion of the time of order issuance to the unrelated time of installation, the stock time of
the suppliers, the time external logistics and the time of internal logistics, with an efficient
control system of information (Netland and Aspelund 2013). The company gained several
benefits from the time based competition in the supply chain that helped in creating products
at low price and it helps the company as the demand of the products of this company is time
sensitive. The supply chain is enhanced and the competitive advantage of the company has
increased in the last few years.

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Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that the time based competition in the companies with
time-sensitive operation and the supply chain is enhanced in the companies. The term time-
based competition is the broad based strategy of competition that emphasises on time as the
main factor in achieving and maintain the sustainable advantage in the competition. The time
based competition is the strategic advantage that is derived from the creation of the cycle of
order-to-delivery more efficient, compact and maximise the cost effectiveness for both the
consumer and the supplier. The major distinguishing feature of the competitive scenario in
the present times are the globalisation, alterations of the relations of space of the competition,
dynamic conception of the competition, an increasing complexity of the processes and the
products, acceleration of the innovation by technology, hyper competition, swift simulated of
the innovations, decreased life cycle of the technologies and the products. The effective
explanation of the time constraint is particularly observed in the philosophy of Ford and in
the adjacent markets and in other instances connected to the saving of cost and for the
achievement of the economies of the scale for modular production, is supplemented by the
increasing attention of the values connected to the particular requirements of the particular
markets. The amplified vitality is expressed by the environment of economy can be attributed
for increasing the quantity and quality of the information that is available to the companies,
for swiftly developing information technologies. In competitive conditions of particularly of
the over-supplied global markets, the dimension of time, as it has been indicated by the time-
based competition, is considered to be of huge significance for measuring and the
characteristics of the systems of performance measurement. The supply chain activity of the
company Toyota is the series of increasingly combined flow activities. The company
compresses the time cycle of supply chain with shortening the time of business process. This
enhances the time structure of the supply chain with the pull of the organisation of supply

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chain, and it improves the efficiency and the total efficiency of the supply chain and it
practises the economic advantage of the supply chain.

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