• Performance objectives – quality, speed, dependability, flexibility, customisation, cost
• New product or service design and development
• Supply chain management – logistics, e-commerce, global sourcing
• Outsourcing – advantages and disadvantages
• Technology – leading edge, established
• Inventory management – advantages and disadvantages of holding stock, LIFO (last-in-first-out), FIFO (first-in-first-out), JIT (just-in-time)
• Quality management
  • Control
  • Assurance
  • Improvement
• Overcoming resistance to change – financial costs, purchasing new equipment, redundancy payments, retraining, reorganising plant layout, inertia
• Global factors – global sourcing, economies of scale, scanning and learning, research and development

Extract from Business Studies Stage 6 Syllabus. © 2010 Board of Studies NSW.