A qualitative study on the alignment among competitive strategy, operations improvement priorities and manufacturing and logistics performance measurement systems

Several contributions claim that the performance measurement system should be designed according to a principle of alignment between competitive strategy and operations’ one. The paper aims at verifying whether the performance measurement systems of manufacturing plants are actually designed and used as stated in the academic literature. The paper presents a brief review of the most influential literature on this topic, then discusses the empirical findings of a qualitative study conducted through a case-based methodology. The findings highlight that, although operations managers of the observed plants state the necessity to improve the manufacturing and logistics performances more relevant in the client’s perspective, there is a misalignment between the improvement priorities and the operations’ performance measurement system. Such phenomenon depends on two factors: a perception of operations managers about their responsibility on specific performances; the availability of technologies, managerial tools and practices suitable to improve specific performances.