Operations Strategy and Capability Roadmapping Training Course – Munich, 4–8 Jan 2027

Operations Strategy and Capability Roadmapping is a 1-week training course for operations managers and plant leaders who translate business strategy into choices about facilities, suppliers, technology and skills, ending with an operations capability roadmap for their own site or network. Shifting customer expectations, fragile supply bases and automation make these structural choices harder to reverse. Jupiter Prime Training runs this course for leaders who shape how operations compete.

Why Operations Strategy and Capability Roadmapping Matters Now

Three pressures shape operations strategy today: customers who expect speed and customisation at once, supply bases exposed to disruption and concentration, and automation that changes which skills and assets a plant needs. An organisation that links these choices to its competitive priorities builds operations that are hard to copy. One that drifts makes isolated investments in equipment, outsourcing or software that pull against each other. The course draws on the competitive priorities model of cost, quality, speed, dependability and flexibility, the Hayes and Wheelwright four-stage model of operations contribution, and the product-process matrix.

Who Gains Most from Operations Strategy and Capability Roadmapping

• Leaders accountable for a plant, service centre or distribution site and its long-term role
• Heads of operational excellence who choose which improvement capabilities to build
• Managers who weigh make-or-buy and supplier footprint decisions
• Engineering leads who propose automation and digital technology investments
• Operations planners who translate strategic plans into facility and network choices

Leadership groups from one site or one network gain most when they attend together, because a roadmap needs agreement across production, engineering and sourcing.

Operations Strategy and Capability Roadmapping Capabilities

Participants practise turning a market position into a coherent pattern of structural and infrastructural choices.

• Assess which competitive priorities an operation must win orders on — informing the executive committee
• Weigh trade-offs between cost, flexibility and dependability — guiding investment boards
• Design a facility and network footprint that fits demand geography — supporting site leaders
• Specify make-or-buy and supplier partnership positions — guiding sourcing leaders
• Test automation and digital technology options against strategic fit — informing engineering leads
• Build a sequenced operations capability roadmap with milestones — serving board and plant teams

Key Operations Strategy and Capability Roadmapping Terms

• Order winner — a performance attribute that directly wins business from customers against competing suppliers.
• Order qualifier — a minimum level of performance needed even to be considered by a customer.
• Structural decisions — long-term choices about facilities, capacity, vertical integration and process technology.
• Infrastructural decisions — choices about planning systems, organisation, skills and quality systems that run the structure.
• Focused factory — a plant organised around a narrow set of products or priorities so that trade-offs stay manageable.
• Capability roadmap — a sequenced plan showing which operations capabilities to build, when and with which investments.

Operations Strategy and Capability Roadmapping Day by Day

Day 1: Competitive Context of Operations

• Competitive Priorities Model — Choosing What Operations Must Excel At
• Order Winners and Qualifiers Analysis — Linking Customers to Operations Choices
• Hayes and Wheelwright Four-Stage Model — Rating Current Operations Contribution
• Market-Led Versus Resource-Led Perspectives — Balancing Customer Pull and Strengths
• Disruption and Automation Trend Scan — Forces Reshaping Plant Roles

Day 2: Structural Choices and Trade-Offs

• Product-Process Matrix — Matching Process Type to Volume and Variety
• Trade-Off Curves and Efficient Frontier — Deciding Where to Position Operations
• Focused Factory and Plant-Within-a-Plant — Separating Conflicting Priorities
• Vertical Integration and Make-or-Buy Logic — Setting Sourcing Boundaries
• Supplier Partnership Portfolio — Deciding Collaboration Depth by Category

Day 3: Footprint and Technology Decisions

• Facility Location Factor Rating — Comparing Candidate Sites Objectively
• Network Configuration and Plant Roles — Assigning Lead, Source and Offshore Sites
• Process Technology Assessment Grid — Judging Automation Fit and Readiness
• Digital Operations Use Cases — Prioritising Sensors, Analytics and Scheduling Systems
• Resilience and Dual Sourcing Options — Reducing Exposure to Single Points

Day 4: Infrastructure and Capability Building

• Operations Capability Gap Assessment — Identifying Skills and System Shortfalls
• Planning and Control System Fit — Aligning Infrastructure With Structure
• Workforce Skills Matrix — Building Technical Depth for New Processes
• Investment Appraisal for Operations Projects — Ranking Options by Strategic Fit
• Operations Strategy Scorecard — Tracking Progress Against Competitive Priorities

Day 5: Practising the Operations Capability Roadmap

• Case Site Priority Profile — Applying Day 1 Order Winner Analysis
• Structural Option Set for the Case — Applying Day 2 and Day 3 Choices
• Capability Sequencing and Dependencies — Applying Day 4 Gap Findings
• Board Narrative and Trade-Off Statement — Securing Executive Sponsorship
• Operations Capability Roadmap — Completing the Site Work Product

Applying Operations Strategy and Capability Roadmapping After the Course

• Run an order winner and qualifier session with sales and key customers to confirm the priorities operations must deliver.
• Lead a capability gap assessment of one site and rank the shortfalls against those priorities.

Operations Strategy and Capability Roadmapping Questions (FAQ)

What is operations strategy and capability roadmapping, and why does it matter now?

Operations strategy and capability roadmapping is the practice of linking a firm's competitive position to long-term choices about plants, suppliers, technology and skills. It matters now because disruption and automation make these choices costly to reverse.

Which roles gain most from operations strategy and capability roadmapping?

Plant and site leaders, operational excellence heads, sourcing managers, engineering leads and operations planners gain most. You benefit if you shape long-term investments or explain operations choices to an executive committee in manufacturing, logistics or service operations.

How does operations strategy and capability roadmapping differ from a longer capacity growth course?

Operations strategy and capability roadmapping is a focused one-week course on strategic positioning, footprint, sourcing and technology choices. A longer capacity growth course spends more time on process design, lean methods and planning and control routines.

What do you bring back from operations strategy and capability roadmapping training?

You bring back an operations capability roadmap for a case site that you can adapt to your own, plus order winner analysis, trade-off positioning and a capability gap assessment to share with colleagues.

Operations Strategy and Capability Roadmapping: The Way Forward

The operations capability roadmap gives an operations director a first decision: which structural change or capability to fund first and what it depends on. Site leaders, sourcing heads and engineering leads use it to align their budgets. After the first planning cycle, revisit the order winners, since customer priorities and supply conditions shift faster than plant assets.