An important issue in process management is the alignment between the firm’s operations strategy and its process management trade-off (i.e. cost vs. quality). It has been argued that the ability of the firm to respond to changes in a highly dynamic and evolving market will be at risk if process management maintains a narrow and tight scope on operations. For example, if a firm focuses entirely on inventory reduction and efficiency in material handling systems while facing a highly evolving market, its ability to respond to customer demands and market changes will be threatened. In fact, strategic alignment between market and process management is the key in process anagement decisions (Bower and Christensen, 1995; Klassen and Menor, 2007). This view challenges the traditional view of process management where it has been primarily dealt
with reducing variability in the firm’s operations (Pannirselvam et al., 1999; Silver, 2004). Effective process management in markets where customer preferences are changing rapidly and the rate of product/service innovation is high cannot be sustained with emphasis on efficiency and variance reduction. Rather, it requires flexibility and
adaptability.