Final answer:
The option that does not effectively yield competitive advantage for a firm is setting equipment utilization goals below the industry average, as this could lead to missing out on economies of scale and higher costs per unit.
Step-by-step explanation:
A firm can use its operations function to gain a competitive advantage in several ways, but not all strategies are necessarily effective. Among the listed options, setting equipment utilization goals below the industry average is the one that does not typically yield a competitive advantage. Firms can often gain an edge through customization of the product, speed of delivery, maintaining a variety of product options, and constant innovation of new products. However, having lower equipment utilization than competitors may lead to higher costs per unit, considering economies of scale. As the total quantity of output goes up, the cost per unit typically goes down. This principle supports the idea that a larger factory can produce at a lower average cost than a smaller factory.
Therefore, setting equipment utilization goals below the industry average might cause a firm to miss out on these economies of scale and thus would not be an effective strategy for competitive advantage.The firm can effectively use its operations function to yield competitive advantage through customization of the product, speed of delivery, constant innovation of new products, and maintaining a variety of product options.However, setting equipment utilization goals below the industry average may not yield a competitive advantage because it could lead to inefficiencies and lower productivity.