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Operations management and its nature
Operations management and its nature
Operations management and its nature
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Introduction:
The increasingly volatile market conditions that now face many firms around the world are bringing new challenges to operations management. There is now a recognition that operational efficiency and effectiveness are critical to gaining and retaining competitive advantage. Survival in these global markets demands far higher levels of agility and responsiveness that was ever the case in the past. yesterday’s model of how to manage operations is now being questioned. New solutions are required as well as a wider view of what constitutes operations strategy and management.
The value that is added by both operations management and operations strategy is fundamental to most organizations. Operational activities are central to the provision of services and/or goods. Every organization provides a product and service combination. A meal in a restaurant, a visit to the hospital, buying a pair of Levi 501s, making a pair of Levi 501s, Woodstock Festival, insuring an automobile, staying in an hotel, going to the cinema, even the workings of a prison; all have operations activities and their management is central to the successful provision of goods and services. Even Government departments can draw heavily upon operational initiatives and strategies when they talk about supply chain management, lean supply, just in time and total quality management.
Operations Management:
Operations management has its origins in the study of ‘production’ or ‘manufacturing management’.
These terms still very much apply to manufacturing organizations that will have distinct operational activities that convert say, beans and rich tomato sauce into cans of baked beans to be sold by a retailer. Thus, we can initially think of operations...
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...opment of operations management capabilities that are able to coordinate functional capabilities more effectively.
In the above approaches to strategic management, the need to consider the business as a whole is outlined, to assist in reducing risk while also giving specific attention to long-term improvements. For this reason, operations strategy as defined by Slack and Lewis (2001) needs to represent four major areas of operations to aid consistent management of such an important aspect of the business entity. In the more traditional views of business, such an approach to strategy may seem like the manufacturing strategy approaches, although the operations that take place are not necessarily production. The operations could be any type of business, not necessarily manufacturing, but rather the element of the business where the transformation process takes place.
Operations management is essential for the survival and success of any organization. According to Heizer & Render (2011), operations management (OM) is the set of activities that creates value in the form of goods and services by transforming inputs into outputs. Operations managers today contend with competition, globalization, inflation, consumer demand, and consistent change in technology. Managers must focus on the efficiency and effectiveness of processes such as cost, dependability, distribution, flexibility, and speed. The intent of this paper is to discuss the processes and operations management of the Kroger Company.
Business strategy is the means by which firm’s plans to achieve its goals and objectives. It can also be termed as organization long-term planning. The strategy covers periods between 3-5 years and sometimes longer. Businesses use two major types of strategy, general or generic and competitive strategies. The overall strategy involves strategies of growth, globalization and retrenchment. The competitive advantage includes low pricing, product and customer differentiation. We will look at the business strategy used by Marks and Spenser (Cole, 1997). The company is a British multinational located at Westminster London and specializes in clothes and luxurious food products.
Operations refers to the transformation of raw materials(inputs) into finished products(outputs). The operations process is one of the key business functions and is a crucial component to business success. Like every business, Qantas is affected by many internal and external influences requiring it to have effective strategies to respond to these influences. Businesses that are able to adopt and utilise effective operational strategies are able to quickly adapt and either reduce or take advantage of these influences that impact the business. The effectiveness of these strategies can measured by Qantas’ performance and whether or not it is able to hold it’s competitive advantage. How well these strategies respond to the influences on operations will determine the level of success that Qantas achieves.
Roth, A.V. and Velde ,M V D.(1991), “Operations As Marketing : A Competitive Service Strategy”, Journal of Operations Management ,Vol. 10 ,No. 3,pp 303-328
Slack, N. & Lewis, M. (2011) Operations strategy. 3rd ed. Harlow : Financial Times Prentice Hall.
Every business environment is characterized by a myriad of opportunities and challenges that it must address appropriately to meet its business objectives. In this light, managers and C.E.Os must exercise their managerial duties by clearly giving the direction and range of activities that the firm seeks to undertake both in the short term and in the long term. These activities must be able to bring in positive results in terms of satisfying the needs of the market and the stakeholders. To do this, they re-allocate resources in the best way possible so that growth is experienced throughout the firm’s life. All this entails business strategizing (Tutor2u, 2011).
Using the information presented in the first chapter of Strategic Management and Competitive Advantage, this essay will show that my current organization does not have a working strategy, adhere to its mission nor is it guided by a set of core values. Barney and Hesterly (2015), highlight three significant points that are instrumental for understanding strategic management and implementing strategic direction in an organization. First, the authors define strategy, second they highlight the importance of implementing a good organizational strategy; and third they expound on the components of the strategic management process elucidating how a good strategy helps an organization gain and maintain competitive advantage.
The business is related to a manufacturing concern; therefore, the importance of enhancing manufacturing operations seems to increase. Manufacturing operations management is commonly known as MOM (Daft, Kendrick & Vershinina, 2010). Management of operations is basically a process which reviews the manufacturing or production process with an intention to maximize the production efficiency. Manufacturing operations management is thoroughly divided into many different arenas like production management, supply chain management, analysis of performance, quality and compliance and many others. Manufacturing operations management revolves around all the underlying production processes (Hills & Jones, 2009).
According to Aquilano, Chase, and Jacobs (2005), "Operations management (OM) is defined as the design, operation, and improvement of the systems that create and deliver the firm's primary products and services" (p.19).
Market opportunities for breakfast cereals is vast, some segments of the market have been neglected, most notably that of the over-50’s. Insightful presentations were given at the “Older, Richer, Wiser” Conference that would suggest the over 50’s market segment is targetable.
Operations management focuses on carefully managing the processes to reduce and distribute products and services. Related activities include managing purchases, inventory control, quality control, storages, logistics and evaluations. A great deal of focus is on efficiency and effectiveness of processes. Therefore, operations management often includes substantial measurement and analysis of internal processes. Ultimately, the nature of how the operations management is carried out in an organisation depends very much on the nature of products or services in the organisation, for example, retail, manufacturing, wholesale and etcetera.
Strategic management is a disciplined effort or control to make necessary decisions that have an effect on a business or an organization; the aim of strategic management is mainly to develop new, innovative or diverse ideas and opportunities for potential or development, and facilitates or assists an organization to achieve its goals (SM, 2010). In reality, strategic management not only can be used or applied to determine mission, vision and values or objectives, but it also establishes roles and responsibilities or timelines in a business (David, 2009). In the following sections, this study will focus on and examine the nature of strategy formulation, implementation, and evaluation activities, and analyze the potential pitfalls or risks in using a strategic-management approach to decision making.
Operations management strategies play an important role in any organization to achieve organizational goals. An organization uses these operations strategies to maintain and control all its operations...
University of Phoenix(Ed.).(2003) Operations management for competitive advantage[University of Phoenix custom edition e-text]. New York: McGraw-Hill. Retrieved February 01, 2005, from university of phoenix, Resource, MGT554- operations management website: https://mycampus.phoenix.edu/secure/resource/resource.asp
In every organization, different operational functions exist to ensure the smooth learning of the organization. In order for an individual to have the knowhow on how to operate the functions delegated to them they must have implicit knowledge on the functionalities themselves. Understanding markets, customers and the company goals has always proven to be a core starting point for individuals who ply their trade in the organization. The essence of the skills is evident in globalization, cooperate social responsibility and risk management issues. In operations management, the basic principles of operations should be followed to ensure that the profitability of the organization ensures the operation of the organization is