Alex Wilson
Operations Management
11 April 2014
Student Number: 130043993
Alternative Coursework
How do businesses coordinate the flow of supply from factories to the consumer? How do companies decide what to produce? What is common amongst all top managers at every mature company? The commonality between these questions are internal problems, they use operations management to solve the internal problems. Starting with an operating strategy, where the planning begins. How can a company plan out its day-to-day operations to cut costs and increase efficiency? The first step to successful operations management is to have an operations strategy. An operations strategy as defined by Slack & Lewis (2002) is a combination of all decisions made that effect the long-term capabilities of an operation and their contribution to the companies overall strategy. Operations strategies focus on identifying where and how in the operations process change can be made to help the business. From there the management team moves to focusing on Process Design. Process design is key because it is the physical steps that the company will take to fulfill the operations strategy. Towards the end of the process,the common place in the operations where many companies loose the most money, is in inventory management. Often companies overstock their inventory and it results in a high product cost. Inventory levels are also a good indicator of company health drawn from the fact that a large oversupply usually means sales are not at the same levels as forecasted. Drawing from all three the commonality is in decreasing overhead and increasing productivity creating a leaner organization. From the operations strategy to the process management to the inventory manage...
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...mportant point. The process design is where everything starts coming together. The plan starts to unfold and the outlook can be more realistically seen. The process design gives the tangible layout to where the operations strategy will go. Through the next steps, individual parts of the operations are changed, eventually leading to a smoother process in creating final goods. From there the next big cost is found in Inventory. For businesses large costs are accumulated from the inventory supply. In modern business the use of just-in-time manufacturing is helping cope with decreasing inventory size. With the largest question in today’s business world being, “How do we operate in the global market place?” either selling or producing goods takes a good operations strategy. Understanding Operations Management helps provide a framework and an method to solving the issues.
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.
Kuiper Leda lacks an effective Inventory Management to handle properly the increase in demand of stock and production. An inventory management plan would be capable of forecasting errors in production, client-required service levels, total lead time in manufacturing a unit or batch of the product, and demand priorities. Inventory control is a challenge currently because of the size of Midland Motor's order. In order to meet the demand the company needs to increase the inventory which increases the inventory costs. KL have an opportunity of using the Just - In - Time method of inventory control which eliminates waste by making the resources and labor available only in the time and amount required. It will help increase productivity, product quality and work performance while saving inventory costs for the company. (Curtin, 2008). Kuiper Leda also needs to keep in mind that they will still have to fill orders from other clients that have previously placed orders or even new customers.
This question is about to examine the issue of what a full comprehension of operations and process administration implies in any business. During this exchange it is valuable to bring up the contrast between the specialized learning that is implanted in any operation or procedure on one hand, and the undertakings that are important to run the operation or procedure on the other. Marco Van Hopen is obviously educated and positively excited in view of his insight into the assignment.
Russell, R. S., & Taylor, B. W. (2011). Operations Management: Creating Value Along The Supply Chain. (7th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
Imagine the reaction of a couple who received a chilling prophecy from an oracle who declared that their infant was destined to kill his father and marry his mother. Would it be reasonable for a couple murder their child, because of a frightening prophecy? Modern society would be aghast at this disgusting choice, but unfortunately Oedipus’s parents abandoned him, where he was saved by the mercy of others. Fate was against Oedipus, and he inadvertently created a domino effect of tragic choices that would make his parent’s prophecy a reality. Oedipus fled Corinth leading him to kill a disrespectful stranger. He solved the Sphinx’s riddle which gave him kingship and the queen of Thebes. Oedipus went from death row to royalty temporarily, but he would discover a truth that would ruin his life. This idea of fate was conflicted with the Oedipus complex as believed by film producer Pasolini and author Freud who believed that Oedipus’s actions were a result of a sexual bond with his mother. They believed that this sexual bond was the underlying factor that led Oedipus to kill his father Laius and marry his mother Jocasta. To affirm their beliefs, Pasolini changed several scenes from the original play in his film Oedipus Rex, and intertwined the scenes with multiple Freudian theories to construct that Oedipus desired Oedipus complex. However, if Oedipus really wanted to marry his mother and murder his father, then why would he flee Thebes? Why would he blind himself if he received what he desired? An oracle told Oedipus he was fated to commit murder which caused Oedipus to flee Corinth with the intent to avoid this fate, which unfortunately backfired. Oedipus Tyrannous is a play that features a hero’s attempt to deny fate until he has no ...
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.
Operations Management Process is the central arteries within the organization because it produces the planning process for goods and services, which are its reason for existent. Operations management is linked to all organizations as every organization is producing either a product or a service. However, it cannot be said to be the most important function since there are other functional areas and boundaries within an organization. In today's fast changing world, organizations have to have a tendency towards being efficient, effective and innovative to the changing environment to succeed. Operations Management has to use metrics in order for them to accomplish their task and be successful with minimal interruptions within the organization.
Once plans have been developed, an organization must address how management will be accomplishing be those plans. This involves operational plans that must flow from strategy; specify resource, time issues, and commitment of human resources. Operational plans at the lower - levels of the organization, have a shorter time horizon, and are narrower in scope (Bateman, Snell 2003 p.113). A good example of this is Wal-Mart's main strategic goal. It is to provide quality merchandise at an affordable low cost to consumers. Its operational goals focus on efficient logistics requiring technology and inventory management systems to help reduce costs so it can be passed on to the customer. Operational plans are derived from a tactical plan and are aimed at achieving one or more operational goals (Bateman, Snell 2003 p.113).
Inventory management is a method through which a business handles tangible resources and materials to ensure availability of resources for use. It is a collection of interdisciplinary processes including a full circle of the demand forecasting, supply chain management, inventory control and reverse logistics. Inventory management is the optimization of inventories of manufactured goods, work in progress, and raw materials. According to Doucette (2001) inventory management can be challenging at times; however, the need for effective inventory management is largely seen more as a necessity than a mere trend when customer satisfaction and service have become a prime reason for a business to stand apart from its competition. For example, Wal-Mart’s inventory management is one of the biggest contributors to the success of the company; effective and efficient inventory management is of critical importance.
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.
As Schermerhorn states in Management planning, organizing, leading, and controlling are the tools needed by managers to accomplish performance goals. It is crucial that managers be able to recognize and act upon problems or opportunities as they arise. Planning is perhaps the cornerstone of the four processes. All good processes were at some point given great detail so as to anticipate possible problems and solutions to those problems. When the Honda Motor Company decided it needed to refine its inventory they didn't just jump at the first idea that was proposed; they first set their objectives and discussed ways to meet those objectives. After giving careful consideration to processes and the streamlining of those processes human error rose as the top need for change. Sounds simple you might respond; in reality it is much more complicated.
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...
Inventory Management has developed as an important fact in organizational efforts to reduce losses. The management of capital within an organization has a significant impact towards profits where inventories are commonly an organization’s largest asset. Inventory Management behaviors impact the sales forecast, operation and sales planning, production planning, inventory rotation and material requirement planning.
...ications management process is about presenting corporate policy, and creating a positive relationship with an organization's environment. Promoting the relationships with all the relevant stakeholders acts as an extremely important tool to gain corporate success and competitive advantage.
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