Operations Management: Inventory Management and Capacity Management

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Executive Summary:
The purpose of this assignment is to discuss two topics relating to Operations Management and tie it in to examples from companies. I have chosen to discuss both Inventory management and capacity management. The company examples have both come from the airline industry. I have discussed inventory management with regards British Airways Maintenance Area in Cardiff. They have recently implemented a fully online inventory system. By doing this they have increased their efficiency and have significantly reduced costs. They can now maintain over one hundred planes every year compared to seventy six previously. I have also discussed the limitations of inventory management while also discussing their limitations. I have discussed yield management with regards the low cost airline Easyjet. Their unique yield management system means that they are able to get the most cost out of every flight because they have segmented their customers into two distinct groups: Business and leisure. I have also discussed the theory and components of Yield Management and have tried to tie it in with Easyjet.

Inventory Management:

The topic which I will be discussing in this section is inventory management. Inventory defined as ‘’the standard accumulation of resources in a transformation system’’. (Slack 2011 p. 198) Inventory is an important part of any business because the cost of holding inventory can be very expensive. The case study I am looking at with regards inventory management is the British Airways Maintenance Facility in Cardiff (BMAC) and their management of inventory for their maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) stock at their base.

Theory:
It is a necessary part of any business because there is a differenc...

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...0 Issue (3): pp.14-9.
Kimes, S.E. (1989). Yield Management: A Tool for Capacity Constrained Service Firms. Journal of Operations Management, Volume 8 Issue (4): pp.348-363
Slack, Nigel, and Stuart Chambers. Operations management. 6th ed. Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2010. Print.
Slack, Nigel Essentials of operations management / Harlow, England; New York: Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2011
Case Studies:
Case study of Inventory Management. Available at: http://www.cribmaster.com/case_studies/bamc_b&h_cribmaster.pdf (First Accessed on 10th April 2014)
Case study of Inventory Management. Available at: http://cms.buckandhickman.com/Documents/VMI/B&H_-_British_Airways_Case_Study.pdf(First Accessed on 10th April 2014)

Case study of Yield Management. Available at: http://cws.cengage.co.uk/page2/students/cases/8-2.pdf(First Accessed on 10th April 2014)

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