Operations Management Essay Research Paper IntroductionOperations Management

Operations Management Essay, Research Paper

Introduction

Operations Management is the term we use for the management of the resources necessary to produce and deliver the products and services required by customers. These resources include labour, materials and capital equipment.

The following definition reflects the nature of Operations management:

‘Operations management is about the way organizations produce goods and services. Everything you wear, eat, sit on, use, read or knock about on the sports field comes to you courtesy of the operations managers who organized its production. Every book you borrow from the library, every treatment you receive at the hospital, every service you expect in the shops and every lecture you attend at university – all have been produced.’

-Slack et al (1995) Operations Management, Pitman Publishing: London.

An operation can also be considered as a transformation process: operations are a transformation process as they convert a set of resources (INPUTS) into services and goods (OUTPUTS). These resources may be raw materials, information, or the client itself (p.e. people travelling with an airline).

Operations function is important to the organisation because it directly affects how well the organisation satisfies its customers.

If we consider the three stages in operations, Input, Transformation and Output, we can classify Input resources in two types: as transforming resources (the staff and facilities) which act upon the transformed resources (materials, information and customers) which are in some way transformed by the operation.

Operations interfaces with many different disciplines and many themes are developing which require the support of Operations Management.

It also mediates between production system demands and other systems – marketing, purchasing, warehousing/distribution, staff, finance.

The management challenge is to ensure that customers’ requirements are met while at the same time ensuring that the operating system is run efficiently

The role of the operations manager is invaluable to achieve an efficient resource utilisation and provide hight-quality service response level.

The objectives of operations managers include: producing required quantities of items to quality and on time, at acceptable financial and social costs, with good sales price, and an acceptable ROI with flexibility to adjust to demands.

The operations manager has a key role in developing the processes for making and supporting a product. He can re-design processes. Restructuring programmes can be introduced as some production plants are closed and others upgraded. New technologies and working practices are introduced.

Service Operations

Organizations can produce goods and services.

When we speak about Barclays Bank or a Restaurant, both are services. When personal service is offered the customer reaction is more immediate and less predictable, so such systems demand more control. The degree of customer contact and reaction affects system efficiency. In services productivity is more difficult to measure and quality involves more subjective assessment.

Process Transformations

In all stages of product planning Operations Management is a central activity in organizing things: design of a new product, forecasting outputs, design of processes and administrative systems, laying out new work areas, and re-designing existing ones, advicing on quality issues, etc.

There are differnet types of production system such as p.e. builders, gardeners and manufacturers that transform raw materials & components. Suppliers, wholesales, retailers that change the nature of “ownership”. Insurance provides people with security, building societies lend for housing, physios improve physical well-being, etc.

Conflicts in Operations Management

Managers must balance potentially conflicting objectives such as customer satisfaction versus efficient resource utilisation in decisions about product design, job and work design, location, process planning/control, scheduling and inventory.

An Operations Manager can make failures in a project such as ignore its environment; push a new technology to market too quickly; let new ideas starve to death from inertia; don’t bother conducting feasibility studies; etc.

Management options such as cost cutting on materials may give lower quality and more complaints.

Staff productivity without extra pay may be sought but workers may resist increased work tempo.

Management wants long production runs to use materials, machines and staff efficiently but this can delay a quick response to an order.

A doctor that limits consulting time due to long queue may overlook a serious illness.

The operation manager can fail in evaluating the suitability of existing production plants in order to make a new product or service at a profit.

Decisions have to be made on holding stocks, wich means capital tied up, making it complicate to change the product, having the possiblitity to pass the sell-by date, etc.

A range of techniques may be used to examine how conflicts may be avoided. Techniques include value analysis, linear programming, network analysis, statistical quality control and effi

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