Operation Management Application
Contents: * Introduction * Literature review: * The ‘four Vs’ of processes * Operations strategy * Operations performance objectives * Operations improvement * Findings * Discussion * Conclusion * Abbreviations * References |
Introduction
Operation management is changing, having increasing importance and central role in today’s businesses, effective operation management increases the potential to boost revenues, reduce costs and help in providing future competitive advantages (Slack 2009). In this paper, we’ll go through reviewing four aspects of operation management; four Vs of process, operations strategy, operation performance objectives and operation improvement. Afterwards we’ll examine the findings of applying these aspects on XYZ in Gulf and Near East (GNE) operation that includes 9 countries (UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria), and produces mix of goods and services, then, will discuss the degree of relevance between findings and research. Moreover; we’ll discuss further recommendations in order to improve the overall operation performance.
Review of literature
The ‘four Vs’ of processes:
Not all processes are the same, they differ technically and also according to the nature of demand, which emerges different ways for proper management of processes. There are four common characteristics for demand known as ‘four Vs’: * Volume * Variety * Variation * Visibility
They all have substantial impact on process management (Slack 2009).
1-Volume:
Volume plays an important role of how process should be managed, does it need specialisation and standardisation because of the repeatability like the case of high volume output, this gives rise to evolving specialised technology which often improves both efficiency and cost. On the other hand; processes of low volume output requires less specialisation; in some cases one staff can perform the whole process (Slack 2009).
Introduction
Operation management is changing, having increasing importance and central role in today’s businesses, effective operation management increases the potential to boost revenues, reduce costs and help in providing future competitive advantages (Slack 2009). In this paper, we’ll go through reviewing four aspects of operation management; four Vs of process, operations strategy, operation performance objectives and operation improvement. Afterwards we’ll examine the findings of applying these aspects on XYZ in Gulf and Near East (GNE) operation that includes 9 countries (UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria), and produces mix of goods and services, then, will discuss the degree of relevance between findings and research. Moreover; we’ll discuss further recommendations in order to improve the overall operation performance.
Review of literature
The ‘four Vs’ of processes:
Not all processes are the same, they differ technically and also according to the nature of demand, which emerges different ways for proper management of processes. There are four common characteristics for demand known as ‘four Vs’: * Volume * Variety * Variation * Visibility
They all have substantial impact on process management (Slack 2009).
1-Volume:
Volume plays an important role of how process should be managed, does it need specialisation and standardisation because of the repeatability like the case of high volume output, this gives rise to evolving specialised technology which often improves both efficiency and cost. On the other hand; processes of low volume output requires less specialisation; in some cases one staff can perform the whole process (Slack 2009).
References: 1- Boyer, K. and Lewis, M. (2002) ‘Competitive priorities: Investigating the need for trade-offs in operations strategy’, Production and Operations Management, 11 (1) 9-20 2- Chakravorty, Satya, S., Franza and Richard, M., (2012) Kaizen blitz, Industrial Engineer: IE, 44(4), 28-33. 3- Hayes, R.H., Wheelwright and Steven, C., (1984) Restoring Our Competitive Edge: Competing Through Manufacturing. New York: John Wiley. 4- Hum, S. H. (2000) A Hayes-Wheelwright framework approach for strategic management of third party logistics services’, Integrated Manufacturing Systems, 11 (2) 132-137 5- Kathuria, R., (2000), Competitive priorities and managerial performance: a taxonomy, Journal of Operations Management, 18, 627-641 6- Pintelon, L., Pinjala, K. and Vereecke, A., (2006) "Evaluating the effectiveness of maintenance strategies", Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, 12 (1) 7-20 7- Rowbotham, F.E. and Barnes, D., (2004) A questionnaire operationalising Hayes and Wheelwright 's four-stage concept, Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 15(7), 651-661. 8- Slack, N., Chambers, S., Johnston, R. and Betts, A., (2009) Operation and process management, principles and practice for strategic impact. 2nd Ed., Prentice Hall, Pearson Education.