1. Introduction
The assignment will be on the manufacturing of concrete stone paving. This product has been chosen because its demand is growing rapidly as most people are concerned about the need for decorating their homes, businesses, municipalities are involved in small town regeneration programmes and there is growth in development buildings and malls in the Eastern Cape. Concrete stone paving is preferred instead of other forms because it is versatile, aesthetically attractive, functional, cost effective and requires little or no maintenance if correctly manufactured and laid. Sellers of concrete stone paving in East London are sourcing it from other provinces or countries, there are very few manufacturers and yet the demand is high.
The company which will be started for the manufacturing of stone paving will develop a business strategy and mission and the operations mission and objectives will be aligned to them. The operations’ mission will be to provide quality and value for money stone paving in an effective and efficient way. The distinctive competence is the fact the local manufacturing that will offer customer opportunity to order desired designs instead of choosing from the available designs. The company will also capitalise short lead times as the product is locally manufactured and has highly skilled and experienced cross functional team that is innovative.
2. Product/service design
In designing the product the company will adopt an inter-functional view, meaning that a product must meet the market needs and also have a technical advantage. This will be easily accomplished by the company as it possess a team of highly experienced specialists.
Strategy for the stone paving is to differentiation and a product in which a customer finds value for money. In designing that product a cross functional team will be formed as this will benefit the organisation to make the product a success. The team will be
References: Heizer, J. and Render, B., 2011. Operations Management. 10th Ed. London: Prentice Hall. Schoeder, R.G., Goldstein, S., and Rungtusanatham, M.J., Operations Management in Supply Chain. 2013. 6th Ed. New York: MacGraw-Hill. Slack, N., Chambers, S., Harland, C., Harrison, A., and Johnston, R., 1998. Operations Management. 2nd Ed. London: Pitman Publishing.