AECOM

AECOM's Operations Management

Executive Summary

This paper is about the study of Operations Management in an organisation. The organisation chosen for this paper is AECOM. The introduction of this paper includes a brief review of AECOM. The discussion includes AECOM's history and its operations. Further the paper discusses the definition of operations management, major decisions concerning the operations management, the implementing plan of operations and the performance indicators for the operations of an organisation. The paper also includes the strategies for successful operations management and the questions that needed to be answered in order to formulate that strategy. The basic purpose of this study is to explore the concept of “Operations Management of an organisation” in a holistic context. The main focus of the paper is on “Operations Management” and its implementation in “AECOM”.

Table of Content

1.History of AECOM4

2.AECOM's Operations4

3.1. Process5

3.2. Capacity5

3.3. Inventories5

3.4. Workforce6

3.5. Quality6

4.AECOM's Growth and Expansion8

5.The three Es of operations management8

6.Lessons Learnt from the Past9

7.Future Outlook9

8.Conclusion10

References12

AECOM's Operations Management

History of AECOM

Almost twenty years back, AECOM's founding father, Richard G. Newman, and a few of Ashland Inc. employees, had a common vision of creating a firm that would lead the industry. The firm would be committed to making the world a better place. (Korman 2007, pp53-58)

In 1990 on the 6th of April, AECOM developed as an sovereign entity created by the merger of five Ashland units. Eversince, more than thirty organisations have linked up with AECOM, and by 2007 it became a public company in the New York Stock Exchange. AECOM's technological proficiency and innovative superiority comes from the prosperous history of most excellent engineering, planning, environmental and design organisations, from energy, transportation and water systems to enhancing surroundings and making new communities and buildings. Our vision stays perpetual i.e. to make the world a better place. (Rodengen 2010, pp 6)

What distinguishes AECOM from other organisations is its cooperative way of working, rendering locally as well as globally.

AECOM's Operations

Operations management has the responsibility of five major decision areas which are process, capacity, inventory, work force and quality. (Eisenhardt and Sull 2001, pp. 106-116)

3.1. Process

This category measures the physical process or installation that is used to produce the product or service. The decisions include the type of equipment and technology, the process flow, the distribution of plant and all other aspects of the physical facilities or services. Many of these decisions are long-term processes and cannot be reversed easily, especially when it takes a strong investment of capital. Therefore, it is important that the physical process is designed in relation to long-term strategic position of the company. (Eisenhardt and Sull 2001, pp. 106-116)

3.2. Capacity

Decisions on capacity are aimed at providing the right amount of capacity in the right place at the right time. The long-term capacity is determined by the size of the physical facilities built. In the short term, sometimes you can increase capacity through subcontracts, additional shifts or leasing of space (Eisenhardt and Sull 2001, pp. 106-116). However, the planning capacity determines not only the size of the facilities but ...