MANAGEMENT

Sustainable Operations Management



Sustainable Operations Management

Introduction

Operations management can be explained being the process that involves the planning, forecasting and controlling the activities that modify the efforts and hard work of employees into finished goods and services. It is a vast a field of study, which highlights how an organization can effectively work, plan and control its operations via the study of concepts related to the effective operations of the organization. These concepts include design engineering, industrial engineering, management information systems, quality management, production management, accounting, and numerous other essential functions, which influence the operations of the organization(Hart, 1995, pp 986-1014).

Operations management is all about making the best use of the resources that an organization has and employ them to bring satisfaction to the final consumer. This happens by providing the finished goods or services to the final consumer, as per his need, in a timely and economical way.

Operations management needs to be aligned to the core strategy of the organisation. In the discussion below, we will analyse a case study of McDonald's in which we will study how it has been addressing the issues of environmental sustainability within its operations. We will also analyse the effectiveness of its approach along with any inconsistencies that we could also study. (Seuring & Muller, 2008, pp. 1699-1710).

Discussion

McDonald's Corporation is one of the world's largest fast-food restaurant chains. They commenced their business in the year 1940, with a small restaurant started by siblings Dick and Mac McDonald in San Bernardino, California. They introduced the marvelous “Speedee Service System" in the year 1948 which developed the philosophy of the modern fast-food restaurant. McDonalds today has several restaurants around the world. It keenly caters to 120 countries and territories all over the world and serves approximately 54 million customers every single day. It has all what it takes to be termed as a 'remarkable company'.

All its restaurants spread across the globe, have a number of operations, which need to work effectively as they have a relationship with the overall success strategy of the organisation. We will discuss the operations of the organisation, and how they work for the retaining sustainability and aligning with the success strategy of the organization (Stacey, 1990).

Environmental Record In The Operations Of McDonald's

In April 2008, McDonald's proclaimed that about eleven of its Sheffield, England restaurants were making use of a biomass testing that had slashed down its waste and carbon trail to about a half that was being used in the vicinity. In this effort, the waste was collected from the restaurants by Veolia Environmental Services and then it was utilized to produce energy at the power plant. Moreover, McDonald's in Europe, has been reprocessing vegetable oil by changing it to energy to be used for its diesel trucks.

Other than this, McDonald's has been employing a bioplastic made out of corn, to fabricate containers for few of its major products. Industries who utilize this product declare a carbon savings from them of about 30% to ...