OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

Operations Management Assignment

Operations Management Assignment

Introduction

Operations management relates to the design and management of services, supply chains and products, and their supply . The focus of operations management is to make efficient delivery of goods and services to clients possible through development, acquisition and utilizations of various resources. Operations management takes place at all levels in the organization. For instance, it can take place at the tactical, operations and even strategic level. Many companies around the globe are focusing on employing operations management as a tool to provide their valued customers with better products and services, so that they can get their customer lifetime value (Mentzer, 2001, 56-71). There are several issues related to the field of operations management. Operations management is an attempt to improve plant management and its layout, better control of production scheduling, rapid inventory management, expedition of production processes and better equipment maintenance. On a broad scale, we can say that the goal of operations management is to achieve effectiveness and efficiency of different operations of the organization.

Technologies in the Modern Retail Industry

The use of technology has been limited to the introduction and implementation of point-of-sale systems and efficiencies in the supply chain like radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. While these systems are estimated to have enabled operators to increase store efficiency and better manage inventory in the five years to 2012, further changes in technology are not expected in the outlook period. Such slowdown of technology is also reflective of an industry in a mature stage of its life cycle.

Technology and scale are at the core of the Warehouse Clubs and Supercenters industry's advantage over competing industries. Across the retail sector, stores that belong to retail chains tend to be more efficient than single-store retailers, and chains tend to invest more in information technology (Martin, 2010, 324-332).

Radio frequency identification

Sam's Club's (United States) test of radio frequency identification (RFID) systems may set a precedent for other retail stores around the globe. Following top company Wal-Mart's lead, Sam's Club is installing RFID systems in select stores to track inventory more efficiently. An improvement over bar codes, RFID computer tags can store more product information, and scanners can read tags at a distance. Cost has been a major obstacle to widespread use of RFID, though, especially for manufacturers that must absorb the cost of tags.

Innovation, providing a shopping trip, called the technology RFID (radio frequency identification). RFID helps retailers around the world to satisfy the most demanding customers and thus increase sales. This technology is gradually changing retail industry, providing sales information on the status and movement of goods in real time, increasing productivity and preventing stock losses. Many of the world's leading retailers have planned for 2005 implementation of the technology RFID. The move will affect more than 200,000 companies-manufacturers and suppliers, and send world markets hardware and software to support RFID.

Today, RFID chips range in cost from £ 0.05 to £0.07 each, making them relatively affordable for medium-size store ...