OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

Operations Management



Operations Management

Introduction

This paper is an operational management analysis of Nokia plc Head quarters office. It considers mobile industry overview in modern competitive times. It then considers two aspects of operational management of Nokia plc: Goods and service design, and Quality. It then performs Strengths and weakness analysis of these two operational aspects while discussing future prospects. It also contains Gap analysis performed of Nokia plc in these aspects and recommends future strategy in order to improvise Nokia's operational management in these two aspects.

Discussion

Nokia is a Finnish multinational. The bulk of its business is in the mobile phone market. It was the biggest manufacturer of mobile phones in the world in 2011, and had a 23% market share in the second quarter of the same year. In 2010, its revenue was €42bn and its operating profit was €2bn.

Industry overview

The communications industry itself, as well as other businesses and industries, has responded to increased public environmental consciousness and demand for green communication products. The green culture movement has also increased demand for environmentally friendly methods of disposal of the mass quantities of electronic communication devices discarded each year, known as electronic waste or e-waste. The communications industry also serves the larger green culture movement through the use of communication tools such as the mass media and the Internet to unite green culture members and spread their message, both regionally and globally. Part of the reason for the green movement's success in acquiring new members over the last few decades is because of communication. Communication, however, can also have negative ramifications for the green culture movement, such as information overload and competing claims for public loyalty among various environmental organizations with competing agendas.

The overview of the global mobile industry as at end of year 2011 can be summarized bu considering the following table:

2011

Mobile Connections

6.6 billion

Mobile Subscribers

3.6 billion

Mobile Broadband Connections

1.3 billion

LTE Connections

10 million

Mobile Industry Revenue

1.5 trillion US$

Mobile Operator Revenues

984 billion US$

Mobile Industry Capex

189 billion US$

Mobile Operator Capex

158 billion US$

Contribution to Public Funding

617 billion US$

Total Mobile Industry Jobs (worldwide)

8 million

Analysis of operational decisions in Nokia:

Goods and service design

At the Mobile World Congress trade show here, Nokia executives showed several new smartphones, including the Lumia 610, a device running Windows software that is aimed at the entry-level market. But the company didn't show any devices running the next version of Microsoft Corp.'s phone software or devices that cost less than $100.

Surprisingly, the company did unveil a new 450-euro ($605) smartphone based on its old operating system, Symbian, which Nokia has said it will drop in favor of Windows-based devices. The reason for a new Symbian smartphone: Nokia said it took five years to build the technology in the Nokia 808 PureView, which incorporates a camera featuring a powerful sensor with a 41 megapixel capacity.

"We brought [the Nokia 808] to Symbian first, because it was the fastest way to bring it to a commercial environment, where we could learn from our consumers and they could learn about this new experience," Chief Executive Stephen ...