OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

Operations Management

Operations Management

Introduction

Operation Management is among the three fundamental functions of the business. The operations of the organization can be explained as the activities and their management, which cause the creation of goods or provision of services. As per my experience the development of a new brand, managing the supply to new sales offices requires careful planning of capacity to meet the current and future demands. In order to plan and execute the corporate strategy of developing a web portal which can provide direct access to home and overseas customers as well as offer them newly upgraded branded products having a vast range, it will vital to review the current supply chain and operations. I will propose that the supply chain has to be developed which can not only fulfil the current demand but can also meet the proposed expansion plans of the company. I will revisit the supplier relationships; evaluate its internal operations and capacities. I will also deploy resources to manage the entire distribution supply chain section to reduce inventories so that only required products are produced. It will not only improve the profitability of the company but will improve the efficiency in the use of the existing capacity. As the Director of Operations of the company, I will have to maintain the supply of the products to the current customers as well as new customers who will be arriving through online sales. Distributors will be requiring goods in bulk while online sales will be low volume sales requiring additional effort of upgrading the products. Frequent interventions in the production plan will jeopardise the master production schedule developed by me and my departments. In this report I will highlight the areas which will require special attention and provide my brief strategies in dealing with the challenges resulting from the new strategic direction of our company.

Discussion

As the company goes online, it will be crucial for us to evaluate the current operations of the company and address all areas of operations.

Activities of Operations Management

I feel it important to develop a definition and boundary of my department of operations management. The collection of activities which cause the creation of goods and services by transforming inputs into outputs is known as operations management (Slack, 2007). The activities of operations management encompass not only the activities of operations but also the responsibilities of operations and decision making (Jacobs et al., 2009).

My strategy of enabling the company to meet its new strategic objectives will comprise of following operational activities:

Production: We will assess the current capacity of infrastructure, machines and operational space. As it is already communicated that our company is operating at maximum capacity and in order to cater the requirements of online sales, with upgraded products and wide range, we will have to see if it will need additional machinery and space. The inventory holding area is also limited so the production of the new products will have to be based on pull system, with the online portal ...