Stock control and recording - Literature review Example

The following literature review includes the various books, articles and journals to explore the research topic of stock control and recording (Hart 2006). Operations management Operations management can be described as the area of management study that dealt with concepts of design engineering, management information system, industrial engineering, production management, quality management, accounting, and inventory management to facilitate the function of planning, scheduling, use and control of service organization as well as of manufacturing organization.

In simpler terms, operations management is a process of converting inputs such as information, labor, material into the outputs in the form of goods and services. Also, in this process efforts are made to minimize the cost and maximize the net operating profit. Thus, highest level of efficiency is achieved by administration of business practices through operations management. Along with this, resources are acquired, developed and utilized to achieve the organizational objectives (Shim and Siegel 1999).

All functions of operation, tactical and strategic level are included in the range of the operational management. Thus, operations management includes the issues related with production scheduling and control, equipment maintenance policies, inventory management, traffic and material handling and quality control and inspection (Lewis and Slack 2003). Process mapping/flow charting/value stream mapping Process mapping is also known as flow charting, value stream mapping and process charting. It is a technique of converting business workflow and processes in to step-by-step diagram and visual.

It has been complimented as one of the oldest and most valuable techniques for streamlining work. This technique can provide best results if used by experienced facilitators. An existing process can be understood in a better manner as well as can be improved. Thus, the main benefit as well as the objective of the process mapping is improving the business result. The diagram of process mapping defines all the aspects related with organization like business of the organization, responsible people of the organization, what is the standard of the process and how success of a business determined (Bicheno and Elliot 1997).

Thus, it clarifies all the requirements of the internal business process. Process mapping is important to get control over the organization as it helps in developing an understanding in the basic processes of business. In the procedure of process mapping, process map is achieved as output. Thus, it is the final diagram with all the shapes of arrows and ovals which depicts the process from beginning to end. Each action within a process is depicted by each shape. Creating a process map requires through understanding of every step within the process such as resources, inputs and outputs.

Inputs are gathered from the employees who are closest to the process (Bettley, Mayle and Tantoush 2005). Along with this, other techniques are also used to gather the inputs or information like surveys, observation and brainstorming. Furthermore, there are different shapes which are used to form a process map. For example, a rectangle is used to represent action step, cylinder represents databases whereas parallelograms represents inputs and outputs (Madison 2005). Then, different steps are followed to construct a process map, which are as follows: Step 1: Determination of Boundaries which specifies where