Various aspects of S&O management in the Atokowa Company - Essay Example

College: Systems and Operations (S&O) Management Introduction Management of systems and operations can be viewed as the organisational in built building, designing, and structuring mechanism for effective daily operations of organisations (Letza 1996). According to Chase et al (2006), management of systems and operations is an essential process of converting a firm’s internal input (human resources, energy, or material) into output (goods and services). Actually, management of systems and operations entails the effective management of organisational resources, which gear towards production as well as distribution of goods and services of an organisation to its end customers. Operations and systems management could be summed up into management systems, which are proven frameworks for the management as well as continuous improvements of the policies, processes, as well as procedures of organisations. Individually, system management refers to an enterprise’s management of the systems of information management. This entails gathering necessities, purchasing software and equipment, distribution of software and equipment to their places of use, their configuration, their maintenance through service updates and enhancement, setting up of processes of problem-handling, and determination of whether objectives and goals are being realised. Systems management is thus the enterprise-wide distributed systems’ administration including (and usually in practice) the computer systems. It is stoutly affected by telecommunications’ initiatives of network management. It is commonly under the organisational chief information officer’s (CIO) responsibility. Information systems or the management information systems are the departments charged with the responsibility of systems management. On the other hand, operations management is a management area concerned with designing, controlling, and overseeing the production process as well as redesigning of business operation in goods and services’ production. Operations management is a process revolving around one key function; the provision of product or service of an organisation to end consumers. Planning and controlling all operations and activities of the firm are geared towards realisation of this function (Kanji 2002). The purpose of this paper is to examine various aspects of S&O management in the Atokowa Company and give recommendations for improvement of the management operations in systems and operations segments. Background Information of Atokowa Advantage The Atokowa advantage Company is a key player in the industry of office supplies and stationery in Australia. The firm sells an array of office supplies and stationery to businesses, individuals, as well as other organisations. It owns several retail outlets, which deliver office supplies and stationery directly to the organisations as well as carry out customised printing for firms. Lachlan Atokowa founded Atokowa in 1964 in Sydney, Australia as a mere photocopying business in Atokowa’s garage after purchasing Xerox 914 machine. His business grew and in 1970, he purchased one retail outlet as well as expanded his business from just photocopying activities to business printing in addition to brochures, letterheads, flyers, compliment slips, business cards, fax headers, no carbon required (NCR) pads, and memo slips. These developed Atokowa’s status as a printing firm of high quality. Atokowa’s business continued growing and he developed his vision of becoming the one-stop office supplies and stationery shop. Lachlan expanded as well as purchased additional outlets in Perth and Melbourne areas, which were stocked quite adequately with an array of office supplies, paper, office furniture, besides the original business of printing. In 1980, Atokowa printing was renamed to Atokowa Office Supplies. Lachlan retired in 1983 and handed the business to Jonathan Atokowa, his eldest son who focused more on technology. In fact, Jonathan commenced sale of IBM PC 5100 and Commodore 64, which were the latest technological advancements at the time and he continues with this interest in the technology via selling of an array of IT products in their retailing outlets. The firm has a well established organisational chart, which helps it to meet its business obligations in effective ways. Below is the organisational structure of Atokowa: Systems and Operations Role and Integration in Atokowa Atokowa is a good business with different departments such as retail operations, purchasing and supply department, marketing and human resources management, and finance departments, working as complete units but directed by a shared vision. For unity, the firm’s operations encompasses benchmarking, sharing of information, team working, as well as working to highest principles of quality and environmental requirements. It has an effective management system, which helps the firm in its achievement of its set goals via several strategies including the optimisation process, disciplined management thinking, and management focus. Several improvements in the business operations and strategies have come up in the 21st Century with most businesses realising that their internal operations need being very effective to achieve high efficiency standardisation levels (Wang et al 2010). The Atokowa firm has realised that effective systems as well as daily operations management within it would facilitate productivity in the organisation as well as result into profit maximisation. The focus of the business is striving for achievement of effective competitive advantage as well as attain relevant share of the market to ensure profitability. Atokowa has an effective strategy of operations and systems management, which has helped it in its achievement of maximum productivity. Systems and operations (S&M) management entails responsibility of making sure that the Atokowa business operations run efficiently in terms of utilising few resources as required as well as effectively in regard to meeting of the requirements of customers. For instance, the firm’s operations management is greatly concerned with the management of the process, which converts inputs (labour, energy, and materials) into outputs (goods and/or services). Operations management relationship to the senior management within commercial contexts is comparable to relationship of the line officers to the highest-level military science’s senior officers. Such high-level officers shape strategy as well as revise it regularly while line officers devise tactical decisions to support implementation of the strategy. In Atokowa as in the military affairs, boundaries between hierarchical levels are not constantly distinct as tactical information vigorously informs the strategy and individual employees regularly move between the roles over time for effectiveness and efficiency purposes (McGunnigle & Jameson 2000). S&O management focuses on effective resources and activities management, which deliver or produce any business’ goods and services. The S&O professionals within Atokowa manage people, equipment and information, and materials resources, which a business requires in production and delivery of its products and services. In addition, they design as well as manage the processes and activities of business, which actually produce those products or services. There is an array of S&O management opportunities for the Atokowa S&O management professionals since business operations are core to Atokowa. The tremendous growth experienced in the Australian industry of office supplies and stationery has created great opportunities for the S&O management personnel, especially in warehousing and distribution of the products and logistics and transportation operations. Actually, Atokowa’s supply chain field depends so heavily on effective management as well as business operations coordination in manufacturing, distribution, and transportation. This is not determined by whether the products are sold within Australian markets or manufactured abroad but some supply chain part must at least be managed and operated from Australia. The S&O professionals in Atokowa hold a range of various job titles like materials manager, scheduler, production planner, transportation/logistics manager, inventory manager, supply chain manager, purchasing/procurement manager, as well as quality manager. Irrespective of the differences in their titles, all these managers employ techniques and concepts of operations management for effective resources and processes management of their varied business operations. Key Issues Involved in Business Excellence and Quality Management As competition become increasingly fierce, markets more global, and as progress in technology continue redefining competitive advantage, excellence and quality perspective have changed. For a business to expand, enter new markets, as well as set competitive, realistic long term goals, excellence has become very important. Excellence models’ terminology has been used widely as the normal medium of communication for business excellence and performance improvement. The increasing organisational complexity has made scholars look for excellence models for helping in improvement of organisational performance and productivity. The past decade has witnessed continued Total Quality Management (TQM) development via business excellence or quality award models. Majority of such models are established on the constructs of the TQM with their purpose being application of the constructs within organisations (Kanji 2002). Application of these constructs have led to changes in success criteria in present global and internationally oriented markets. The effort of Atokowa management has thus been directed to the discovery of the factors making firms excel in the competitive economy. Business excellence are the outstanding organisational management practices and achievement of results grounded on such set of concepts as customer focus, results orientation, constancy of purpose and leadership, management by facts and processes, development and involvement of people, innovation and improvement, continuous learning, public responsibility, and partnership development. Business excellence entails self-assessment in identification of areas of strength, improvement opportunities, as well as determination of future organisational development ideas. Critical links between best practice, business excellence models, and benchmarking are core to the models’ success as continuous improvement tools. Business excellence relies heavily on the kind of techniques, strategies, as well as tools for benchmarking and measuring the performance of business. Subsequently, identification of the best practices as well as their processes of implementation ultimately decides the business excellence (Gunasekaran 2011). Business excellence and quality management is the organisational culture committed towards satisfaction of customers via continuous improvement. Such culture differs from an industry to another or even between nations but has some essential principles that can be implemented in securing of greater market share, reduced costs, and increased profits (Taylor & Francis 2010). Most firms needs excelling in their diverse business practices for competitiveness in the global markets. Business excellence in Atokowa entails application of the quality management techniques, tools, and strategies in achievement of excellent performance in its business management. The firm needs to work towards achievement of best business performance through identification of suitable measures and metrics of performance, systematic measurement of performance, comparison of its performance with the best performing firms, and then the ultimate determination of best practices as well as their effective framework of implementation. Some best business practices incorporated by the highly performing firms include the breakthrough and continuous improvement, management by facts and objectives, and proactive management. Several successful tools like balanced scorecard, process reengineering, six sigma, project management, and supply chain management are employed to foster business excellence (Gunasekaran 2011). People and Management Issues within Organisations The work world is increasingly changing with increased levels of international mobility and outsourcing, talent shortages, globalisation effects, new laws of labour, ageing workforce, as well as shifting demographics. Company cultures and structures are being transformed by how, where, and for whom individuals work. The function of human resources (HR) is also changing with the human resources leaders being under increased pressure than ever before to exhibit results from their policies and practices of the workforce. Leaders of business acknowledge the link between people in their firms and business performance and they comprehend that issues that are people-oriented require being at the core of boardroom agenda. Consequently, the human resources managers in the organisation are being encouraged towards implementation of people strategies, which support the business objectives of organisations as well as increase transparency and accountability around reporting and people management (Rodwell et al 2009). The relationship between business performance and human resource management (HRM) has been so high on many diverse organisations’ agendas for about two decades. However, establishment of this relationship has remained elusive with firms seeking deployment of ‘best practice’ techniques or more reliant approaches such as ‘bundles’ or best fit’ of the human resources practices in their pursuit of positive effects on bottom line. Due to this lapse, academic research has and continues making a great contribution via rigorous and systematic studies in diverse organisational settings. This is not only valuable evidence, which firms can learn from but it also forms the grounds for more serious scrutiny among the numerous number of students throughout the world pursuing human resources management as a central module in their management courses (McGunnigle & Jameson 2000). Although ‘soft’ value-added and resource-based human resources policies are considered essential to realise delivery of high customer care and service quality, reality is somewhat varied. Although there are some exceptions like Fryer (2000), most of the researches in this field conclude that the sector could do better and more effectively (McGunnigle & Jameson 2000). Perhaps the most concerns concentrate on the ‘hard’ cost-driven human resources policies, in which staff get the treatment of ‘another resource’ for deployment instead of being treated like human beings with potential and aspirations. Many organisations would deviate that, individuals, like the other resources need not to be realised at expense of personal well being and dignity. Thus, for most employees, the priority is on seeking satisfactory experience at their work, viable relationships with their peers and superiors, as well as fair and due rewards for their contributed efforts. To ensure that organisations keep their bargain’s part, they have an obligation of ensuring that the issues of human resources are fitting coherently with the other strategies and are high on agenda. The organisation must also ensure that the will of the human resource is instilled into their managers via appropriate development and training sessions in all the aspects of management of people. Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) Role in Analysis and Definition of Business Requirements Peter Checkland (1981) introduced the SSM in his famous “Systems Thinking, Systems Practice” book. The SSM is grouped among “soft” operations tools of research instead of the “hard” decision and mathematical models, which have existed traditionally in the field of research operations. SSM is an effective methodology of modeling and analysing complex and hard to define systems that integrate human (soft) systems and technology (hard) systems. Human or soft system is the collection of the activities in which individuals are engaged purposefully and the relationships existing between the activities. Checkland (1981) proposes that similar techniques employed for engineering technology may fail working as well for more complex and unpredictable system’s human side. SSM is an effective methodology used in tackling of soft, ill-defined problems of the real world by formulation of the purposeful system of human activity concept. Human activity system refers to a purposive notional system, which in principle could be evident in real world. Systems like these are notional since they do not offer descriptions of the actual activities of the real world but rather are intellectual constructs. Such systems are employed in a debate concerning the possible alterations that might be introduced in a problem situation in the real world. The language of modeling human activities is in verbs’ terms and Checkland (1981) methodology presents an effective mechanism of getting from the “finding out” concerning a problem condition to the “taking action” for alleviation of the problem. Concisely, the SSM presents a method, a view, as well as a modeling language, which are potentially appropriate for business modeling in the end use development’s context. The SSM addresses the fuzzy problems, which occur when goals are unclear, where there might be numerous varied perceptions of an issue, and where multiple objectives exist. SSM recognises that various people will have varied perceptions about the situation as well as varied preferable consequences. It identifies such variations and explicitly tries considering these from outset in ensuring that the analysis results are acceptable by all the concerned parties (Checkland 1981). The employment of SSM approaches do not try defining some specific right technique of action but via iterative processes, defines acceptable improved action paths. Individuals who are engaged in methodology entail not only the actors within designated system but also the owners and clients of the system. When the buy-in of and involvement of all the potential clients is desirable, the SSM approach is very essential and thus requires important consideration. Many settings have applied SSM and those of work under the interest of this paper include the use of SSM by Chan and Choi (1997) as a business process-reengineering framework, an intervention of the organisation leading to fundamental alterations in the structure and processes or a company. Second is the SSM role in the development of information systems (Winter et al 1995) who present the Information System Development/Information System Model, which extends upon the information system concept of Checkland. The SSM has seven stages in which analysts, users, as well as designers incrementally define problem, generate or evaluate alternatives, and finally choose acceptable solutions. The seven stages include problem situation unstructured; expression of problem situation; relevant systems root definitions; conceptual models; comparing the conceptual models with real world; feasible, desirable changes; as well as the action to improve stage. Systems and operations Management Recommendations Atokowa has made efforts in integrating information systems into its operating environment, especially in designing of cost management systems. However, this paper has established that such “feeder” systems as payroll, budgeting, inventory valuation, and costing, which exist in Atokowa need some evaluation to ensure that the company is updated on the data and output gathered or generated respectively and their form. It could also help in understanding the way in which current systems interact and their effectiveness in interaction with one another. The firm has several departments and branches, their activities affect each other, and thus there must be a comprehensive S&O management in place to counter any shortcomings from any department or branch without affecting the other organisational segments. The management must also analyse cost-benefit-trade-offs relating to the cost management system’s design with effective knowledge of preceding information. Sophisticated systems of cost management are needed as the costs of processing, gathering, as well as communication information declines, or as the intensity and quantity of competition rise. Additionally, such sophisticated systems are required as Atokowa focus on expansion of its goods and service offerings and customer satisfaction. In such circumstances, generation of more viable cost information is vital towards the long-run survival of the firm as well as short-run profitability. The firm may have clearly stipulated information systems but there lack a guarantee that the management will come up with effective decisions that are consistent with the strategies of their firm. Proper reporting and incentives systems must be integrated into the managers cost management systems for them to make viable decisions. Conclusion In conclusion, this paper has established that S&O management is a critical area in organisations as their effectiveness determines the successfulness or failure of organisations in their operations. Atokowa is a large business in Australia but it must ensure that its S&O management are effective if the business is to remain competitive in the industry. References Chan, SL & Choi, CF 1997, “A Conceptual and Analytic Framework for Business Process Reengineering,” International Journal of Production Economics, Vol. 50, No. 2/3, pp. 211-223. Chase, RB, Jacobs, FR & Aquilano, NJ 2006, Operations management for competitive advantage, Volume 2006, Part 2, McGraw-Hill/Irwin, New York. Checkland, P 1981, Systems Thinking, Systems Practice, John Wiley & Sons, London. Gunasekaran, A 2011, Performance measures and metrics in business management, International Journal of Business Excellence, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 1-14. Kanji, GK 2002, Performance measurement systems, Total Quality Management, Vol. 13, No. 5, pp. 715–728. Letza, SR 1996, "The design and implementation of the balanced business scorecard: An analysis of three companies in practice", Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp.54-76. McGunnigle, PJ & Jameson, SM 2000, "HRM in UK hotels: a focus on commitment", Employee Relations, Vol. 22, No. 4, pp.403 – 422. Rodwell, JJ, Noblet, AJ, Steane, PD, Osborne, S & Allisey, A 2009, People management issues in a third sector health care organisation: preliminary findings, in IRSPM 2009 : Proceedings of the 13th International Research Society for Public Management Conference 2009, Copenhagen Business School, Copenhagen, Denmark, pp. 1-14.  Taylor & Francis G 2010, Total Quality Management and Business Excellence, Quality Management Journal, Vol. 22, No. 12, pp. 1-7. Winter, MC, Brown, DH & Checkland, PB 1995, “A Role for Soft Systems Methodology in Information Systems Development,” European Journal of Information Systems, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 130-142. Read More