Amazon Operational Management Strategies - Term Paper Example

Operations management is not confined to manufacturing alone but also encompasses services. Hence, operations management can be best defined as effective and efficient management of all operations of the organization that contribute to improving the systems that are aimed at creating and delivering quality products and services to the customers (Young, 2009). It involves designing, redesigning, overseeing, implementing, executing of the various business operations. Operations management has a twofold effect on the profit of an organization and hence it is vital for the overall success of an organization.

Organization is benefitted from the improved effectiveness due to operations management and the created products and services are such that they meet the requirements and needs of the customers. In simple words, increased efficiency will result in increased revenue which results in a more competitive organization and increased efficiency will also reduce costs (Galloway, 1993). Following are the 10 operational management strategies that an organization can apply: Product/ Service Design, Quality Management, Capacity Management, Location, Layout Design, Human Resources, Supply Chain Management, Inventory Management, Scheduling and Maintenance.

This paper is aimed at analysing how Amazon.com has applied operational management strategies to succeed and gain competitive advantage in the market. Amazon.com Amazon.com is a multinational customer-centric American company. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington Amazon.com is an electronic commerce company and the largest online retailer in the world. It was founded by Jeffrey Bezos and incorporated in 1994. Even though it was incorporated in 1994, it went live in 1995. Started as an online book store, Amzon.

com today has diversified and expanded its product and service line (Reuters, 2011). Today, Amzon.com sells numerous products from different categories. It not online sells books online but also sells computer software, CDs, DVDs, food, furniture, video games, toys, electronic apparels, MP3 downloads, etc (Google Finance, 2011). Consumers, sellers and enterprises are three primary customer sets that the company serves. Apart from selling products online, the company also generates revenue from various other sources such as co-branded credit card agreements, third party selling, reselling and online advertising (Google Finance, 2011).

For the following countries Amzon.com has separate websites: United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, China and Japan (Amazon.com, 2011). Amazon has numerous software development centres, fulfilment and warehousing centres across the globe to meet the growing demands (Reuters, 2011). Amazon’s Product Categories: Books, DVDs, videotapes, music CDs, musical instruments, toys & games, software, consumer electronics, sporting goods, lawn and garden items, apparel, clothing, kitchen items, gourmet food, tools, baby products, beauty products, watches, jewellery, industrial & scientific supplies, groceries and health and personal-care items (Amazon.com, 2011).

Amazon’s Services: Amazon Web Services, Amazon Publishing, Amazon Prime, AmazonBasics, Amazon.com exclusives, Amapedia, Subscribe & Save, AmazonLocal, Amazon Wireless, askville, Amazon Marketplace, Amazon Fresh, etc (Amazon.com, 2011