The Changing Role of Supply Chain Operations Managers - Essay Example

? Management of the Executive Summary In recent times the operations managers are gaining huge importance in developing strategies for the firm. Competitive advantage is also achieved by implementing decision in operation related activities. The main responsibility of the operations manager is to see that the products delivered by the organization provide optimum value to the customers. St the same time the job of the operation manager id to retain the firm in this competitive position and also to push it forward so that it can perform better. In this study the focus has been on the study of the roles and responsibilities of the operation manager working for Wilmar International Ltd. headquartered at Singapore. The study shows that the role of the operations managers are becoming more and more challenging due to the globalization that is making the organizations to open their businesses in other nation across the border. Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 Company Profile and Background 5 Company Mission and Vision 5 Integrity 6 Excellence 6 Passion 6 Innovation 7 Teamwork 7 Safety 7 Manager’s Profile 8 Interview Transcript 9 Analysis of the responses given by the Operations Manager 11 Conclusion 13 REFERENCES 15 Introduction In modern organizations the role of the operation managers in framing the strategy of the firm is gaining huge importance. The decisions related to operations is also playing significant role in achieving the competitive advantage. The responsibility of an operations manager of an organization is to oversee the process that transforms the input into a greater value output. The main concern areas of the operations manager is manufacturing, development of new products, procurement, distribution, research, technology, customer service and distribution. The business strategy of the firm is implemented in the operations. It is the main job of the operations manager to make sure that the firm achieved and retain the position on the edge of best practices. At the same time the operations manager should also develop and implement new measures to push the firm towards continuous improvement. In order to achieve and sustain operational excellence, vigilant analysis along with willingness to change is required, which needs to be relentless and continuous process to improve the performance of the firm (Bruner, 2003). As emphasized by Wild (1979) the decision of the operations manager influences not only the entire organization but also the work with it and the way all the functions are managed. In case of manufacturing firms Armistead and Mapes (1992) claimed that the roles of the operation manager in a manufacturing farm are more beleaguered towards the corporate target rather than the performance measures. This follows the consequence that the focus of the manager should be shifted from scheduling, production planning and control (Gerwin, 1993) to coordination and design of network of knowledge (Mak and Ramaprasad, 2003) or to organization of task connected to marketing and production. The study focuses on in depth analysis on the role of the operational managers of Wilmar International Limited. The analysis will be based on interview that will be conducted on the operation managers of the organization. Company Profile and Background Wilmar International Limited was founded in the year 1991 and is headquartered at Singapore, which is the leading agribusiness group of Asia. Wilmar is ranked as the largest listed company in the Singapore Exchange with regards to the market capitalization. The business activities of Wilmar International includes oilseed crushing, oil palm cultivation, edible oil, specialty fats, sugar milling and refining, biodiesel, oleo chemicals, grain processing and fertilizer manufacturing. The core strategy of Wilmar International is a flexible incorporated agribusiness model that surrounds the whole value chain of processing business dealing with agricultural commodity staring from processing to distribution, branding and merchandising of a variety of agricultural product. It has more than 450 manufacturing plants and a wide distribution channel covering of nations like India, China, Indonesia and other fifty countries. The company has a workforce of 93,000 employees. The high quality processed agricultural products of Wilmar is a preferred choice in for not only food manufacturing industry but also consumer food catering and industrial businesses. The consumer packed products of Wilmar occupies significant share in the targeted market. Garnering the cost efficiencies and operational synergies the company is capable of digging out margins at each step of the value chain via amalgamation, scale and logistical benefits of the business model. Wilmar apart from its business processes also takes responsibility as a corporate citizen. Thus the company is a strong promoter of sustainable growth (Wilmar International Ltd., 2013a). Company Mission and Vision Wilmar international is guided by a set of values, which defines who they are and in what way they work. Integrity The relationship of the organization with the stakeholders affects the performance of the organization. The performance of the organization whether it’s social or financial, is intimately linked with the ability of the firm to create value for the shareholders. It seems that organizational integrity is an important aspect in case performance in regards to value creation. Higher performance of the organization is achieved through high integrity that leads to delivery of desirable outcome (Palanski, 2007). Wilmar International also values trustworthiness, honesty and towering ethical standards (Wilmar International Ltd., 2013b). Excellence Excellence is an important pillar in the organization’s effort to achieve and sustain its leadership in the industry. In order to maintain excellence it requires the organization to nurture and develop sense-making skills within the organization that may touch the real world as well as creating spaces of irritation so that the cognitive maps may be regularly stirred up. Utilizing the emerging opportunities requires the organization to develop the ability so that it can look at the world through refreshed lenses beyond the paradigm of the mainstream industry (Deiser, 2009). Wilmar International endeavors for excellent performance in whatever they do (Wilmar International Ltd., 2013b). Passion Passion is defined as the inclination of an individual or group towards an activity that is important in achieving goal and they invest both money and energy in it (Gilliland, Steiner and Skarlicki, 2003). Wilmar International is passionate about expanding their business to reach global recognition (Wilmar International Ltd., 2013b). Innovation To remain sustainable in the industry innovation is an important aspect. The activities that should be innovated are management of knowledge, generation, organization and evaluation of idea that supports various processes within the organization. Supporting innovation is one of the core values of Wilmar. The business processes are continuously improved through various innovative methods, efforts and ideas (Wilmar International Ltd., 2013b). Teamwork Teamwork in an organization is an important facet. Teamwork is an important tool and process through which the organization build competitive advantage that in turn will help the firm in sustaining in the ever changing and volatile business environment. In modern business one cannot go too far without effectively and sincerely employing teamwork to handle internal intricacies and external emergencies (Ju and Cushman, 1995). In order to achieve corporate goals Wilmar International also gives importance to teamwork. All the employees working in the company works as a team to reach a common goal (Wilmar International Ltd., 2013b). Safety Employees are important assets of the company. It is their hard work and dedication that brings better results for the company. Therefore it is also important the company takes care of their employees. Wilmar International accepts this fact and ensures the safety and health of the employees in the workplace (Wilmar International Ltd., 2013b). Manager’s Profile The responsibility of Operations Manager (OM) is to conduct the data entry, payroll, accounts payable, administer the Human resources of the organization, creating and helping to set the budget for the various organizational programs in collaboration with the Executive Director and other miscellaneous tasks. The Operations Manager directly reports the Executive Director of the organization and serves the management team long with the Program Director, Development Director and Executive Director. The primary function of an Operations Manager is to ensure the effectiveness of the organization by providing leadership to the various functions of the organization. Since this position works with the management team so it creates major contribution towards the improvement and implementation of the various policies, practices and strategies. Operation Managers interact with the Board of Directors as well. Hence the major responsibilities are as follows To support the mission of the organization the Operations Manager looks towards improving the process, policies and system of operations. More specifically OM encourages better reporting to the management, management and flow of information, organizational planning and business process. Manage and enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the support services like Finance, Human Resource and Information Technology by improving the communication and coordination between all business and support functions. Plays major role in long-term planning that includes initiatives to accelerate the operational excellence. Monitoring the financial planning, controls, management and systems. Managing the budget of the agency by coordinating with the Executive Director. Developing the budget related to individual program. Payroll management that includes calculating the benefits accrued by the employees. Disbursement of cheques related to the expenses of the agency. Organizing meetings with the Executive Director for fiscal planning related issues. Supervising other office managers on a weekly basis. Interview Transcript The interview was conducted on Operations Manager, Richard Wong of Wilmar International Ltd. How long you have been associated with this company? It has been 9 years since I have joined Wilmer International Ltd. as the Operations Manager. What Changes have you noticed in these nine years? Awful lot of changes has occurred in Wilmar in these nine years. The company has become the largest among all the listed companies in Singapore Stock Exchange. A part of this huge success goes to the expansion plan whose first step took place in 2010, when the company entered the sugar industry by acquiring the leading raw sugar refining and producing company of Australia, Sucrogen Limited. At the same time they also acquired the largest sugar refinery of Indonesia PT Jawamanis. After acquiring thsese two company Wilmar continued to expand by acquiring many more companies in the year 2011 like Australia’s Proserpine Mill, Indonesia’s PT Duta Sugar International and a leading producer of oleo chemicals named Natural Oleo Chemicals that has considerable market share in Asia and Europe and developing its presence in USA. As an operations manager what do you feel should be the key responsibilities of an Operations Manager? According to me Operations Managers have a bigger role to play in determining the strategic direction of the organization and also defining the priorities. The responsibility of the operations manger aims two goals to be achieved. Firstly to reduce the cost of inventory and secondly to dedicate effort to the activities that are not related to operations. These efforts are directed towards designing the knowledge supply network. This network looks toward integration of engineering, distribution, marketing, manufacturing, customer services and technology deployment. This enhances the strategy of the firm by ensuring efficient and effective delivery of the services and products of the company to the market. These efforts are also spend in analyzing the external information like policies of the competitors and the demand for the product of the firm. Do you feel that this expansion of the company has created an influential affect on the responsibilities of the Operations Manager? Definitely because as an operations manager I feel that my responsibility has grown much bigger. Now I have to be much more strategic in my job and definitely handling a business of such enormous size is not so easy. Moreover since ours is a manufacturing firm that mainly deals with products that are consumable by the customer so more care has to be taken in regards to the quality. Hence the responsibility as an operations manager has increased a lot. How important is quality for Wilmar International? How do you implement those? Wilmar gives special emphasis on retention of quality within their product. The portfolios of products in which they deal are of high quality and are most preferred choice amongst the food manufacturing industry and business catering to consumer food. Moreover it is the leading supplier of consumer packed products that occupies huge share in the targeted market. In order to maintain the quality Wilmar uses best management practices that includes timely offering of fertilizers and maintaining good standards of harvesting and field. The plantations developed by the company are done in a socially and environmentally responsible manner. Special care is taken right from seeding to harvesting of the final product. Though quality management involves everybody who are participating in the process but it is the responsibility of the operations manager to see that all the processes are operating properly. Analysis of the responses given by the Operations Manager The organizations who have no such framework through which quality management can be implemented, but are concerned about the competition must adopt proper quality management steps. The operation manager is the person who has to take care of quality and report the management of the organization. The operations manager along with his own team should ensure that quality awareness is there all throughout the organization. Operation is the process that aims towards creation of satisfaction and wealth. Information, customer and material enter into the system, gets processed and are then transformed to create the output. Customer is taken as a part of this process because their demand changes very rapidly, which needs to be tracked and anticipated by the organization. Operation management is the deployment of well-organized and valuable methods for the delivery and creation of products and services that satisfies the needs of the consumers. The organization that lacks efficient and effective functions related to operations cannot sustain in the competition since it fails to compete in the key dimensions like price, speed and quality (Ho, 1999). Quality of the product bears a huge significance depending on the requirement and needs of the customers. The degree of quality is determined by how efficiently it meets the requirement or how better the product fits into the intended use. Thus quality control includes all the effective efforts adopted by the company to manage and maintain the quality of the product and services high. Hence the high quality products satisfy the needs and wants of the customers in a better way. So every company tries to maintain the quality up to an optimum level (Jain, 2001). Manufacturing, transport, supply and service are identified as the activities that come under operations and are meant to deliver quality products. Since Wilmar International is a manufacturing company so the operations manager Richard Wong needs to take care of all the operations related activities. The activities mentioned above are not separated from one another but ends up serving the customers with their product. Therefore to maintain the quality of the end product becomes very important for the company, which requires all the processes to run efficiently. As said by the Operations Manager of Wilmar that the company has expanded their business to a large extend that makes them not only to enter into other industries but also expand their business to other countries, which in turn makes the job of the operations manager more challenging. To maintain quality the operations department now requires to make the entire department engaged in manufacturing and delivering the products to the customers to work in a more coordinated manner. The operations manager feels that by working through coordination the company will be able to deliver optimum output and provide quality products to the customers. According to Mr. Richard the operations managers end task is not only limited to ensuring quality of the product but also to reduce cost. For reduction of cost the company would follow the strategy of economies scale. Thus it becomes very clear that the operation manager also establishes some strategic decisions along with the executive director. He also needs to bring integration in the processes like engineering, distribution, marketing, manufacturing, customer services and technology deployment. They also contribute towards the quality of the product and services. Wilmar pays greater attention towards the quality of the product for which they have definite standards that are implemented in all the processes involved in manufacturing and delivering to the customers. Conclusion This study shows that to remain in the competition it is very important for the organizations to implement firm and strategic decisions. These decisions are based on the external and internal environment of the organization. Moreover the operation manager is seen to play a distinct and strategic role in this context. The responsibility of an operations manager of an organization is to oversee the process that transforms the input into a greater value output. To create better value the organization needs to perform well and for this the product and services that the company is offering need to meet the requirement of the customers. So that the products are up to the expectation of the customer the quality needs to be very good, which in turn makes the customers satisfied. The case of Wilmar International Ltd. has been considered here. The responsibility of the operations manager of the company has been studied in this context. The operations manager was interviewed with the questionnaire. The interview revealed that the company has undergone major expansion in the recent times that makes the work of the operations manager more challenging. The operations managers now needs to take a lot of more additional efforts so that the quality is maintained. The company like Wilmar who makes quality to be their first priority and to attain this they make significant effort for such a company the operations manager needs to ensure that right from production till delivery every process is well coordinated and runs smoothly. REFERENCES Armistead, C.G., and Mapes, J. (1992). The changing role of supply chain operations managers. Logistics Information Management, 5 (2), 10-17. Bruner, R.F. (2003). The Portable MBA. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Deiser, R. (2009). Designing the Smart Organization: How Breakthrough Corporate Learning Initiatives Drive Strategic Change and Innovation. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Frangos, C.C. (2009). Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference: Quantitative and Qualitative Methodologies in the Economic and Administrative Sciences. Christos Frangos. Gerwin, D. (1993). Manufacturing flexibility: A strategic perspective. Management Science, 39(4), 395-411. Gilliland, S.W., Steiner, D.D.L. and Skarlicki, D.P. (2003). Emerging Perspectives on Values in Organizations. Chicago: IAP. Ho, S.K.M. (1999). Operations and quality management. Connecticut: Cengage Learning EMEA. Jain, P.L. (2001). Quality Control and Total Quality Management. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Ju, Y. and Cushman, D.P. (1995). Organizational Teamwork in High-speed Management. New York: SUNY Press. Mak, K. T., and Ramaprasad, A. (2003). Knowledge supply network. The Journal of the Operational Research Society, 54 (2), 175-183. Palanski, M.E. (2007). Integrity and Leadership: A Multi-level Conceptual Model and Partial Test. Ann Arbor: ProQuest. Wild, R. (1979). Organization Design, Technology and the Influence of Operations Management. Personnel Review, 8 (3), 5-15. Wilmar International Ltd. (2013a). Corporate Profile. Retrieved from http://www.wilmar-international.com/who-we-are/corporate-profile/ Wilmar International Ltd. (2013b). Core Values. Retrieved from http://www.wilmar-international.com/who-we-are/core-values/ APPENDIX Questionnaire for the interview How long you have been associated with this company? What Changes have you noticed in these nine years? As an operations manager what do you feel should be the key responsibilities of an Operations Manager? Do you feel that this expansion of the company has created an influential affect on the responsibilities of the Operations Manager? How important is quality for Wilmar International? How do you implement those? Read More