Operations Management Definition - Assignment Example

?Operations Management Department: a) Standardization The term standardization refers to a defined framework entailing agreements to which prioritized parties within an organization have to adhere to with the view of ensuring consistency in all the processes that are associated with the creation of good service deliveries. Standardization is majored on to see into it that the end product has consistency with respect to the expected quality. In the entire process of implementing predefined procedures in any process within an operations management’s mandates, it is worth noting that the changes or measurements implemented directly or indirectly impact on the operations’ results (Taveira, Craig, James, & Karsh, 2003). Cavalier Corporation Limited in New Zealand is a public company that specializes in the manufacture of broadloom wool carpets since its opening in 1984. This company ensures effective application of standardization in its operation management roles to include levels of commonality, reference, interchange ability, and compatibility. As a goods production company, Cavalier corporation limited goes on the full stretch to involve the use of standardization principles in generating, processing and analyzing statistics, testing company related theories, and keeping on check the supply chain management sector (Cavalier Corporation, 2010). By using standardization as an operation management technique, the company has benefited by: realizing equal gain within all parties involved; saving on production time, amount of energy used, and consequently the total amount of financial resources pumped in to complete the production process; ensuring easily maintained communication links and business focus of the company; keeping up to the expected levels of outputs; making sure that the quality of work done is successful and has not faults; reducing inefficiencies; keeping up to reliable results that can be used in determining future trends, especially with the linear regression methods; and finally, easily monitoring and controlling each and every processes involved in the production of broadloom wool carpets. b) Pull A pull system of business operations management is also called the customer centric system since it is characterized by its dependency on the customers’ list of requirements to help in the determination of what type quality of goods should be manufactured, or services offered, whenever they are in need of it. A pull system of approach in operations management is a made-to-order process, within Goodman Fielder Company, a manufacturing, distributor and marketer of dairy products, bread, margarine, dressings, oil and a number of food ingredients in New Zealand and Australia. Goodman Fielder Company uses the pull system by carrying out surveys on their clients’ requirements and expectations on the goods and services they manufacture and distribute by ways of brainstorming sessions, focused group discussions and surveys on the user behaviors and types of needs. It is thus meant for producing goods and rendering services that are geared towards customers’ higher levels of satisfactions, company’s lower operation costs, lower inventory initiatives and constantly changing the product designs to meet the ever changing customers’ needs based on time, fashion, location and cost (Tari, Molina, & Castejon, 2007). A summary can therefore be drawn from this explanation that lean principles are based on a philosophy seeking to eliminate wastes in terms of delays, duplications, unnecessary movements, poor communications, incorrect inventories, opportunity lost, and errors in either transactions or damaged items, in all aspects of Goodman Fielder Company’s production activities. One of the disadvantages of this type of system is that it forces producers to the strongest terms and conditions possible to come up with mechanisms of investing heavily into research and developments to see into it that they precisely meet the needs of the ever changing clients’ desires, thus increasing the production costs, to meet customers’ set levels of satisfactions. The implementation of this type of systems is always ensured through the aid of a kanben card system used in providing a signal or sign by the succeeding step in the processes that require inputs in the form of raw materials generated from the previous operations. If effectively used, this system ensures a high degree of minimized waste and obsolete stocks in the businesses, reduced WIP all through the supply chain, keeping tracks of flexibility options to deliver clients’ demands rapidly, and reducing the need of huge working capital in running businesses. c) Standardization with respect to lean principles Standardization creates a baseline upon which recommended steps are based whenever any problems are realized in the operational management, hence easier diagnosis of the prevailing problems. Standardization and lean principles have higher agreements in a number of ways. The first one is that standardization helps in the determination of whatever is to be accomplished and how that is to be done, similar to lean principle #2. It also allows for easier and systematic problems solving, lean principle #4. Lean is a word that is mostly used in the operation management to mean methodical approach to ascertain and eradicate any wastes through continuous enhancement, flowing products at the pull of the end users in search for perfection (James, Jami, Heineken, & Abbas, 2009). Proper implementation of these lean principles have resulting benefits on the administrative, operational, and strategic sections of any organizations it is used. However, this study focused on its implementation of the operation management for the purposes of improvements. Fundamental benefits realized in its implementation in Cavalier Corporation Limited in New Zealand, involved improvements on the lead time which was reduced, enhanced quality and quantity in productivity, reduced work-in-process inventories, and reduced amount of space utilization. The core strength of successful operational management lies within the mature management architecture as is developed by importuning feedbacks and data from the identified front line personnel. Adequate implementation of the required quality improvement techniques call for buy-in from the highest level executives to provide capital and human resources (Dilbert, Bayyurt, Zaim, & Tarim, 2005). Successful quality improvement in an organization such as Cavalier Corporation Limited in New Zealand may be barred by immense failures to fully recognize the overhead supplementary to quality improvements. Lean is therefore important because it helps in leveraging to clear up resources that would be occupied by wasteful tasks of unnecessary or redundant processing. In summary, the main wastes that are eliminated by lean include overproduction, overstretched waiting, confusion, transportation, inventory, motion, and excess processing. See the flow chart below for a comprehensive tool as discussed above. i. From the figure above, it is epitomized that arrows pointing from TQM are indications of full implementation of its principles and core values. And the same applies to all entities sharing similar flow. ii. Lean principles also contribute to data/information quality by improving lead time which was reduced, enhancing quality and quantity in productivity, reducing work-in-process inventories, and reducing amount of space utilization. From the diagram, it is clear that all processes are geared towards quality management and organizational performances in order to attain efficiency in production management. BIBLIOGRAPHY Cavalier Corporation. Retrieved 23 May 2010 Dilbert M., Bayyurt N., Zaim S., Tarim M. (2005). Critical factors of total quality managements and its effect on performance in healthcare industry: a Turkish experience. Problems and Perspectives in Management James, R. L., Jami, L. D., Heineken, J., & Abbas, I., (2009). Implementations of lean and six sigma quality initiatives in hospitals: A goal theoretic perspective. Operations Management Research Tari, J. J., Molina, J. F., Castejon, J. L., (2007). The relationships between quality management practices and their effects on quality outcomes, European Journal of Operational Research Taveira A., Craig A, James B., Karshc B., (2003). Quality managements and work environments: Empirical investigations in public sector organizations. Applied Ergonomics . 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