Operations Management and Organizational Design - Essay Example

Project Introduction A project is a document that gives an overview of the main project. It contains a description of the contents that have covered in the project. This saves time so that the project has little explanations especially where it deals with a lot of mathematics or diagrams. Marketing management Marketing is a concept that requires an active organization to serve its purpose with the aim of making profits out of the services offered. Marketing management is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of goods and ideas to create exchanges with target groups that satisfy customer and organizational objectives (Peter and Donnelly 15). Marketing management bases on the concept of situation analysis in which the manager has to keenly analyze and closely monitor the firm so that everything runs parallel to the firm’s objectives and mission. Since it is a broad field, situation analysis divides itself into the economic, competitive, cooperative, legal, social and political environments. The economic environment It is a major determinant of how the firm survives in a competitive market. This type of environment can bring with it marketing opportunities or constraints. For example, such factors as high inflation and unemployment can limit the size of the market that can afford to purchase a firm’s top-of –the-line product (Peter and Donnelly 17). The competitive environment Firms are after a similar raw material and target at same consumers. In this environment, the management must look out for competing firms, drive competitors out of the industry and aim at offering value sensible products to the consumers. Political environment It influences how the public views the product. It composes of the business critics, the public and other organizations. To guard the corporation image, the management must satisfy the standards set to avoid criticism. Operations management Operations management is a systematic approach to addressing the issues in the transformation process that converts inputs into useful, revenue-generating outputs (Mahadevan 5). It is the key requirement in manufacturing industries as they involve many systems that have to be combined together to produce an output. Operations management functions The functions are categorized under design and control issues (Mahadevan 16). For the design issues, the functions are realized in product and design development. This is a major importance since it facilitates creativity in production to withstand external competitions. In addition, there is improved quality management, which helps build trust with customers. Designing is important when locating and making layouts of facilities that enables efficiency in production. For control issues, operations management is a guide for forecasting, as it understands the flow and trends of products. This helps in controlling production such that there is neither surplus nor deficit. Supply chain management is put under control since it depends on the operations management decisions. Still, the operations management helps guide the maintenance management because the operations determine how frequent the maintenance practices are carried out. With all these summed up, there is a continuous improvement of operations in a company. The operations management faces competitive pressure. This is because of technological advancement today. This can be attributed to be a major challenge. On the same note, the pressure can be from the economic reforms. Organizational design Organizational design involves two complementary problems: how to partition a big task of the whole organization and how to coordinate the subunits so that they fit together (Burton et al). The problems make organizational design a continuous executive process that requires short-term and long-term resolutions. Since it is a continuous process, a systematic approach reveals what happens Step 1: getting started Every firm has a goal and mission to accomplish. The goals base on efficiency and effectiveness. Setting goals enables the firm in relating with the mission and vision statement and business location. Should it have a change after making reviews, the firm can then decide if the goals can be modified, changed or retained. Step 2: Strategy A firm’s strategy reflects management’s assessment of the firm’s situation and it choice of how to pursue the firm’s goals. A strategy can be described in terms of five forces of the firm’s economic situation (Porter 55): suppliers, buyers, substitutes, potential entrants and rivals. Sep 3: structure The structure shows how people in the firm relate to each other as well as the hierarchy observed. This defines the span of power and control. A firm chooses an organization structure depending on its size and complexity. With the above steps, assigning tasks to individuals is possible as the leaders design task according to the organizational climate. This ensures proper coordination amongst employees. Human resources Human resources relate to efforts of people employed in a firm that are necessary in realizing the mission and objectives of the firm. The Human resources department in organization that is under the Human Resource manager controls them. To meet the human resources a requirement, the human resources department has to put into consideration the job requirements, how to effectively plan for the human resources and the recruitment needed. A job requirement relates to the roles and the importance of a job. It has two perspectives: the roles it does for the organization and to the employees. For an organization, a job facilitates the achievement of the organization’s objectives (Sherman et al 96). The employees get a source of income through the job. Planning for the human resources entails recruitment. When there is a surplus of human resources, the human resources manager has to lay-off some of the workers to stabilize the production. This is because a surplus will lead to laziness and the firm ends up paying salaries to undone work. Should there be a shortage of human resources, more workers have to be recruited to enhance productivity and to ensure that the current employees are not overburdened. Training programs develop effectiveness in human resources. This boosts career portfolio and in its own way, it is a motivation to employees. A successful training guarantees improvement in production. This is because new skills are known and there are reduced reject outputs. Financial projections A financial projection is a forecast of future revenues and expenses for a business organization (Tjia 3). The following are a revelation on how to make financial projections Sales forecasts It is the very first step to start with. Units together with their prices make future assumptions. The assumptions relate with the actual prices that are prevailing and the expected deviation. A sales forecast is always effective when done on a monthly basis for a beginning business and then annually for subsequent years. Experts’ advice is that firms should not base the forecasts by assuming the whole market but rather, rely on the individual firm’s share in the whole market to know its worth. Forecast expenses These are operating expenses that range from advertising to rent. After sales, it follows that all direct costs are subtracted to get the gross margin from which the operating expenses are subtracted. The answer gives the earnings before interest and tax (EBIT). This means the projections determine how much profit is expected at the end of the trading period. Startup costs These are costs incurred before the business commences. They are licenses and assets to start with. These are first losses. Cash flows Any business must have a cash flow system and thus all involved parties are entitled to understand it. This enables the business hard-earned profits accounted for. Conclusion The description above give a clear overview of what the topics entails. The basic points given are of great importance. Marketing management, operations management, human resources, financial forecasts, and organizational design are related because they are all issues concerning a firm. Works cited Burton, Richard M. et al. Organizational Design: A Step-by-Step Approach. New York. Cambridge, 2006. Print. Mahadevan, Brian. Operations management: Theory and Practice. India. Pearson, 2000. Print. Peter, Jensen, and Donnelly, James. Marketing Management. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2009. Print. Porter, Richards. Organizational Theory and Design. London: Macmillan, 1998. Print. Sherman et al. Managing Human Resources. New York: Pearson, 1996. Print. Tjia, John. Building Financial Models. New York Oxford UP, 2008. Print. Read More