Business Operations Management - Essay Example

Operations Management On inception Geoff Cartwright identified that the running of Gateshead holdings was not in a solid and he acknowledged that there was need for major amendments to be done to ensure efficiency and quality production in the firm. First he applied division of labor by dividing his team into groups where there was concentration on a family of products the 5S was a major breakthrough to the transformation of the firm because through this Geoff and his team were able to identify which group and in which family of products was lagging behind in the short run and through this necessary amendments and support would be enhanced to correct any issue that posed as setback (Aquilano, 37).

Having provided multi-skill training for its team Gateshead was sure to overcome any setbacks that would be caused by lack of attendance by members of staff who had specialized on specific task and no replacement for them was available incase of their in attendance . This was a major move since there was no reason for stalling jobs because in every group all members were able to perform all tasks. Gatestead under Geoff the production manager went further to train its staff on machine maintenance and minor repairs and this factor worked positively towards reducing machine failure and time loss during minor machines breakdown in the process of production (Naughton, 52).

Geoff went further to introduce Just in time and six sigma as measure of reducing wastage. It will be noted that in any production firm waste contributes to a major factor reducing profitability and utmost care should be carried out because waste increases the cost of sales made and by no means can the cost of sales lost through waste be recovered.Geoff the production manager also identified the need to give the workers incentive through wage increases this he implemented and by the year 2003 we can see that the statutory minimum wage had increased to 7.

50 pounds/hour. In any firm world over incentives to workers through increased wages improves the workers willingness to put in more effort in whatever they are doing thus improving their productivity (Aquilano, 39). Though there was a lot of resistance to changes implemented, more so in the training part putting in mind that 76% of the staff had never received training we note that Geoff spearheaded acceptance of the training amongst staff in his team by giving them a motivational speech. this worked well for him and his built in management team as he created rapport with his team and he also earned respect from them through his personal involvement in the production process by spending time in the firm and helping them in solving problems where the need arose (Wilson, 67).

Introduction of a system of annualized hours and elimination of overtime was also a plus in the bid to bring gates head holdings to profitability this ensured that fatigue amongst his team was minimized and that optimality was achieved through the standardization of working hours (Naughton, 54). Increase of paid holiday period from four to five weeks also played as an incentive to workers who would perform optimally knowing that when they earned time for leave they would enjoy an increased and paid time for rest.

Through the incentive scheme Geoff and his built in team of management captured an important factor in management by pegging the scheme to sales revenue and defects because through this all teams would strive to work optimally with minimal defects and increased sales revenue to ensure that the don’t miss out on the incentive scheme (Aquilano, 47). Geoff and the management team went further to provide bonuses and tied this to continued attendance without fail this move would also be considered a major incentive to workers that ensured that through attendance they would strive to earn the bonus awarded for non failure to attend work and through this the firm would avoid loss of production capacity often caused by lack of attendance by staff in many firms (Wilson, 98).

Works CitedAquilano, C., et al. (2001) Operations Management for Competitive Advantage.Naughton, S. (2002). Operations Management: in a week, Chartered Management InstituteWilson, J, M. (1995) An historical perspective on Operations Management, Production and Inventory Management Journal