Operations Management in Going Inc - Essay Example

Therefore, the main thrust of operational strategy should be on how to reduce production costs and improve the company's response to change in market demand. Going Inc. sources its raw materials entirely from U.S markets. Though the company ensures that it gets its raw materials at the lowest possible price, expansion of the raw material sources to include other countries or more conveniently decision to make small parts instead of buying from vendors would automatically lead to even lower cost and better quality.

This will involve the realignment of the supply chain of the company. According to Heizer and Render (2005), supply chain management is the integration of the activities that procure materials and services, transform them into intermediate goods and final products, and deliver them to customers. In order for Going Inc. to manage its supply chain effectively, it has to improve the speed and flexibility of its manufacturing framework. Currently, the company is relatively slow in its production speed; only fifteen planes per month.

To make the matter worse, the production is riddled with scrupulous customization that takes a lot of time and gives very little room for design flexibility. Going Inc. should address one of its major production hurdles; that is the time taken to produce one plane and the way in which the company adheres to its production design. This will involve a shift from the traditional company operation to a leaner operation strategy. This include among another thing, the expansion of its production facilities and the design structures of its hanger.

This way the company would be able to produce more aircraft at each given time. Moreover, the company could as well integrate its operation so as to minimize time spent in communication and managerial logistics. This will involves, relocating, the warehouse, and head office near the processing plant. However, the company in an effort to minimize production costs, should not compromise its quality and dedication to customer needs and preferences. Above all, Going Inc. needs to devise proper employee motivation strategies.

This will include among other things, proper channels for employees to air their grievances, salary increases in line with market rates, better working conditions, and retraining. This way, the company would be able to increase efficiency thus reducing production costs. In a nutshell, the overall shortfall of Going Inc.'s operational management in its manufacturing division is the response strategy. The inability of Going Inc. to respond swiftly to customer demands by improving its supply chain within a reasonable time frame has been the main cause of its slow growth and expansion.

Notably; the speed of production, rigidity in design, lack of diversified material sourcing, and lack of employee coordination are all major areas that need careful attention in order to turn around the Going Inc. production efficiency. Response to student postings does agree with the student essay that, the major hurdle of Going Inc. is the response strategy. The company has been very slow in responding to market demand. Going Inc. religiously concentrates more on the design and quality that involve 100% inspection of every aircraft made.

This has slowed the production growth against the growing demand for its brand of aircraft. Moreover, as the student argues in her essay, the overall goal of cost reduction in the manufacturing division of Going Inc. can be approached as supply chain management. This is because the main areas where Going Inc. seems not to respond well is the procurement of its raw materials which they source from the U.S market only and from specific vendors. There is also a lack of positive response in terms of an increase in processing speed and expansion of production capacity to reflect the growing demand for its aircraft.

In addition, the student seems to concentrate too much on supply chain management. Though the supply chain management will at most assist the company to reduce its cost of production, there are other strategies such as employee motivation which have none or little connection to the supply chain management.