Operation Management Concepts - Case Study Example

 Abstract Operations management is a critical component that should be keenly integrated in th management for efficiency and effectiveness to be achieved in production. Proper selection and integration of operation management strategies in the operations of a business facilitates the integration of both the organization and customers’ interests. Procedures and practices that aim at reducing the costs incurred in the production of goods and services should be embraced to facilitate the production of these goods and services at the most cost effective way. Proper operations management is thus a key concept in the management of business activities that aid in achievement of higher profitability of the business without additional production costs. Introduction The activities, processes, decisions and operations involved in the production of goods and services to their delivery to final consumers are generally referred to as operations management. The major role of having the operations management activities aligned properly in a business setup is to improve on the productivity and profitability of a business as these activities tend to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the production process (Slack, 2001). Every business should thus ensure proper organization of their operations management for improved productivity at reduced costs. The set of processes and activities involved in the creation and delivery of goods and services by transforming inputs to outputs is what is defined as operations management (Reid and Slanders, 2001).This paper seeks to address the different operations management concepts as applied in the harvesting of lettuce and celery in the Lincolnshire fields. Figure1: Diagram illustrating the processes involved in operations management (Reid and Slanders, 2005) The Input Transformation Output Model Question One:Apply the input transformation output model to the case study, clearlyidentifying the transformed and transforming resources. The Case study is a description of the processes and activities involved in the harvesting and packaging of Lettuce and celery in the fields of Lincolnshire. These activities are performed manually in the fields by a number of personnel who play different roles in the process. A number of persons have been assigned the task of picking the products form the gardens while others are involved in packaging and labeling of the products for transportation to the different outlets. From theinput transformation output model,transformation is seen as any processes and activities involved in the conversion of different inputs into outputs that have added value (Zwikael and Smyrk, 2011). The products of the transformation process have more value designed to satisfy the customers tastes and preferences as well as attracting more customers and thus profits. In the case study of Lettuce and celery harvesting, more value is added to the products by removing the unwanted parts and packaging into bags that improve the handling of the products by distributors and customers as well. This adds value to the products and thus fetching better prices for the products. Every operation in the input transformation output model should lead to the production of goods and services for consumption by the end users (Brown, 2001). The transformation model is commonly known as a tool for analyzing the operations that take place in the transformation of raw materials into finished products that are in the best condition for consumption by the targeted customer base (Jenkins et al., 2010). Operations managemententails the efficient direction and regulation of the processes that lead to the conversion of capitals (inputs) into finished products and or services for client or customer satisfaction in the form of outputs. It is therefore comprised of three constituents of operation; the inputs, processes and the outputs (Brown, 2001). The diagram below describes the transformation model as evidenced in the different sectors. Figure 1: operation management Activities (Adopted from ) Resources involved From the lettuce and celery harvesting case, the input transformation output model can be viewed to have the following resources. Inputs: in the model, inputs are utilized in the creation of goods and services for consumer needs. Others play a role in the conversion of inputs to output but are not used up in the process. To have a clear distinction between the two assets, they are grouped into two categories; the transformed and the transforming resources (Zwikael and Smyrk, 2011). Transformed resources include the raw materials worked on for the production of output. The harvested lettuce and celery from the field falls under this category of inputs in the case. The transforming resources include the human laborers and the tools they use during the harvesting exercise which includes the machinery, knives and packaging equipment. The knowledge employed in the process is also a very crucial resource that falls under the transforming resources category. The resources as witnessed in the case can be summarized as below: Transformed resources: Lettuce and celery are the resources worked on with an aim of availing them to the final consumers in a way that is more presentable and easily portable. Collection from the land, branding and packaging are some of the processes involved in transformation of these products from their raw form into finished products for consumption. Transforming resources: Human laborers, land, machinery and the packaging bags are the resources involved in transforming the lettuce and celery from the raw form into the finished products. The use of machinery facilitates the process and enhances human performance in the exercise of the different duties. Outputs: the outputs from the scenario include packaged products which are ready for consumption by the final consumers. The Transformation process: this involves the activities that add value to the inputs of a process to form the outputs that are more desirable and attractive for consumption (Open.edu, 2014). Transformation processes are commonly associated with the imposition of change to the physical characteristics of products and materials, changing of the geographical location of goods, storage of products, changes in the ownership of goods and services and also changes in the physical appearances of products (Slack, Chambers and Johnston, 2007). The activities involved in picking the lettuce from the fields, packaging, chopping of the unwanted parts and finally storage and transportation to the final consumers all falls under the transformational process. Diagram 2: Illustrating the processes involved in operations management (Adopted from Roussevis, 2006) Operational Delivery Process and System Bottleneck Question two: Produce a flow chart of the Operational Delivery Process andanalyze which stage is the main bottleneck in the system. Figure 3: flow chart of the operational delivery process The beginning of this process is marked with the start operator in the flow chart diagram. It implies the start of the whole process in which the all the resources are set ready for the harvesting exercise. Harvesting involves the actual uprooting and removal of the wanted parts of the Lettuce plants as well as the celery plants. The process involves a number of production resources involved in the transformation of inputs to the outputs desired for consumption by the target customers. At this stage, more people have been hired to perform the exercise as the task is quite involving compared to other tasks in the process. The number of workers at this stage is higher and performs their task manually with the help of lettuce field knives and slashers. Packaging is the next stage in the process which starts with the persons picking the lettuce leaves directly from the field placing it in a bag before presenting it to the next stage. At this stage, nothing much is done but only the slashing and placement of the collected pieces in small bags that fits one piece each. From this, another group of people are responsible for sealing and packaging the sealed products into cartons and crates for easy transportation to the final consumers. The numbers of products packaged in a single column are counted at this stage to prevent packaging of crates with extra pieces and others with insufficient pieces. After completion of the packaging process, they are transferred to the next step by an assistant. Each of the packaged pieces is labeled for identification and for serialization purposes in the process of branding. Once all the products have been packaged and branded appropriately, they are loaded onto trucks for transportation to the relevant destination for consumption. Production bottlenecks refer to a resource whose aptitude equates to or is less than the required or the demand at which it is placed upon (Heizer and Render, 2001). When the supply of a resource exceeds the demand or the expected maximum, it is thus referred to a non-bottleneck. Balancing the flow is what is important and not the capacity upon the demand (Cachon and Terwiesch, 2009). If the capacity of bottlenecks is equated to the demand for products, the demand goes down forcing prices to escalate and thereby incurring losses. It is therefore more profitable for businesses to maintain capacity at a level slightly lower than the level of demand. From this process, the main bottleneck has been observed in the packaging stage. At this stage, the number of workers is less while the tasks they are performing are quite involving. For instance, in the process of fixing the cartons for packaging the lettuce plants, just a single person was mandated with the role. This could delay the whole process since an individual cannot work at the pace of more than ten workers and manage to fit their productivity. Further in the packaging process, only two individuals were involved in the sealing and packaging of the lettuce plants into the cartons. The final stage in this process had only two individuals with one of them working in different capacities which could lead to a jam up. Increasing the number of persons in the stage could lead to improved productivity and less time will be spent in the process. This however should depend on the demand for the lettuce to avoid excesses in the process. Effects of Process Bottlenecks Question three: How can this bottleneck in the system impact on the performanceobjectives? Bottlenecks are the determinants of the production process throughput. In the production process, the stage at which more time is required for operations to be performed to meet a certain demand becomes the bottleneck. The results of a bottleneck are usually pilling of inputs and a reduction in the output capacities (Cachon and Terwiesch, 2009). In the context of our scenario, bottleneck refers to the stage in the production process at which the number of workers is less than the required number of people to meet the speed of the people at the preceding stage. There is an interval between the workers at the bottleneck and the members before the spreads. The chain narrows to the ones after the bottleneck. Bottlenecks in a production system determine the production throughput (Cachon and Terwiesch, 2009). Where the people working in the bottleneck work at a faster pace, the whole process will therefore be accelerated. On the other hand, if such workers perform their duties at a lower production speed as anticipated, the whole process will be delayed since the throughput is highly dependent on the bottleneck. If the capacity of the bottleneck is increased, the production throughput will also be increased. An increase of beyond one hundred percent of the bottleneck as compared to the preceding stages will mean movement of the non-bottleneck to the place of the bottleneck and vice versa. Conversely, a reduction in the capacity of the bottleneck will mean lower throughput in the process. Identifying bottlenecks is very critical in the production process without which organizations might miss a chance to increase the throughput. It is therefore clear that the bottleneck in the packaging stage of the harvesting process will hinder the throughput of the entire process. This could be in term of reducing the capacity of harvest per unit time or even the long-term production goal. On the other hand, the bottleneck could affect the whole process in that the workers involved in the picking of the products from the field might end up collecting more units than the ones the persons packaging pick, leading to a clog of the lettuce piles. They might be forced to stop working for some time to wait for the piles to be cleared thereby reducing the general productivity and thus less throughput. More cost per unit time will therefore be incurred in the production process. Controlling Process Bottlenecks Evaluate what could be done to improve the control andreduce the bottleneck. To improve the production process, a number of activities should be performed which includes; addition of resources in terms of labor, addition of machine which could automate some of the processes, eliminating any idle time within the bottleneck, and finally focusing more on the quality of the lettuce being collected from the field to prevent collection and packaging of even the waste or destroyed pieces. In this case, only the pieces worthy processing are collected Failure to clearly recognize the bottlenecks prevents you from having a chance to increase the production throughput. Utilization of more energy at less costs surface and chances for larger cash flows are missed as a result of this failure. The cost per unit time spent on bottlenecks could equate to losses of a number of hours in the entire production process and the resultant throughput expected in the process (Anderson, Consumer Dummies Staff., Anderson and Parker, 2013). Recognizing and managing these bottlenecks is therefore a prominent concern that should be addressed keenly if increment in the production throughput is a factor of concern. Machines available will be used efficiently, workers will work optimally, and the production costs per unit time will also be optimized and thus improved performance and productivity per unit time. Excesses in the production process Questionfour: Where in this operational process might there be too much capacity The theory of constraints could be the best approach for solving the bottlenecks in the production process. It defines an approach in which the major limiting factors in the production process that prevents an organization from achieving set goals through either addition of unit costs or through production of excesses are identified and improved to a point that they no longer act as constraints. The bottleneck in this scenario acts as the constraints and could therefore be addressed through this approach. Throughout the operational process, the collection stage has been identified to have more workers than any other stage. This could mean higher collection rate than the rate of packaging in which only a few individuals are assigned. When the rate of collection outdoes the rate of packaging, the collected pieces might pile up, forcing the staffs collecting to reduce their pace to match the latter. It is therefore crucial to ensure there is a balance in the supply of labor and production resources throughout the production processes to reduce bottlenecks and excess all which add up to the unit cost of production. Adding the number of workers in the packaging processes will create a balance thus eliminating the excesses and the outcome will thus be improved productivity and reduced cost per unit production, thus making the whole process more profitable. Controlling the Excesses Using Operations management theory/techniques explain how this excesscapacity could be controlled. . Employing Lean production concepts could be a perfect way of eliminating the excesses in the harvesting process. The lean production is a tool that seeks to eliminate excesses in the production process (Leanproduction.com, 2014). All the activities and workers that do not add value in any production process should be eliminated according to this manufacturing technique. This helps to remove the excesses in terms of number of workers needed to a minimum thus reducing wastages in terms of waiting time, overproduction of resources that exceeds customer demand, unnecessary movements, defects and finally defects (Cudney and Elrod, 2010). All these activities aim at the major goal which is the elimination of excesses in the production process in terms of resources. Elimination of unused human potential is the most critical waste eliminated through lean management. In our scenario, the availability of excessive staff members in the collection of lettuce as compared to the later stages creates an imbalance in the whole processes since the rate of collection exceeds the other processes. To prevent this from recurring through the use of lean techniques, the number of workers in the collection stage could be reduced to match the pace of those in the packaging section. On the other hand, the number of workers in the packaging department could be increased to match the pace of the collection process thus reducing the waiting time and increasing the production process. From your overall evaluation of the Operational Delivery process discuss other ways in which you believe the system could be improved to better align with the performance objectives. On the other hand, automating some of the processes could solve the excesses and bottlenecks involved in the process. For instance, automating the packaging process and the branding stages will mean having more workers in the collection stage to match the speed of the machine. The process of fixing the packaging cartons should also be mechanized to reduce the bottleneck resulting from such an activity being assigned to a single individual. Inclusion of a system for estimating the capacity will help estimate the expected production capacity against the demand for the lettuce and therefore help in decisions on which stage to add more staff and which ones to reduce the number of workers. Finally, establishing the level of market demand for lettuce and celery helps to control the amount of harvest per unit time to avoid excesses in the market. This will aid in the production of only what is required at that specific time thus reducing excesses and the units cost throughout the production processes. References Anderson, M., Anderson, E. and Parker, G., 2013. Operations management for dummies. 1st ed. Mississauga, Ontario: John Wiley & Sons Canada, Limited. Brown, S., 2001. Operations management. 1st ed. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Cachon, G. and Terwiesch, C., 2009. Matching supply with demand. 1st ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Cudney, E. and Elrod, C., 2010. Incorporating lean concepts into supply chain management. International Journal of Six Sigma and Competitive Advantage, 6(1), pp.12-30. Heizer, J. and Render, B., 2001. Operations management. 1st ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall. Jenkins, A., Rowe, E., Granko, R., Pfeiffenberger, T. and Daniels, R., 2010. Effects of a new sterile product preparation and delivery process on operational efficiency and cost. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, 67(19), pp.1645-1649. Jenkins, A., Rowe, E., Granko, R., Pfeiffenberger, T. and Daniels, R., 2010. Effects of a new sterile product preparation and delivery process on operational efficiency and cost. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, 67(19), pp.1645-1649. Leanproduction.com, 2014. Introduction to Lean. [online] Available at: [Accessed 12 Jul. 2014]. Open.edu, 2014. Understanding operations management: 3.4 Transformation processes - OpenLearn - Open University - B700_2. [online] Available at: [Accessed 12 Jul. 2014]. Roussevis, B., 2006. Journal of Operational Research, IEEE Transactions, Information and Manage-ment, Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, and others. He is known for his theories of course utilities and linear belief functions, which have been taught in the nation’s top PhD programs in computer science, economics, accounting, management, and psychology. He currently serves as a co-editor for Classic Works on Dempster-Shafer Theory of Belief Functions, and on editorial. Management of the Object-oriented Development Process, p.361. Slack, N., Chambers, S. and Johnston, R., 2007. Operations management. 5th ed. Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall. Zwikael, O. and Smyrk, J., 2011. Project management for the creation of organizational value. 1st ed. London: Springer. Read More