Different Skills Required in Managing the Provision of Management Course - Term Paper Example

Management in Public Institutions Student inserts His/Her Name Here Lecturer Inserts Student Grade 15th April, 2011. Introduction Operations Management encompasses many techniques and activities necessary for creating, planning and managing activities within an organisation or business environment. Within this essay we are going to analyse major aspects of operations management within an educational environment and draw important inferences on these aspects. Management of an educational institution requires the use of different set of skills, practices and operations to achieve optimal results. This essay is going to analyse different skills required in managing the provision of management course at Bradford University School of Management in the United Kingdom. Part 1 Supply Chain Management The field of operations management is wide and it encompasses many activities but one of the most important fields of operations management is supply chain management. This essay is going to focus on supply management and its interconnection with factors such as planning and control and management of queues and variation in demand. This field deals mainly with delivering services to the customer to his/her satisfaction. Supply chain management involves activities such as information flow and service flow with an aim of gaining competitive advantage. Supply management frequently deals with the end users, in the case of Bradford University School of Management the end users are students who are the main clients of the institution and we have to focus on them as the end users. The main needs of students include learning facilities, provision of learning materials, accommodations and provision of quality education to them. In order to take effective supply management operations, we as the university have to anticipate demand and needs of our main clients. In the provision of its services the Bradford University School of Management relies on information flow to communicate with its prospective and currents clients. This operation is conducted through online modules whereby students, university staff, lecturers can enquire more information about the university on issues such as examinations and registration (Shim 2004). Another important aspect of supply chain management is service flow, in the offering of a management course in the Bradford University School of Management several lecturers teach different course units within different campuses and groups. Therefore all students should be provided with quality content and it should be provided in a uniform way. In the provision of a management course which is a common course in many universities across the universe, certain standards have to meet for the Bradford University School of Management to gain competitive advantage over their competitors. For successful implementation of supply chain management, the Bradford University School of Management requires an elaborate IT infrastructure to be used in tasks such as uploading management course notes, exam registration and communication between lecturers and students. The IT infrastructure is made available to management students through a students’ portal available to all faculties. Supply management is closely tied to planning, control and management of demand, since supply management deals with mainly satisfying the consumer, planning helps in anticipating the clients’ demands (Stevenson 2008). Management of queues on the other hand helps in satisfying the clients’ demands with urgency while maintaining quality for instance through uniformity. Planning and Control This essay is going to analyse the management of a public service sector industry in the form of provision of a university management course in the UK. As an operations manager the most important task in the management of this institution is to manage students and their concerns. Planning involves the use of techniques such as making arrangement for how courses will be offered at the university and the mode for catering for services such as accommodation for students at the university. The most important step in planning is that of meeting demand and most plans are made to ensure that all services are offered to standards desired by the customer/student. Planning and control are important in ensuring that all plans necessary for provision of a management course are put in place before commencement of any management course. At the Bradford University School of Management undergraduate and master’s programs are offered to students and the programs have set requirements for any prospective student to undertake a specific management program. For instance a student must achieve a grade of B and above to be admitted to the university and there are other regulations for foreign students For a management course to pick up these course prerequisites have to be met and other requirements include the number of students that need to be grouped into a class for a course unit to be taught. Management course at Bradford University School of Management requires a student to undertake a specific number of units for someone to finish his/her management course. These requirements are very important for an operations manager owing to the reality that all plans are made by the operations manager (Burtonshaw-Gunn 2010). In order for the university to stay ahead competitively, management is necessary and important for the university. Management of queues and variation in demand The duty of an operations manager includes managing demand for a specific course and therefore management of queues and variation in demand is very important. The management course offered at the Bradford University School of Management is offered at different campuses and therefore my duty is to balance the allocation of students at different campuses and manage this variation in demand. The management of queues and variation in demand helps in the managing numbers for instance the students who are accepted into the university to undertake a management course. The students are split into groups of classes who take similar units while these classes are assigned lecturers to teach these students on management (Shim 2004). The process of learning a specific course at a specific university requires good study environment and consequently the university in affiliation with some other firms provide accommodation to students. This is specifically important for foreign students since they are studying far away from home. The importance of this step it is used to measure the average time and response to the clients’ needs within a given period of time. For instance, in the managing of requests for use of resources such as the IT infrastructure and class materials or lecturers there are needs to manage demand through allocation as a management principle. Part 2 In the management of Bradford University School of Management, there are several management students who apply for courses and therefore there is need to compare the rate at which they do so to anticipate demand and allocate resources for future clients. In relation to these issues and problems we are going to use Little’s law to conduct calculations in relation to these questions. Little’s law is a mathematical calculation used within systems where calculations are required. For instance in a bank queue there are number of customers and bank tellers, Little’s law could be used in this situation to calculate the time taken to process each customer request. At the Bradford University School of Management little’s law could be used to calculate no of students to enrol into the management class, the number of lecturers to hire and no. of teaching groups to assign. For example, during intake process we at the university usually receive around 320 requests per day from students during the application period which lasts 2 months or 60 days. Each application should be responded to within 2 days. Let’s consider that Little’s law equals: Therefore using this formula we can now calculate rate of processing application: in this problem therefore it takes 1 day to process 160 requests. Each day consists of 8hr working day and each request takes an hour to be fully responded to therefore, the Process time = 1 request per hour, Process rate= ?, WorkRate= 20 requests per hour. Therefore ProcessRate = 20 requests * I hr per request. Using this equation we know that it takes 20 employees to process application request from students. The same formula can be used in allocating IT resources for students at the IT centres in the university and allocating lecturers to teach in unit class according to demand. Part 3 Learning Log In the management of a university several skills are required and the experience of managing such an institution empowers one with learning experiences. In the process of managing Bradford University School of Management, I as the operations manager learnt a lot skill which included public relations and prudent management skills. In the management of public institutions such as universities or health facilities, high standards of operations should be met with the institutions providing quantity and quality services to serve their clients better. In the case of Bradford University School of Management most students undertaking management courses do an undergraduate program and as a result most of the students are young people. Dealing with young people requires a lot of patience and understanding. Therefore as an operations manager I have learnt how to be patient and understanding as a means of catering to the needs of the students as the main clients of the University. As an operations manager one of the major observations that I noticed at the university was that most students rely on IT infrastructure to undertake their activities. Therefore the continued use of this resource is likely to increase over time and adequate planning has to be done for this resource. In the case of number of tasks required for students and other staff at the university, proper resource management and well laid out plans should be undertaken. Another important learning point to be taken from the provision of a management programme at the university is that for only to satisfy a demand one has to understand his/her clients and the market environment keenly. The management of public institutions/facilities such as schools, hospitals or transport facilities is very challenging and therefore a social and friendly environment should be maintained at all times (Burtonshaw-Gunn 2010). One of the most important learning lessons was the fact that the process of managing a management course at the university of requires intricate plans and strategy to stay ahead of competition. Bradford University School of Management has been rated as the 7th best management university in the UK, this could be attributed to the fact that the university segments each faculty into smaller manageable units to cater for the needs of each unit in a more friendly and organised manner. Essential skills An operations manager must exhibit many exemplary skills such as honesty, a good decision maker and resolved. In the case of Bradford University School of Management, the operations manager should the ability of being a good decision maker. The ability to make decisions many a times is a very important skill that an operations manager should posses. In the case of Bradford University School of Management, the operations manager should take prudent and firm decisions that resonate within all the university’s campuses. Within a learning environment like the one at Bradford University School of Management several decisions are usually carried out by the management through the operations manager. Most of the major decisions concern issues to deal with student affairs and in the case of Bradford University School of Management, management students make up a huge percentage of the overall student population of the university and therefore proper handling of their affairs is beneficial to the university (Stevenson 2008). Decisions such as allocation of lecturers to students’ class units or the number of students to accept/admit to undertake a management course at the university are some of the major decisions undertaken by the operations manager. For that reason an operations should have the ability to compare the cost and benefits to making certain decisions. Another essential skill that an operations manager should posses is dynamism; this is the ability to change according to market standards or environment in the fast changing world. As an operations manager one should be active and have the ability to keep up with changing standards for instance in management courses of international standards such as the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Dynamism is an important character in that it helps to keep an operations manager in control and up to date with changes which occur in the ever changing world. A Dynamic operations manager can make informed decisions which impact the institution in a positive manner compared to other qualified but not dynamic people (Burtonshaw-Gunn 2010). Dynamism is very important since a person who is dynamic is highly motivated to achieve goals set out by management and be able to achieve those goals within the set time frame. Conclusion The study of operations management is very important due to the fact that the field covers varies topics which are important in the management of public and private organizations. In the essay above, the topics of supply management, planning and control were discussed and their importance in the field of operations management. Supply management is very important in institutions such as universities because it ensures that services are delivered to all students in different campuses as in the case of Bradford University School of Management. References Burtonshaw-Gunn S, 2010. Essential Tools for Operations Management: Tools, Models and Approaches for Managers and Consultants. Boston, MA: John Wiley and Sons. Shim J & Siegel J, 2004, Operations Management, Atlanta, GA: Barron's Educational Series. Stevenson W, 2008, Operations Management, Chicago, IL: McGraw-Hill Irwin. Read More