Business Functions and Processes - Coursework Example

Business Functions and Processes Chosen Functional Area: Operations Section The operations section of an organization accounts for approximately over 60% of the organizations total assets, expenditure and people. This makes it the most complex and hard to manage section of the organization, and any shortcoming from this section can disrupt the whole organization. The following are the challenges that face the operations section of an organization, as one of its functional areas: Crises Management: Management of crises pose a challenge to the operations managers as it has spreading effect to the other parts of the organization. Given the fact that operation section is like the driving engine of the organization, such crises not managed in time and fully, may lead to downfall of business and consequently loss of profits to the organization. The crises that are common in this functional area are production and system breakdown. Late delivery: In most cases, lack of crises management may lead to the late delivery as a result of production breakdown or even late processing of the goods. Late delivery is a challenge to this functional area as this defines the relationship between the company and its clients on meeting targets and adhering to deadlines. Failure to manage this may lead to customer disloyalty to the company. The customer sees that such a company cannot be relied upon when it comes to meeting delivery timelines (Brown et al., 2005). Poor motivation: As much as this may be seen as a task of the human resource department, the operations section feels the effect of this because the unmotivated employees are also involved in the production of the organization’s product and services. Lack of motivation is evidenced by the low level of production, ineffective and inefficient production processes; and in some cases, strikes by the operations section employees. The section is at the receiving end of a problem or issue that is beyond its control, as this squarely lies on the human resource section. Inappropriate management style: Some management styles imposed by the top management may at times not work to the advantage of the operations sections. This results leads to delayed delivery and production as well as affects the productivity of the employees because they are not comfortable with such kind of management style. Poor functional integration: This is a challenge to Operations section as most integrated processes may be overlapping or discontinuous hence affecting the flow of production in the organization. Proper integration of functions is a key to a successful flow of operations, but most organizations have had problems in coming up with a better performing functional integration formula. Lack of performance measurement: Performance measurement is an issue that faces operations section, in terms of production quantity and quality as well as the performance by the employees, individually and collectively. Performance measurement usually begins at defining correctly what product the organization wants to produce in terms of quantity and quality; and when it shall be delivered to the intended client in terms of reliability and timeliness. These measures should reflect the satisfaction of the services or products provided to its clients as well as inform the concerned parties in the organization about how well the organization’s products and/or services are provided. Despite the importance of this performance measurement, most operational area of organizations are still faced with coming up with a decisive and holistic performance measurement criteria that can enable the company to carry out self-evaluation on whether they are on the right track as far as the organization’s operation area is concerned. Tall bureaucratic structures This is an impediment to the operation section because most decisions that needs to be made promptly still need to follow the long procedures. This in turn causes unnecessary delays that can be detrimental to the company’s operations. This causes other activities to stop within the company because they cannot continue before being approved by the bureaucratic reporting and decision making procedures. Over ambitious promises to customers: In the current business environment where competition is inevitable, companies get themselves giving promises to customers and in turn fail to fulfill as promised. This is common in the operation section where diverse promises, which ranges from quality service and products to timely delivery, have been pledged by organizations and at the end, they find out that one or more of the promises made are not fulfilled. The operations section find itself facing this challenge because they are the production centre for the services and products and that timely delivery is a function of how fast they are in production, while also keeping the quality requirement in mind. Lack of knowledge and experience of market expectations, products, or services: On the day to day business operations, the operations managers are always tasked with the challenge of trying to understand customer’s requirements and the changes that needs to be done to the organization’s services and products to match the expectation of customers. However, in most cases they are not able to concisely determine the market expectations and therefore fail to offer the required services and products to their clients. This challenge is upon the marketing and the production part of the operations section (Brown et al., 2005). Time wasting: Time wasting may be because of breakdown in the production process or system failure in the case of service delivery. Operations managers are usually faced with time management challenge in their quest for efficient and effective operations. The operation process integration may be overlapping or even causing unnecessary delays as explained earlier. Lack of proper co-ordination in systems and processes: In most cases, the system-process synchronization may not come out as expected due different kind of technicalities that may be arise from the system itself either of the processes or even a combination of both. Coming up with a proper co-ordinate and integrated system and processes by the operations department is also a major challenge. This is the key factor that contributes to the breakdown of production processes and eventual loss, mostly in the manufacturing organizations because such organization solely depends on the proper synchronization of such systems and processes in order to be in operation and make profits. Lack of delegation: In most organizations, the operations managers decline to delegate some of the duties and responsibilities to the other line managers or even the junior employees for fear of accountability. This may be seen as the right decision but behind the facades lays the true consequences of lack of delegation. Failure to delegate makes most employees feel inferior and therefore may not give their very best in their areas of operation. Similarly, this may hinder completion of certain production processes in the chain if the operation manager is not available at certain instances. Delegation boosts the morale of the employees and this translates to improved productivity in their respective areas of operation (Brown et al., 2005). Addressing the main issues and challenges in the operations section The above discussed operational challenges have been seen to majorly affect the quality of products and services rendered to the clients. To address the challenges, major concerns that revolve around quality of the product and services delivered must be resolved. Quality relates to the composite product and service features through which the product or service in use will match the customers’ expectation. This involves elimination of any kind of defect. A defect is any feature of a product or service which makes it less desirable for use by the intended customer. This then necessitates for quality control that must begin at the identification of the customer’s quality requirements, through to the production process and ends when the product is delivered to the customer and he remains satisfied (Brown et al., 2005). The issues may also be solved by following some of Deming’s 14 points that relates to quality improvement. These are: Adopting the culture of continuous product and service improvement This will ensure that the products meet customers’ expectations as well as enable the organization to be keen the proper functionality of its systems and processes to give the required products and services. Stop dependence upon inspection to achieve quality. As mentioned earlier quality need to be controlled right from the identification of the required features to the end when the products finally gets to the hands of the customer and the customer is satisfied. Constant improvement of every process for planning, production, and service is also very significant. This will ensure that the menace of constant production breakdown is reduced or eliminated. Production breakdown is the most dreadful challenge for the operations department and therefore dealing with it conclusively may assure the operations manager involved a peaceful stay. Instituting training on the job: Training on the job works better than the theoretical training. This is because the learner gets the real situation on the ground and can be able to adapt to the challenges of the processes involved faster hence making him or her make minimal errors. Proper mastery of the functionality of the processes and systems is needed so as to enable proper co-ordination of the processes and systems in the operations sections. This may be provided by the on job training (Brown et al., 2005). Adopting and instituting good leadership: Good leadership will ensure that there is proper motivation of the employees and good teamwork that will result into improved productivity by the employees individually and collectively. Proper Co-ordination in the operation section is only achievable if the leadership is also good. The leaders are often responsible for mentoring and training of the other employees to effectively execute their mandate and supervise the actual work from start to end on a regular basis. With good leadership, delegation is possible, in which the subordinates are assigned tasks meant for their seniors. This ultimately increases employee’s morale and satisfaction resulting in improved productivity in his area of operation. Removing the barriers that rob people of pride of workmanship and eliminating the annual rating or merit system may also be considered vital. This point is meant to improve motivation to work and giving of commensurate rewards to the employees. These may include dealing with such issues as working conditions, proper remuneration, and promotion of deserving employees and also recognition and rewards. It is also important to Institute a rigorous program of education and self-improvement for every employee. Production process requires majorly the input of human resource among other inputs. This therefore necessitates that the right people are placed to do the job that they are best suited and continuous education ensures that they perfect on their areas of specialization in order for the organization to achieve remarkable results in terms of the quality of products and services delivered. Every employee in the operations section needs to undertake the vigorous education program and self-improvement to make sure that they have the mastery of their areas of operation so as to minimize the defects that may be attributed to them. Similarly, the quality challenge issue may be addressed through following the steps below: Planning: The operations sections need to ensure that they have established the objectives and the necessary processes that are needed to enable them achieve the expected output. This stage starts at the identification of the features the customer requires that the product should have. Implementing: The new processes that are necessary for the achievement of customer’s expectation are put into operation. Regular supervision is necessary to ensure the processes run as intended. Acting: This step involves analyzing any variations to determine their cause and where applicable, include improvements .The analysis traces the cause to either of the steps above and the one to follow. Checking: This will involve measuring the new processes and comparing the results against the expected results to ascertain any differences. The steps should be repeated whenever production processes takes place. Undertaking Quality Assurance The quality issue in operations and production section may also be addressed through undertaking Quality Assurance as opposed to Quality control. The essence of this is that it ensures prevention of defects rather than detecting them. All activities related to quality attainment are dealt with under quality assurance. Under this approach, all activities associated with prevention of defects are thoroughly scrutinized and dealt with. These activities include; Design (that also involves testing), supplier assessment specification, motivation, education, and training of the employees involved (Brown et al., 2005). Application of Total Quality Management Philosophy This philosophy emphasizes on the active participation and involvement of all the section of the organization. It actually incorporates Quality Assurance as it focuses on all activities right from the supplier to the customer. This may be considered as a holistic approach to solving quality issues. For the approach to work successfully, the structure of the organization should be flat and lean, with small grouping of resources, people, and facilities with measurable operations. The flat organization structure will help eliminate the challenges caused by hierarchical organization structure to the operation section such as the tall bureaucratic structures. Also grouping of people to undertake a given task results into synergy that helps improve production. TQM ensure that there is continuous improvement. TQM looks at everything in the organization as a process and makes use of scientific methods in eliminating problems, supported by facts and data. The main objective of this approach is to achieve total perfection in all the functional areas of the organization through ensuring participation and involvement of each and everyone in the organization as an individual or in teams. This is aimed at ensuring customers’ (both internal and external) satisfaction and/or exceeding their expectations. To achieve perfection in quality, the Total Quality Management Organization needs to be instituted. The Total Quality Management Organization is divided into three parts: Culture, structure and systems. Culture: This part highlights among others, the organization values that relates to upholding quality and perfection or any other value that embraces quality products and services; management style that empowers the employees and motivates them; training, education and development to create awareness amongst employees. Structure: This part includes among others; formal reporting relationships to avoid conflicts; organization chart that clearly shows to whom one reports; trades off specialization and cellular management with flat and lean structures and reduced hierarchies. Systems: This part entail the procedures, both formal and informal, required in the production process, SPC, ISO 9000, MRP/JIT, Communication, and IT support. Use of TQM tools and techniques in addressing quality issues These tools and techniques are also known as quality control tools. There are many applicable tools and techniques that can be used including SPC, Pareto Law, Cause and Effect Analysis(Ishikawa/Fishbone Analysis),Quality Circles and Value Analysis/Value Engineering. Cause and effect Analysis (Ishikawa/Fishbone Analysis) According to Brown et al. (2005), all the organization resources and functional areas need to be focused on the causes of the quality issue and its effects. All the sections within the organization should be involved and participate together in tracing the causes of the quality issue. The following diagram depicts the fishbone analysis: Quality Circles This technique also helps in solving quality issues. In this technique the whole organization and the stakeholders outside the organization are both empowered and involved in coming up with the solutions to quality issues. In this technique, the participants need to carry out participative group sessions called “quality circles”. During these sessions, other tools may also be incorporated such as fishbone diagrams, logs or dairies and the group undertaking a brainstorming session to ensure they come up with the solutions to the quality issues. The sessions need to involve the entire organizations functional areas as well as the clients and suppliers. However, in addressing the quality issues, the organization needs to bear in mind that they are bound to bear the quality related costs. These costs include costs are categorized into prevention costs and appraisal costs. They include: Prevention costs: Training costs Information costs Process costs Product and/or service design costs. Appraisal costs: Test equipment costs Operator costs Inspection costs Reference Brown, B.J., & Lamming, 2005. Strategic Operations Management. New York: Butterworth-Heinemann. Read More