Issues in Operations Management - Essay Example

Running head: discussion questions Discussion Questions Affiliation August 20, 2009 Discussion Question)Give some examples of process improvement opportunities within your organization or one with which you are familiar. How would you implement these improvements? What would be the benefits? What would be the risks? What are some of the more common elements of risk in managing a project? How can risk be mitigated? 2.(Participation Questions...if you agree disagree and discuss...) Give some examples of process improvement opportunities within your organization or one with which you are familiar. How would you implement these improvements? A process improvement opportunity within my organization is in the transportation department where I work. Right now there are two people who route the trucks and schedule the appointments for all trucks leaving Cargill west plants. Two different people deal with the late trucks, break downs and such once the trucks have left the plant and reschedule appointments for these trucks. This current process means that carriers are unsure of who to contact in the event of a problems and receivers are unsure who is their contact person in the event of a problem. An improvement would be to divide up the plants, assigning one person to handle all issues for that plant. That would make one contact person for both the receiver and the carrier from the time the order is first placed until it is received by the receiver. Agree What would be the benefits? What would be the risks? What are some of the more common elements of risk in managing a project? How can risk be mitigated? The benefits of this arrangement would be that there would be a cleaner flow of information and assistance between the customer, the carrier and the customer service representative at Cargill. The risks might be that the workers would get so bogged down making appts and routing the trucks that there would be inadequate time to help with problem loads and problems would fall between the cracks. Other risks include risks common to all projects: competency of the workers, costs involved in the change over and the risk that this will fail and customers will lose faith in the company. The risks might me mitigated by beginning this change on a small scale with one plant only. This will leave backup for those participating in the experiment. Discuss process improvement enhance the overall working and performance of the business. Here we have open management and handling of all activities and operations in the organization. Here we have following benefits: Better process management Enhanced staff handling Enhanced organizational performance Information availability at al levels Deborah Bighouse DebBighouse@gmail 3. Question 1 Week 1 Denise Why are companies interested in operational management today? Why is it important? Operations management is the managing of these productive resources. It entails the design and control of systems responsible for the productive use of raw materials, human resources, equipment, and facilities in the development of a product or service. Operations management is important to the every day lift of any organization especially if it can be performed with little or no errors and be kept at a low cost while continuing to provide the best service. Managers and share holders should see their benefits increase if this strategy can be successful. Discuss- The area of the Operations management spotlights on cautious running the procedures to construct as well as allocate services and products. Typically, small industries do not speak regarding area of operations management and its implementation; however they perform the actions that management schools normally linked by means of the expression the operations management (McNamara, 2009). What is the relationship between operational management and supply chain management? “The central idea of supply chain management is to apply a total system approach to managing the flow of information, materials, and services from raw material suppliers through factories and warehouses to the end customer. Recent trends such as outsourcing and mass customization are forcing companies to find flexible ways to meet customer demand. The focus is on optimizing core activities to maximize the speed of response to changes in customer expectations”. ( Chapter 1, pg 17). Agree, There is a connection at large extent between Operational management and supply chain management. Since in operational management the focus remains on the good’s production, service and business processes in material management and production tasks so similar activities to some extent are carried out in supply chain management additionally, supply chain management also deals with the financial flows i.e. transfer of money, payment, credit. In supply chain management our interest lies upon product life cycle approach and supply change management performs services from raw material providers through industries to the consumers. Furthermore, operational management and supply chain management both are supported by Information Technology (Turban, Rainer, & Potter, 2004). How are operations management functions performed at your organization? Our “Operations management (OM) is defined as the design, operation, and improvement of the systems that create and deliver the firm’s primary products and services”(chapter 1; pg 9) this example is perfect for the wireless industry, as for us it starts from the smallest chip to the end cycle lift of the device. Disagree Here we will develop an environment that holds a responsibility for the organizational working. Here manager is responsible for making certain that their team has the best flow of work using effective and efficient processes and each worker is properly trained and cross trained. The next level of management is then responsible for ensuring that the various teams are able to work together in the most efficient and cost effective manner. In addition my company makes use of “pit teams” that are responsible for identifying problems, areas of inefficiency, customer complaints and concerns and working with management to find solutions or changes in processes to eliminate, to the extent possible, these issues (McNamara, 2009). references: Chase−Jacobs−Aquilano: Operations Management for Competitive Advantage, 11th Edition. Denise Henderson 4.Week 1 Discussion question one Nellie Operational management allows businesses to take control of their productive resources which can include but is not limited to raw materials, human resources, equipment, and facilities. Operational management is important because business leaders can develop a system that allows them to be productive such as create shorter product production cycles. The difference between operational management and supply chain management is that in operational management you will focus on methods for daily operations such as getting the work done as quickly as possible and in an efficient manner. It also involves doing the work with minimum or error free and most important, at a low cost. Without operational management, businesses may complete their processes but production time may take longer, or businesses may incur extra and unnecessary costs because they lacked modern approaches, strategic, tactical and operational decisions towards managing operations. The supply chain management involves managing the flow of materials at it travels through the different networks of the product cycle from the creation of the product all the way till it reaches the end customer. In my organization operations management functions may be used in conjunction with lean six sigma processes to ensure wastes are eliminated and processes flow better, added savings and projects are completed on time (Chase, Jacobs, and Aquilano, 2006). Discuss Operations management is in observation to the entire processes inside the business. Linked tasks and activities comprise organizing acquiring, record control, excellence control, logistics, storage as well as assessments. An enormous deal of spotlight is on competence as well as efficiency of procedures. Consequently, operations management frequently comprises considerable capacity assessment as well as investigation of interior procedures. Eventually, the character of how processes organized is accepted out in an business relies extremely a great deal on the environment of services or products in the association, for instance, wholesale, manufacturing and retail etc (McNamara, 2009). Chase, R. B., Jacobs, R. F., Aquilano, N. J., (2006) Operations Management for Competitive Advantage (11th ed.) McGraw-Hill, New York, NY, Retrieved August 19, 2009, from University of Phoenix Course Materials. References McNamara, C. (2009). Operations Management. Retrieved 08 20, 2009, from http://managementhelp.org/ops_mgnt/ops_mgnt.htm Turban, E., Rainer, R. K., & Potter, R. E. (2004). Introduction to Information Technology,3rd Edition. New York: Wiley. Read More