INTRODUCTION
A research report has been carried out on Halewood International to understand the nature and importance of operation management. This includes significance and process of operation management and analyzing the operating functions of Halewood International. The study also focuses on the importance of three E’s in business operations. It will evaluate the relationship between cost and quality in production. It will also cover the significance of performance objectives in operation management and assess the function of linear programming in production process (Hopp, Lovejoy and Ulrich, 2002).
It also attempts to explain the need for operation planning and control in Primark and the operational outcomes from these activities. A network plan is also explained in the report indicating the flow of activities and defining the critical path. Lastly it explains the quality management techniques to improve the business operations.
TASK 1
1.1
The management of business activities to achieve the efficiency in overall functioning is operation management. It includes planning, organizing and controlling of business activities. It converts the input resources in the form of raw materials into output resources as products and services to satisfy customer needs (Ahire, 2001). An efficient operation management influences the decision making in business. The significance of operational management for Primark is:
- Enhance Productivity – It reduces the cost of the products and services and maximizes efficiency in production functions. Operation management draws attention towards total quality approach where every function is performed to improve the quality standards (Chopra,Lovejoy and Yano, 2004).
- Customer Satisfaction – It helps the organization to achieve maximum customer satisfaction through quality products and services. A satisfied customer happily pays a higher cost to gain maximum value and quality for a product or service.
- Employee Efficiency – It focuses on achieving maximum capacity utilization of employees to maximize efficiency and output. It keeps a regular check on the performance and takes continuous measures to improve it (Gorman, 2010).
- Supply Chain Activity – It ensures the regular supplies of raw material to avoid delay in production and final output. The right amount of raw material at right cost, quality and time from the right supplier is necessary to maintain effective functioning throughout the production.
- Optimum Utilization Of Resources – It allocates the resources efficiently in available function, thus maximizing use and reducing waste. It ensures that resources are allocated according to the need and requirement of the business activity and no resource is left unutilized and remain idle (Ho and Tang, 2004).
- Innovation – It provides the focus on new opportunities and innovation through a strong base of knowledge. Through effective operation management in all the organization’s functions, management is more focused towards new opportunities rather then dealing with small issues in daily operations.
1.2
The operations functions of an organization are –
- Planning and controlling – It carries out planning and controlling functions to meet the objectives of the organization. Every activity in business whether big or small requires a chain of interdependent activities to perform flawless functioning. In the absence of adequate planning proper functioning of activities are restricted (Gorman, 2011). A proper planning is required to allocate the resources for every task and measure its outcome. The plan needs to be developed strategically defining the purpose of each activity to be carried out for long or short time period. The dynamic environment of business and its operations demands the necessity for suggestions on progress of the planned tasks. The purpose is to take the effective monitoring measures and modify the activities. This activity of taking feedbacks and make alterations is control process. Control is an important procedure in determining the performance of the operations. It ensures that activities are carried out and moving to achieve results according to the standards lay out. Planning and control are thus essential part of operations management (Olson, 2005).
- Exists in every function – It exists in every section of the business function – marketing, finance, human resource, production and research. All the functions encompass principles and objectives of operation management and thus work closely to achieve the organizational objectives (Wouters and Donselaar, 2000). The goals, plans and functions are clearly defined and establish proper communication with other organizational functions.
- Maintains standards – It maintains the cost, quality, speed of the functions of the organizational activities. It ensures that task is carried out as per the standards laid down within the allocated resources. Ensures that task is performed within the set time duration and the results are delivered without delay. Ensures that level of financial resources is maintained and each activity consumes the set amount of cost (Powell and Schmenner, 2002).
- Continuous Improvement – It is responsible to continuously track the changing business and consumer environment and adapt to the needs to effectively survive in the market.
1.3
The process model of operations management in an organization overlooks the systems and methods that convert input into output with the combination of resources. Variety of inputs is put into different processes to produce a final output. Feedback is the key aspect of operation management which is regular and ongoing process and tracks every activity from start to end. The purpose is to identify the issues immediately and take effective measures to maintain standards (Lee, Chen and Kang, 2009).
Figure 1: Operation Management Process
(Source: Gorman, 2011)
- Input – Input includes the raw materials for the production of drinks which it sold through direct channels and wholesalers. It includes labor resources, equipments, machinery, furniture, information and financial resources. Large organizations have centralized department that handles the purchasing for all other departments (EREMIN, WOLF and WOODARD, 2010). Managers are responsible to check the inventory level on regular basis and report to the centralized department for any requirement. Store managers always check the inventory on shelf as well as in warehouse. In many organizations, managers place orders when reaching to a specific point of inventory level.
- Transformation – It includes mechanism, techniques and processes to convert the input into output. It includes assembly line, management skills and knowledge which change the physical characteristics of materials to produce the best outcome (Bingham and Eisenhardt, 2008).
- Output – Output is the drinks in the category of alcohol or non alcohol products. Transformation process results into the desired outcome as the process aimed to produce. Management ensures that outcome and transformation process have little or no effect on the environment due to the waste from the life cycle of production process. It also ensures that health and safety of employees and customers are maintained from the output (Arroyo and Armentano, 2004).
TASK 2
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