It’s here to understand the concept of operation management. It is involved with managing inputs thru transformation tactics to supply outputs eg: people, materials, and technology. Operations management worries about managing the sources that without delay produce the organization’s carrier or product. It is an essential phase of any organization. Operation management concept is very necessary for commercial enterprise operations because it varieties the coronary heart of the agency using controlling the machine of operation. Also, it offers the design, operation, and enhancement of structures that create and supply a firm’s principal merchandise and services.
It’s Here are the articles to explain, the Definition, Importance, Objectives, Principles, and Concept of operation management!
Operation Management is very important for managing large firms and running them successfully. Operation management is mainly related to the production of goods and services in an organization. The main purpose of operations management is to run business operations successfully, smoothly, and effectively by using the minimum resources and meeting customer expectations. Thus we can say that operations management is the process of converting minimum input like raw materials, and labor to produce maximum output like products, goods, and services. Operations Management is a very crucial factor to increase a company’s profit. Operations management is not only responsible for producing goods but also takes control of the distribution of services. Operation management is just not related to organizations it can see in our daily activities of life also.
Definition of operation management
According to Collins English Dictionary (1986), an operation define as “a process, method or series of acts, especially of practical nature”.
According to Galloway (1993) “operations management is concerned primarily with manufacturing or the change of state of physical goods”.
However, Galloway (1993) argues that “operations management is all about effective and efficient management of any operation irrespective of whether a physical good is involved or not”.
According to Kumar & Suresh (2009)
“Operation is that part of an organization, which is concerned with the transformation of a range of inputs into the required output (services) having the requisite quality level. Management is the process, which combines and transforms various resources used in the operations subsystem of the organization into value-added services in a controlled manner as per the policies of the organization. The set of interrelated management activities, which are involved in manufacturing certain products, is called production management. If the same concept is extended to services management, then the corresponding set of management activities is called operations management”.
In modern days, the concept of operations management sees in a completely different way. It seems as a set of activities that carefully plan, organize, lead, and control the organization’s operation. This shows the importance of operations management, the effective handling of the operations can prove very effective and profitable on the other hand failing to handle it properly could spell disaster for the company.
Significance and Importance of operations management:
The common belief amongst the people was to believe that operations management was important only in the manufacturing industry. The belief stood supported by the fact that the manufacturing industry had to take care of more number of processes and operations starting from obtaining the raw materials till the goods are sold and also in many cases after sales assistance was also considered hence creating the belief that the concept of operation management is important to the manufacturing industry.
In the case of the service industry, they have various amounts of processes involved starting from understanding the customer needs to getting feedback on the service hence at some point the service industry tells the manufacturing industry what they want and hence manages operations within the service industry is as important as managing the operations within the manufacturing industry. Whenever a company is offering a product or a service then that company has to make sure that the customers’ needs and demands are met at all times. This is a very important process and hence the marketing team plays a vital role in understanding what customers want and how to fulfill it.
The marketing team collects details from the customers and uses them as input for the design of products and services. So any operations management involves similar management tasks irrespective of what industry or business one operates. It involves Planning, Staffing, Controlling, Directing, Motivating, and Organising. Irrespective of business, operations management ranges across the organization as part of strategic and tactical operations.
To understand the importance of operations management IKEA takes as an example.
IKEA is a Swedish company that sells ready-to-assemble furniture, appliances, and home accessories. With a net income of 3.202 Euros in the year 2012, IKEA is one of the biggest businesses in the world. IKEA gets the products and furniture designed in Sweden however the manufacturing exists mostly in developing countries to keep the costs down. IKEA has suppliers from almost 50 countries. The biggest of the entire supplier for IKEA in China.
The case of IKEA is perfect to explain why the concept of operation management is important to all types of business, at the production or manufacturing section the company aims to reduce wastages, increase productivity, and time and resources management to make sure that the production cost is low and at the stores, the company aims to make sure that the warehouse is utilized properly, customers have explained the details and finally, the product is delivered without issues so that the shifting cost is low. Also, the stores have to take care of marketing and sales which involves their process. So this indicates that there will always be a set of operations irrespective of what field a business is in and at the end of the day successful businesses are those which manage their operations effectively and efficiently.
Purposes and Objectives of Operations Management:
Operations management has two primary objectives that need to achieve in many ways. It can say that both these objectives interrelate. The objectives are customer service and resource utilization. Customer service is the main objective of any company because at the end of the day irrespective of all the concept, strategy, marketing, and operation management. If the customer is not happy with the product or the service then the purpose of the entire enterprise falls.
So the operations management makes sure that all the customers’ needs and demands are met and to do that the company also has to make sure that it makes use of the resources effectively. If the resources do not use carefully then there are chances that the production cost increasing. Hence the overall profit margin will reduce and the enterprise objective has failed. So both objectives must meet in a complementary way so that the company benefits from them.
The objectives of IKEA are to make sure that the quality manages at all times and yet make sure that the operations exist effectively to save resources so that the company can benefit from it.
All operations managers manage processes:
The business dictionary defines a process as a “Sequence of interdependent and linked procedures which, at every stage consume one or more resources to convert inputs into outputs”.
According to Kumar & Suresh (2009)
“Strategic planning is the process of thinking through the current mission of the organization and the current environmental conditions facing it, then setting forth a guide for tomorrow’s decisions and results. Strategic planning is built on fundamental concepts: that current decision is based on future conditions and results”.
So from this, one can understand that the strategic decision of the company is all consider. As the process and strategic decisions are all made by the managers. It can say that all operations managers manage processes.
Principles of Operations Management:
The ten principles of managing by the process are:
Designate a process champion:
The manager is the best person because he has knowledge about all the processes and will be capable of handling those processes effectively.
Know the process:
Not just the manager but every employee within the operations must know the details regarding the processes.
Understand the linkages:
Every process will interconnect and hence it is important to understand the linkages between the processes.
Work on the trade-offs:
If the process is standing created from a cross-functional background it is useful to discuss functional versus process trade-offs. This will allow you to make clearer decisions about what is the best balance.
Teach others about the process:
Teach others who may need to supply inputs or receive outputs about the process. Moving to management by the business process is a learning opportunity for your organization. Process owners and teams should expect to have responsibility for spreading their learning. Some organizations would see this as part of the general communications process. Which facilitates understanding and allows issues to raise and answer from any part of the organization.
Train within the process:
Cross-functional customer-facing processes require new roles, tasks, skills, and expertise, often organized around teams. There are several things to consider. Training and development of new skills for individuals and of the team will bring with it a change in the culture of your organization.
Measure the process:
Measure for control, improvement, and benchmarking, using a range of financial and non-financial measures. Measurement is important for managing the interfaces between sub-processes and also between processes at the same level.
Manage careers:
Careers need management in the new process-oriented, possibly flatter organization. Align expectations and aspirations with a different kind of progression emphasizing cross-skill training and the importance of gaining wider business experience both within the process and in other processes.
Build specialist expertise:
In the context of the new organization, take account of any weakening in this role where the traditional functions in the organization make weaker. The process teams will probably need a mix of specialist skills as well as more general skills.
Improve the process:
This must be done continuously. The world will not stand still; nor should any members of the team.
The operations manager can make use of the value chain analysis to analyze the process that goes on within the company. It can say that all the operations that exist within the value chain can consider processes. The value chain is one of the most important tools to understand how all the processes are related to each other and how variations in any process will lead to a change in the overall profit margin.
In the value chain, we can see that there are primary activities, support activities and supply chain management, and firm infrastructure. Within each of these activities lie the very essential processes. These processes manage by people and the efficiency of these processes decides the overall outcome. So all the processes are standing taken care of by the operations managers. Hence it is evident that all operations managers manage processes.
All operations managers have a similar set of responsibilities:
Operations managers perform operations and look after the processes based on the input from the overall objectives and strategic vision of the organization. No process or operation will be done without having complete knowledge regarding its importance of it. There are two sets of responsibilities that every operation manager must look into.
First, the operations manager has to make sure that the processes and the operations that. He is taking care of performing to commendable levels. Secondly, at the end of these processes and activities, it should create a path for the following processes and activities. If any one of the two fails to be performed. Then it can say that the operations manager has not fulfilled his responsibility and that could be fatal.
Every operations manager needs to make hundreds of decisions every minute. Hence they would devise a general rule to follow in the changing circumstances. These would further lead to the development of the operations strategy. Which would fall in line and derive the basics from the overall strategy of the organization.
Other things
Every operations manager will have the same set of beliefs at the end of the day. The concept of operation management, all draws inputs from the corporate strategy to perform their activities and processes. To decide how every process and activity needs to perform, planning should make as to how the resources distribute and manage. By doing so the process because easier and any chances of errors are nullified. If it considers that the operation manager at IKEA suddenly quits the job. In such a scenario a new person who comes to take up that role does not have to decide how the processes handle and manage.
The manager can simply look into the aims and strategic objectives of the company and how the processes have developed. Their strategy is from them and based on that. They can pick it up from where the other manager had left it. This indicates that not just the inter-processes are similar every process can follow a similar guideline. Which is easy to establish because of the common usage by all the processes.
Conclusion:
The belief that the people had was that strategic planning by the top management was the only important role, and the role of the operations managers was neglected. As the business environment became more and more challenging, companies started to understand the importance of operations managers. Operations managers play a vital role in managing different processes, taking the challenges, making decisions, and guiding the other process to perform similarly.
An operation manager needs to take decisions at a fast rate and hence devise a strategy. As how these decisions take help the performance of the operations managers and in turn. It helps the processes to decide at a faster rate and that would lead to efficiency of process and efficiency in the management of the resources. Resource management is always an important criterion and in many cases, the efficiency at which the resources manage will lead to the success of the company. All these activities are very important irrespective of what business one operates or within what industry that business operates. The operation management concept is an important aspect of successful business and will continue to be so in the future as well.
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