Operations_Management

The day-to-day creations and delivery of goods and services of a company are defined as Operations Management. First off, what are Operations; they are the key factor in any organization. This is how organizations are born and grow around the world. Operations Management can be best described as “the business function that organizes, and controls the resources needed to produce a company products and services”. Operations Management can be also seen as a business function which enables organizations to effectively work out the delivery of their products and services to the customers in a timely manner, and is the management of systems or processes that create goods and or provides services, through a series of operational tasks. So where can Operations Management be found' It’s is in every process that the day-to-day operations of goods and or services provided, through organizations or companies. It is easily seen in the things consumers buy. It is in the products that are produced. It is in the services we provide through organizations or social services. There are three sectors in which the products and or service are delivered. The business world is rapidly changing and needs new technologies and innovations, in which to compete with the world wide competition, because of these reasons, organizations that produce things; need operations to be strategic and have operations managers to manage their resources strategically. So what are Strategic operations Management' Strategies are ideas to develop and achieve organizational goals. These have a deep impact on what the organization does and how it does it. These strategies provide scope for decision making within the organization. The strategy of an organization can either be long term, or short term. Strategies are designed to reflect the mission, vision, goal and core; of a particular organization. Operations managers need to develop these new strategies to cope with competition. With management becoming more and more strategic rather than scientific these days, you need to maximize efficiency, and use of open-systems strategies are welcomed. For many centuries we have been practicing operations management in various steps and procedures, modern operations management only emerged in 1950’s; With recognition of computers in the 1970s operations became more developed and that control over workforce and schedules became a planning system. After the 1990s a major breakthrough in operation management such as Total Quality Management (TQM) and Just-In-Time (JIT) practices were recognized by organizations. With The formulation of new strategies it has cause organizations to develop the two current concepts of the Manufacturing strategy and operations strategy. Japan and china has been the two best examples for this. This has been shown in manufacturing strategy research, together with service operations and strategy research. Operations management issues such as Quality, technology, productivity come under heavy review; because manufacturing and services firms tend to share the desire for globalization ofthe distribution of goods and or services. Operations on the other hand are methodical, certain factors which deal with the day-to-day issues and carried out by individuals towards the lower levels of the organizational. Operations are really the opposite of strategic; but operations are that which generates services and products; this is the parts of the business that tends to accomplish the customer’s needs. Performance of operation; or the process is the way a company establishesQuality, Speed, Dependability, Flexibility and Cost. Quality being the requirement of the goods and or services, Speed being the time the operations beginning time and the time it ended. Dependability being honoring the customer through delivering the required goods and or serviced. Flexibility being the process to change to various stages, and Cost being the financial input that is provided to produce the products and or services. The ongoing processes of an organization cannot manage its daily routine functions which change day by day, this require different and new products and or services, with these new concepts of operations strategies, have come new methods of soling them as well; such as Total Quality Management, Business Processing Re-Engineering, Enterprises Resource Planning and Six Sigma emerges. Total Quality Management should always be the set of exercises that enables an organization to deliver products and or services. Total Quality Management, adopted in late 1980s and early 1990s has made a highly significance in improving operations. Total Quality Managementmeans the constant meeting of clients to satisfy their needs through innovating the products and or services. When trying to achieve thiswe tend to look the concept of Six Sigma and its effects on the organization. The modern way of defining Six Sigma is “A philosophy that makes use of a well-structured improvement tactics to reduce process unevenness and drive out waste within the business processes using statistical tools and techniques. The Elements of Six Sigma are customer driven, and use processes designed to process capability and control. Six Sigma has been considered as a strategic approach to develop and improve the productivity, efficiency and achieve excellence through a number of tools and processes. In conclusion, Operations Management can be seen as the day-to-day operations of products and or services. Which can will cause a company to be strategic, using operations tools such as Total Quality Management, Six Sigma, and many other tools to achieve its ultimate goal which is to satisfy its customer, and still have is profits, while performing this in a operational strategic fashion, with all tools at there disposal. References Operations Management Textbook, Tenth edition. BROWN, S. LAMMING, R. BESSANT, J. JONES, P. 2005, Strategic Operations Management. Pg: 9, 2nd Edn. Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann BANK, J. 1992. The Essence of Total Quality Management. Prentice Hall, London BOUNDS, G. YORKS, L, ADAMS, M RAMSEY, G. 1994. Beyound Quality Management: Towards the Emerging Paradigm. McGraw-Hill, New York. DALE, B. G. 1992. Managing Quality. 2nd Edition. Prentice Hall, Cananda Web Sites HENDERSON, K. M. EVANS, J. R. Successful implementation of Six Sigma: benchmarking General Electric Company. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/14635770010378909 10th December, 2007 (Abstract 1).