Assessment 4 due in 48 hours

Your Response

In order to understand roles of the operations managers, it is important to first define operations and operations management. According to Vonderembse and White (2013), operations refers processes within organization through which inputs are acquired and transformed to the output. On the other hand, operations management is the decision-making processes which entails designing, planning and management of the factors which affects operations. Considering the definitions provided for operations and operations management, operation can make the following types of the decisions: first, they can make decision on type of the goods which should be produced subject to the availability of the inputs, demand or when production of the particular goods is aimed at providing competitive advantage to the company; second, decision on the number of employees that should be employed and also scheduling of the employees to facilitate smooth provision of goods and services and finally, determine the methods which can be used to improve quality of goods and also promote efficiency in the provision of the goods and services (Vonderembse & White, 2013). These operational decisions help to ensure more value is gained from the inputs which are deployed by the organization. .

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Item 2

Describe what the transformation process is for one of the following business organizations: an advertising agency or a bank. Highlight the inputs, outputs, and value created during the transformation process. Your response should be 150–225 words (2–3 paragraphs) in length. Be sure to reference at least one scholarly source to support your answer.

Your Response

In the operations management, transformation refers to the process through which various types of the inputs are used to produce more valuable output. Essentially, businesses look for ways through which they can work and improve on their inputs to improve on the quality of the final product and increase customer experience on the product or service. Brown, Bessant and Lamming (2013) refers to transformation as the process of modification of input to output, deriving what is called input-output model. Taking classic example of a bank, transformation can take in place in various ways to offer different types of the services. Consider a scenario where an individual wants to withdrawal money using ATM, in such case, computer system and machine which customer will insert ATM card will be needed, ATM card will be needed in the possession of the customer which should be inserted in ATM machine and customer will be required to feed in some information such as personal identification number and amount of money that would like to withdrawal .

Item 3

Identify and describe a company you have a working knowledge of. Review the company’s operations management functions and identify strengths and areas for improvement in the process. Your response should be 150–225 words (2–3 paragraphs) in length. Be sure to reference at least one scholarly source to support your answer.

Your Response

Coca-Cola Company is leading beverage company in the world in the production and distribution of non-alcoholic drinks. The company has strong supply chain and distribution that enable the company to serve more than 1.9 billion people every day (The Coca-Cola Company, 2020). The company implement localized distribution channel which strengthen capability of the company to effectively meet demand of the customers from the different regions. Coca-Cola Company produces concentrate, beverage bases and syrups and sells them to over 250 bottling partners located in the different parts of the world. The bottling partner’s produces branded Coca-Coca products after adding ingredients such as water and sweeteners and many others to concentrates, beverages bases and syrups obtained from the Coca-Cola (The Coca-Cola Company, n.d). The bottling partners distributes branded coke products to wholesalers, vending partners, restaurants and retailers which sell products to the end consumers (The Coca-Cola Company, n.d). Operation management systems adopted by the Coca-Cola enable it to effectively serve customer demand, quickly respond to local needs of the customers and reach to all parts of the world from remote and urban areas. Finally, with emerging technologies, Coca-Cola needs to synchronize operations from different bottling partners and develop more innovative brands to counter growing competitions from other firms such as Pepsi. .

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Item 4

Describe strategic and tactical decisions and provide a real-world example of how each type of decision would be applied in a business context. Your response should be 75–150 words (1–2 paragraphs) in length. Be sure to reference at least one scholarly source to support your answer.

Your Response

Strategic decisions are type of the decisions which are made applying the collected data on a particular field while tactical decisions made in the application environment or implementation process (Inmon, Linstedt & Levins, 2019). For example, company may come up with strategic decision which purport to cost leader in the industry. However, to realize this strategic decision, company may employ tactical decision such inventory planning and use of the Just-In-Time inventory management system that ensure goods are produced when customer demand is placed. This eliminates inventory costs such a storage cost and other types of inventory costs which could help company keeps its cost down hence realizing its strategic decision of cost leader in the industry .

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Item 5

Which factors affect the decision-making process for a goods-based organization? Which factors affect the decision-making process for a service-based organization? Your response should be 150 words (2 paragraphs) in length. Be sure to reference at least one scholarly source to support your answer.

Your Response

When making decision for the good-based organization, numerous factors are given considered in making decision. One of the factors will be considered is whether to apply make to order (MTO) or Make to stock (MTS) to strategy. Good-based organization have advantage of the storing inventory which is not the case with service- based organization. Some of the good- based organizations prefer to use make to stock strategy so that they can have readily available stock to meet unexpected changes in the demand. In other cases, good based organizations prefer to use make to stock with aim of the eliminating some of the wastes which is equivalent of the implementation of the lean practice (Harrison, Van Hoek & Skipworth, 2014). On the contrary, service-based organization decisions are more influenced by the customers and always look for ways of the engaging, attracting and creating direct contact with customers. For example, a restaurant prepares food with expectation that customers will come and consume the prepared meal. If no customers will visit restaurant, it means that food prepared will turn to waste. Therefore, decisions for service based organization major mainly around customer management.

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Item 6

As organizations expand into global/foreign markets, they may encounter issues within their operations management. Describe the types of issues that may arise. Your response should be 75–150 words (1–2 paragraphs) in length. Be sure to reference at least one scholarly source to support your answer.

Your Response

Expansion of the business operations to global markets is taken because of many advantages associated with it such as reach to a wide market, spread of the risks and increased market share that would lead to increase in sales. However, global expansion create some operational issues that require to be addressed. First, company will be required to strengthen and make improvement in the supply chain management because global supply chain is complex compared to domestic supply chain. For example, company may require to outsource logistical operations to facilitate delivery of the products on time to customers (Vonderembse & White, 2013). Demand management is another issue which would require company to deploy integrated and modern information systems and also form strategic alliances to enable company have seamless flow of information from customers to facilitate production which reciprocate to seamless flow of material goods to customers (Vonderembse & White, 2013).

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Item 7

Identify and describe three current trends in operations management. How do you think they will change the future of OM? Your response should be 225 words (3 paragraphs) in length. Be sure to reference at least one scholarly source to support your answer.

Your Response

Notable trends are taking place in the operation management and reshaping dynamics of operation management. Integration and adoption of modern technology and information systems adopted of hybrid supply chain and sustainability are some of the current trends in the operation management. Modern technology and information systems are currently applied widely in the different segment of operation management such as inventory management, production process, logistics and transportation, delivery of the services, demand management, supply chain management and essentially in everything (Harrison, Van Hoek & Skipworth, 2014). Modern technology and information systems are believed to create resilient supply chains, facilities flow of the information which is crucial in guiding critical operational functions such as production capacity (Harrison, Van Hoek & Skipworth, 2014). Technologies are used to track and monitor inventories in the warehouses and also reduce variability in the forecasting and demand management hence promoting effectiveness and efficiency in the supply chain management. Second, businesses are adopting hybrid supply chain which is the combination of the agile and lean supply chain strategies. This is prompted by the fact that adoption of one type of supply chain such agile strategy fails to address all the strategic needs of the business entities. Therefore, to close gap that is created by the application of one supply chain strategy, businesses are optimizing by applying both agile and lean practices. Agile practices allow firms to quickly respond to the emerging needs while lean practices enable firm to deploy response strategies that eliminate waste, promotes cost efficiency and deliver customer value (Harrison, Van Hoek & Skipworth, 2014). Finally, sustainability is emerging trend in the operation management. Operation managers are deploying sustainable practices such us use clean sources of the energy such as solar panels in the production plants, consolidating inventory to reduce number of trips hence reducing greenhouse emission and also using recyclable packaging materials (Murphy & Knemeyer, 2018). Three identified current trends will continue in the future because more innovative technologies are being discovered, campaign for protection and conservation are on rise and companies concerned on how to minimize cost and respond quickly to customer needs. Therefore, operation managers need to prepare more on how to create competitive advantage in these three areas. .

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Item 8

What steps should an organization take to design a supply chain network? What are the key internal departments and external organizations that should be involved? What are their roles? Your response should be 150–225 words (2–3 paragraphs) in length. Be sure to reference at least one scholarly source to support your answer.

Your Response

Supply chain is generally defined as a system through physical goods move from suppliers to manufacturers, distributors, retail outlets and eventually to the customers. When the defining the supply chain, business entity must take care of the forward logistics and reverse logistics. This will help to ensure that produced goods reaches to customers and in the event customers feels that they are not satisfied with delivered inventory, framework is provided which they can use to have goods returned back to the suppliers or manufacturing company (Simchi-Levi, Kaminsky & Simchi-Levi, 2008). In designing supply chain, three main components are involved: first, it is the procurement which defines the process of getting the suppliers and acquiring inputs or raw materials to be used in the production (Simchi-Levi, Kaminsky & Simchi-Levi, 2008). Therefore, in this step, suppliers of the raw materials are critical because deliver inputs needed to the manufacturing companies. However, manufacturing companies must conduct market analysis and demand management to determine what is needed by the customers to enable them order what would be used to carry out production to meet the consumer demand. Second component is manufacturing which entails identification of the location where production plant would be established, production technology and process that would be used and market analysis to determine what and amount to produce to meet the consumer demand (Simchi-Levi, Kaminsky & Simchi-Levi, 2008). In this case, manufacturers play vital role because transform input to output, creating value in the supply chain. Third component is finished goods which require companies to determine where goods would be stored and distribution systems that would be used to have goods reach to customers (Simchi-Levi, Kaminsky & Simchi-Levi, 2008). This makes distributors and retailers important component in the supply chain because ensure goods reaches end consumer while consumers create demand for the produced goods. Therefore, a complete supply chain design should systematically start from supplier to end-consumer.

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Item 9

Your Response

Supply chain refers to movement of the physical goods from the suppliers to consumers while supply chain management refers to management of the supply chain activities and processes to ensure optimal delivery of goods to customers in manner that creates customer value and sustainable competitive advantage (Simchi-Levi, Kaminsky & Simchi-Levi, 2008). Consider EatHealth restaurant, a service based organization that is determined to design competitive supply chain. For this kind of the organization, its supply chain would be made up of following supply chain partners: suppliers of ingredients such as vegetables which naturally grow vegetables, inbound logistics which transport vegetables from suppliers to the distribution center where they are picked by outbound logistics which transport vegetables to the restaurants. Upon receipts of vegetables, if restaurants are not satisfied with quality of delivered vegetables, reverse logistics is used to have vegetables returned to supplier (natural grower).

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Item 10

Choose a hypothetical example of a goods-based organization and illustrate how the supply chain would operate for a product for that organization. Your response should be 75–150 words (1–2 paragraphs) in length. Be sure to reference at least one scholarly source to support your answer.

Your Response

Supply chain is the channel that links customers to suppliers that are working together but serving different interests which supply chain management is concerned with coordination of the supply chain activities such logistics, procurement, demand management, planning and many others to ensure smooth flow of goods from suppliers to customers (National Research Council, 2000; Simchi-Levi, Kaminsky & Simchi-Levi, 2008 ). For example, consider Elmex Company that produces that manufactures motor vehicles. Supply chain of Elmex would be structured as follows: supplier of raw materials used in manufacturing process, original equipment manufacturer which receives raw materials and manufactures motor vehicles, distributors which deliver finished motor vehicles to customers and finally, customers which purchases the motor vehicles (National Research Council, 2000).

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Item 11

Organizations can have multiple layers of first- and second-tier suppliers. Explain the advantages that organizations gain by having multiple layers of suppliers. Describe any disadvantages that can be brought to organizations by having multiple layers of suppliers. Your response should be 75–150 words (1–2 paragraphs) in length. Be sure to reference at least one scholarly source to support your answer.

Your Response

Multiple layers of the suppliers are attractive to the organizations because of the advantages associated with them. Increases competition among the suppliers which promotes quality of the products delivered, lowers price of the product and also enhances product innovation (Costantino & Pellegrino, 2010). Further, multi layers of suppliers increases the bargaining powers of the companies and provides alternative sources of raw materials. On contrary, multi-layer suppliers is time and money consuming in the contract negotiation, management and execution and also, suppliers commitment and investment in building relationship is relaxed because suppliers fear investment much of their time and resources and eventually companies abandon them (Costantino, & Pellegrino, 2010) .

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Item 12

When an organization is determining a location choice, what sustainability issues should it consider? What ethical issues should be considered? Your response should be 150–225 words (2–3 paragraphs) in length. Be sure to reference at least one scholarly source to support your answer.

Your Response

Sustainability is one emerging issues which businesses are capitalizing to generate competitive advantages. Organization which are implementing sustainable business practices are considered ethical and in some cases, serve as basis for attracting more customers especially those in favor of the eco-friendly products. When choosing a place to locate the business, some of the sustainable issues to take into consideration are: location which promotes reduction in the air pollution, water pollution and soil pollution, setting a location away from riparian sources, selecting location that does not engage destruction of natural habitat such as cutting down of the trees and also choosing location in the area which conservation measures have been taken place such have connection to clean sources of the energy. Essentially, businesses should consider conservation and preservation measures of environment when choosing the location for their businesses. Finally, when selecting a location for the business, entrepreneur should consider the following ethical issues: follow established rules and regulations, carry out business which is legally accepted, conduct business which does not contravene with moral values and culture of the people, disclose information and fail to take unfair advantage over the people and commit to promoting community programs and initiatives (Opens tax, 2018).

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References

Brown, S., Bessant, J. R., & Lamming, R. (2013). Strategic operations management. Routledge.

Costantino, N., & Pellegrino, R. (2010). Choosing between single and multiple sourcing based on supplier default risk: A real options approach. Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, 16(1), 27-40.