9-1 Paper Question

SOUTHERN NEW HAMPSHIRE QSO-690 OPERATIONS MGMT

Business Operations Opportunities Analysis

Introduction

Competition remains the most challenging threat to many organizations, regardless of whether they are small or larger companies. Organizations need always to know their competitors and how the competition will influence their bottom line. The main reason why firms compete is to gain market shares, which are the leading forces in the profitability of an organization. In the absence of competition, companies start to produce and offer low-quality goods and services and lack the desire to excel. Therefore, in some manner, competition between companies is essential as it enables the firms to excel and explore various strategies for reducing expenses within the company. Differentiation refers to developing a series of significant differences to distinguish what a particular firm produces from its competitors. A competitive differentiation refers to a deliberate positioning technique that a company can utilize in setting up its goods, brands, and services different from its competitors. Technology is among the essential tools to provide competitive differentiation in an organization.

The link between competitive capacity and competitive edge can be changed by technology (Maldonado & Ramos, 2018). The technology improves a business's capacity to plan its operations locally, nationally, and internationally. 3M company is a prominent American international firm that manufacturers around sixty thousand goods used in homes, institutions, and healthcare facilities.3M corporation has four main segments: security and industrial, transport and electronics, and consumer goods health care. This study will mainly focus on the transport and electronics market segment in 3M company and predict the best technology that can benefit this corporate sector.

Performance Gaps in the Segment of Transport and Electronics

The transport and electronics sector are among the leading market segments of 3M corporation. This sector involves corporate activities that serve worldwide transportation as well as initial electronic equipment producer (OEM) consumers (Melo et al., 2020). The company is serving an influential role in developing water as well as environmentally friendly forms of transport. Although the corporate world is quite aggressive, 3M company has managed to secure a better place in this sector of transport and electronics because of the corporate structure and customer satisfaction. To mitigate the increased competition, this company provides its clients with effective and trustworthy transport services to ensure that they retain its client. However, the administration of the company finds it more challenging to manage the expanding amount of client information as businesses expand in size. Client records and information that are poorly organized and maintained by a business can cause issues for the business and the client.

The drivers employed by the 3M company have bad behavior where they inappropriately handle the customer luggage, converse with clients rudely, and recklessly drive, thus affecting the company’s brand image. This behavior has made many customers look for other companies where they are handled with respect. Also, 3M company is suffering poor administration of capacity demand. The company has made several random investments in in-vehicle technologies, aircraft, and package facilities. These investments are fixed costs, and variables in the shipment volumes may affect the organization's profits. The increased competition and the decreased profits within the company are attributed to the high costs of goods and services offered. However, the company has applied the technology to develop the vehicles with improved driver help systems (ADAS), automated as well as deliberate self-driving vehicles; most customers do not prefer them because most of them do not afford the charges (Ranieri et al., 2018). Although these cars might limit the costs within the organization, they need to consider the profitability acquired as clients are looking for other transportation companies. However, the growth rate has also drastically slowed during the pandemic periods, and if inflation continues, customer spending will reduce, thus making the company secure reduced profits. The general manager of 3M company stated that the infrastructure is essential for the safety of all users of roads involving vehicles with or without automated technologies.

To promote sustainable expansion, 3M is modernizing its business structure, simplifying its operations, and concentrating on international trends. A crucial milestone in the firm's transition, 3M introduced a new worldwide business structure in 2020(Zhongming et al., 2021). This model has modified the firm's operations, allowing it to become more client-focused and agile and have a competitive edge. The steps 3M is currently adopting will help the business improve its sales and branding powers. 3M will do away with redundant processes and use more data to increase operational efficiency. Despite 3M corporation investing much of its resources in technology, the company faces stiff competition due to a lack of diversification in this sector and the high cost of its goods and services. Additionally, many delays are experienced in transporting both customers and goods. Therefore, the company needs to develop new technology and strategy that is cost-effective and promotes effective delivery of goods and services, thus providing a competitive differentiation to the company.

Specific Opportunities That Would Benefit from Technology

As a result of increased competition among shipping organizations and an attempt to limit expenses, it has become critical for shipping firms to embrace technological advances, such as the Internet of things, to obtain optimal functionality and survive in the market (Sakyi, 2019). There are mainly three opportunities obtained from utilizing technology in an organization. Among these three opportunities are increased quality of services and goods, enhanced perceived quality, and increased efficiency of operations, which are the main factors for cost-saving and competition differentiators. The application of technology in the production of an item is essential as it helps improve the quality of a product in all its manufacturing processes and not just as an end product. This leads to the effectiveness of an organization due to increased productivity and reduced material wastage.

The development of this technology may potentially lead to the adaptive adjustment of production lines in response to demand in the long term, as well as the ability of machine learning techniques to predict when servicing may be required before a problem arises (Rey et al., 2021). Technology also maintains product quality by removing human error, enhancing precision and reliability, enabling the production of more complicated items, and spotting mistakes along the increased productivity-based solutions enable organizations to offer clients additional freedom, efficiency, and diversity. As a result, from the firm's perspective, it raises the consumer's perceived worth. Due to the reduction in the price of technologies, consumers may now evaluate value based on other factors like quality, services, and relationships (Zikria et al., 2019). Lastly, to create processes that are compact and productive, technology may be helpful. Automating operations can assist businesses in accelerating operations by reducing or eliminating delays and redundancy. The best way to maximize staff productivity is through mobility and connection. Additionally, technological advancements leave little room for human mistakes, which is always feasible. Removing the strain of these jobs increases performance by allowing everyone to concentrate on more productive activities.

Internet of Things (IOT) and Mitigation of Performance Gaps

A performance gap refers to the discrepancy between a person, group, or organization's present performance and intended performance (Elijah et al., 2018). Worker underperformance due to performance gaps causes a company to operate less well than expected. Among the most performance gaps in 3M corporation include delays in the transportation of their customers and goods, lack of diversification and flexibility, and increased transport costs. The Internet of things in the 3M organization can significantly mitigate these performance gaps. The Internet of things is described as a system of tangible objects that relates to gadgets of all forms and sizes, such as cars, mobile phones, game consoles, home automation systems, video cameras, surgical instruments, machine components, tower blocks, and individuals (Bloom et al., 2018). These items are all linked to one another and exchange information under predetermined guidelines to accomplish brilliant institution, placing, tracking, defense, surveillance, and control activities.

With the advancement of technology, digital data and sensors have integrated into every aspect of the transportation industry, helping to manage, regulate, issue tickets, and make passenger data available (Nauman et al., 2020). To reach specific targets in transport activities, many transit businesses to use the Internet of Things (IoT) need the needed facilities for exchanging data and connectivity. Using specially created alternatives, the Internet of Things (IoT) assists trucking companies in accelerating their manufacturing and earnings processes. These solutions allow businesses to grasp and share crucial data, attain high operational disclosure on time, and perform the appropriate improvements. Therefore, the application of technology such as the Internet of Things (IOT) helps in the collection of more data that can be helpful in the execution of better business techniques, thus saving the company on production costs. Since on the Internet of Things, various items are connected to form a system that helps track, position, and control various activities within an organization, the delays in production and supply can be easily mitigated (Pal & Kant, 2019). Therefore, this technology is vital in any organization as it promotes the organization's quality products and services and reduces production costs, thus leading to the general effectiveness of an organization.

References

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Elijah, O., Rahman, T. A., Orikumhi, I., Leow, C. Y., & Hindia, M. N. (2018). Benefits and challenges include an overview of the Internet of Things (IoT) and data analytics in agriculture. IEEE Internet of things Journal, 5(5), 3758-3773.

Maldonado, T., Vera, D., & Ramos, N. (2018). How humble is your company culture? And, why does it matter?. Business Horizons, 61(5), 745-753.

Melo, T., Alves, A. C., Lopes, I., & Colim, A. (2020). Reducing 3M by improved layouts and ergonomic intervention in a lean journey in a cork company. In Occupational and Environmental Safety and Health II (pp. 537-545). Springer, Cham.

Nauman, A., Qadri, Y. A., Amjad, M., Zikria, Y. B., Afzal, M. K., & Kim, S. W. (2020). Multimedia Internet of Things: A comprehensive survey. IEEE Access, 8, 8202-8250.

Pal, A., & Kant, K. (2019). Using blockchain for provenance and traceability in the Internet of things-integrated food logistics. Computer, 52(12), 94-98.

Ranieri, L., Digiesi, S., Silvestri, B., & Roccotelli, M. (2018). A review of last-mile logistics innovations in an externalities cost reduction vision: sustainability, 10(3), 782.

Rey, A., Panetti, E., Maglio, R., & Ferretti, M. (2021). Determinants in adopting the Internet of Things in the transport and logistics industry. Journal of Business Research, 131, 584-590.

Sakyi, K. A. (2019). Global Operations Innovativeness and Entrepreneurship at 3M Company Limited.

Zhongming, Z., Linong, L., Xiaona, Y., Wangqiang, Z., & Wei, L. (2021). 3M commits to achieving carbon neutrality, reducing water use, and improving water quality.

Zikria, Y. B., Kim, S. W., Hahm, O., Afzal, M. K., & Aalsalem, M. Y. (2019). Internet of Things (IoT) operating systems management: Opportunities, challenges, and solution. Sensors, 19(8), 1793.