Current Matters in Management Operations
The Rowe Furniture, a reputed organization, had an impertinent goal – they had the capability to produce a sofa in a week. Their goal was to be an efficient furniture maker as like as a car maker in Toyota. To reach the goal they worked hard and after reaching the target it was possible to develop technology and maintain quality by following operation management process. The action of Rowe describes 3 crucial operation management matters which are technology, quality as well as mass customization along with weak organizations.
The Role of the technology in operation Management:
The International Positioning Systems shortly GPS includes varieties of organization from transporting to marketing or from health aid unit to bar council department as well as farming. Though the aim of GPS was tracking arms and personnel as like as other several technologies, but at present GPS is also using to pathway shipping fleets, reusable consumer products as well as monitor parades or even sex criminals.
You have already learned from earlier discussion that presently organizations are being pressurized by the today’s most competitive market to supply products as well as services in time to the consumers. The careful companies are always busy to find out the ways perfect technologies that can get better operations management. Several fast-food organization are now competing to serve quick as well as better services to the consumers and attract their attention to them. They always try to increase the sale of fast food products and earn huge profit which can be possible by fast and better services of company. To boost the sale of their product Wendy incorporated some specific technique in the competitive market. He added canopy to few menu boards and change some of the passages and placed picture. Others some change of configuration in screens technology helped Mc. Donald to achieve the accuracy by above 11%. He succeeded to find out the account how much fast food is required as per demand of consumer and how much products are possible to produce. He succeeded to make balance the production-demand radio of fast food.
Though customers are the principal part of an organization, but the Manager has also a big role in the organization to develop the business. Thus operation Manager implies a distinct or unique system that will include needed capacity, orders status as well as quality of product whereas materials are in the system which is being producing. The task of manager is to connect the customers with production. So, the function of production must be an associate in the total business system to avoid excessive production or slow-down production.
Technology has the power to control costs of production particularly in the field of prognostic preservation, isolated diagnostics as well as utility. Presently a manager can take the help of advanced technology and also the e-technology. Nowadays a skilled and educated manager can operate the system by remote control sitting in front of an internet based computer. He or she can solve all problems of the organization or make the list of requirements through computer. In this way a production manager can be able to prevent the breakdown of equipment along with subsequent production slow progress.
If a manager wants to grow more the business then he or she has to be acquainted with more than the conventional system of manufacturing the product. The manager must understand the control of technology and how much effort he or she can contribute to the organization. The manager must find out the problems that are creating obstacle for the system to development the business and at the same time he or she also finds out the suitable solution. The Service providers can also use the power of technology.
Quality Initiatives:
The problem of quality is most expensive. In spite of the commitment of Apple that the iPad batteries of fast three batches will last 12 hours of using but the customers’ experience is only 4 hours and for this breach of commitment they have to settle the issue by giving 100 million dollars. Schering Plough, manufacturer of inhalers as well as other pharmaceutical products paid five hundred dollars for tracing to constant quality control short-coming.
Many times it has been heard that the organization are not being producing top quality products as per the demand and expectation of customers in the international market. Now the question is what is quality? Is it means that the goods do not follow the proper working process? Is it breaking the reliability? Is it does not follow the proper track of delivery that customer needs. Does it not fulfilling the needs of customers? Or does it denote something else? Now the quality is describing here under as the capability of a goods or service which is genuinely provide to the customer that can satisfy them and meet all expectation of them unconditionally.
Now the question is now a customer achieves the quality? It is surely a big issue to the manager. To define the quality and its initiative with the management functioning the ideal way to go through planning, organizing, controlling and leading which are crucial to attempt.
Preparation for Quality:
The Manager of the organization must have the goals of quality betterment and the ability as well as strength to achieve their goals. He or she should ideal plans and implement the same to improve the standard of quality. Though the task of achieving the goal of strengthening the standard of quality is very tough, but it is surely possible by the positive efforts and strict intention of both managers and employees to pursue of perfect designed strategies.
Arranging and principal for quality:
It has to be considered how perfectly the employees can be organized by the manager and how efficiently he or she deals with the employees of the organization because the quality improvement program is mostly depended upon the employees of the organization.
For example the total employees of Universal Cable Corporation at Moose jaw, Saskatchewan participate in non-stop quality control trailing program and succeeded to achieve the target of production. The manager should also try to their level best to help the employees providing all information that they need to conduct and complete the job as best merit. They believe that the needed information for the workers especially who are working with the machine directly is the ladder to achieve the target of production. Providing smart mobile, special training for the employees or use of modern tools are not sufficient to improve the productivity unless or until the managers will not provide proper as well as needed information to the entire workers of the organization that can drive the improvement at right manner. For this reason the company unconditionally shares all production data as well as financial working measurement with all the employees.
Organization with excessive as well as successful quality betterment programs depend on 2 crucial approaches of people – one is cross-functional performance terms and second is empowered or self-directed work teams. There is no doubt that the quality ambitious organizations trust on well-trained, empowered as well as flexible employees because from top to bottom leveled employees definitely participate in it.
Handling for Quality:
Initiatives of quality improvement will not be possible without monitoring as well as evaluating their development perfectly. Controlling for quality is crucial irrespective of standards for register control, raw materials procurement, defect rate or any other field of operations management. For example at the Northrop Grumman Organization Plant, Rolling Meadows lots of quality organizers have also been applied like automated testing as well as Information technology that incorporates product design as well as manufacturing along with process excellence improvements. Beside this the employees are allowed to make accept or reject their own decisions about the standard of products through the entire manufacturing techniques. The organization Manager describes that this approach is helpful to build the quality into the material instead of trying to check quality into the creation. The employees of the organization should take the initiative as combat for doing their entrusted job and they should not thing others until and unless the total job is successfully complete. The manager of the organization will insist the workers to be more effectual and responsible to their job. Managers also help the employees in all respect and solve their all problems that they face during conducting the job. In fact the successes in respect of quality improvement are not limited.
For instant the employees of the company Delphi Congregation Plant, Matamoros, Mexico performed very hard to improve the quality and also created major steps. The customer refusal rate of them has been reduced from 3000 ppm to 10 ppm means 10 parts per million. It shows that they can be able to success by 300 percent on quality improvement. It is no doubt a great success to them. Alcon in Australia, Carlton, Wormald Security and Combined Breweries have also succeeded to improve quality tremendously which is good news to the customers as well. Quality initiatives by the employee teams of Valeo have guided to outstanding improvements in different quality standards so far.
Quality objectives:
To demonstrate the quality commitment throughout the people in the world, several organizations have pursued the challenging quality standard. There are two key popular quality measurement organizations at present which are ISO 9000 as well as the goal of Six Sigma.
ISO 9000 – ISO 9000 is actually an international quality measurement standard which has been recognized by the global organization for standardization. This organization has established standardized guidelines for systems to make sure that the produced products must conform to consumer’s needs. These standards include everything from order reviewed to finish product and even delivery of the product to the door-step of customers. The ISO 9000 principles have already gained popularity worldwide as a documented standard for assessing as well as comparing organizations in the worldwide market place. In fact the ISO 9000 evaluate the companies in different ways to ensure that they are following the system of production or service in a right way. Actually by achieving this certification one company can be able to prove themselves that a perfect quality management system is followed. As per the assessment of 2009, more than one million ISO certificates had been rewarded by the companies in around one hundred seventy five countries. Presently all about 400000 Unites States business are being ISO 9000 certified. More than 2 Lakhs companies in China have obtained ISO 9000 certification.
Six Sigma – Motorola is a much popularized company because they have the quality certificate issued by Six Sigma. They are using of severe quality standards over thirty years. It is a trademark or a proof that Motorola is being followed the quality improvement program.
The Six Sigma quality is actually a perfect quality program which has been designed for reducing the defects to minimize the cost and save time. The goal of Six Sigma is to improve the quality of job and satisfy the customers in all respects. It follows the arithmetical standard that founds an objective of less 3.4 defects in each million units of measurements. Sigma is actually a Greek letter and it is used by the statisticians for defining a typical divergence from a signal curve. As per the norm the superior the sigma, the lower the deviations which means minimize the defects. In this respect at Six Sigma you may consider you will get almost no-defect or effect free result. It is no doubt the highest standard to achieve; several quality-driven organizations are utilizing it and getting benefits from it.
For example the General Electric guesses that it has been protected billions of dollars in costs on and from 1995 as per the view of the executives of the company. ITT business, Dow Chemical, American Express, 3M Company, Sony Corporation, Johnson & Johnson, Nokia Corporation and other lots of reputed and recognized companies including financial institutions, health care organizations and now getting interest to this certification and most of these companies have already obtained the Six Sigma certification and getting facilities as well.
As instance, General Electric chasing Six Sigma quality assists the organization for developing as well as delivers almost perfect products like its energy and also its fuel competent turbofan jet engine which can be able to powers the 777 airlines of Boeing. It is true that present days are very competitive for all companies to exist their business and there is no mercy for any massive error in the technique or process of production. The goal of Six Sigma is to point out the mistake or wrong processes so that the company can rectify the same and go for only right and purposeful way of technique and thus grow their company perfectly. Six Sigma qualities always produce positive approaches for GE and they also incorporate improve productivity, enhanced operating margins and streamlined processes. The well reputed health care company namely Well mark international Blue Cross and Blue Shield can be able to incorporate a new doctor to their medical team within just only sixty five days’ time duration.
By the assistant of Six Sigma this company can understand that about 50% of their used techniques were superfluous. Immediately after observing this fact they started to take action and within only 30 days they make reduce the strength of their staff. They also succeeded to reduce the expenses against administration expenditure by three million dollar each year. This saved amount they distributed the customers through subordinate health care quality. Though a manager can be able to find out lots of positive benefits that come from the initiative of Six Sigma or gaining ISO 9000 certification, but the major benefits can be available only from the quality betterment process itself. It means that the intension of quality certification must be included with work systems as well as an operations process instead of enabling organizations to fulfill the requirements of customers as well as employees to execute their tasks in comparatively top-quality manner.
Mass Customization as well as Lean association:
The word mass communication refers an oxymoron. For the modern managers, the concept of art-of-the design order is getting popularity as a crucial operations management issue. The mass customization can offer the consumers the product as and when they want it. The customers get the product at any place and any ways that they want. To attain as well as maintain a competitive challenge organization like to diverse as Ford, BMW, Wells Forge, Levi Strauss, Mattel etc. are incorporating mass customization Mass customization like to follow flexible manufacturing process as well as constant customer response. The advanced technology plays crucial role for both.
Beside the flexibility, the mass customization provides the capability to the companies to readjust assembly lines for manufacturing products as per order with the help of technology like computer based factory apparatus, factory robots, intranet, digital printers, barcode scanners, logistics software, the organization can be able to produce, assemble and dispatch the products along with customized packaging to the consumers with a fast and easy manner. As an instant it can be said that Dell is utilizing flexible manufacturing processes and technology to custom oriented computers to specify the consumers.
Technology is also essential in the constant in-touching with consumers. Organizations can keep track of consumers for example dislikes utilizing excessive databases. The internet is also most essential item to the companies through which it is possible to have continuous dialogues with consumers to understand and respond to their right working. For example through the website of Amazon, consumers are saluted by name as well as can get recommendation of journals along with other materials individually. The performance to consumer products as per the expectation of customers and specifications begins to make a vital relationship between customer and organization. A customer will be repeat customer if he or she feels interest on a specific product or products and it provides value.
To improve the growth of an organization, the managers of that organization should understand what the customers are expecting to them and how the managers can fulfill the requirements of customers. The managers should evaluate the capability of them and if it is needed then optimizes the total process from the standpoint of customers. The lean companies must avoid all activities which cannot input value as per the view of customers. The goal of lean operations is to incorporate the concept of minimizing waste by implementing perfect training program and educate the employees perfectly on creativity as well as ideal teamwork tendency. Hence, it is very much essential for the manufacturers as well as service organization to incorporate lean concept so that they can understand that it is a continual process to be more efficient as well as more effective.
Let’s Get Real
As you can expect a vast scope of this project, the plant manager of Sargento Foods Inc. Mr. Hilbert, WI has divided it in different sections. It is not possible to you to complete this task by yourself. A wide range of practice is essential before forming the project team.
Things that you have to consider about:
- Is the technology that you have implemented is competitive with other sectors?
- Should you begin at any distinct section?
- Are the other divisions are admiring this technology?
- What are the liberties of these projects?
- What kinds of technologically approved resources you can get from other divisions of the company which can be installed for your division.
After getting perfect answer your project team can be formed to go ahead suitably. Your team-work will be consisted with both technical and operation employees who will participate in the company’s development and affected directly by this massive change of technology.
Links of Previous Main Topic:-
- Managing teams
- Understanding individual behavior
- Managers and communication
- What is motivation
- Managers as leaders
- Managing operations
- The role of operations management
Links of Next Fundamentals of Management Topics:-