Operations Management: Matching Capacity with Demand

Operations management is the planning, organising and controlling all sectors of the operations process to potentially meet customer demands and expectations while also using resources efficiently. Globalisation is the removal of trade barriers between nations resulting into one single economic market. This is both detrimental and progressive to a business as it brings significant impact on operations strategies. This can be seen through the case studies of the largest Australian airline, Qantas and leading global manufacturer and seller of sportswear and accessories, Nike.

Operations management refers to all levels of an organisation and how best to efficiently convene, fund, maintain and maximise its services and/or operations, both internal and external. The core goal/objective of operations management it to maximise outputs while reducing and minimising the inputs required to achieve the desired results.

Per Satterlee, chapter eight of Organization Management and Leadership, is about operations management, which is how products or services are provided in the most efficient and effective way. “Operations management is the implementation of all the functions of management,” (Satterlee, p. 224). This includes where infrastructure may be built, where supplies and materials are obtained, production is scheduled, inventory is managed, and equipment is maintained.

According to Investopedia ULC (2012), " Operations management is concerned with converting materials and labor into goods and services as efficiently as

Operations Management focuses on the design and management of products, processes, services and supply chains (Diemond, 2014). It considers the acquisition, development, and utilization of resources that firms need to deliver the goods and services their clients want (Diemond 2014). Operations Management consists of many topics which are applied on a daily basis at the company I work for. Some of the topics include process control, lean manufacturing, six sigma, and supply chain management. It is the process that controls how inputs (raw materials, labor, and energy) get converted into outputs (finished goods or services).

James, T. (2011) defines Operations Management as the management of the processes which aid production of goods and or services. This implies that all production activities must be coordinated well to ensure a lean process of resource management is adopted.

Operations Management in an organisation is repsonsible for managing and in making decisions concerning the activities that convert inputs into outputs , that is goods and services. This covers both short term actvities as well as longer term activities to meet strategic goals. Inputs can be the raw materaials need to manufacture goods such as furniture or the computers needed to create a service like online shopping site. Operation management’s role is to make decisions to improve how operation activities function, for example, to improve the final quality of the output or to change production methods to be more efficient in terms of cost and in time.

Operations Management explores the way organizations produce and distribute goods and services. Everything you wear, eat, sit on, use or read comes to you courtesy of the

Operation management is the practice of business to create the highest level of efficiency possible within an organization (Investopedia.com, 2010). Through operation management, managers can identify, measure, and improve the efficiency of the operation. To maximize the Bedside Delivery Program, managers can utilize techniques and methodology such a decision tree and Six Sigma to make informed decision.

Operation management system relates to the concept of how an organization is able to offer their goods and services with satisfying the customer and maintaining quality (Mullins & Gill, 2013). It is a fact that the operation system of any firm is major resources arrangement that is often linked with the production and delivery of its product and services.

In the Littlefield Project, our team utilized various methods learned in class and group analysis of the data in order to come up with the optimal solution. Through our analysis, as well as our trial and error, we learned several important lessons when planning an operation around demand. In order to outline how we came to learn those lessons, we will explore the simulation, how it played out, our reactions to it, and what worked as well as what did not.

Operations management can be defined as managing the available resources in the best possible way that are dedicated to the production process and to have highest level of efficiency in an organization. Operations managers are the people who are responsible for managing the resources and that guide the system by decision making. The operations function of an organization is responsible for understanding customer demands and fulfil their needs through the delivery of products and services.

Operations management focuses on managing the processes of producing and distributing products and services. Operations activities often include product creation, development, production and distribution. It deals with all operations within the organization. Related activities include managing purchases, inventory control, quality control, storage, logistics and evaluations. The nature of how operations management is carried out in an organization depends very much on the nature of products or services in the organization, for example, retail, manufacturing, wholesale, etc.

As I entered the remaining classes in my concentration, Operations Management, I realized how each particular class subject had all come together, and how each was interrelated. Each class, each subject became more important to me as I realized their importance in the role of an operations manager.

Operations management is generally described as the planning, arrangement, and control of activities that change raw materials or an organization's input into finished products and services. The overall activities covered by operations management include the creation, development, manufacture, and distribution of products. The concept also relates to various activities such as inventory control, controlling purchases, quality control, logistics, storage, and evaluation ("Operations Management in McDonalds", n.d.). Since operations management covers the entire operations in an organization, it mainly focuses on the efficiency and effectiveness of the firm's processes.