TITE: Strategic Operations Issues
ASSIGNMENT TOPIC: Using your own organisation, identify a strategic operations issue or problem that needs to be addressed.
WORD COUNT: 2545
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Lean Synchronisation is a growing trend as the market becomes increasingly competitive due to customer’s/client’s expectations that a product or service be provided instantaneously. This analysis considers the application of lean synchronisation principles to the simple process of signing out mail within a law firm where each solicitor must reach a certain amount of billable units per day, thus emphasising the importance that small administrative task, such as signing out mail, needs to be streamlined whilst eliminating waste. This
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The encouragement of continuous advice and criticism from its creative teams, brings problems to the surface before it becomes and crises and affects the overall operation (Slack et al. 2012 p. 373). By encouraging open communication during LS the responsibility for solving the problem is now shared with everyone, ‘improving the chances of the problem being solved’ in the most efficient and cost-effective manner in order to reply to the customer’s needs and demands (Slack et al. 2012 p. 355).
3. A & B PARTNERS
A & B Partners (“A&B”) is a specialised insurance and commercial litigation law firm. The objectives of the business are to be the leader in the area of insurance law, more specifically motor vehicle insurance, public liability and home insurance. The firm acts for various insurance companies and there is often a panel of law firms acting for these insurance companies.
Whilst in most law firms there is only one client, in insurance litigation there are various stake holder interests to weigh up. There is the insurance company (“Client”) who insures the insured (“IO”) or the insured’s company, motor vehicle or home, the shareholders of the Client and upholding the Client’s obligations to the Insurance Commission Board, to which it is a signatory to. Weighing up these interests is sometimes a difficult and, often, a contradictory juggling act, which is made even more difficult with the solicitor’s obligation to the firm, his/her budget, the impact of
ASOS is an international fashion retailer, which offers an extensive line of products, varying from high street to
How does Lean Operations and Supply Chain differ from traditional approaches? Describe the main characteristics of each approach and their strengths and weaknesses then discuss the main issues involved in managing the transition from traditional to lean operations.
For the simulation my company name was H Company. Below you will find the results to the 8-year simulation. H Company has been highlighted in the majority of screen-shots.
You have noticed that your organization’s current operations strategy is not supporting the challenges that the organization is presently facing. In order to maintain a competitive edge, you must address these challenges with your Chief Executive Officer immediately.
One of the principal grounds for rejecting insurance claims is that the claim is not covered by the terms of the policy, or is specifically excluded. The rule that coverage provisions should be interpreted broadly and exclusion clauses should be interpreted narrowly is really just a corollary of the Contra Proferentem rule which applies in the event of ambiguity i.e. it is the insurer who likely drafted the insurance contract and construing coverage provisions broadly, or exclusion clauses narrowly, will be to the detriment of the insurer as the party who drafted the contract. The construction of exclusion clauses and coverage provisions helps justify the objective intention of the contract. This is the intention which the court considers, a reasonable person in the position of the contracting parties, would have had. It is submitted that coverage provisions should be broad and encompassing and exclusion clauses should be narrow. However, before such a conclusion is reached, this paper will aim to justify the reasoning behind such a claim analysing arguments for and against such a proposition, drawing upon the landmark case Darlington Futures Ltd v Delco Australia Pty Ltd to help relate the discussion to issues raised by such considerations.
Levy introduced me to is contractual law. Mr. Levy allowed me to assist on insurance cases, which included observing meetings, summarizing depositions, and reviewing contracts. Even though I had experience reviewing contracts while working a couple of summers for a General Counsel at a large business, this was completely different because these agreements were among insurance companies and individuals, instead of insurance companies and businesses. Mr. Levy works on behalf of insurance companies, mostly State Farm, when they have disputes with their clients over wind and hail coverage. These cases are interesting because Mr. Levy has to not only deal with the individuals that are claiming the insurance company didn’t follow the contract, but he also must deal with the adjuster in each case. Mr. Levy gave me the responsibility of summarizing the depositions of the adjusters to confirm that none of them said anything that was contradictory or detrimental to State Farm’s case. Often these cases end with settlements or dismissals because either the insurance company decides to compensate the individuals or the attorney representing the insurance company gets a favorable summary judgment. Mr. Levy and other attorneys representing insurance companies frequently seek summary judgments when the plaintiffs don’t have significant evidence to prove that the insurance companies violated the contract. In most of the insurance cases that I assisted Mr. Levy on he was able to receive summary judgment because the plaintiffs didn’t have enough evidence to prove that State Farm was responsible for paying the
Dissimilar sources plan altered steps involved in the planning process, but in this case I will discuss on seven steps that are involved in the entire process. The first step is goal setting. This basically involves coming up with the main objectives and goals that the company wishes to establish within a particular period of time. It is a very important section because the company will operate with a view of the goal in mind, if it is not clearly established, and then the business could lose direction along the way. After goal setting, we have development of the planning premises, where the plans are prepared and any underlying conditions defined. This is where there is an assessment of the environment and any constraints or
1. Create or describe a strategy for your firm, as operationalized by Collis and Rukstad. Be sure to be comprehensive and specific when separately describing your
Operations management (OM) is that phase of an organization where inputs are put into operations to acquire required output (services) without compromising on quality. In other words operations management is also described as combining and transforming various resources in the operations sub-system into value added services in line with formulated policies of the organization. (Kumar and Suresh, 2009)
The application and implementation of lean principles or thinking is a process that requires commitment from every stakeholder in the organization. This process entails commitment to the organization's workers and to the system itself in order to make changes towards improvement. Generally, the implementation of lean thinking is geared towards continuous improvement through the elimination of waste. However, lean management or implementation of the principles sometimes incorporate mistakes that are made by leaders in the execution process. This is mainly because lean leadership appears to be simple though its complex because of the costs associated with it. The mistakes usually occur because of intrinsic complexities of exploring deeply into organizational philosophies, business strategy, psychology, and macroeconomics.
The main problems of the organization were that the company set strategies to achieve objectives that weren’t focused in the core business and set without considering how many resources and skills does the company would need to reach them, focusing their efforts in processes or products that didn’t add value to the company and decreasing the profits of the
Overall pinpointing, exactly what lean synchronisation in few sentences will be difficult, (Slack et, al 2013) they view lean as three things; philosophy of how to run operations, lean as a method of planning and controlling operations and lean as a set of tools that improve operations performance. Lean is a way of running operation; it is set of principles which aim to smooth the flow through processes by doing all the simple things well and progressively doing them better. Lean is also a way of planning and controlling operations, it concerns with how well managers mange material, information, and customers to flow throughout the operations. The aim is to coordinate those flows in a way they are able to eliminate waste using different techniques such as pull control . Lastly, the main pillar of what lean synchronisation is lean as a set of tools that improve operation performance; this is where operation management generally view improvement as its main purpose.
The strategic management process is sometimes improperly perceived as a unidirectional flow of objectives, strategies and decision parameters from management to the employees. In fact, the process should be highly interactive since it is designed to stimulate input from creative, skilled and knowledgeable people working at every level of the business.
This paper intends to define operations management and analyze an ethics decision made by operations managers in the workplace or in a known organization.
Operational management processes in a firm involves overseeing, formulating and reformulation of the operations of a business. The processes are meant to ensure efficiency in administering resources whilst ensuring there is effective management of client’s specifications and or directions. This is achieved by adding value to the firm’s processes. Such achievements are experienced when a firm embarks in directing its physical and or technical functions towards enhancing its development, production and manufacturing. These should be pre-determined and controlled by market opportunities if a company is to reach its ultimate production levels. Their realisation adds up to ensuring the future of a firm, offering operational