Importance of Operations

Karizma Roper

ISCO/305 System Operation Management

Matthew  Keogh

Importance of Operations

Everyone wants a product or service that have been created by an organization. Everything from what we wear, to what we eat, sit on is everything that have been produce for the consumer. Operation’s management is the planning, scheduling and control of the activities within a company’s walls to manufacture a product or service. Supply chain management includes the steps from getting the right product into the right customer’s hand from gathering raw materials to consumer purchase, while maximizing customer value and achieving a competitive advantage.

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGAMENT

In the supply chain organizations are linked together through upstream and downstream activities. Upstream activities, or firms, are positioned earlier in the supply chain relative to another activity or firm if interest, therefore anything to the left of the operation is upstream. For example harvesting cotton takes place upstream of weaving fabric, and weaving fabric takes place upstream of sewing shirt. The downstream activities, or firms, are anything to the right of the company because these activities are positioned later in the supply chain. For example firms who take Pepsi’s product and move them along to the final consumers are positioned downstream.

Quality, time, flexibly and cost are the four performance dimensions that have an enormous impact on business performance. Quality is the characteristic of a product or service that satisfies the consumer’s needs. Quality includes a number of sub dimensions, such as performance, conformance, and reliability. If an automobile company manufactures reliable cars, consumers who are interested in buying reliable cars will purchase from that automobile company, thus creating a positive impact for the company. Time has two basic characteristics, speed and reliability. Speed refers to an operation fulfilling a need when identified and reliability refers to delivering a product or service when promised. For instance if a milk distributor fails to deliver to their customer, a yogurt company, the yogurt company may be forced to shut down production thus resulting in not having the product, yogurt, ready for their customers. Flexibility is how quickly an operation responds to a customer’s unique needs. For example a Fed ex offers the option of next day delivery to meet the needs of a consumer who may need their product immediately. Costs impacts a business in a variety ways such as, labor costs and quality costs. An operation that manufactures clothing will have to take into consideration the cost of fabric and the quality of fabric. These four performance dimensions will work in opposite directions leaving you to consider tradeoffs. For example if I am looking for a high quality car my cost will be high, therefor in order to have a high quality car I must let go of cost.