Operations

Activities

Methods
Programs

It is a means or procedure for providing a product or service to the public. -thefreedictionary.com

What is Operations Management? How organizations produce or deliver the goods and services that provide the reason for their existence.

Operations can be seen as one of many functions within the organization. Its function can be described as that part of the organization devoted to the production or delivery of goods and services.

 Manufacturing-

organizations that produce physical, tangible items which can be stored as inventory before delivery to the customer. Service organizations- produce intangible items that cannot be produced ahead of time.
Operations

Strategy Strategic decisions can be classified as those decisions which make major long term changes to the resource base of the organization in response to external factors such as markets, customers and competitors.

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the highest or corporate level the strategy provides very general long-range guidance for the whole organization, often expressed as a statement of its mission. second level of strategy is termed a business strategy and may be for the organization or at the strategic business unit level in larger diversified companies. There the concern is with the products and services that should be offered in the market defined at the corporate level.

The

 The

third level of strategy is termed the operational or functional strategy were the functions of the business (e.g. operations, marketing, and finance) make long-range plans which support the business strategy. Since the operations function is responsible in large part for the delivery of the product/service it has a major responsibility for business strategy formulation and implementation.

 The

operations/manufacturing function plays an important role in the formulation and delivery of the organizations strategy. The traditional approach to strategy development has been for senior managers to establish corporate objectives, develop a strategy for meeting these objectives and then to acquire resources necessary to implement the chosen strategy. This approach is intended to ensure that resources are directed efficiently at the areas identified as strategically important from the strategic analysis.

 The

purpose of operations planning is to match the output of the operation to customer demand at the lowest possible cost. It is rare for customer demand to be constant, and it may vary for many reasons such as: Economic circumstances of customers Changing customer tastes Seasonal demand Day of the week Time of day Action from competitors

 Chase

demand In this strategy the operation changes its output in response to changes in customer demand.
Level

Capacity In this strategy the operation is run at a fixed rate of output irrespective of customer demand.

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is where an operations system consists of a number of interconnected subsystems; there are two basic approaches to controlling and coordinating the activities of the subsystems:

Supply-push

This is the traditional Western approach to operations control particularly in the manufacturing. Its objective is to maximize the performance of each subsystem and thereby that of the whole system which is achieved by controlling the activities of each subsystem process from a central control point.

Demand-pull An approach originating in Japan, has gained many Western adherents in recent years. It is the basis kanban system of control and of the just-intime (JIT) approach. It aims to optimize the performance of the whole system irrespective of the performance in any of the subsystem. The basis of this approach is that each process only produces what is required by the next process in the next time period.

The purpose of scheduling is to take the long-term aggregate operations plans of the organization and develop them in increasingly detail, matching operations capacity to customer demand over progressively shorter time periods. The ultimate outcome is a daily schedule, indicating how the operation will allocate its available resources. It will determine what is to be done, when, by whom and with what equipment.

Activity Scheduling The role of activity scheduling is to develop the master production scheduling into sufficient detail so that operations managers can assign work daily to the people and equipment under their control.

There are number of factors which must be considered in producing such schedules: Routeing In operations which are not line or continuous processes, any particular job will have its own unique route throughout the various stages in the process. It is essential to know this route in order to determine the requirements to be placed on each work centre in a given period of time.

Loading This involves determining what work is to be assigned to or 'loaded' on to each work centre. There are two approaches to loading: Forward Loading Backwards Loading

 Sequencing

This is concerned with decisions about how to prioritize the exact order of work at each work centre. The objective will be to achieve agreed completion times for each job while minimizing costs.

These are rules of thumb which are applied in any given situation to provide an answer to the question, what should be done next? Some alternatives are:

Shortest processing time Minimum slack time First come, first served Minimum planned start time

 Basis

of Resource Allocation Scheduling involves the often complex allocation of resources to jobs. In most situations it is useful to draw up a schedule for the jobs and for the resources being allocated to the jobs. Useful types of schedules are: Job order schedule Human resource schedule Equipment schedule Material schedule

 Queuing

In many service situations involving customer processing, there is no choice but to allow customers to turn up when they wish and serve them on a first come first serve basis. Service operations managers are increasingly using these factors in managing their queues where queuing is unavoidable. Some examples are: Theme parks posting waiting times at different points in the queues for popular rides. Mirrors fixed to lift doors to take people's minds off their wait (and on to themselves).

 Expediting

The intervention required to deal with such unforeseen eventualities is generally referred to as 'expediting'. It is thus essential that authority to take these 'real-time' decisions is placed where it belongs: at shop-floor level. If such decisions are not capable of being taken at the time and place required, at best there will be costly delays and at worst inappropriate decisions will be taken, with potentially even more costly consequences.

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is that body of knowledge concerned with the analysis of the work methods and the equipment used in performing a job, the design of an optimum work method and the standardization of proposed work methods.

Benefits of work study

Increased

productivity and operational efficiency Reduced manufacturing costs Improved work place layout Better manpower planning and capacity planning Fair wages to employees

 Better

working conditions to employees Improved work flow Reduced material handling costs Provides a standard of performance to measure labour efficiency Better industrial relations and employee morale Basis for sound incentive scheme Provides better job satisfaction to employees

Methods engineering That body of knowledge concerned with the analysis of the methods and the equipment used in performing a job, the design of an optimum method and the standardization of the proposed methods.

Motion study or Motion Analysis Detailed study of the manual and /or body motions used in a work-task or at one work area often involving comparative analysis of right hand and left hand motions.

Work measurement The application of techniques designed to establish the time for a qualified worker to carry out a specified job at a defined level of performance.

Work simplification Involves improvement in work methods or work flow initiated and developed by workers or supervisors on the job as a result of methods training and /or economic incentives.

Time study A technique of work measurement used for determining accurately as possible from a limited number of observations, the time necessary to carry out a given activity at a defined standard of performance

Dividing and analyzing a job is called method study. The approach takes a systematic approach to reducing waste, time and effort. The approach can be analysed in a six-step procedure: 1. Select 2. Record 3. Examine 4. Develop 5. Install 6. Maintain New methods may not be followed due to inadequate training or support. On the other hand people may find ways to gradually improve the method over time. Learning curves can be used to analyse these effects.

Program management or programme management is the process of managing several related projects, often with the intention of improving an organization's performance.

There are two different views of how programmes differ from projects: On one view, projects deliver outputs, discrete parcels or "chunks" of change; programs create outcomes. On this view, a project might deliver a new factory, hospital or IT system. By combining these projects with other deliverables and changes, their programs might deliver increased income from a new product, shorter waiting lists at the hospital or reduced operating costs due to improved technology.

The other view is that a program is nothing more than either a large project or a set (or portfolio) of projects. On this second view, the point of having a program is to exploit economies of scale and to reduce coordination costs and risks. The project manager's job is to ensure that their project succeeds. The program manager, on the other hand, may not care about individual projects, but is concerned with the aggregate result or end-state.