Which of the following is the least likely decision to be made by operations managers?
Designing and improving the jobs of the workforce. This role and decision is a responsibility of Human Resource Management and does not fall under operations management.
A company which specializes in high variety and the frequent introduction of new products/services would seek to primarily focus on which of the performance objectives
Flexibility. With the high variability in production, the company has to ensure that it is capable enough to accommodate and produce effectively any new product or service to be produced. It involves having highly skilled and flexible personnel, multipurpose, and easily modified equipment, which will ensure that is accomplished.
From focused to general, which of the following strategy orders is correct?
Functional, business, corporate. At the functional level, the organizations and companies are generally focused on a single line of production. However, focusing on business and finally corporate, there are multiple production lines developed, leading to generalization.
There are four perspectives on operations strategy. The term ’emergent strategy’ is most closely associated with which perspective?
Market requirements perspective. This strategy changes with and is more dependent on the market taste and demand, thereby making it more emergent.
In the maturity stage of the product/service life cycle, the operation is likely to focus on
Speed, Dependability, and Quality. At the maturity level, a product or service has to meet the minimal quality, be dependable in delivery and speed of production.
In operations management, inventory strategy does not include:
Where stocks should be located. The inventory is usually conducted to determine stock availability, control mechanism, quality, source, and composition only.
Slack describes operations as potentially having three strategic roles within an organization. Which one is correct?
Implementer / supporter / driver. The operations managers’ main roles are to come up with strategies, fully support them financially, drive them into the production system, and implement them in the production.
What other names may be given to an operations manager?
Administrative manager. Operations manager interacts and is always in charge of all the key elements of business administration aspects
Why is operations management important in all types of organizations?
Operations management helps in understanding the strategic objectives. The operations managers have to precisely understand the organizational goals to develop a clear outline of the chains of operations that will help to achieve such goals. The goals must also be translated into the operational objectives of the organization. Operations management aids in the development of operations strategy to reduce the multiple decision-making areas associated with operations.
It is essential to have a set of guidelines that are in line with the organization’s long term objectives and goals. Operations management facilitates the production of products that entail detailed determination of the shape and composition in their production processes. Organizational Planning and controlling involve deciding the operations and resources which should be used to facilitate operations. It falls as one of the roles of Operations management.
Operations management also improves the performance of operations through continuous monitoring and improvement of the production operations.
How do operations performance objectives trade-off against each other? Give examples
The operations performance objectives include cost minimization, quality optimization, and effective time utilization by increasing speed and maintaining dependability and production flexibility to keep at par with the changing market demand. Whereas this is the case, not all the objectives can be met during the production but rather a company will try as much as possible to maximize almost all the objectives so that they at least meet the least threshold. For example, in a horticultural industry, time is the key element in production and will be given the top priority whereas flexibility is viewed as a lesser priority due to flowers’ easy weltering.
What is the difference between a ‘market requirements’ and an ‘operations resource’ view of operations strategy?
The market requirements include what you want from your operations to be competitive and what you need to be relevant in the market. They are more of the outputs in a strategy and aims at low priced products for the market, reliability in the production, and the attainment of product or service quality. Whereas the operations resources include the operation capabilities you have and what you do to satisfy your customers and maintain capabilities. It emphasizes flexibility, costs, and the general logistics that are required in the production line.