Operation Management Assignment Essay

Question1 wherefore is executions way important in this company ? trading operations vigilance refers to the administration of business practices to create the highest level of efficiency possible deep down an organization. Operations focal point is concerned with converting materials and labor into goods and services as expeditiously as possible to maximize the realise of an organization (Stevenson, W. J., & Hojati, M., 2007). The operations serve comprises a signifi shagt percentageage of the employees and physical as declines in most organizations. Operations managers ar concerned with each step in providing a reaping or service. They determine what should go into an operating system, such as equipment, labor, facilities, materials, energy, and information, to conjure the output(Stevenson, William J., and Mehran Hojati., 2007). Operations managers are alike responsible for critical activities such as materials attention, subject matter intend, purchasing, schedulin g and quality. The importance of operations management has adjoind dramatically in recent years.Signifi dismisst competition, nigglinger produce and service life calendar method of birth controls, break educated and quality-conscious consumers, and the capabilities of sore technology have placed pressures on the operations function to improve productivity while providing a broader array of high-quality products and services. judgment Design Services was an inward looking manufacturing company which focused on mingled and cyclical industrial mouldings. Since 1999, it transformed and upgraded to more acquireable nursing home products business. Right now, it is an integrated service set upr that works with design houses to provide end-to-end product design, manufacturing and distribution of high-quality design homeware. Jim Thompson explained the differentiation CDS from other competitors is that CDS uses the latest, clearcutness equipment, bought the best quality moulds, a nd generally positioned as technical professionals with a guest focused service. Under the management of Linda Fleet, they discovered that one of their major(ip) strengths could be turned into a high generator of profitable business. They set up deuce different brands. accent and creation. Focus products are more traditional with stable volumes, while concept productsare such(prenominal) more fashion and seasonal with variable gross revenue volumes.Within two years of introducing their new product lines, concept products began to generate 75 percent of their profits. For dealing with the more and more requirements, 24 large injection-moulding machines and robotic devices are knotty in the productive work. However these new products require more complex machinery and longer operating times. With the companys expansion and increased entreat for their products, operations management is important for achieving time efficiency so that to contact the profit efficiency the most. It is to a fault significant because it enables proper production planning through coordination of activities among the design, manufacturing, sales and distribution departments. The complexity of their production process and talking to services with seasonal volume change demand good operation management if they are to succeed in count oning and meeting their guest demands on time meanwhile reserve reasonable inventory(Drge, C., Vickery, S., & Markland, R. E., 1994).Through proper operations management, out of stock occurrences can be greatly lessen by accurately forecasting sales leading to reduction in delivery cost. Moreover, due to the product life cycle departs shorter and shorter, developing new products to come across the postulate of customers and understanding the fashion bring down are also involve great operation management. Question 2 How do the 4 Vs (volume, variety, variation, visibility) influence the way CDS operates? Draw a 4 Vs profile for the companies goo ds and services.Volume CDS has two main brands Focus and Concept. Concept products bow out up 75% of their revenue and the mint of their profits. Concept products are premium-priced whose lift cycle is short from the survey of a lifestyle magazines. The products are low repetition with high unit of measurement costs due to the SKU are with large numbers, but the only unit sales volume is not very high. The old fashioned products are ordinarily replaced by a new version in pretty short time. Concept products are less systemization compared with Focus products. Focus products focus on a depressed handful of customers with large size of each order. diversity CDS has an excellent new product development process. It usually takes around ternion months to get a new mould, which then has to be tested. For the help of bonus payment, they have good output and excellent productivity. The products are flexible match to the marketcondition and customer needs. Concept products and the whole design, manufacture, sales, distribution process is rather complex.The new product development department receive dilate drawings of the new products from the Design Office managed by Marketing department, which shows CDS pay such(prenominal) watchfulness to match customer needs. For doing the whole things above, the unit cost of CDS product is high. Variation For Focus products , the vast majority of deliveries are to a small handful of customers. The size of each order is usually very large, with deliveries usually to customers own depots, which means the variation is stable, predictable. While for the more profitable Concept products, they are a stool more seasonal so that it is difficult to makes capacity planning and scheduling at bakshish times around November and easter just after the spring trade fair in London. seize the consideration that concept products hold the bulk of profit, in total, the variation of the products is ever-changing capacity and flexible. They are in touch with demand so that the unit cost of product is very high.Visibility CDS pay much attention to understand the needs of customers. They use different kinds of methods to interact with customers, such as magazine survey, face to face interaction, questionnaire, etc. From their research, they find some customers defend their products on display in their kitchens as lifestyle statements rather than move them away in cupboards. And they use this research result in trade and products design, especially to develop the same product with different color to fulfill the seasonal needs. Since they produce fashion products with high quality, the time lag surrounded by production and consumption is very short, otherwise they may fall throne the fashion trend. Their sales and revenue increase very fast reflects that customers reciprocate their service including products and distribution. Question 3 What would you recommend to the company if they asked you to advise them in improving their operations? (45 marks) Concept product and Concept office inevitable to be focused on, while at the same time husband Focus products sales.From the chart 1, we can tell the total sales increase dramatically, especially after 2001 concept products are sold in the market. The sugar profit before tax also goes up in a pretty fast speed. As chart 2 shows, the rate of profit doubled during the year among 2001 and 2006. From chart 3,we can see the trend of Concept products is increasing dramatically, which means CDS needs to be paid much more attention in this series. The company should go deep to research the needs of customers and the fashion trend to develop a series of consolatory products with high rate of profit and reputation score.However, after a peak in 2001, the focus products sales becomes smooth and steady, the company need to corroborate the sales volumes. Due to the stable sales of focus products, company is suggested to forecast the sales and ordina te the manufacturing beforehand with satisfactory accuracy. By doing that, the rate of profit of focus products may have certain increase by diminution the cost of inventory and overhead (Xiao, Y., Li, G., & Zhang, J., 2011). Inventory management needs to be strengthened.From the chart above, we can conclude that with the dramatically development of the products, the inventory increases as the sales goes up even much sharper than sales. The company should take care of the inventory management seriously. They have to take some methods to tighten up inventory. On the one hand , it can reduce a lot money , on the other hand, for fashion and short life cycle products the longer time they keep in the warehouse, the less value they have. sales channels are not only limited to the offline, but also online sales channels needed to be adopted. With the development of internet, Internet has become the fastest way and the most effective method to understand customers. node can upload their feedback of products immediately, and the company can use these material to arrange the following design plan. Online sales channel is good for inventory management, which meets the decision of the second suggestions.More oversea cooperation with local anesthetic company brings their culture into design. diametric country has different culture and different understanding of beauty and fashion. CDS is counsel to cooperate with local company from oversea to enter the market with the products needed by the customers at local. The local company may better at understanding the needs of local customers. CDS can take in the efforts of local company and design the product in accordance with the market demand(Robb, D. J., Xie, B., & Arthanari, T., 2008). encompass computer-assisted software for improve the whole process. Computer software such as ERP can effectively improve the company efficiency.A company canuse to store and manage data from every stage of business, including harvesti ng planning, cost and development, Manufacturing, Marketing and sales, Inventory management, Shipping and payment. Measurements, analysis and simulation capabilities can help companies plan better and react sooner and more effectively to changes in demand, competitive actions, and supply chain disruptions. Balance between customers needs and operation costs.As a company, the main task is getting profit. The image of being customer centric does not means that customer must be provided with everything they want. Company must have to strike balance between what customer would like and what operation can afford.ReferenceStevenson, W. J., & Hojati, M. (2007). Operations management (Vol. 8). Boston McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Xiao, Y., Li, G., & Zhang, J. (2011). Passive data storage based housewares store management system. In Web Information Systems and Mining (pp. 51-56). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.Stevenson, W. J., & Hojati, M. (2007). Operations management (Vol. 8). Boston McGraw-Hill/Irwin . Drge, C., Vickery, S., & Markland, R. E. (1994). Sources and outcomes of competitive advantage an exploratory study in the article of furniture industry. Decision Sciences, 25(56), 669-689. Robb, D. J., Xie, B., & Arthanari, T. (2008). Supply chain and operations practice and performance in Chinese furniture manufacturing. International journal of production economics, 112(2), 683-699.