operations management.docx

What Are The Goals of Operations Management?
In any business, operations management can be defined as the process by which their products or services
are produced. It is a department of management in the organization whereby those in charge plan, design,
and effectively manage the making of a product or service.
A company that applies operation management successfully should be able to achieve these objectives:
Fulfill Quality Standards
Operations management plays an important role for any business because it ensures that the service provider
provides the best quality products or services for customers.
This means that a certain standard of quality must define operations management in order to keep the
business going.
For sustainability, one cannot disappoint customers. As such, sourcing for the best materials, ensuring
efficiency, and more are the benchmarks of why operations management is important – they are all part of
the quality management process.
Attract More Customers
When your products or services are at their best, word about your brand will spread.
Hence, operations management’s importance also includes building up brand awareness and letting your
products or services speak to the customers as a form of customer-driven marketing strategy.
Positive feedback towards your business is always a plus point that will contribute to your marketing efforts.
[1] In fact, people will trust reviews by other customers much more than they trust content coming from your
production facility.
The best way to generate positive reviews for your business is to make sure your supply chain management
or logistics is carried out well to ensure all available resources are put into the output or production system.
Operation management helps ensure all business activities are done to meet customer needs.
Related: Modern Rules of Reputation Management Using Reverse SEO
Enthusiastic comments fromcustomerswill positively influence your operation management. Source: Spade
Burgers
Maximize Profit
When operations management is optimized, you’ll be able to maximize production and even increase it to
meet customer demand. This will inevitably lead to an increase in profits for your organization too.
Additionally, it is also the goal of operations management to cut down production costs and come up with
products and services that are cost-effective.
Products and services that are cost-effective will also be more affordable for the consumer. Hence, quality
management and supply chain management should reach their goals to produce quality products without the
need to overspend.
What Are the Key Benefits of Operation Management? 5 Advantages of Applying Operation
Management To Your Business

The main operations management’s importance is to increase your company’s efficiency in production
system, apart from just focusing on a revenue increase.
When practiced well, operations management can have many benefits for your business:
1. Increasing Competitiveness Within The Industry
When your organization has operating management in control, you have a better competitive advantage with
both internal and external factors influencing your particular industry.
This means you can fine-tune proper operations management details so that you perform better than your
competitors providing the same products or services.
When you know what the role operations management ensures in industry standards, it will be easier to
improve them to excel in terms of product quality and added value.
You will also be able to infuse in your own unique features as an operations manager to make your products
and services stand out. [2]
Pro Tip: Make sure you liaise with other departments to know how you can add value and product quality to
your services and products to make them more competitive.
2. Managing Costs and Profitability
One of the key components in operation management is the ability to convert input like materials, resources,
and tech into the final product.
With proper operations management, you will be able to bring down the costs of the resources you put in.
The best way is to ensure that you do not compromise on the quality of these resources whilst ensuring you
don’t overspend.
Pro Tip: Cheap materials and all the resources aren’t always the answer to keeping production costs down.
Look at maximizing production efficiency instead.
3. Making Use of Technology in Production
Operations management involves using tech to make the production process smoother, faster, and more
efficient overall. As an operation manager, you will be exposed to the latest developments that can help your
organization.
Among the technologies available would include planning and tracking software, the internet of things,
artificial intelligence, big data reporting systems, and much more.
Choosing the most suitable technology for your operations can bring it to another level of productivity. [3]
Operations management helps make tech one of the key benefits of producing goods.
Pro Tip: Networking with others in your industry and attending business seminars/conventions is one way
to help you keep up with the latest output-related tech.
4. Waste Reduction
In any discussion about the significance of operations management, we have to consider that all inputs and
resources used by the production process are precious.
One thing that operation management can achieve is to allow you to identify where resources are being
wasted. This can be through inventory control or checks, lean manufacturing strategies, and JIT inventory
management.

Overall, you can cut manufacturing processes costs and maximize the usage of resources. You’ll also be able
to find valuable ways to recycle waste or re-purpose them in a value-added manner.
Pro Tip: One industry’s waste is another industry’s raw materials. Look at how you can reduce costs by
profiting from any of your waste products.
If your business generates lots of plastic waste, look at selling or giving them to social businesses that can
recycle them. Source: reCharka_ecosocial
5. Enhancing Employee Motivation
Employee experience is part of the importance of management. This includes being able to motivate your
employees to reach their full potential. An organization with unmotivated personnel will face all sorts of
productivity issues.
Operations management will allow you to effectively find ways to make your employees love their jobs.
This includes enhancing communication, increasing access to support, optimum utilization of mentoring
systems, and providing an effective plan to reward hard work and achievements. [4]
Scheduling personnel is an example of operations management, whereby you have to determine schedules
that don’t overwork any employee.
This can be a daunting task for an operation manager, but if done well, it can enhance your team’s
motivation to continue working with your organization.
Pro Tip: Developing a rewards system involves communicating with your employees to see what they
value most. Operations management ensures that you avoid making assumptions and identify the true
motivators in your organization.
How Operations Management Functions With Other Departments
Operations management is basically a department within a business organization, one of several departments
that are needed for the organization to function. The other departments usually found in a business include
finance, marketing, human resource, sales, and IT.
The size and number of staff working in operations depend on the size of the company itself. As such, the
operations department doesn’t function alone and it has to constantly communicate with other departments in
order for production goals to be accomplished within the organization.
The operations department is highly crucial as it is responsible for delivering quality goods and services.

Operations is one of the many departments in a company. Source: Smartsheet
This is because the marketing department acts like a ‘bridge’ that connects the customers to the products of
companies.
Transforming Inputs: The Role of Operation Management
Understanding what is operations management means understanding that it is a process of transformation.
That is, operation management’s main function is to transform inputs into goods and services.
As an operations manager, it is important to maintain these aspects to build a customer base that’s loyal.
These inputs can come in many forms, including:
 Human resource or labor
 Capital and financing
 Raw materials
 Technology
 Assets like land and buildings
 Information and methodology
The main function of operations management in any organization is to ensure that this transformation
process is run as efficiently as possible. When efficiency is discussed, it simply means that the
transformation process must:
 Be cost-effective
 Minimize wastage
 Add value to the product or service for customers
 Not harm the environment
 Be fast and efficient
 Be able to meet demand

How operations management’s transformation process works. Source: Lumen Learning
When your operations management is successful, this will make it easier for the management of other
departments to be done much more easily too. Reasons to study operations management include the need to
understand how operational management relates to other business activities. Once you have an end product
or service from the transformation process, it cannot just lie dormant.
It has to be sold in order to generate an income for your company. As an operation manager, you’ll have to
understand how your business products connect to the customers.
What is Marketing Operations Management?
This is where marketing management comes in. This department in any company is responsible for
informing the general public that business products exist. Their job also involves making these products as
attractive as possible.
Online live streaming to sell products is becoming more common. Source: Richvalet
Marketing itself has many methods, channels, and strategies. As a general rule, the most modern and
effective marketing platforms online more often than not incorporate elements like:
 Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
 Affiliate marketing
 Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
 And the usage of various Google Marketing Tools as part of their services offered.
Just like management operations, operations management also involves identifying and optimizing the
various systems and processes involved.
It is defined as the planning, monitoring, staffing, and controlling of the tasks, performance, and direction of
the marketing team along with its collaterals.
Among the systems that one has to understand to have better controls over marketing includes:
Data analytics
The ability to interpret data connected to client engagement with your brand in order to effectively manage,
improve, and sustain customer experience or maintenance.

An example of data analytics from Instagram. Source: Influencer Marketing Hub
Statistical Reports
These will help you evaluate performances in terms of sales, and also which products are the best selling in
order to organize future planning for ensuing campaigns.
Managing customer relations
Putting systems in place to deal with customer service, answer queries, and follow-ups in an efficient manner
to build healthy customer relationships and encourage customer loyalty.
Managing Content
These include marketing content on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tiktok as
well as website content. It also includes monitoring offline content such as billboards, print ads, and the like.
You may be interested in: What is Google Display Ads & How to Use It to Grow your Business
Taking Care of Your Digital Assets
All forms of images, videos, written articles, copywriting, and more are your organizations’ marketing
digital assets and have to be stored securely as well as backed up.
Analyzing Calls
Having systems in place to monitor live interactions with customers will help you troubleshoot problems and
improve their call experience for better customer satisfaction.

Operations Management Strategies: Perfecting Processes Involved
These days, operations management definition also includes the ability to meet customer demand with
effective operations management that covers the supply chain management field.
Here are some of the effective operations management strategies you can employ for the long term:
1. Managing Resources
As an operation manager, it should come in nature to have an optimal utilization of quality control
management process for all resources including human resources, raw materials, equipment, and technology.
Raw materials should always be part of your strategy for better operation management.
2. Research and Development
Managing processes signifies to prioritize inventory, quantity & quality control, and to effectively manage
the manufacturing process. There should always be R&D efforts to increase output efficiency, durability,
reliability, and explore waste reduction.
3. Departmental Collaborations
Effective operations management cannot function on its own so you will need to speak to the operations
managers from other departments in order to ensure that production planning is done on the same page.
4. Communicating with Customers
Revenue growth depends highly on customers, and therefore their feedback should be taken into
consideration to ensure consumer satisfaction. To achieve and maintain a good reputation, the customer
needs should factor into your process design flawlessly.
5. Using Data Wisely
Data is crucial to your business because it gives you knowledge about more than just operations. Be sure to
gather data in relation to the different departments and operations to ensure the knowledge, and your skills
are not interpreted in a silo.
6. Make Your Process Visible
Whenever you make any slight process improvement to your process as an operations manager, make sure to
promote it and let your consumers know. Customers like to know how things are made or developed in your
production facility or organization to have higher customer satisfaction.
Key Takeaways Operations Management
As an operations manager, it is important to understand your role in relation to the bigger picture in the cycle
of operation management.
Operation management is not a difficult or technical science. However, it does require you to set objectives
for targeting increased revenue, optimizing service delivery, doing capacity planning, and ensuring quality
products.
Good operation management can cause a revenue increase, but you will have to work hard to make sure you
reach organisational goals and provide customer satisfaction.

OperationManagement: Definition, Importance,Decisions
Operation management refers to the direction and control of the process that transforms inputs into
products and services. Broadly interpreted, operation management underlies all functional areas,
because, processes are found in all business activities. Narrowly interpreted, operation refers to a
particular department.
What is Operation Management? – Why Operation
Management is a Systematic Design Direction and Control of
Processes?
Operations management is an area of management concerned with overseeing, designing, and
controlling the process of production and redesigning business operations in the production of
goods or services.
In simple words, operation management as a systematic design direct and control of the process.
Operation management involves the systematic direction and control of the process that transform
resources (input) into finished goods or services for customers or clients (output).
This basic model applies equally in manufacturing and services organizations and both the private
and non-profit sectors.
 If the customers are dissatisfied, then the overall system should be revised.

 If the customer is being satisfied with the current process, then the process should be
continued until the system/ process provides customer satisfaction.
 Finally, a transformation process is any activity or group of activities that takes one or more
inputs, transfers, and adds value to them and provides for customers or clients.
Operation system must allocate resource to processes, enable processes to share and exchange
information, protect the resources of each process from other process and enable synchronization
among processes, to meet these requirements the operation system must maintain a data structure
for each process, which describe the state and resource ownership of that process and which enables
the operating system to exert control over each process.
2 principles in operation management should be kept in mind;
1. Each part of an organization, not just the operations function, must design and operate
processes and deal with quantity, technology, and staffing issues.
2. Each part of an organization has its own identity and yet is connected with operations.
Functions of Operation Management: How Operation
Management Looks like in an Organization
As a firm grows in size, different departments must be created that assume responsibility for certain
clusters of process.
From the above figure, it is seen that in large organizations, the operation department is usually
responsible for the actual transformation inputs into finished product services.
 Accounting collects, summarizes, and interprets financial information.
 Distribution develops product and service designs and production methods.
 Finance secures and invests in the company’s capital assets.
 Human resource hires and trains employees.
 Marketing generates demand for the company’s output.
In small businesses, the owners might manage one or more functions, such as marketing or
operations.

We can see that the operation management draws many skill areas, quantitative analysis to solve
problems knowledge of information systems to manage vast quantities of data, concepts of
organizational behavior to aid in designing jobs, and managing the workforce.
Operation Management as a Competitive Weapon
In the global era, business and govt, leaders are increasingly recognizing the importance of
involving the whole organization in making strategic decisions.
Because the organization usually commits the bulk of its human and financial assets to operations,
the operation is an important function in meeting global competition.
Largely because of foreign competition and the explosion of new technologies, recognition is
growing that a firm competes not only by offering new products and services but also with unique
competencies in operations.
5 Types of Operation Management Decisions
Decision making, both strategic and tactical, is an essential aspect of all management activities,
including operation management. The types of Operating Management decisions can be divided
into 5 categories;
1. Strategic choice
Operation management helps to determine the company’s global strategies and competing priorities
and how best to design processes that fit with its competitive priorities.
2. Process
A Process is fundamental to all activities that produce goods and services. Ex: Operation
Management make process decisions about the types of work to be done in house, the amount of
automation to use and methods of improving existing processes.
3. Quality
Quality issues underlie all processes and work activities. Operations management helps to establish
quality objectives and seek ways to improve the quality of the products and services.
4. Capacity, Location, and Layout
Operation managers help to determine the system’s capacity, the location of new facilities, and the
organizations of departments and a facility’s physical layout.
5. Operating Decisions
At this stage, operation management takes the decision regarding supply chain management,
inventory management, aggregate planning, resource planning, lean systems, and schedules, etc.

Importance and Value of Operations Management
There is a total of eleven importance of operations management
Production Efficiency
Production is the prime area of cost minimization for any company. By the proper cost calculation
marks and spencer can avoid the high costing and ensure the production efficiency of their product.
Profit Maximization
The main goal of any business is profit maximization and the goal can be fulfilled by maximum
sales to the customers and efficient operation management. Marks and Spencer need to focus on
their customer base and increase the base with attractive offers and promotions.
The Satisfaction of the Customers
Satisfied and happy customers make a businessman satisfied and successful. This statement proves
that the key to success lies in customer satisfaction. So the company needs to provide its customers
with their demand and satisfied them with their desired product varieties (Rollins and Thompson,
1978). This is also done by the appropriate implementation of operation management.
Effective Utilization of the Resources
Operations management ensures the proper utilization of the resources. Strong operation
management planed each and every sector of the utilization of the invested resources in the
production and operation process.
Management of Inventory
Operations management ensures the best use of inventories. Marks and Spencer use total quality
management (TQM) inventory strategy which saves resources and ensures effective production of
the clothing and their selling time (Ulrich, Dyllick and Probst, 1984).
Capacity Management
Capital investment is managed by the operation management properly. All the resources and capital
utilization done properly in various working processes. Operation management prevents the
wastage of unused capital and ensures safety for future use.

Improvement of Product Quality
Mark and Spencer are very careful about their product quality and maintenance. Continuous the
company is trying to improve its product quality to make them better and more preferable to the
customers, which is one of the prime concerns of operation management (Ulrich, Dyllick and
Probst, 1984).
Create Strong Operation Skill
The skills base of the employees can be improved by the operation management planning.
Operation management helps to build a strong employee base and ensure the skilled workforce
supply to compete with the global market.
Improvement of Working Conditions
The Working condition is very important for employees to work motivation which is ensured by the
operations management. Workplace safety and comfort depends on operations management. The
more facilities become well, the better performance can be expected from employees.
Supply Chain Management
Operations management ensures a good relationship with the suppliers to ensure their raw material
supply for a long time and maintain a long term relationship with them (Ulrich, Dyllick and Probst,

1984). The relationship with intermediaries and suppliers can get better with the help of operations
management.
Scheduling Management
Operations management plan a schedule of work for business to perform on a daily basis to ensure
long term success. All the business tasks are pre-scheduled and scheduling helps the managers to
maintain co-ordination of the operation in the organization.
7 Factors Affecting Operation Management
Global Competition
Global competition is an important factor that is affecting the operation management and decision
making of the Marks and Spencer Ltd. As a multinational retailer, they have so many varieties of
clothing options offered for their respective customers but other competitions worldwide affecting
the customer base of the organization (BARRACLOUGH, 2016). Without the online shop, they
need to focus on the Asian market to grab more customers and attract them to compete globally.
Material and Capital Security
Raw materials and capital are the most crucial ingredients of operation management. The
organization needs to have a close observation to secure them and ensure the proper utilization of
the materials.
Quality, Customer Care, and Expenditure Challenge
Customers want a quality product with better service and affordable cost. But maintaining three of
them can maximize the cost of production. So providing customers with better product and service
quality is a big challenge for Mark and Spencer Ltd.
Social Responsibilities

Each and every company has to perform some social welfare for the local community and maintain
a good relationship with society (BARRACLOUGH, 2016). Because these kinds of social issues
can seriously ensure the improvement or damage to the company’s business condition.
Expansion of Technology Advancement
Technology is a must for the Marks and Spencer Ltd to make the manufacturing and processing of
operations easier and convenient for the employees of the organization. The technology
advancement forces the organization to target new markets, customer base and a group of people
with their expansion of it (BARRACLOUGH, 2016). As a multinational retailer Marks and Spencer
need to make their technological advancement decision very carefully and to use them in a very
specific way to make the best use of it.
Legal Considerations
Marks and Spencer Ltd need to be concern about their legal rules and regulations in various
sections like tax, export-import, vat, tariffs, and government policies. Any disobedience can affect
the business negatively and hamper the business condition. So the decision should be taken with the
proper observation of the current legal situation wherever necessary.
Business Ethics
Marks and Spencer follow each and every primary business ethics of the business environment.
They practice their business operations by maintaining the code of ethics so the business policies do
not hamper with any adverse condition (Marksandspencer.com, 2017).

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