week 1

• Operations management


  The management process that converts inputs (such as materials, labour, and energy) into outputs (in the form of goods and services)
• Scope of operations


  To get the delivery done
• Competitive advantage


  Need vs want → a problem leads to a need; solution offering creates a want → this all leads to competitive advantage
• what gives you competitive advantage?

  • Unique selling points
• Performance objectives


  • Cost
  • Dependability
  • Speed
  • Flexibility
  • Sustainability
• Role of operations

  Deliver the products in order to sell the goods and to satisfy the customers
• The 4 V's


  • Volume → size of scale of the output eg how many items are manufactured
  • Variety → size of product range or number of services offered
  • Variance → how the level of demand changes over time and thereby affects the volume of outputs (short term or seasonal)
  • Variability → the extent to which each product or service may be customised or not
• The difference between 'production management' and 'operations management'
• 6 forms of organisation


  • Simple
  • Functional
  • Divisional
  • Conglomerate
  • Hybrid/matrix
  • Virtual
• What are the four Vs and what do each relate to?
• How are services and manufacturing supposed to be different?
• Servuction system


  How it has changed over the years
• Operations is about making products or executing services like restaurants and banks
• Operations Management


  The planning and organizing of the production of manufactured goods and delivery of services
• Competitive Advantage


  To sell your product in competitive markets, you have to be better than the competition, as judged by the customer based on the expected satisfaction of needs
• Performance Objectives


  • Cost
  • Quality
  • Flexibility
  • Dependability
  • Speed
  • Sustainability: contributing to a sustainable future for environment, people and business
• Performance Objectives are a powerful instrument for customers, marketing departments, companies, and analysts/consultants
• Cost


  For the Consumer: all costs to get the product to the customer

  For the Company: if the company lowers its cost, the company can lower prices, increase profits, or do both
• Role of Operations


  Operations is the function in organizations that must provide the physical products and the services that the company can market profitably
• Operations interfaces with the customer when customer order entry is a part of Operations, when customer service is an Operations responsibility, when things go wrong in deliveries, and often in service industries
• Interfaces between Operations and other business functions

  Longer Term: Strategic Planning, Sales & Ops Planning, Budget Planning

  Shorter Term: Marketing & Sales Plans, Capacity Plan, Production Scheduling
• Your effectiveness in your future work will be determined by your knowledge of the world that you live in and how you use that knowledge in your work