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Operations Management in Today's Business World

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Operations Management in Today’s Business World

Marc S. Galli

Walden University

Professor Dr. John Richard Horne

BUSI 3010: Operations Management

October 17, 2020

Operations Management in Today’s Business World

Operations management is both a science and an art. Managers are essentially responsible

for both the creation and delivery of goods or services to customers. There is no exact formula for

success and managerial experience is a key to attaining exceptional performance. The decision-

making process which a corporation’s manager of operations follows is quite similar for both

product- and service-based businesses. In a goods-based business, managers must consider several

factors which will affect the decision-making process. Managers must have a solid understanding

of the people its business serves and the processes of production (or acquisition) of its goods which

are sold. Additionally, management and distribution of the goods must be considered and so must

each process for which the business relies on. These days, technology is critical and must be an

essential consideration in all decisions which are to be made (Collier, 2009).

Within a service-based corporation, managers of the company’s operations consider

similar factors which affect the decision-making process, albeit with additional considerations for

planning, budgeting, scheduling, capacity, and quality. Goods are tangible. By comparison,

services are intangible. Services are not consumed as goods are, they are experienced. Service-

industries rely more on information technology and the performance of services relies on a

behavioral and social skillset which must be masterfully employed by the workers. Another factor

which strongly affects decision-making is the level of the customer’s participation. With higher

customer interaction comes more difficulty in the calculation of the time involved in performance

of the service, as well as capacity, scheduling, quality, performance and the cost of operations

(Goods, Services, and Operations Management, 2009).

Managers of a corporation’s operations make countless decisions in the course of a week’s

work. Operations managers look for ways to reduce variables in quality of output of goods or
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services, as well as costs. They seek to minimize use of resources. They comprehend consumer

needs, wants, and demands, and plan to meet and exceed expectations. Managers strategize and

select optimal resources and the technology necessary to reach its goals. Planning the location of

service or of their establishment is within their purview as is consideration for layout and design

of all interior décor and materials which are seen by customers. Operating managers oversee

human resources to an extent and conduct reviews. In terms of contract overview and supply-chain

review, operations managers strategize, streamline, and seek out the perfect partners while

maximizing cost efficiency. They control inventory and consider both productions and personnel.

They make decisions which impact maintenance timetables and conduct scheduling in general

(Kettering University, 2016).

An example which adequately illustrates both oversight and managerial decision-making

can be seen in the following scenario: a manager is making decisions about scheduling, as such,

he considers both people and corporate production. He first determines answers to a few questions,

to wit: how much product is required to be produced for a given customer, how much time will

this production take, what is the time-requirement as set by the client, how many people are

required to complete the job, what types of staff are required to complete the job, what technology

or equipment is required to fulfill the customer’s needs, what considerations must be made to

ensure effective completion, and what adjustments can be made for efficiency. This is just a brief

look into potential considerations just in making a decision about scheduling.

Operations management involves a process known as the transformation process. This

process involves transforming a corporation’s inputs into finalized services or goods. An input is

defined as being any one of the following: a worker, a manager, a building, equipment, materials,

technology, or information (Reid, 2015). Information about the company’s performance as well as
 4

feedback received from customers alters the specific inputs which go into producing goods or

services. By way of example, a bank’s inputs include its staff, its physical building, various papers

and financial instruments, its online banking website and mobile app, and the information it retains

on its customers and partners. A bank offers many services which collectively constitute its

outputs, to wit: checking accounts, savings accounts, money market bank accounts, investment

accounts, certificates of deposit, a safety deposit box, account history or monthly statement

printouts, and more. Much value is created during the transformative process of employing staff

and creating policies and procedures which direct and dictate their behavior such that many

valuable services are provided by the bank.

Functions employed by operations managers’ vary from industry to industry. To take our

review of operations management to the microeconomic level, let us review the functions of an

information technology company. An information technology company in general provides

computer operations and help desk support as well as management of servers, client devices, and

networking infrastructure. An information technology firm operations manager will service

equipment, to include, its backup and restore processes, configuration, and resource allocation. He

will manage infrastructure including the network, corporate facilities, computer hardware, and

computer software, all while sternly taking security into consideration. He will manage the

configuration of all servers and clients’ workstations and update infrastructure, hardware, and

software as needed. He will also mitigate information technology disasters and plan recovery

operations should preventative measures be insufficient (IT Operations, 2020).

Information technology company operations managers often are quite able to staff

competent IT systems administrators. Depending on the size of the company, one or more may be

needed to administer all servers, client workstations, and networking infrastructure. Physical
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security of servers and network security are usually heavily provisioned. Methods to control access

typically include a password-expiry policy, two-factor authentication, use of biometrics for

systems access, and implementation of an active-directory server or applicable single sign-on

system. In spite of even the most comprehensive security measures, the area most requiring

improvement often lies with the human component. Personnel are apt to not take security policies

seriously and can be susceptible to social-engineering. Often it is the most draconian of security

implementations which results in users who are more apt to violate the company security policies

or create passwords which are of a more highly predictable nature.

It is within an operations manager’s purview to make decisions which can have a severe

impact on a corporation. Decisions can be generally divided into two categories, to wit: strategic

decisions and tactical decisions. Strategic decisions are long-term decisions which set the direction

for the organization in its entirety. Contrarily, tactical decisions are short-term and focus solely on

a specific department (Sanders, 2015). In keeping with our previous examples about information

technology companies, an example of a strategic decision would be to specifically outline and

define the unique features of helpdesk and managed information technology services which would

be provided by the company to its clientele. In contrast, an example of a tactical decision could be

deciding upon how often backups are to be made or how often software updates and patches are

installed.

Corporations which choose to expand beyond their locality and country into foreign or

global markets quickly find themselves facing many new challenges and issues which they must

overcome. One such challenge of particular magnitude is the difficult process of interaction and

integration of staff members with other partners, companies, and governments of foreign nations.

Since trends in foreign markets can vary widely, companies going global should build adaptability
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into their production processes and business operations. This can typically be addressed by

enhancing the delegation of decision-making. Another issue which can crop up during

globalization is a breakdown in inter-departmental communication and interaction. To cure this,

every effort should be made to create cohesiveness to the extent that the conduct of each

department, when taken as a whole, appears as if functioning as a single unit. Companies going

global will also have to overcome a lack of competitiveness which they will find occurs in their

goods and services offered in foreign markets (Huenefeld, 2016).

To conclude, operations management is both a science and an art. Managers of a

company’s operations are essentially responsible for orchestrating both the creation and delivery

of goods or services to customers through each and every decision made and through the decision-

making process as a whole. Every decision, whether strategic or tactical influences the ultimate

course of the corporation. While qualifications and credentials are important, managerial

experience is key to attaining exceptional management performance.

References

Collier, D. A., & Evans, J. R. (2009). Operations management. Cengage Learning.

http://4ltrpress.cengage.com/om/om2/om2_ch1.pdf

Goods, Services, and Operations Management. (2009). Operations

Management. https://4ltrpress.cengage.com/om/om2/om2_ch1.pdf

Huenefeld, M. (2016, December 13). Globalization and Operations Management: Five

Recommendations. LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/globalization-operations-

management-five-michael-e-huenefeld/

IT Operations. (2020). CIO Wiki - IT Management Glossary. Retrieved October 17, 2020,

from https://cio-wiki.org/wiki/IT_Operations_(Information_Technology_Operations)

Kettering University. (2016, September 21). 10 critical decisions of operations

management. https://online.kettering.edu/news/2016/09/21/10-critical-decisions-

operations-management

Reid, R. D., & Sanders, N. R. (2015). Operations management, An integrated

approach (6th ed.). John Wiley &

Sons. https://class.content.laureate.net/be05ccd897cb3d986ebded3883e2c8de.pdf