To What Extend Is Operations Management a Strategic Activity? Be Sure to Give Examples and Views of Literature.
TO WHAT EXTEND IS OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT A STRATEGIC ACTIVITY? Be sure to give examples and views of literature.
Paton, Clegg, Hsuan and Pilkington, (2011), defined Operation management as the activity of managing the resources of the organization that deliver goods and services. The activity is mainly to implement system and processes that are repeatable, consistent and reliable. Process design was first introduce by Frederick Taylor, who believe in rationalism and who wrote rules and procedures for unskilled workers to follow so as to replace uncertainty with predictability. All operations have similarities; they all transform input resources into output products, and however they differ in their characteristics which are; the volume of the output, the variety of the offering, the variation and the degree of visibility. Operation management is in everyday life and is said to be a strategic activity as it has to do with the creation of product and services, which is the core competence area of any businesses. It covers such a wide range of activities that the performance of any businesses, depends on it, this no matter if in the manufacturing or in services activities. It is for this reason that operation management is seen as being at the heart of the competitive strategy, thus a strategic activity. In the next paragraphs I will talk about how the factors; competences, quality and Cost have vital contribution to operation management making it a strategic activity.
COMPETENCES
Competitive advantage is important for the success of a company and this depends on the competences possessed by the company. Key competences are the minimum competences that a company needs to have to compete in its industry and core competences are these competences that the company is good at doing. The core competences of a company are what make it different from its rivals and thus gain competitive advantage. Let’s take the car industry, their product is the same but the difference
Paton, Clegg, Hsuan and Pilkington, (2011), defined Operation management as the activity of managing the resources of the organization that deliver goods and services. The activity is mainly to implement system and processes that are repeatable, consistent and reliable. Process design was first introduce by Frederick Taylor, who believe in rationalism and who wrote rules and procedures for unskilled workers to follow so as to replace uncertainty with predictability. All operations have similarities; they all transform input resources into output products, and however they differ in their characteristics which are; the volume of the output, the variety of the offering, the variation and the degree of visibility. Operation management is in everyday life and is said to be a strategic activity as it has to do with the creation of product and services, which is the core competence area of any businesses. It covers such a wide range of activities that the performance of any businesses, depends on it, this no matter if in the manufacturing or in services activities. It is for this reason that operation management is seen as being at the heart of the competitive strategy, thus a strategic activity. In the next paragraphs I will talk about how the factors; competences, quality and Cost have vital contribution to operation management making it a strategic activity.
COMPETENCES
Competitive advantage is important for the success of a company and this depends on the competences possessed by the company. Key competences are the minimum competences that a company needs to have to compete in its industry and core competences are these competences that the company is good at doing. The core competences of a company are what make it different from its rivals and thus gain competitive advantage. Let’s take the car industry, their product is the same but the difference
References: Juran, J.M (1988), Quality control handbook, 4th edition, Mc grawhill, New York Pilkington (2010), Production and operation management guide book, university of London press, UK. Steve Paton, Ben Clegg, Juliana Hsuan and Alan Pilkington(2011), Operations Management, Mc Grawhill, UK