Introduction to Operations Management Management Essay

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Introduction
Operations management governs the supervision of the business practices to uphold an excellent level of efficiency in the organization. It is primarily concerned with raw materials, labor, products, and services. The operations entail changing the raw materials into products that will be distributed to the retailers. The methods of creating the products must be systematic and efficient to obtain maximal profitability CITATION Ken19 \l 1033 (Kenton, 2019).
This department is categorized into teams to balance the costs with revenue. This action will ensure the highest net operating profit. To achieve this, operations managers are responsible for handling strategic issues such as the problems in manufacturing plants, strategies in project management, and inventory. Moreover, they are required to monitor the work-in-process from the acquisition of the raw materials to the distribution of the products CITATION Ken19 \l 1033 (Kenton, 2019).
One of its critical functions is to manage the supply chain to ensure a seamless workflow. Thus, coordination with various departments is also an essential task of an operations manager CITATION Ken19 \l 1033 (Kenton, 2019).
This paper will analyze the operations management of a company including its competition, supply chain, and organizational structure.
Competition
The main objective of the managing director is to redeem the Carparts Company’s profitability by equally competing with its competitors. Currently, the company has many competitors all over the UK, especially in Mid-and-Northern England. All of these companies can distribute their products within 24 hours after placing the order. The primary problem of the company is the delay in the delivery of its products which takes approximately 48 hours after the order has been placed. The managing director revealed that the primary issue is the distance. However, this is subject to question since other companies were able to deliver goods within a short period.
Kumar & Suresh (2009), the aims of operations management can be categorized based on two concepts, namely, customer service and resource utilization. The first concern is to satisfy the demands of the customers at all times. Thus, it is essential to improve the customer service of a company. This involves four concepts, including manufacture, transport, supply, and service. All of these are governed by costs and timing. However, for the clients, the more important is timing. For the clients to be satisfied, the company must provide their needs at the right place and right time.
The utilization of resources is crucial to satisfy the customers by providing them high-quality products. Insufficient utilization of resources, despite achieving excellent customer service, will result in the failure of the operating system. This aspect analyzes the issues on the rate of production over the volume of output, product range, and quality, and the cost of operation (Kumar & Suresh, 2009).
To some extent, customer service and resource utilization conflict, like in the case given. Now, we will discuss the issues in customer service and resource utilization that are present in the case:
Problems by Department
Issues that are common to all departments include the lack of staff and the poor utilization of technology. The majority of the departments only have three employees except for the warehouse where there are eight employees. It has also been stated the overall number of employees has been reduced by 20%.
Suppliers and Purchasing
* Issues:
* Sales Department: It has been implied the purchasing is systematized from person-to-person contact. However, a gap exists when the customer orders through the telephone. When ordering online, all the available stocks of the products are shown to the consumer. The inability of the company to convey the lack of stock for a specific product when ordering through the phone will cause a problem in inventory since the production manager will have to satisfy the additional orders on time despite not having the appropriate number of raw materials. Because of this loophole, customers may receive a “backorder” when the quantity of the storage cannot fulfill the placed order.
Additionally, the company does not utilize automatic routing for e-purchases. The sales clerk still needs to match the client’s details to the spreadsheet before the order can be placed. Moreover, the availability of the stock will still be counterchecked by the sales agent with the warehouse staff. This method is time-consuming and prone to errors.
Also, there was no given analysis of monthly sales and seasonal changes. The backorders are also not calculated on a monthly basis. Without this, there will be no exact details on how much the company loses from the possible lost clients.
* Production Control Department: The primary problem lies in the backorders and the absence of analysis coming from the monthly sales. The latter must be provided by the sales department to match it with the monthly demand forecast generated by this department. This department also lacks an analysis of seasonal changes in product demands. With a poor analysis of product demands, seasonal changes, and backlogs, there will be a constant gap in the production that leads to the continuous presence of shortage and backlogs.
* Recommendations
* The company should fix the system and incorporate the automatic routing of orders in e-purchases. Reid & Sanders (2019) states that automatic routing has two main tasks. First, the orders are routed for authorization and second, the completed p...