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Strategic Decision Making - The Royal Navy

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Added on  2020-04-21

Strategic Decision Making - The Royal Navy

   Added on 2020-04-21

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IntroductionThis assessment identifies the issues that are relevant for strategic decision making byoperations manager in a manufacturing company. This report analyzes the case study on The Royal Navy which is a company that designs and manufactures parts and equipment required to assemble war ships. The Royal Navy manufactured its equipment and parts at their Royal Dockyard while at the same time depending on theservices of various vendors. The vendors were contracted to supply specialized items and equipment that the company found uneconomical to produce by itself. The dependence on these vendor results to operational problems for RN since at time they may delay in supplying the required items and equipment and hence affecting other production related activities in the organization (Ruhanita, 2011). Ships may end up delaying before they return to duty. The outsourcing of the vendors also results to issues on quality standards and the workers of RN may be forced to put more work onthem and hence resulting to extra cost of labor and loss of productivity.This report therefore identifies the operational, strategic and financial challenges faced by RN and identifies ways in which these problems could be solved. The report begins with identification of the major strategic decisions the operational manager should take when choosing appropriate manufacturing processes. The most significantof these considerations are indicated. The issue of interference by management through ordering that Goodrich employees as few workers as possible is discussed.The management should have let the operational manager make decisions on staffing depending on analysis carried out. The paper also analyzes the initial manufacturing design using the data provided. The implications of RN achieving a maximum fleet size of 1000 vessels are identified and explained in this paper based on the statistics available to RN at the time. Suggestions on improving information
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flow in the Royal Dockyard through improving design and application of modern technology are made in the report (Thukaram, 2013). In addition to these, the paper also contains recommendation on improving production plan and how to meet the various types of demand it RN is faced with.Q1.Operations managers play a very critical role in management of production in a company. The operations manager is charged with the responsibility of minimizing production costs in an organization by designing production systems that are very efficient. Operations manager is also expected to draw production plans and schedulesfor factory workers so as to ensure that an organization keeps up with the level of demand. This also ensures that all the production related activities run smoothly without delay or interference. At the RN, the operations manager is expected to make major strategic decisions which affect the production and the general performance of RN. One of the strategic decisions is on the products to be manufactured at the Royal Dockyard. The operations manager should estimate and analyze the cost of producing each products needed by RN. After determining this, the operations manager can then analyze and compare the cost of manufacturing the products and the cost of outsourcing the same (Krznaric, 2007). This information helps the operations managerto make a decision on which products to manufacture in their factory and which ones to outsource from other suppliers and hence maximizing efficiency in the organization.The operations manager at RN also needs to make strategic decisions related to processes. Processes are very crucial especially in production since most of the activities are related. The failure in one or some of the process may lead to collapse of
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the all the activities and operations within the organization. The operations manager needs to decide on the processes that should be followed in order to successfully complete specific tasks in an organization. The processes chosen have to be the most economical in terms of time and even cost. Strategic processes helps to ensure that thecompany optimizes production while employing as little labor as possible. Division oflabor and allocating of tasks is very important in a manufacturing company since the activities of the organization depend on processes which are interrelated and thereforeevery single process is crucial in determining the final output.Apart from the strategic decisions on products and processes, the operations manager also has a huge responsibility of making decisions on the manufacturing facilities of the organization. One of the issues identified as being at the center of the problems faced by RN is on the manufacturing facilities. Manufacturing facilities in this case involves plant the building factory, machine and equipment. The operations manager of NR makes strategic decisions on the location of manufacturing plant and factories within the organization or any other location as deemed appropriate (Puddefoot, 2010). The operations manager considers factors such as availability of raw materials,production processes involved and their arrangement as well as the bulkiness of the materials. In the case of RN for example, bulky items required in manufacturing and repairing ship should be located closest to the sea. The operations manager also makesdecisions on the new technological equipment and machinery required. He/she recommends to the management new technology that would contribute to increased efficiency in manufacturing. The other important strategic decision made by the operations manager is on the capacity of the manufacturing plants and factory. The operations manager makes an analysis and determines the need to increase the production capacity of the factory depending on demand. The operations manager has
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