University Operations Management and Strategy Report - EBIP3103

This report delves into the multifaceted realm of Operations Management (OM), elucidating its fundamental role in planning, coordinating, and controlling resources to produce goods and services. It begins by defining OM and highlighting its significance as a core function in both service and manufacturing organizations. The report then explores the OM's transformative role, emphasizing how it converts inputs (people, materials, money) into outputs (goods and services) to add value and enhance efficiency. It examines various definitions of OM, emphasizing the common thread of optimizing resource utilization to achieve customer satisfaction. Furthermore, the report provides a literature review on how operation management operate, encompassing design, standard management, and process improvement. It also discusses the implementation timeline of OM within an organization, underscoring its continuous nature and integration with other functional departments. The report concludes by summarizing the key concepts, emphasizing the critical role of OM in business success and sustainability, and providing relevant references.

Running head: OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS STRATEGY
OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS STRATEGY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS STRATEGY
Question 1
Operations Management
Different authors has formulated different definitions of operation management,
which are mentioned as follows.
Operations management manages the procedure of creating products and services.
The function operation management consist of planning, controlling, organization and
coordinating all the resources needed for manufacturing the products and services. It also
consist of management function such as managing other employees, equipments, data and
technology that is required for manufacturing the products and services (Slack, 2018).
Operation management is a function of business, which plans, organizes and
supervises the production of goods and services. Operation management helps the business
organization to successfully transform their inputs such as raw materials, human resources,
equipments and technology into outputs such as products and services (Reid & Sanders,
2019).
Operation management directs the business functions to maintain the efficiency of the
business firm. Main activity of the operation management is to organize, coordinate and
control the resources to produce the products and services. It ensures the business firm to
generate maximum profit by balancing the costs with the revenue earned (Reid & Sanders,
2015).
Operations management is described as the process of administering the functions of
the organization for achieving the topmost efficiency level of an organization. The operations
management operates by transforming the resources such as raw materials and human
resources into products and services in the most efficient way possible to achieve profit
maximization. The operation management also maintains a balance between the production
cost and cost of goods sold or service delivered for attaining a high operating profit.

2OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS STRATEGY
These definitions are proposed by different authors however it can be observed that
all these definitions refer to the similar point. Consider the example of a pharmaceutical
company, which is engaged in the business of rendering delivery services to hospitals and
pharmacies. Their marketing department is responsible for promoting, selling and receiving
feedbacks from the customers about their medicines. The finance department gathers funds
and provides it different department for manufacturing the products. The operation
management function will be to plan strategies and coordinate the various resources required
to design, manufacture and deliver these medicines to their customers. Without operations,
the company would not be able to manufacture and sell their products.
Purpose of operation management
Customers want product or services of the right quality, in the right time, at the right
place and with right quantity. Along with these four requirements, customers also want the
goods and services at an affordable price. The function of the operation management includes
controlling the organization resources, such as material, man power, technology and data,
which are used for manufacturing and delivering the products and services. The operation
management makes optimum utilization of these resources to manufacture and deliver the
goods and services for satisfying the requirements of the customers. Therefore, the integral
purpose of the operation management is to manufacture or deliver a product or service at the
right price, right quality, and right quantity and at the right time (Malakooti, 2014).
 Customer satisfaction The major objective of operation management is to make an
optimum utilization of all the resources of the organization for manufacturing the
goods and services required to serve the needs of the customers and thus satisfy them
by delivering the goods or services at the right time, right place and right price.

3OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS STRATEGY
 Optimum utilization of resources The operation management is responsible for
making proper utilization of resources of the organization for satisfying the customer
demands.
 Cost minimization Every organization aims to minimize their production cost
which is done by the operation management. Operation management effectively
reduces the cost of production of goods and cost of delivering services to customers to
earn their satisfaction.
 Maximize efficiency Operation management aims to maximize the efficiency of the
resources during manufacturing products and services to effectively satisfy the
customer demands.
 Maximizing the use of resources Manpower, machineries and money should be
used effectively to their maximum extent to produce maximum output in form of
products and services and provide it to the customers.
 Ensuring organization sustainability Operation management makes numerous
strategies, which will have long-term as well as short-term effect on the capacity of
the organization to create products and services, delivered to achieve customer
satisfaction. When the operation management is focused on customers satisfaction,
their chances of long-term sustainability increases in the market.
Literature review on how operation management operate
The operation management function operates by planning, controlling, coordinating
and supervising other functions of the organization in order to transform the input into
outputs for maximum customer satisfaction. Their operations involve analyzing the resources,
direct and indirect expenses of the organization, manpower and the process of manufacturing
(Heizer, 2016).

4OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS STRATEGY
Depending on the structure of the organization, the operation management performs
various jobs as their function is cross departmental. However, in most of the cases their job is
divided into three divisions.
 Design  Before actually beginning the planning process the operation management
analyzes the market demands. If the management finds that the customer demands for
a unique and niche product then the operation management starts the planning or
designing the products. The planning process starts with planning the initial concept
or design of the product to its launch. It also involves the testing stages. Sometimes
the operation management team just needs to enhance the logistic or supply chain
processes (Jacobs, Chase & Lummus, 2014). This gives a variety to the existing
product or services. In any new organizations, the operation management plans to
expand the business operations such as deciding the location for the organization, the
layout and the capacity. Every strategy of the operation management needs to
developed based on the objectives of the organization. Operation management should
develop plans after considering the budget of the organization, the amount of stock
and the human resources. Thus, measurement tools such as capacity are used, after the
implementation of the strategies, for comparing the actual organizational performance
with the standard performance and figuring out if there is a need for changing or
improving the strategies made by the operation management (Mahadevan, 2015).
 Standard management  After the planning phase is over and the product design is
ready, the employees converts these plans into actions or objectives for manufacturing
the products or providing services. These actions are based on the decision of the
operation management such as setting up the right process for manufacturing the
product, setting the market price and setting the workflow. However, the work of
operation management does not end over here. The operation management need to

5OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS STRATEGY
constantly manage the operations to prevent any mistakes, adjusting the production
process to any changing laws or changing price and maintaining the efficiency of the
employees of different levels. Their task is to select the process, which will give an
optimum result by producing products of right quality and right quantity. To produce
an efficient product the operation management need to take proper maintenance of the
equipments, managing the stock as well as supply chain management (Ivanov,
Tsipoulanidis & Schönberger, 2017). The most important of all these tasks is
managing the human resources such as analyzing and identifying the areas, which
requires employees. A right employee at the right place will make the organization
more efficient.
 Process improvement  Improvement is a continual process and it is done on used
process, quality that has already been achieved and man-power involvement. Changes
are made to bring improvement in the organization therefore operation management
has to take follow up on their long term objectives as these are the main area which
needs improvement over time. A proper analysis and forecast of customer demands
helps the operation management to make improvement for increasing the efficiency of
the organization. The operation management also uses tools such as Total Quality
Management, which enhances the quality of the product. The TQM first analyses the
customer needs and accordingly the product or services is manufactured or rendered
to satisfy those customer needs. Constant feedbacks are taken from the customers to
monitor their satisfaction level and make improvements in the products or services,
wherever needed. For improving the efficiency of the human resources, the operation
management apply, the collaboration strategy as the managers alone is not responsible
for ensuring proper quality and customer satisfaction, every employee in the
organization is committed for providing customer satisfaction (Reid & Sanders,

6OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS STRATEGY
2019). Continuous improvement in planning, designing, manufacturing and delivering
the products and services helps in enhancing the efficiency of the products and
services, reducing the cost of production, providing excellent customer service and
maintain higher level of customer satisfaction. Nowadays improvement include
applying advanced technologies in their process or products, which will boost the
efficiency of the organization (Nazarpoori, Ghodsi & Nami, 2014).
Time to execute operation management
The major objective of operation management is to transform the input (resources)
into output (products or services) which will satisfy the customers. The operation
management have responsibilities of formulating strategies for the company and monitoring
the daily production. The work of operations management is diverse as it is cross functional,
knotting up all the functional departments together such as marketing, human resource,
finance and sales. The operation management department is involved in activities like
designing and developing the products or services, the process of production and distribution.
The advancement of technology also plays a key role in maintaining sustainability of the
organization. The operation management team needs to manage the resources such as man
power, machineries, materials and money for producing the right products and services
according to the demands of the customers. The operation management can be referred to as
the central unit of organization involved in planning, designing and handling the
manufacturing and development process of products and services. Therefore, the functions of
the operations department starts before any other functional department engages in any
activities. As the operations management is mainly concerned with planning and designing
the products and services thereby, the operation management executes their function at the
start of any organization or before the launch of any product or service in an improvised style
aiming new customer segment or before the launch of any additional product line by any

7OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS STRATEGY
organization. Therefore, it can be concluded that the suitable time for implementing
operations management starts prior to any other functional departments and ends much after
them as it continuously controls and handles the production and delivery process and
integrates all other functional departments into a single unit thereby it is essential than any
other functional departments.

8OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS STRATEGY
Conclusion
Hence from the above answer it can be concluded that operations management is the
process of planning, designing and controlling the production and delivery process to
manufacture the product and services for the customers. Different definitions from various
authors and researchers have been provided in the answer. However it can be seen that all the
different definition of operations management confer the same meaning at the end. The
function of the operation management involve controlling the organizational resources for
manufacturing and delivering the products and services to the customers at the right time,
right place, right price, right quantity and right quality. The other functions include
maximizing profit, optimization of resources and satisfying the customers. The three
fundamental activities of operations management is designing and planning the product
process and delivery of services, standard management process of handling and controlling
the manufacturing process and performing continuous improvement of the system. Lastly the
above answer mentions the suitable time for execution of the operations management which
begins before the start of any other activities from functional departments and continues
much after the other functional departments ends their process. Therefore it can be observed
that the operations management forms the most crucial function in the business as the whole
process id depended on them.

9OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS STRATEGY
References
Heizer, J. (2016). Operations management, 11/e. Pearson Education India.
Ivanov, D., Tsipoulanidis, A., & Schönberger, J. (2017). Global supply chain and operations
management. A Decision-Oriented Introduction to the Creation of Value.
Jacobs, F. R., Chase, R. B., & Lummus, R. R. (2014). Operations and supply chain
management (pp. 533-535). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Mahadevan, B. (2015). Operations management: Theory and practice. Pearson Education
Malakooti, B. (2014). Operations and production systems with multiple objectives. John
Wiley & Sons.
Nazarpoori, A. H., Ghodsi, M., & Nami, S. (2014). Investigating the effects of Total Quality
Management (TQM) on employee and customer satisfaction. Asian Journal of
Research in Business Economics and Management, 4(5), 293-299.
Reid, R. D., & Sanders, N. R. (2015). Operations management: an integrated approach. John
Wiley & Sons.
Reid, R. D., & Sanders, N. R. (2019). Operations management: an integrated approach. John
Wiley & Sons.
Slack, N. (2018). Essentials of operations management. Pearson UK.

10OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS STRATEGY
Question 2
Organization and operations strategy
Different authors proposed different definitions for the organizational and operations
strategy, which are illustrated below:
Organization and operations strategy help the organization in performing the
operations of manufacturing and delivering products and services. An operation management
is the function, which comprises of planning, executing and monitoring the production. For
instance, the operations of an automobile company would include procuring raw materials,
handling the suppliers, conducting the process of transforming raw materials into the
automobile parts, assembling those parts to form a vehicle, managing human resources,
machineries and process of manufacturing, delivering the vehicles to customers within time
and continually improving the value chain. Therefore, the functions of the operations in this
automobile company would be product management, quality management, scheduling,
forecasting and planning, supply chain and inventory management (Slack & Brandon-Jones,
2018).
Operations strategy is also defined as the decisions made for enhancing the long-term
objectives of different operations of the organization and the way in which they contribute to
the organizational strategy.
Operations strategy is a part of the organization strategy and is crucial for
maintaining sustainability of the organization and gaining a competitive advantage. For
example, Amazon is constantly upgrading themselves with the advanced technology such as
drones for delivering products to their customers, which leaves behind the retailers and their
other competitors who are using pre-existing delivery modes.
Organizational and operations strategy are used by every business houses, irrespective
of the capital investment and size, for achieving the organizational objectives. The

11OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS STRATEGY
organizational strategy refers to the long-term strategies made for achieving the vision and
objectives of the organization. The vision of an organization keeps on changing with time
therefore the strategies for achieving those visions should be short-termed or medium-termed
and based on the present situation. The operations strategies will guide these short and
medium term strategies and make the organization capable for achieving the desired position
in the competitive market.
Organizational and operations strategy refers to a plan for proper allocation of
resources to support the process of production and the infrastructure of the organization. The
operations strategy is formed for achieving the organizational goals therefore it is mainly
based on the organization objectives. The operations strategy is formulated for enhancing the
efficiency of production process and for minimizing the cost of production.
Operations management is a part of management, which is concerned, with the
process of manufacturing and delivering products and services. An operations manager will
be responsible for controlling the resources used in the manufacturing and delivery process.
The process involves every functional department such as finance, human resource and
marketing. The process of forming an operations strategy starts after analyzing the demands
of the target customers related to product or services, analyzing both the direct and indirect
competitors and their strengths and weaknesses, both external and internal environment
affecting the organization and the available resources (Slack & Brandon-Jones, 2018). The
mission and vision statement of the organization is formulated from these analysis. This
vision statement states the reason and purpose for the existence of the organization and the
operations strategy of the organization is formulated on the basis of the mission statement.
Thus, the operation strategy is a long term strategy developed to achieve the organizational
missions. Every business function within the organization formulate their own strategy from
this operation strategy. Hence, all the functional departments within the organization are