What Is an Operations Strategy?

Running head: OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS STRATEGY
OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS STRATEGY
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OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS STRATEGY1
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.

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS STRATEGY2
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.

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 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).