Introduction to Business Operations and Services: A Report

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INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS OPERATIONS AND
SERVICES
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Table of Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................... 3
Task................................................................................................................................. 4
Conclusion..................................................................................................................... 15
Reference list................................................................................................................. 16
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Introduction
In recent days, business competition level has arisen extremely and ventures from
different industry are competing with each other to achieve competitive advantage in
market place. Business ventures look for opportunities to improve their market position
by accelerating business operational efficiency. In business organizations, high
numbers of operations are daily conducted for generating higher amounts of profits;
therefore, management of those wide range of operations is extremely difficult process.
Operational management is considered as the administration of multiple business
practices for creating the maximum level of efficiency possible in a company.
Successful firms have effective operational management as well as in this process; they
use various tool and techniques for better operational performance of the organizations.
There are several successful multinational companies such as General Motors, an
American multinational vehicle, vehicle parts manufacturing company, Ford Motors,
American based multinational car manufacturing company, and others those have
adopted effective operational management systems along with effective tools and
techniques to better perform business operations and increase the market position
effectively.
In this particular study, different ways and methods of adopting operations improvement
strategy within the organization will be displayed. However, this improvement strategy
will consider some effective tools and techniques, which will be used in the
improvement strategy as well. Lastly, recommendation over improving the operational
performance will also be provided in this study aligning with specified organizations for
accelerating the market shares compared to rivals like Toyota.
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Task
Explain how you would introduce a companywide operations improvement
strategy. This improvement strategy must include the tools and techniques
Market competition level has been booming up spontaneously and to sustain in this
competitive market place, excellent operational performance and skills are necessity.
Additionally, the entrance of numerous companies across the globe in similar business
industry is another reason of increased market competition. However, ventures are
strengthening their operational skills and focusing more on improving their operational
strategy to gain benefit in long-term (Heizer et al., 2017). It is undeniable that improved
operational strategy alternatively assists an organization to gain competitive advantage
in market as well as to increase the market shares successfully. In simple words,
operational improvements is often considered as a fundamental requirements as well as
continues effort for any company, which wishes to succeed in the changing business
environment of recent market scenario. Operational excellence and efficiency is
required in ventures for accomplishment of their set business objectives effectively and
for driving growth and profitability simultaneously (Reid and Sanders, 2015).
Companies like Ford Motors, General Motors and others are considered as business
giants in car manufacturing industry. However, due to their high popularity and brand
image, they also have multiple competitors in market place. One of their major
competitors is Toyota that is also popular for its high class performing cars and other
vehicles. A company with its operational excellence can easily bring positive changes
within the firm. These multinational organizations always improve their strategies and
use wide range of tools as well as techniques for competing with each other and for
greater market sustainability. The operational improvement strategy is simply used for
increasing the effectiveness of strategies that are associated operation management.
Improvement strategy of companies includes vision, goals as well as set of multiple
steps, which will enable processes of the company to accomplish sustainable
competitive advantage through addressing waste, inefficiencies and improving the
culture in the process as well as its stakeholders.
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Figure 1: Four perspectives on operations strategy
(Source: Stevenson and Sum, 2014)
However, the operations strategy works on four different but vital perspectives that are
top down perspective, market requirement perspective, operations resources
perspectives and bottom up perspective. All these perspectives are important for
operations strategy and its development (Khanna, 2015).
In addition to this, both the operations management and operations strategy are
completely different concepts; but effective in terms of accomplishment of business
goals and objectives. Instead of working piecemeal at fixing sporadic issues, companies
can use developed operations strategy, which will lead them towards better
performance and organizational excellence. As per the consideration of modern market
researchers, modern businesses must boost their operational efficiency wherever
possible for remaining competitive. It is important for all businesses starting from SMEs
to large size multinational organizations (Hitt et al., 2016). Thus, multinational
successful companies like Ford Motors, General Motors always have focused on
development of their strategies in relation to operational efficiency and excellence.
Additionally, it is also undeniable that eventually any organization not conducting
operations effectively will be out of business in upcoming time from competitive market
place. Hence, development of operational strategies is similarly important for both of the
SMEs and multinational foundations such as Ford Motors, General Motors. Two key
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objectives of improvement of operational strategy is reducing the costs as well as
developing quality of the products and services. However, it is undeniable that having
effective organizational vision is important for operations improvement strategy. As per
the consideration of modern market researchers, business action without vision just
pauses the time, where vision without action is merely a dream (Kato et al., 2015).
Therefore, organisational vision is vital; however, taking actions at soon as possible is
another key to business success.
The operations improvement strategy includes verity of factors that are as follows:
Setting broad objectives
In improvement of operational strategy of any particular business organization such as
Ford Motors, General Motors and others need to set their business objectives broad
and extended, which direct the enterprise towards its actual business goal.
Planning the path
Another important stage is planning the path in which way the company will achieve its
set business goals along with effective operational performance.
Stress on long-term achievements
Development of the operational strategy also focuses upon stressing more on
accomplishment of long-term business objectives instead of focusing on the short-term
objectives (Drohomeretski et al., 2014).
Dealing with total scenario
The development of the operational strategy also states to deal with the entire picture or
issues instead of stressing activities individual employees.
Reducing the distraction and confusion of employees
In the development strategy of existing operational strategy, planning will also be made
to reduce the distractions of employees. Along with this, proper ways will be adopted to
mitigate their confusions in work performance.
Apart from this, there are also several factors that are needed to be included in the
strategy that are as follows:
Consistent access to information
In the operational improvement strategy, first stage would be providing the employees
consistent as well as secure access to updated information. This will provide the
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business with the highest agility through providing reliable as well as secure access to
business intelligence (Villarreal et al., 2016).
Adding technology
Modern business industry is full of competition and this is undeniable that adoption of
wide range of technologies within the firm can successfully accelerate the business
performance of the specified business venture.
Need of secure and reliable network infrastructure
Modern business does not follow traditional ways of conducting different business
operations. Having a reliable and secure network infrastructure is necessity for
developing efficient business processes.
Making it easy to collaborate
Next and one of the most important steps is making the collaboration easy within the
firm for better and efficient operational performance of the entire workforce unit.
Business ventures need a secure as well as reliable network infrastructure for
developing efficient business processes, which meet the expectations and demands of
your partners. Additionally, effective collaboration between partners, staffs, suppliers
and consumers is a sure fire way of boosting efficiency along with reducing the costs of
various operations.
Market research and consideration of rival companies’ operational strategy
R&D team of business organization is responsible for conducting the market research of
rival companies that what strategies and procedures they are using at current days to
be competitive in market place. This research and information are extremely useful for
identifying and selecting the most appropriate strategies and techniques that can be
used to better perform compared to rival competitors in global market place for greater
market sustainability (Hair et al., 2015).
Continuous research and development
Last and most important step in the development of operational strategy is continuous
research as well as making changes in the strategy according to the market
requirements. It is one of the most effective strategy to gain competitive advantage in
long-term.
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However, it is also undeniable that successful companies like Ford Motors and
General Motors not only just focus on developing their strategy, but also focus upon
adopting effective tools and techniques to support the organization in improving the
overall organizational operational performance in an effective manner.
They use strategic decisions for better completion of business tasks. Strategic
decisions are referred to those decisions that are made after analysis of present
business condition and market environment for achievement of business goals in
precise manner (Hagiu, 2014). However, strategic decisions are aimed at long-term
achievements and all the strategic decisions in relation to operational management are
made to improve the performance, excellence and market sustainability altogether.
Another important and useful tool is strategic reconciliation. Reconciliation refers to
either a process or outcome. In business operations, the term strategic reconciliation is
used to meet the needs of the targeted customers effectively. Alternatively, this
reconciliation process is helpful in achieving competitive advantage in market place.
Figure 2: Strategic reconciliation
(Source: Slack and Brandon-Jones, 2018)
In most of the successful business organizations such as Ford Motors and General
Motors use reconciliation technique in order to meet the operations resources as well
as market requirements in a precise manner. In the entire reconciliation process,
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ventures like Ford Motors and General Motors analyse operations capabilities of the
firm and then take positive decisions to satisfy the market needs and demands. After
that operations resources are managed in such manner according to the needs of the
company that it can assist the company in competing with rival competitors. Successful
and competitive companies always use strategic reconciliation process for meeting
customer requirements by continuously developing the operations strategy (Wheelen et
al., 2017).
While it comes to tools and techniques of better operations performance and excellence
from ventures, Five P’s of operations strategy implementation can be considered as
one of the most effective as well as useful tool that can be adopted by successful
business ventures like Ford Motors and General Motors to improve their
organizational excellence in terms of operations. The five P’s of operations strategy
implementation are as follows:
Purpose: First and most important stage in this strategy implementation process is
setting the appropriate purpose along with shared understanding of motivation,
boundaries as well as context of improving the operations strategy.
Point of Entry: Point of entry selection refers to a point within the company from where
the implementation process is going to start.
Process: The entire processes that would be taken for formulation of excellent
operations strategy is described in this section.
Project Management: Another important step is management of the exhaustive project
implementation process. In the five P’s operations strategy implementation, project
management is an important factor. In this section, management of implementation is
conducted (Morden, 2016).
Participation: Participation refers to individuals such as employees, stakeholders,
managers and others those are involved in the implementation process.
In addition to this, successful multinational foundations such as Ford Motors and
General Motors use the five competitive objectives for better excellence of their
operations. However, there are five vital elements are in five competitive objectives
that are as follows:
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Figure 3: Five competitive objectives
(Source: Chen and Miller, 2015)
In the above provided picture, it is clear that five competitors objectives consist of five
important element including quality, speed, flexibility, dependability and cost. All these
elements act as drivers of success in business and achieving competitive advantage in
market place for greater sustainability. Through using this effective strategy, companies
like Ford Motors and General Motors will be able to sustain in market and increase
the market shares effectively. Another effective tool is lean philosophy that is directly
linked with JIT or Just In Time. Lean production is relied upon the TPS or Toyota
Production system that is widely regarded as the manufacturing system, which
accomplishes maximum standard of customer satisfaction at the most efficient
operating standards across the globe (Jasti and Kodali, 2015). In Lean production,
companies like Ford Motors and General Motors make strategies to make money and
delivering customer satisfaction through recurring cost, reducing lead time, increasing
the quality and adding excellence. All these features are requires to capture market and
achieve competitive advantage. Companies like Ford Motors and General Motors can
gain better market sustainability as well as improve their operations excellence and
performance by following above described strategies, tools and techniques effectively.
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Advise on the operational strategies that Ford and GM can implement to gain
market share from Toyota
In order to gain competitive advantage and market share from Toyota, it is such
important for Ford Motors and General Motors to adopt effective operational
strategies. Through using multiple strategies and procedures, it is possible for the
ventures to optimise their business operations effectively, which results in higher
business growth and increased market share. Hence, companies like Ford Motors and
General Motors must adopt those effective strategies and procedures for betterment of
their business performance. Strategies and procedures are as follows:
The 4 Stage model of operations contribution
For operational excellence, one of the most useful and effective model is 4 Stage model
of operations contribution. In this operations contribution model, there is mainly four
basic quadrants that are equally important for business operations excellence (Slack
and Brandon-Jones, 2018). Four stages are correct the worst issues, adopt best
practices, link business strategies with operations and lastly, giving operations
advantage.
Figure 4: 4 Stage model of operations contribution
(Source: Piercy and Rich, 2015)
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In the first stage, all types of worst issues within the organizations identified and sorted
out with the use of appropriate methods and procedures. In the next stage, multiple bets
practices are adopted within the firms in order for bringing positive changes in the firm
and operational excellence. The key objective of this stage is providing credible support
for the business strategy. However, this stage is popular as implementation strategy. In
the next stage, the strategy is linked with business operations that are also known as
supporting strategy. Last stage is providing an operational advantage. In this stage, the
key objective is providing a source of competitive advantage to business organizations
so that they can better sustain in modern competitive market place. For excellent
operational performance in business and for gaining market shares from Toyota,
multinational business ventures like Ford Motors and General Motors can adopt and
use this effective model in their organization.
Lean production and JIT
Apart from the 4 stage model of operations contributions, another important tool or
strategy to improve organizational operational performance is lean production and
Just in Time (JIT) that can alternatively provides excellent operations performance and
gaining market shares from rival competitors. However, the concept of lean production
first time was introduced in Japan that is based upon Toyota Production System,
widely considered as an effective manufacturing system, which accomplishes the
maximum standard of consumer satisfaction at the most efficient operating standards
throughout the globe. Lean production focuses upon cutting out waste as well as
ensuring quality. However, this effective approach can be used in all business aspects
from manufacturing, designing to distribution. Lean production is divided into five vital
principles that are required to be followed by business ventures in terms of achieving
market sustainability. Business organizations such as Ford Motors and General
Motors can gain market shares from rivals like Toyota by following these effective lean
production principles in appropriate manner.
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