Operation Management Analysis of Anta Brand - Salford Business School

This report provides a detailed analysis of the operation management strategies employed by Anta Sports, a leading sportswear company in China. It critically appraises inventory management, including real-time tracking, forecasting, and resource planning. The report also illustrates key operations within the lean production system, such as sourcing, warehousing, design, and manufacturing, highlighting the use of cell production and just-in-time theories. Furthermore, it identifies potential failures in the delivery system, including delays in sourcing and distribution issues, and suggests utilizing the lean approach to mitigate these problems. The analysis concludes with key findings and recommendations for aligning operational performance measures to enhance customer satisfaction, revenue, and overall efficiency. This document is available on Desklib, a platform offering AI-based study tools and resources for students.

Operation Management
6/17/2018
Anta brand

Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Overview of company......................................................................................................................4
Management of Inventory................................................................................................................4
Real-Time inventory tracking......................................................................................................5
Forecasting system.......................................................................................................................5
Resource planning.......................................................................................................................6
Key operations involved within lean production system.................................................................6
Lean Production...........................................................................................................................6
Sourcing...................................................................................................................................7
Warehousing products.............................................................................................................8
Design......................................................................................................................................8
Manufacturing of product........................................................................................................9
Operational flow........................................................................................................................10
Organisation’s delivery system may fail to align its operational performance measures.............11
Delay in sourcing.......................................................................................................................12
Issues in Managing distribution.................................................................................................13
Utilisation of the lean approach to reduce the failing in delivery system.....................................13
Key findings...................................................................................................................................14
Conclusion and recommendations.................................................................................................16

References......................................................................................................................................17

Introduction
The aim of the report is to throw light on operations management of the business as this is
considered as one of the most important aspects of business for service or manufacturing
organizations. The aim behind operation management is to provide the customer service to
customers of the company. The company that has been selected for the report is Anta sports. The
company falls under the business of designing and manufacturing sports product. This shows that
company is a manufacturing company who is looking for operation management. The report
includes the critical analysis of inventories or assets that play a vital role within the production
system. Along with this, it also includes key operations that are included in the manufacturing
system that reflects logical operational flow. In addition, the company needs to analyze delivery
system because this helps them in deciding loopholes in the alignment of operational
performance. Anta sports will be able to eliminate or reduce the loopholes with help of the lean
approach. At the end of the report, the key findings related to approach are discussed that can
provide the support to a production system for aligning performance measures.

Overview of company
Anta brand came into the existence in the year 1991 with the headquarters in Jinjiang, Fujian and
the company is the leading sportswear company in the market of China. This company is also
listed on the main board of the Hong stock exchange in the year 2007 (Anta, 2018). The
company is performing the activities of design, development, manufacturing, and marketing of
the ANTA sportswear series to offer mass market in China market. The main products of the
company include footwear, apparel, and accessories. The major activity of ANTA sports is to
manufacture a product that can lead to customer satisfaction (Anta, 2018). The company
implements a different strategy such as single-focus, multi-brand, and the omnichannel as the
company believe that this will deepen their footprint in sportswear market in China.
Management of Inventory
Operation management is a branch that deals with the management of operations and processes
that takes place within the company. The operation management includes management of the
inventory within the business (Bamford and Forrester, 2010).
The inventory refers to as goods and material that the business holds for production of goods.
The management of the inventory is essential for each and every company within the
organization. In the context of the manufacturing industry, the inventory includes raw material,
partially finished products, finished products till the time it gets a departure from the
manufacturing system (Greasley, 2013). Anta sports follow different steps through which they
can manage the inventory within the production system. Below given is the critical analysis of
the different steps that are taken by the company.

Real-Time inventory tracking
The real-time inventory tracking is done by the Anta sports with the help of technology. This
will help them in identifying the stock that is visible as raw material, semi-finished products and
finished goods that are ready to be sold by the company (Patton, Clegg, Hsuan and Pilkington,
2011). Along with this, the company also track raw material for which they have placed the
order. Though the company found that they are totally depended on technology use and without
technology, they won’t be able to manage inventory within an organization.
Forecasting system
The management of inventory includes forecasting of products that company is willing to
procure from suppliers which are only possible after correct forecasting of the inventory. In this
system, the Anta sports company get information or data from different process and extrapolates
data for accurate production. This means that company needs to keep clear details for recent
trends, culture and desire of company for products (Slack, Brandon-Jones, and Johnston, 2013).
The need identification of customers is very important which can be done with help of surveys,
reviews, and other factors. Though, this forecasting of the company might get a failure due to
which major issues take place while procuring and sourcing of products.
Real Time
inventory
tracking
Forecasting
system
Resource
planning
Management
of Inventory

Resource planning
The company deals in sports products in which they source different resources and ensure that
they make use of resources effectively and efficiently. Along with this, the aim of the Anta
Sports is to form coordination between human resources, material, and financial resources (Wild,
2017). Though, this is the fact that company found the wastage of raw material and resources
while manufacturing the shoes.
Key operations involved in the lean production system
The company makes use of the specific production system which helps them in manufacturing
goods or products effectively. Anta sports make use of lean manufacturing production system in
their business (Dennis, 2016). The company makes use of this production system so that they can
reduce the wastage of the products.
Lean Production
A lean production is an approach to management that mainly emphasis on cutting out the waste
and ensuring the quality of products. This is the effective way through which company can meet
needs of customers. In addition, this production system includes different types of activities
which are created to accomplish high-volume production by using minimal inventories (Heizer,
2016). The below given are the components of lean manufacturing that are mainly used by the
companies in their business operations.

(Source: Heizer, 2016)
The key operations that are involved in production system are discussed below: -
Sourcing
Sourcing of raw material is essential for the production of a product for meeting the needs of
customers. This operation is considered as one of the most important because without sourcing
of the products company will not be able to manufacture products (Piercy and Rich, 2015). The
sourcing is the process in which the company makes a purchase of products from different
suppliers present in the Chinese market.
Cell production approach
The company makes use of cell production which is one of the lean manufacturing systems in
this operation. Cell production approach can be explained as it is the form of team working that

helps and ensure that work commitment (Pampanelli, Found and Bernardes, 2014). In this
approach, each and every cell is accountable for their unit of work. Anta group wants the team to
work for procuring raw material with the supplier who can commit for the best quality of raw
material. The motive of this cell production is to ensure that they are sourcing quality raw
materials.
Warehousing products
The company stores their raw material at the warehouse from which they can take the required
product for the production because whenever company source the products they do it in bulk.
Therefore, the company needs to store products. Similarly, in the lean production system, Anta
Store Company make use of the warehouse for storing the products (Piercy and Rich, 2015). The
company ensure that this operation is done effectively and ensure that place where they are
storing their products is clear and tidy. Along with this, there is no factor that can affect raw
material that is stored by the company in the place.
Design
The design of the product is one of the important operations that are included in the production.
The anta Sports wants to give tough competition in Chinese market due to which they want to
make their products innovative and unique which helps them in meeting the needs of the
customers. The design of the product is totally based on needs of the customers as it is very
important for a company to ensure that they understand needs of the customers and making the
adding new features and changes according to customers.
Time-based management theory

In this operation, the company makes use of time-based management theory because this is the
fact that design of the shoes can take huge time due to which production of product gets affected.
This approach of time-based management is an approach that recognizes the importance of time
and willing to reduce the level of wasted times in process of the designing (Dave, Kubler,
Främling and Koskela, 2016). This approach is the aspect of the lean production system.
Manufacturing of product
Manufacturing of the product is one of the primary functions of the company as this is the only
way through which the company is able to offer its product within the Chinese market. The
company ensures that they are able to perform this activity effectively. Anta sports make use of
lean production system in which they reduce wastage, improve the efficiency and effective
utilization of resources.
Just-in-time theory
Anta makes use of just-in-time approach while manufacturing product in which they try to
decrease the flow times within production system along with the response times form suppliers
and customers. The company makes use of this approach because the implementation of JIT can
bring improve stock turns and amount of stock being held. Moreover, the company brings a
reduction in the handling of equipments and other costs which helps a company in offering shoes
in the Chinese market at affordable prices. This approach resolves huddle and put the efforts to
bring improvement in production of products (Spruijt-Metz and Nilsen, 2014). JIT helps the
company in quickly identifying the issues and problems that can affect the operations. This
approach can reduce the issues which they can bring the improvement in productivity.
Quality improvement and management

Along with this, the Anta Sports also make use of the approach of quality improvement and
management. In this approach, the company can put efforts to enhance the quality of the product
so that their motive of customer satisfaction gets fulfill. The quality of the products is required to
be good because customers pay for quality services that they are getting from the company. Anta
sports follow the approach in which they need to plan-do-act-check the process which they are
conducting (Goetsch and Davis, 2014).
(Source: Goetsch and Davis, 2014)
In this process, the company set the standard for quality of the product and according to that only
they make they make the action in which they bring the changes in suppliers and ensure their
suppliers are able to deliver the quality products by meeting the standards. Moreover, the
company act in a way through which they can perform the activity and check the loopholes
available in operations.

Operational flow
The below given is the operational flow of the company which reflects the operations of the
company that are included in the lean production system.
Organisation’s delivery system may fail to align its operational
performance measures
This section of the report includes failure of organizations delivery system which may fail to
align its operational performance measures. Anta sports found that there are issues in the
Sourcing of Raw
materials
Storing it into
warehouse
Designing of
sports shoes
Manufacturing
of shoes
Testing of
product
Launch and
delivery of Shoes

operations of the business which include a delay in sourcing and issues in managing distribution
(Johnston, Clark and Schulver, 2012). These issues are discussed below in detailed: -
Delay in sourcing
Sourcing is done in bulk from different supplier due to which the company found that there is a
delay in delivery of raw material which impacts other production operating systems. The delay in
the sourcing affects the delivery system of product which may fail alignment of the performance
measure. The major performance indicators are customer satisfaction, revenue, profitability and
employee satisfaction. This delay might take place due to human error. The company obligates to
their customers for timely delivery of the products on time because anta sports take special
orders from customers according to their needs (Grant, 2016). This will leads to dissatisfaction of
the customers when they won’t be able to get their pre-booked order on time. Moreover, this will
affect customer loyalty along with the profit of a company. The customer dissatisfaction leads to
loss of the company in terms of monetary and customer loss. This shows that company needs to
resolve the issue of delay in sourcing.
Delay in
sourcing
Issues in
Managing
distribution
Delivery Issues
in Company that
fail to align with
operational
performance
measures

Issues in Managing distribution
Anta sports found issues in managing the distribution of the products to the customers. The
issues arise when they are not able to manage stock in their every store. This is the fact that the
company wants to make available each and every design of product because customers come
with different demand and this is an effective way through which meets the needs of the
customers (Yang, et al 2015). Though, the company is facing issues in managing the distribution
of products. Along with this, the company needs to form the ties with distributors so that they
can expand their product accessibility but the company is not able to make the distribution of
products effectively.
The utilization of the lean approach to reducing the failing in the
delivery system
Lean approach is one of the effective ways that can be utilized by the company effectively so
that they won’t face any failures in a delivery system. The below given are the points which
show the correct utilization for the lean approach by Anta sports: -
 The lean approach includes time management in which the company ensures that supply
of the raw material is done on time. The time management is the approach in which the
Anta sports involve the team who ensure that all the products are sourced on time.
 The company can utilize the approach in ordering the product before time by analyzing
the availability of raw material that is required for manufacturing the product (Jasti and
Kodali, 2015).

 The company can use vendor managed inventory (VMI) program and supply chain
management system through which the supply chain of the company can be improved.
This includes the improvement of both sourcing of products or distribution of products.
 The lean approach contributes to make product timely available with easy accessibility
which is one way through which the customer retention can be improved by a company.
 The lean approach supports the easy integration of suppliers into a flexible production
process. This will reduce the problem of details and also brings flexibility in the concept
of procurement of product (Jasti and Kodali, 2015).
 The use of the technology in all the processes of lean approach brings the improvement in
the process of distribution. The technology will help a company in keeping the track
related to flow of goods and services within their stores. This tracking helps the company
in evaluating the need for products by the customers and their accessibility towards the
product.
Key findings
This section of the report includes the key findings include three most important things which are
discussed below: -
Lean production system include different approaches and theories
The lean production system that is adopted by the Anta Sport in the Chinese market includes
different theories and approaches which are used by the companies for bringing the improvement
in the activities. These theories and approaches include Just-in-time, quality management and
improvement, cell production, time-based management system and many others. This theory and
concept not only brings the improvement in the process but also allows the company to manage

the work effectively. The lean production system theories make the work easy for the company
but this is a fact that companies need to follow this approach on the continuously. The
continuous implementation of the theories leads to the growth of a business.
Importance of production system
The analysis reflects that production system within industry or company plays a vital role as this
is the only way through which they can meet their motive of an organization. The companies
ensure that they follow one of the best and effective production systems that can bring
improvement and efficiency in the process of a company. Similarly, Anta sports have decided to
implement the lean production system within the organization because this system helps the
company to produce the products effectively. This system also brings the customer satisfaction,
loyalty, and retention which shows that the selection system matters a lot for the growth of a
business.
Issues can be resolved with the help of lean approach
Most of the companies face the issues in their supply chain management which can be resolved
by the company with the help of the lean approach. This has been found that this production
system includes the different theories and model which supports this lean production system of
Anta Sports. Therefore, the implementation of theories will help a company in reducing the
issues that are affected by the working of the company. Though, for the resolutions of product,
the company need to analyze the different models and need to implement them correctly.

Conclusion and recommendations
In the end, it can be concluded that the Anta sports company in China is able to manage its
business operations with the help of the lean production system. The company makes use of
different steps that can be used by the company for managing the inventory or assets. The major
operations that are involved in the lean production system are discussed without which the
manufacturing of products can’t be done. Moreover, the company faces the different issues
which fail to get aligned with the performance indicators of the company. The resolution of the
issues can be done with the help of the lean production system and the same has been discussed.
In the end, it includes the key findings of the report which reflect the effective use of the
approach within the organization. It is recommended to the company to correctly implement this
system and there should be proper evaluation and review of the process after implementing lean
production system.

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