Operation Management Report: SBS MBA/MSC Assignment, Kuwait 2018

This report provides a comprehensive overview of operation management, comparing and contrasting services and manufacturing within the operational context. It explores the similarities and dissimilarities between these sectors, focusing on key aspects such as inventory levels, customer demands, and labor requirements. The report then delves into competitive priorities, including quality, cost, delivery, flexibility, and customer focus, highlighting their importance in the service industry. Qualitative forecasting techniques, such as executive opinion, Delphi method, sales force polling, and consumer surveys, are examined for their application in predicting future trends. Furthermore, the report analyzes purchasing decisions, considering factors like price, quality, service, and speed, and proposes improvements to the planning process, emphasizing customer feedback and addressing business losses. The Abu Dhabi National Hotel is used as a case study throughout the report to illustrate the application of these concepts in a real-world setting.

Running Head: Operation Management
OPERATION MANAGEMENT

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Similarities and dissimilarities between services and manufacturing for operation management. .2
Competitive Priorities and Role of operational management..........................................................3
Qualitative forecasting technique....................................................................................................5
Purchasing decision.........................................................................................................................6
Improvement of planning process...................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
The business administration which is responsible for all the operations of the business
including manufacturing process, services and many others operations is called operational
management. Operational management has many responsibilities for the business such as
productivity, supply chain, quality and capacity. Operational management manages all the
processes of production and distribution of products as well as services and many others relative
services such as storage, quality control, inventory control and purchasing. The main focus of
operational management in an organisation is to improve efficiency as well as the effectiveness
of organisation. The operations of management vary according to the type of organisation such
as retailing, wholesale and manufacturing.
Q1. Similarities and dissimilarities between services and manufacturing for operation
management
Physical Goods
There is difference intangibility of output in manufacturing and service providing
organisation. As stated by Hill (2017), the output of a service organisation is not tangible or
intangible. In case of manufacturing organisations, they have to produce goods so that customers
and feel and touch the goods.
Inventory Levels
Inventory is the cost of an organisation that it has to put in the business. As stated by
Albliwi, Antony, Abdul Halim Lim & van der Wiele (2014), manufacturing organisations have
to manufacture products with inventory according to the demand in market but service

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organisations do not require inventory as they provide the services according to the requirement
of customers.
Customer Demands
Manufacturing organisations have to produce products earlier before the requirement of
the customers but the service organisations do not have to produce a service unless it is required.
As stated by Wuenderlich et al. (2015), sometimes there is loss of products and money in
manufacturing organisation due to fewer requirements of particular products that have been
already produced by the organisation in large amount.
Labour Requirement
There is difference in requirement of labour in manufacturing and service organisations.
In accordance to Hitomi (2017), service organisations require labours with specific skill and
knowledge but manufacturing organisations require labours in large amount irrespective of their
skills.
Physical Location
There is no particular requirement of location for service organisations. It can provide
service from anywhere. There is some requirement of location in case of manufacturing
organisation based on operations.
Q2. Competitive Priorities and Role of operational management
Quality
The quality of the service is first competitive priority for service organisations. As stated
by Jacobs & Chase (2017), the quality of service should be according to the need and expectation
of customers. Abu Dhabi National Hotel of United Arab Emirates provides the best quality of
service to the customers.

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Cost
The service organisations have the ability to manage the production cost effectively and it
should also include the cost of adding value, inventory and overhead. Abu Dhabi Hotel is
affordable as it is a national hotel of United Arab Emirates.
Delivery
Delivery is the priorities based on time. It is the main service that should be provided to
the customers in order to make the service effective. The delivery service of Abu Dhabi hotel is
well and the delivery is mostly provided to the customers within time.
Flexibility
As stated by Wuenderlich et al. (2015), service organisations should be flexible
according to the requirement in markets such as variety, design and many others. Abu Dhabi
hotels change their services according to the requirement and with time also.
Customer Focus
Service organisations should focus on the needs of the customers including customisation
of products, customer information and dependable promise. Abu Dhabi hotel keeps informing
their customers about the offers and changes to update them.
Role of Manager
It is the role of the manager to focus on the competitive priorities to stay in the
competitive world. The management should think about the quality of service and its
affordability for the customers. As stated by Albliwi, Antony, Abdul Halim Lim & van der Wiele
(2014), management should research the market to change the structure of organisation
according to the needs of the customers. Time should be focused mainly in case of providing

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services to the customers because if customers get the services on time, they become happy with
the organisations.
Q5. Qualitative forecasting technique
Executive opinion
In this technique of qualitative forecasting, the opinions of some finance team,
administration and experts are taken in order to increase the future sale or services of the
organisation. As stated by Garza-Reyes (2015), trend extrapolation is a quantitative technique
that has been used here. This forecasting is applied quickly for the benefit of organisation. Abu
Dhabi hotel also takes the opinion in order to increase future sale and services.
Delphi Method
In this technique, a panel discussion is done with experts and they are questioned one by
one for the future events. For forecasting of long range, this technique is very helpful. With the
help of questionnaire format, this technique is applied.
Sales Force Polling
Many organisations use salespeople for forecast sale because they have direct contacts
with the customers. In accordance to Hitt, Xu & Carnes (2016), organisations think that the
future market of the business will increase because of the closeness of salespeople with
customers.
Consumer Surveys
In this forecasting technique, surveys have been done by the organisations in order to
understand the customers' needs. Abu Dhabi hotel also uses this technique in order to understand
what customers really want in the hotel.

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As stated by Smith, Maull, & Ng (2014), senior managers have to identify the
requirement of organisations in order to provide the best services to the customers. In Abu
Dhabi, if the existing customers are not coming regularly then it should think of using customer
survey forecasting technique in order to understand the customers' needs. As stated by
Wuenderlich et al. (2015), if the rate of growth of business is not well then it should use the
expert opinion forecasting technique to take some experts' opinion. Abu Dhabi is using this
technique because the customers are very happy and it has been found that most of the business
of the hotel is based on the regular customers. The hotel also does some changing according to
the experts' opinion and panel discussion is also done once in six months to take advice from the
experts.
Q7. Purchasing decision
Price and Quality
Before purchasing the goods from the suppliers, organisations have to focus on the price
and quality of goods. As stated by Wuenderlich et al. (2015), the price should be also affordable
so that organisation can make a deal with the supplier for future services. In Abu Dhabi hotel, the
manager researches various suppliers then decide that which supplier is going to provide best
goods at lower price.
Service
Before deciding the supplier of an organisation, it is also focussed that whether the
suppliers are able to provide good services such as emergency services. In accordance to Snyder,
Witell, Gustafsson, Fombelle & Kristensson (2016), if the suppliers are well to provide the
services according to the requirement of the organisations then the purchasing is done from the

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suppliers. The managers of Abu Dhabi also focus on the services before purchasing from the
suppliers.
Speed
In case of emergency, the suppliers should be ready to provide goods and services timely
so that the organisation can fulfil the needs of the organisation. As stated by Tan (2018), in case
of special requirements of foods or any other things in Abu Dhabi hotel, the suppliers should be
ready to provide the requirements on time.
Q8. Improvement of planning process
Customer Feedback
According to the feedback of customers, the managers of an organisation decide that they
need to improve their planning process to meet the needs and expectation of the customers. Hitt,
Xu & Carnes (2016) stated that if the customers are not satisfied with the services then the
management of the organisation needs to implement some new strategy and focus on this. In case
of Abu Dhabi hotels, if customers are not giving positive feedback then the managers of the hotel
should change some planning in order to satisfy the customers.
Loss of business
As stated by Wuenderlich et al. (2015), if the business of the organisation is facing loss
then the managers of the organisation should think to improve the planning in order to grow the
business and stay in the market for long time. Abu Dhabi hotel was facing some loss few years
back but it has applied some forecasting technique such as customers’ surveys and panel
discussion and now the business has been improved.

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Conclusion
This project is based on major roles of management in an organisation. It is basically the
roles of managers to think about the productivity, capability, quality and service of the
organisation. The management also needs to think about the strategy of the business and need to
improve it with time and according to needs as well as expectations of customers. The
management of the organisation focuses on the competitive priorities such as quality, flexibility
and services to stay in the market for long time. Some forecasting techniques are also applied by
the management in order to understand the needs of the market.

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References
Books
Hill, T. 2017., Manufacturing strategy: the strategic management of the manufacturing function.
London: Macmillan International Higher Education. Retrieved from:
https://books.google.co.in/books?
hl=en&lr=&id=SjpdDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR13&dq=OPERATION+MANAGEMENT+bo
ok&ots=Cdv1ZCq1Ch&sig=iLJfvt5A2dhIf-kRjBBHeB8B9gs#v=onepage&q&f=false
Hitomi, K. 2017., Manufacturing Systems Engineering: A Unified Approach to Manufacturing
Technology, Production Management and Industrial Economics. Abingdon: Routledge.
Retrieved from: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781351433730
Jacobs, F. R., & Chase, R. B. 2017. Operation and supply chain management. New York: Mc
GrawHill. Retrieved from: http://thuvienso.vanlanguni.edu.vn/handle/VanLang_45/1850
Jounals
Albliwi, S., Antony, J., Abdul Halim Lim, S., & van der Wiele, T. 2014,. Critical failure factors
of Lean Six Sigma: a systematic literature review. International Journal of Quality & Reliability
Management, 31(9), 1012-1030. Retrieved from:
https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/IJQRM-09-2013-0147
Garza-Reyes, J. A. 2015,. Lean and green–a systematic review of the state of the art
literature. Journal of Cleaner Production, 102, 18-29. Retrieved from:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652615004394
Hitt, M. A., Xu, K., & Carnes, C. M. 2016., Resource based theory in operations management
research. Journal of Operations Management, 41, 77-94. Retrieved from:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272696315000972

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Smith, L., Maull, R., & CL Ng, I. 2014,. Servitization and operations management: a service
dominant-logic approach. International Journal of Operations & Production
Management, 34(2), 242-269. Retrieved from:
https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/IJOPM-02-2011-0053
Wuenderlich, N. V., Heinonen, K., Ostrom, A. L., Patricio, L., Sousa, R., Voss, C., & Lemmink,
J. G. 2015. “Futurizing” smart service: implications for service researchers and
managers. Journal of Services Marketing, 29(6/7), 442-447. Retrieved from:
https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/JSM-01-2015-0040
Online article
Snyder, H., Witell, L., Gustafsson, A., Fombelle, P., & Kristensson, P. 2016., Identifying
categories of service innovation: A review and synthesis of the literature. Journal of Business
Research, 69(7), 2401-2408. Retrieved from:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0148296316000229
Tan, K. 2018. Revenue Optimization of Pipelines Construction and Operation Management
Based on Quantum Genetic Algorithm and Simulated Annealing Algorithm. Journal of Applied
Mathematics and Physics, 6(06), 1215. Retrieved from:
http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?paperID=85271