BSS052-6 Operations Management Assignment Sample
Module Code And Title : BSS052-6 Project and Operations Management
“Operation management report”
Introduction:
OP (the acronym for which is known as operation management) is said to be a series of practices undertaken with the working environment of business so as to elevate the rate of efficiency within the working environment of a company or an organization to reach its threshold (Chung,2022).
The main objective of the operational management is to convert or modify the work and materials into the most efficient and robust form of services/ resources and goods/ product so as to help the organization to generate as much profit as it could possibly garner or generate. This particular report writing will mainly focus on the content “roles played by the operation management within an organization”.
Therefore, organization on which the content of this report assessment will be based upon is the Apple Company. The main topics that we will be focusing on for this report writing are as follows- critically examine three relevant operation management areas and align it with relevant models and theories, compare and contrast the chosen organisation with another contemporary company using the 4 Vs and lastly, examine how operational performance within the company can be improved (Osadebamwen,2022).
Critically examine three relevant operation management decision areas in the Apple company by applying different appropriate and relevant theoretical models/ concepts:
The decision areas of the operation management consist of varied strategic areas of operation such as- the management of the quality, the process and the design of the capacity, the layout design and the strategy, the design of the HR (the acronym for which is known as the human resource) and the job, the management of the SM (the acronym for which is known as the supply chain), the management of the inventory and vice versa.
For this report writing, the three areas of the operational management that we will be mainly focusing on are- the management of the quality, the designing of the HR (the acronym for which is known as the human resource) and the job and lastly, the design of the process and the capacity.
1). The management of the quality:
The main objective of the Apple Company with regard to its management of quality or quality management is to make sure that the company’s customers or the consumers are being offered with products with the best of the quality without any compromisation. The practice of management of the quality within the Apple company can be best explained with the six- sigma theory or model of the operational management.
Six sigma is known to be a process which is not only statistical driven but is also driven by data (Keshavarz-Ghorbani,2021). The theory or the model of the six- sigma function by analyzing and examining the mistakes done so as to boost the overall profitability garnered by the company. In short, six- sigma is a process of controlling the quality with regard to the operations conducted within the business environment of a company.
Many of the organization generally adopt this theory of six- sigma so as to enhance their rate of profitability. Six- sigma theory utilizes tools such as creative charts, statistics and vice versa (Heinz,20022).
The theory or the model of the six sigma focuses on the following principle- the first principle is that it mainly focuses on the consumer or the customer and therefore, it main goal is to help the consumer or the customer garner as many benefits as possible, the second principle on which it is based upon is the measuring all of the stream of value and identifying the problem by collecting data,
the third principle on which it is based upon is to dispose off all of the unnecessary junks or defects which are of no value or need to the customers or the consumers, the fourth principle on which it is based upon is adopting of a process where the teams of the company best thrive and the last principle is to encompass an environment centric towards flexibility (Phenina,2022).
The Company utilizes variety of tools which comprises of charts (such as chart for control etc), histogram and vice versa. With the help of the above stated tools, Apple company is able to align the company’s working team with its consumers or customers (Abdulla,2021).
The Apple Company encourages its team to indulge or practice good communication so that the foundation of the team can be built on trust which further enables the company to minimize the occurrence of wastage or error in the management of its supply chain. Also, the company is known to segregate all of its products in 3 categories with regard to its consumers so that it will be able to entice its customers by meeting their demands according to their requirement (Barger,2021).
The Apple company by using the data collected from its consumers, it encourages its employees and teams to practice good communication so as to minimize as much errors and occurrence of possible defects as possible which fulfills the second and the third principle of the Six- sigma. Now, the company by segregating its customers into broad categories so as to meet their demands, it fulfills the first principle of the six- sigma.
The company then encourages its teams and employees to practice good communication which fulfills the fourth principle of the six- sigma and lastly, the company is known to align the objective of the company’s working team with meeting the requirements of its consumers which enables the company to attain good response and flexibility thus fulfilling the fifth principle of the six- sigma (Rayesa,2021).
- The designing of the HR (the acronym for which is known as the human resource) and the job
The main objective behind the Apple’s Company practice of management of the design of HR (the acronym for which is known as Human resource) and job is to maximize the working capacity of its employees and staffs so as to enhance the process of development of the products and is designs (Kavsak,2021). This area of operational management practiced by the Apple Company can be best explained with the lean manufacturing theory.
The main objective of the lean manufacturing process is to get rid of waste as much as possible by balancing the workloads. The Apple company manage its workforce by assigning them tasks along with a time toll within which the task has to be completed so as to meet the goal of the company (which is to meet the needs of the customers) which also further eliminates the chances of wastage of time. Thus, fulfilling the objective of the lean manufacturing theory (Subramanya,2021).
- The design of the process and the capacity:
The practice of the design with regard to the process and the capacity of the Apple Company can be best described by the reconfigurable manufacturing system theory which mainly focuses on designs which accelerate the process of change in components such as the structure of the organization, the hardware and the software.
The process and the capacity design of the apple company mainly focuses on re- organizing and constructing its products so as to meet the competitive demands of the market (Frankish,2022). The Apple company constantly keep on changing and updating its software’s and hardware’s so that it will be able to meet all of the demands of the customers by offering them with a product which is much efficient as opposed to other products offered by its competitors.
Just like the theory of reconfigurable manufacturing system, the Apple company also constantly keeps on updating and restructuring the process design and the capacity design so as to follow up with the ever changing and ever evolving dynamic of the market and the demands of its customers (Allal-Chérif,2021).
Compare and contrast the Apple company with another contemporary company utilizing the 4 Vs:
The company with which the 4 V’s (which consists of the volume, variety, variation and the visibility) of the Apple company will be compared is the Samsung Company. Albeit, both the companies being different Company, they both produces or operate within the same market or industry which is the consumer electronic industry. Both of the companies produce similar products such as smartphones, tablets, laptops and vice versa.
Also, another similarity between the Apple company and the Samsung company is that both of these companies’ products are quite on the expensive range or costlier range. Since, there are quite some many similarities with regard to the products and the price range of the products between the Apple Company and the Samsung Company, the Samsung Company was chosen for the comparison with the Apple Company so that the overall management of the operation practiced by the Apple company can be critically evaluated in terms of competitive aspect within the market (Amendola,2021).
| 4 V’s | Apple Company | Samsung Company |
| Volume | The Volume aspect of the process of business of the Apple Company is on the lower range as opposed to most of its other contemporary competitors such as the Samsung, the Amazon and vice versa. undoubtedly, the Apple company is known to produced its products at mass quantity, but then most of the prospect of its business processes mainly focused on designing very limited quantity of the product which are of very good quality so as to meet the demands and expectations of its consumers and customers. | The Samsung company’s when it comes to the volume aspect of the process of business, its rate is quite high as opposed to the Apple company. However, as compared to companies as such as Amazon, Samsung company does not so much incline towards mass production (Santos,2021). |
| Variety | Apple Company, unlike many of its contemporary competitors such as Amazon and vice versa, it does not produce many variety of products. All of its designs and its produces are produced in very finite number. For instance, whenever, it launches its product i.e., iPhone, the product consists of either only two or four variant | The variety aspect of the Samsung Company when it comes to its process of business, is quite high as compared to the Apple company. For instance, one of the popular product of the Samsung company i.e., the Samsung galaxy note 7 has nearly about 10 different variants. |
| Variation | The variation aspect of the Apple company with regard to its process of business is quite high. The process of business of the Apple Company is known to deal with variation that is very high when it comes to the demands of the products. The reason for such being, depending on the trending technologies within the market, the preferences and the demands of the consumers keeps on changing ever now and so, in order to keep up with such ever changing demands of the consumers, it maintains very high variation. | When it comes to the variation aspect of the process of business, Samsung company is known to be ted higher than the Apple company. Samsung’s products are known to be highly innovative and was even ranked 4th in the most innovative company. |
| Visibility | The visibility aspect of the Apple Company is very high. The popularity of its products among the consumers is a living proof of its high visibility. One of its infamous product i.e., the iPhone, today has become a trend on its own. All such aspects, shows how high the visibility rate of the Apple Company is. | The visibility aspect of the Samsung company is also high but then in comparison to the Apple company it sorts of lack behind. When it comes to the popularity aspect of the products offered by both the companies, the customers seem to prefer the Apple company’s product over the Samsung’s. |
Examine how operational performance within the Apple company can be improved:
The operational performance of the Apple company as of now, is quite good. The management of the operations by the Apple company is said to be very good and efficient which further enables the company to acquire highly competitive edge and advantages which again further enables the company to meet all of its objectives with regard to its corporate strategy.
However, despite all of its robust performances and competitive advantage over its contemporary competitors (such as the Samsung Company and vice versa) when it comes to its operational management, the Apple Company still have room for more improvements. And so, recommendations or suggestions on how the Apple company can improve its operational performance are as follows-
- The Apple company can improve its performances with regard to its operational management by including broader info about the company’s philosophy, also about its human resource or employees and also portray more of its business- oriented image in the market so as to garner the attention of customers or consumers who can potentially become an ally of the company.
- The Apple company can give information with regard to the details about the products that the company is offering to its consumers or its customers, and also talk about the trending technologies that they are planning to incorporate in the design of their products and services which could be of help of its users.
- The company can also work on its corporate vision by making its more succinct and incisive. Rather than talking about the company’s beliefs and its values, it can work more on improving the conciseness of its vision so as to make it much easier for the company’s employees and human resource to clearly get a strong grasp about the objective that the company is planning to achieve with its operational activities. That way, the Apple company will be able to achieve more flexibility in the overall performance of its operational activities.
- Undoubtedly, the products offered by the company are of very high- quality and efficient because of which, its products are very popular and famous among the consumers and customers from all over the world. Yes, despite its products being on the costlier and expensive side, the demands of its products are still very much imminent and high among the consumers of the world. However, one drawback about such operational activity of the Apple Company is that, the price range of the company’s product cannot be afforded by the likes of people with lower income salary.
- In addition to that, companies such as the Samsung Company and vice versa are coming up with affordable range pricing. Therefore, in order for the Apple Company to further elevate its performance when it comes to its operational management, it needs to seriously think about revising its pricing strategy so as to garner the attention of even more potential customers.
- Also, another way through which the Apple company can enhance its operational management is by working on elevating the performance of its employees. They can do so, by identifying the areas where the employees or the teams are under- performing, encouraging good communication, fostering a working environment with positive outlook, analysing and evaluating the performances of the employees and vice versa.
Conclusion:
Through, this operational management analysis of the Apple Company, we learn that the performances of the Apple company with regard to the varied areas of operational management is quite robust. However, we have identified that the company has still many rooms for further improvement.
Undoubtedly, its visibility aspect and its performance aspect are much better and feasible as opposed to its contemporary competitors such as the Samsung Company and vice versa. But looking at the increasing competitiveness of the market, it won’t be impossible for its competitors to reach to its level and therefore, it becomes very important for the Apple company to keep coming up good robust strategy to enhance and improve its operational performances.
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