OPERATION MANAGEMENT

Operation Management

Operation Management

Introduction

The main ambition of a business is to earn a profit and in a lucrative way. In order to fulfil this ambition organizations and businesses prefer to adopt processes and methods that would aid them in fulfilling this objective. Some businesses adopt the specialized process of production some rely on marketing function and then there are those that specializes the process of supply chain management. It is important to consider that all the functions of the organization is central and associated with the operation management especially the department of Supply Chain Management, logistics and marketing. This paper talks about all these department and its association and close links with the department of operation management.

Thesis Statement

The purpose of the research is to discover that there is a strong coordination and relationship exists among Supply Chain Management, logistics, marketing with operation management.

Supply Chain Management and Operation Management

Supply chain management or simply known as supply chain is an important & very crucial department of business. It can be called the bloodline of any firm or organization especially the ones involved in manufacturing of products like textile, mobile phones, fast food or anything that has to do with manufacturing. In ordinary business terms, it is management of successfully converting raw material also known as the input of any business into finished goods also known as the output. The management utilizes a complete set of various processes and procedures to ensure efficient utilization of business's resources in turning the unprocessed materials into finished products. There are 3 layers in Supply chain namely:

Upper layer - comprises of suppliers of various raw materials for a business.

Internal stream layer - the actual production process of the manufacturing firm involved in converting raw materials to finished goods.

Bottom or Downstream layer - the placement "P" of the marketing strategy responsible for the delivery of finished goods to clients via distribution centres, shops, wholesalers and retailers etc.

This outlook recognizes the interdependency of team members and attempts to foster a cooperative effort that will ultimately give the team a competitive advantage in the market place. SCM differs from earlier management philosophies in that it necessarily involves establishing sufficiently trustful relationships with the members of the chain to warrant involving them in strategic decisions. Companies may be involved in multiple supply chains and function in distinct roles, (For example, partner, supplier, or customer) at any given time. As a guiding management philosophy and implementation technique, SCM is particularly attractive to socially and environmentally responsible businesses, as it gives assurance that standards set to support social welfare and environmental sustainability are being met throughout the life cycle of any given product. A supply chain, considered as a system, can also be described as a distributed network or channel through which information, materials, labour, equipment and currency flow. Though supply chains themselves are not new, four key developments forced thinking about them differently than in the past. The first motivating force came from the communications technology advances that forever changed ...