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Week 1 Role of Operations Management

Sugey Diane Ochoa

ISCOM 471

Group SB09BSA03

Tenita Artry

May 11, 2009

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In recent years the importance of operations management has increased dramatically due

to foreign competition, shorter life cycles, quality conscious consumers, and new innovating

technology. For these reasons businesses have had increased pressures to implement their

operations functions to improve productivity while providing a broader variety of high quality

products and services. Companies are realizing that the operations functions can be used to get a

stronger grip on the market place. The hiring and placement of managers in operations

management plays a strategic and tactical role in the business environment, from satisfying

customer needs to making the business stronger than their competitors make. (Chase, Jacobs, &

Aquilano, 2006)

But what is operations management? “Operations management (OM) is defined as the

design, operations, and improvement of the systems that create and deliver the firm’s primary

products and services” (Chase, Jacobs, & Aquilano, 2006). Operations management is a field of

management that involves several decision making skills of other job fields and shares the same

project planning tools. To further explain this involvement, operations management actually is

more concerned about the entire system that produces a good or delivers a product. As

companies generate ideas to produce a new good, the operations management aspect is

concerned with the complex transformation processes the new product might have to undergo.

Basically, OM’s make sure all these individual transitions run as effectively as possible. (Chase,

Jacobs, & Aquilano, 2006)

There are three areas decisions generally are put into within the operations function;

strategic decisions (long term), tactical decisions (intermediate term), and operational planning

and control decisions (short term). Strategic decisions usually involve processes that are

concerned with the production and life cycle of the product, thus depending how long these
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processes last will determine the type of decisions that need to be made. Strategic decisions

highly affect a company’s effectiveness on how they might address the needs of their customers.

These decisions are what businesses must operate with on an intermediate and short term level.

They use them as operating constraints and must also align with the corporate strategy the

company currently has. (Chase, Jacobs, & Aquilano, 2006)

Tactical decision making is the next level; this area primarily addresses how to efficiently

schedule material and labor within the constraints set in the strategic level. Here is where

companies decide the number of workers needed, when they are needed, or when the materials

will be needed. Once these decisions have been made, they now become the operating

constraints under which the planning and control decisions are made. (Chase, Jacobs, &

Aquilano, 2006)

When speaking of operations function at my place of work there are an array of tasks that

would fall in this category, especially due to the importance of accuracy. It is always in the

company’s best interest to keep accurate books and records because the integrity is based on

maintaining honest records and accounts to reflect all business transactions. Keeping accurate

records and reports provides the store a safeguard against their reputation and ensures they can

meet legal and regulatory obligations. Many of these records consist of sales floor and

merchandising decisions, front end and cashier procedures, loss prevention procedures, inventory

and receiving management, facilities management, cash office procedures, and the basic overall

operations of the store.

In the sales floor and merchandising category, operations functions are monitored in

different ways. Price changes are planned on a weekly basis to ensure pricing accuracy

monitored by the states weights and measures. The executions of planograms are strategically
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planned and implemented depending on seasonal needs like back to school, holidays, and

community events. Then there is also the handling of dated goods, whether its food are calendars

the continuous rotation of this merchandise must be continuous monitored to maintain consumer

loyalty and company integrity as well.

In regards to the front end and cash office areas, these categories are closely monitored

by all members of management. Clear and concise policies are clearly explained to all associates

that do any type of cash handling or use a register. When doing a store returns report, certain

criteria must be met before a return or exchange is rendered. The acceptance of checks must fall

within the check writing guidelines and above all must be always being cleared through Certegy.

When consumers use credit cards as forms of payments, again, there is certain criteria the must

be met as well.

Lastly there is inventory management; this area pertains to the solely to maintaining the

accuracy of merchandise counts. But it’s not as simple as it sounds. Many reports must be

reviewed and implemented on a daily, monthly, and weekly basis to maintain and address

replenishment issues. Verification of backdoor receiving must also be as accurate as possible.

Operations management is very crucial to every organization if they want to maintain

their position in market share and product reliability. Managers need to be able to have a wide

variety of skills; these decisions are based on ideas, positions, or judgments on available facts.

Planning helps indentify action steps needed to accomplish team objectives. Adaptability is

needed to demonstrate an appropriate level of composure and patience under different

circumstances. People must be able to focus on service to identify and anticipate customer

requirements, expectations, and needs. But above all, results orientated, setting high standards of

performance for self and others will always keep the company above its competitors.
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References

Chase, R., Jacobs, R., & Aquilano, N. (2006). Operations Management for Competitive

Advantage (11th ed.). New York , NY: McGraw-Hill.