Essay on "Operations Management Course"

Essay 7 pages (2357 words) Sources: 4

[EXCERPT] . . . .

This involves identifying the ensuring that sales forecasts are as accurate as possible in order to determine the appropriate production level. So the first step will be the determination of demand for each month. The capacity for each month is then determined and when the demand exceeds capacity, the organization plans for production in accordance to this. If the inventory is not sufficient to meet the needs of the consumers, the production level is increased slightly but kept as close to the constant level as possible in order to maintain unit production costs as close to normal as possible.

Application of key elements of work system design, project lifecycle and project management

Work system design will be applied in four phases. The first phase is maintenance and operation. This involves constant monitoring of the performance of the work system and where flaws are identified, they are fixed as fast as possible in order to minimize cost of maintenance and downtime associated with breakdown. In this phase, there is also the ongoing improvement of work system processes through the constant analysis of the current design, experimentation with new designs and adaptation of the best alternative designs or improvements. The second phase is initiation which involves defining operational goals and allocating resources for the for a new or revised work system. In this phase, there is need to conduct an economic, organizational or technical feasibility analysis of the planned changes to understand their effect. The third phase is development which involves defining the technical requirements of the organization, acquiring necessary hardware and software and thorough testing to make sure it is able to meet the needs earlier identified. The last phase is implementation of the new work system design. This involves creating an implementation approach and plan and efforts to manage change within the organization. Training of employees is also done at this phase and acceptance testing is conducted regularly.

The project management lifecycle is implemented in four phases. The first is project development which is the stage where ideas are generated. The second is project planning whereby the key elements are identified and resources made available. A timeline and milestones are also developed in this stage. The third stage is project implementation and it involves actual running of the project and maintaining active supervision. The last phase is project evaluation whereby the achievement of goals and objectives is analyzed. This is a constant process that is conducted in all phases in order to ensure any necessary adjustments are made at the most appropriate time.

Key concepts of inventory planning and management

Inventory planning is important in order for the organization to benefit from the advantages associated with proper inventory management and to avoid the disadvantages. The first concept is quality whereby the products that are kept in inventory should be maintained in a good condition that ensures they are ready to be consumed at the right time. The second concept is speed which ensures that the stock is in the right place at the right time. Speed is especially important for perishable goods which need to be stored in conditions allowing them to stay for longer and that they are delivered to consumers at the right time. The FIFO (first in first out) policy is most important since it ensures that early stock is consumed first. The third concept is dependability which involves ensuring that the company has enough stock to meet the consumer needs even in times of unanticipated spikes in demand. The fourth concept is flexibility in that the optimum amount of stock is kept thus allowing the organization to keep expenses related to inventory management low and to allow for consumer needs to be met. The last concept is cost since costs of inventory management need to be kept as low as possible Teunter, Laan, & Vlachos, 2004()

There are three models that can be used. The first is the economic order quantity model which helps to determine the optimal level of inventory that the organization should keep in order to minimize inventory costs. The continuous order model helps the organization to work on a fixed production basis with triggers of quantity replenishment kept where the inventory reaches a particular level. The last model is the periodic system model where orders are placed after a certain predetermined period of time. The economic order quantity model will be used for this organization.

References

Aghezzaf, E. (2005). Capacity Planning and Warehouse Location in Supply Chains with Uncertain Demands. The Journal of the Operational Research Society, 56(4), 453-462. doi: 10.2307/4102216

Fleischmann, B., Ferber, S., & Henrich, P. (2006). Strategic Planning of BMW's Global Production Network. Interfaces, 36(3), 194-208. doi: 10.2307/20141389

Karabuk, S., & Wu, S.D. (2003). Coordinating Strategic Capacity Planning in the Semiconductor Industry. Operations Research, 51(6), 839-849. doi: 10.2307/4132446

Keeble, J.J., Topiol, S., & Simon, B. (2003). Using Indicators to Measure Sustainability Performance at a Corporate and Project Level. Journal of Business Ethics, 44(2/3), 149-158. doi: 10.2307/25075024

Teunter, R., Laan, E. v. d., & Vlachos, D. (2004). Inventory Strategies for Systems with Fast Remanufacturing. The Journal of the Operational… READ MORE

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