I am about to start my next-to-last term before graduation. I am
taking two classes this time around. One of these classes is
Operations Management. Operations Management is an area of business
that is concerned with the production of goods and services, and
involves the responsibility of ensuring that business operations are
efficient and effective. It is also the management of resources, the
distribution of goods and services to customers, and the analysis of
queue systems.
This
course focuses on the importance of the operations function in
organizations. The reason why we have classes like this in a general
management degree plan is because it is important for people to examine
the fundamental issues of facilities location, output planning,
inventory control, scheduling, and quality control. These are factors
that affect almost every business, and could affect the bottom line if
they are not given the proper attention.
When people see the
words "facilities location", "output planning”, "inventory control",
"scheduling", and "quality control", they might think of a factory that
is pushing out product day and night. For the most part, this is
probably true. But these characteristics should be a consideration in
all aspects of business.
From a
very
elementary perspective, let’s take a customer service call center.
Scheduling and forecasting is of utmost importance. A business must be
properly staffed at different times of the day based on call flow, peak
times, and other factors. The business must also forecast and schedule
to compensate for vacations and sick time that will be taken by various
people at completely random times. That is a factor that must be built
into the forecast in order to achieve optimal performance.
Quality
control is another characteristic that is applicable across all lines
of business. No customer wants to call into the business, wait on hold
for X amount of minutes, and finally be told by the person on the other
end of the phone that they are unable to help them. This is not good
customer service. Quality control in a call center has many facets
that are represented in performance metrics, training, and the ability
of the rep to do the job.
From a management standpoint, it is
the management team that is responsible for the analysis of operational
decisions using appropriate information and resources. This is usually
the performance metrics. They carry a lot of weight in a call center
environment. (This is also sometimes referred to as Operational
Intelligence. Operational Intelligence focuses on optimizing business
processes by identifying patterns of execution and bottlenecks in the
processes, and how exceptional business events affect the processes.)
Furthermore,
management can often compare themselves to other businesses when they
know of techniques, style, policies and procedures that the other
business has tried have indeed worked. This is more commonly referred
to as “best practices”. We’re also responsible for determining the
advantages and disadvantages of different ideas that ultimately will
help or hurt the business.
So just because a class has a
certain perspective to it (in this case manufacturing), it doesn’t mean
that the principles and methods do not apply to other types of
businesses. The smart student will apply those principles to other
aspects of the industry and be able to make a direct correlation to
other segments of the company.