Operational Analysis and Effectiveness (essay 2) Essay

Operational Analysis and Effectiveness ( 2) - Essay Example How an operations manager handles these challenges is manifested through a combination of the following four competitive priorities: cost, quality, time and flexibility. The optimal goal of any operations manager is to achieve low-cost operations in terms of cost. With regards to quality the objective is to develop high-performance designs and to manufacture quality products consistently. The operations manager’s time priority seeks rapid new product development, and on-time and reliable delivery of products. Finally, the priority of flexibility is to achieve mass customization albeit with flexible production volume capacity to profitably meet the changing consumer demands. In meeting the challenges facing operations management today, we find that the two key drivers are the role of information and of information technology within the firm and externally to it with the organizations that it has relationships with. Vonderembse and Tracey (1999) argue that more communication and interactions with suppliers, customers, and other functional areas within the firm are needed to ensure that capabilities, both internal and external, are employed in w ays that enhance overall performance. In this report we shall address the issue of how an operations manager should go about optimizing the operations and production of a manufacturing plant in the situation where the plant has too many suppliers which is causing major problems in terms of delivery levels; quality of products and raw materials; production scheduling and eventually to customer satisfaction. This problem is best resolved using the supply chain management concept found in operations management. With the advent of modern technology, manufacturing processes have become so sophisticated that a single quality characteristic cannot reflect the true product quality (Pana, Panb & Lee 2009). Management is responsible for developing, organizing, and