3.4.1 internal & external influences on operational objectives

Question 1

Internal influences

Answer 1

-finance
-people
-effective marketing
-capital

Question 2

finance (internal)

Answer 2

budgeting will be particularly important in competitive environment

Question 3

people (internal)

Answer 3

skills of workforce and how they are applied are fundamental to a firm.

Question 4

effective marketing (internal)

Answer 4

important in the service sector where customers are persuaded to buy.

Question 5

capital (internal)

Answer 5

a capital intensive approach will improve speed and quality but will mean high initial costs.

Question 6

a firm will have to take into account the nature of a product:

Answer 6

target market
regulatory environment
geographical

Question 7

target market

Answer 7

NICHE may require specialist operations management such as expertise in that field; MASS may lead to highly automated, capital intensive operations.

Question 8

Regulatory environment

Answer 8

legal requirements will heavily impact on operations e.g waste

Question 9

geographical

Answer 9

location of the industry and closeness of the available factors of production

Question 10

external influences on operational objectives

Answer 10

a firm will have to take into account the performance of its competitors.
benchmarking
environmental targets
innovation

Question 11

benchmarking

Answer 11

identifying best practice from other firms and adopting elements of this in the firms performance.

Question 12

environmental targets

Answer 12

setting targets to improve performance e.g wastage

Question 13

innovation

Answer 13

in order to differentiate from the competition

Question 14

ethical factors (external influence)

Answer 14

-ethical sourcing of raw materials may affect costs and speed of response.
-ethical treatment of employees could help achieve quality and dependability.
-ethical treatment of waste and helping achieve environmental objectives.