5. The Finance Function's Relationship with Operations Flashcards
What is operations management?
The planning, directing and controlling of the transformation of inputs into outputs that meet the needs of the organisation’s customers
What is process design?
The method by which individual specialists seek to understand business activities and ensure that they are as efficient and effective as possible
What are the 4 Vs of process design?
- Volume (no. of inputs and outputs)
- Variety (no of different inputs and outputs)
- Variation (when outputs are required)
- Visibility (if customers can view it or not)
What is a process map?
Setting out a process visually to show how inputs and transformed into outputs, and enabling people to understand it or to see where efficiencies could be found
Who created the value chain?
Michael Porter
What is the value chain split into?
Primary and support activities
What are the 5 primary activities of a manufacturing company?
- Inbound logistics
- Operations
- Outbound logistics
- Marketing and Sales
- Service
What are the 4 support activities of a manufacturing company?
- Procurement
- Human resource management
- Technology development
- Firm infrastructure
What is the value network?
How organisations are linked to other organisations involved in the production and delivery or products and services to the ultimate customer - they do not operate in isolation
What do new big data and technological advances allow for finance to do in regards to operational efficiency?
Access customer feedback, operations logs and procurement information in order to make operations thinking more customer focused
What is capacity planning and control?
Balancing the customers demand for the product with the company’s supply of that product
What happens if a company is over capacity?
Resources available for production are not fully utilised, leading to high stock levels and under used employees
What happens if a company is under capacity?
The organisation is unable to produce the quantity being demanded, leading to delays in fulfilment
How does capacity planning have an impact on cost?
If the firm produces below it’s capacity, then resources such as staff time are waster
How does capacity planning have an impact on revenue?
If customer demand exceeds production capacity, revenue and customer goodwill will be lost
How does capacity planning have an impact on quality?
If production has to be rushed, quality will suffer
What are the 3 strategies available for capacity planning?
- Level capacity - constant
- Chase demand - match closely to forecast demand
- Demand management - attempt to manipulate demand levels
What is Manufacturing Resource Planning? (MRP II)
A method for the effective planning of all resources of a manufacturing company (identifying and forecasting orders, managing capacity requirements and placing stock orders automatically)
What are the 5 benefits of MRP II?
- Reduced stock handling
- Improved ability to meet orders
- Reliable quotations of delivery times
- Better supplier relationships
What is Optimised Production Technology?
OPT is a computer based method for scheduling production requirements to identify and eliminate bottlenecks
What is Enterprise Resource Planning?
ERP software integrates all departments and functions of an organisation in a computer system able to meet all the needs of all organisational users (SAP/Oracle)
What are the 5 main reasons that organisations hold inventory?
- To meet customer demand
- To meet production needs
- To deal with uncertainty
- To take advantage of bulk purchasing discounts
- To absorb seasonal fluctuations
What does inventory management aim to do?
Minimise the combined cost of inventory…
ordering costs + holding costs + stock out costs
What are inventory ordering costs?
The costs associated with placing the order, receiving good and goods transport