S3 - Business operations Flashcards
What are business operations ?
The activities needed for the business’s day to day functioning.
What is a supply chain ?
The way a product is made and then distributed
What does a supply chain consist of ?
The group of firms involved in the various processes required to make the product or service, begins with the supplier and end ends with the firm that sells it. The members within vary, but typically include: suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers.
What does having a dependable supply chain mean ?
All members need to be dependable - if any are unreliable the product won’t be on the shelves when it needs to be or it can impact on quality reflecting badly on the company selling it.
What is a distributor ?
Someone who buys the products from a manufacturer and sells them to other businesses or consumers.
What is a retailer ?
Someone who sells products directly to consumers.
What are some important factors to consider when choosing a supplier ?
The price, quality and reliability.
What is procurement ?
Finding and buying things that a firm needs from suppliers outside of the firm.
What is logistics ?
Getting goods or services from one part of the supply chain to another.
What are the benefits of having effective procurement and logistics ?
Can improve efficiency - business has supplies it needs at the right time, and reduces overall costs - helps get supplies at the best price.
What can effectively managing a supply chain achieve ?
A good relationship with suppliers, getting the best possible price and value and reduced waste and unnecessary costs.
What is job production ?
Manufacturing individual unique products based on the customers specification - if made in factories businesses need to retool its factory for each new product made.
What are the features of job production ?
Require highly skilled labour (expensive) and have high labour-to-capital ratio (lots of workers needed but little financial investment), can be labour intensive. Products are expensive and take a long time to make but are high quality.
What is flow production ?
(Or mass production) is where all products are identical and aim is to produce as many as possible along an assembly line - production is continuous for efficiency.
What is the aim of flow production ?
To gain from economies of scale to have low average unit cost to allow competitive prices. Very capital intensive and may require a lot of space for product storage.
