Study unit 2 Operations management: activities, techniques and methods Flashcards
Operations design consists of two core components:
The design of the product and/or service itself and the design of the operations process by which the product will be physically manufactured or a service rendered.
A five-step procedure is followed in the design of a product/service
Starting from the generation of ideas/concepts, through screening processes by which some “less promising” ideas are eliminated, to a preliminary design, to further design evaluation and improvement, and eventually to a prototype of the product or simulation of the service and final design.
In the case of the design of the operations process, four interrelated areas need to be considered:
The operations network, the layout and flow of the manufacturing/provisioning facility, the use of appropriate process technology, and the design of jobs and organisation of the work.
The operations manager of a manufacturer will be involved in at least three steps.
First is the physical design of the product itself – for example, its shape, size, features and packaging. Second, the possible ancillary services that go with it, like guarantees and level of after-sales service, are considered. Third, with possibly deeper involvement, will be the design of the operations process that is to physically manufacture the product.
4 Areas of concern when designing
The first area of concern is to decide how much of the operations network the business wishes to “control” or own.
The second area of concern in the design of the operation relates to the layout and flow of the manufacturing or service provisioning facility.
The third area of concern in the design of the operation relates to the use or application of process technology.
The fourth area of concern in the design of the operation relates to job design and work organisation.
Four types of layout:
fixed position, process, product and cellular.
A fixed position layout
A fixed position layout is found where the product or service is completed at the position where it is to function (house, bridge, dam and highway) or where it is directly required (borehole, plumbing repair, telephone installation). Resources of manufacture or service provision are brought to the receiver of the conversion or the processing.
A process layout
A process layout is found where a number of similar processes are grouped together in departments or sections, though not all the processes are necessarily used in the manufacture/rendering of each and every product/service.
A hospital, for example, has all kinds of departments – the orthopaedic department, cardiology department, paediatric department, to mention but a few. Patients are taken to the department where they will receive the specific treatment they require. A process layout may also be used in a service provider like a departmental store. Customers do not necessarily purchase articles from each and every department – so they visit only those that offer the specific items they need.
A product layout
A product layout is found where all the processes that need to be executed for a specific product to be manufactured are placed together consecutively in a “line arrangement”, with one after the other – thereby progressing through all the various production stages, finally ending up in one product.
A cellular layout
A cellular layout comprises a combination of a process and a product layout.
One technique that can be used to facilitate the design of the process is work study.
It comprises two facets: method study and work measurement. Method study seeks to find more efficient ways of carrying out a particular task. Work measurement determines how long each task should take – given normal working conditions. In combination they may be used to improve productivity but also to ensure that the total workload is evenly distributed among enough workers.
Planning and control
Operations planning and control refer to activities which put “the whole operations process into action”.
The task of the operations manager
The task of the operations manager in planning and control of the operations process involves trying to “match” or reconcile the supply of products and services with demand in three areas: volume, timing and quality. In other words, the operations manager needs to decide how much to produce or how many service points to provide, when to produce these products or render these services, and what exactly needs to be produced or rendered to satisfy customer/client requirements.
Capacity planning and control in operations has three elements:
Determining the total demand (from which the planned demand that the operation will attempt to satisfy will be derived as well as the required operations capacity to meet it), identifying alternative plans to meet the planned demand and/or variations in it (level, chase-demand or demand management plans), and choosing an appropriate detailed capacity planning and control approach for both fixed (facilities, machines, etc) and adjustable (operators, equipment, etc) operations capacity.
