Operation Manager free essay sample

http://www. google. co. in/search? sclient=psyhl=ensite=source=hpq=job+deisgnbtnK=Google+Search Functions and Activities of Operations Management August 11th, 2009Leave a commentGo to comments Operations management involves the management of human,technology and system resources. The operations management functions,like in other management disciplines, include planning,directing,organizing,staffing,motivating and controlling to achieve the set organizational goals. In addition to the above management functions operation managers perform many other activities as given below. . Facility location and lay out design-The facility location activity involves the decision of the location for the facility,manufacturing unit or service outfit,geographically. The layout design determines how the internal facilities (departments,equipments,service stations,workstations etc ) will be arranged. 2. Job design and work measurement-The job design activity involves the structuring of work tasks assign ed to an employee and the study of the tasks that make up the job. We will write a custom essay sample on Operation Manager or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The work measurement activity involves the timing of the tasks that comprise a job. The job design and work measurement activities are carried out to optimize output. Design of the production processes, type of process design,and investment and economic analysis also studied to achieve maximum productivity 3. Demand forecasting-Organizations need to forecast the demand for their products and services so that all relevant plans can be developed for the future. Operation managers need to estimate future demand as accurately as possible as this will influence not only the requirement of manpower resources but also the utilization of working capital. Various types of quantitative and non-quantitative forecasting techniques are used in operation management. 4. Planning and controlling operations-Planning is the most important function performed by an operations manager. Planning may be long range(strategic),short range(operational) or medium range(tactical). An operational management plan follows as a sequel to the overall corporate planning and includes marketing,financial,personnel/MIS, other plans at the functional level and departmental plans for the purchasing,inventory,assembly,finishing etc. Aggregate plans define how the resources can be best employed to meet market demand for the given products 5. Materials management-The materials management activity involves the grouping of management functions supporting materials flow. Materials management includes activities starting from purchase and internal control of production materials,the planning and control of unfinished products in process at various stages of production and the warehousing,shipping and distribution of the finished product 6. Inventory control and management-The inventory management activity is concerned with the planning and control of inventories of raw materials,consumables,work in progress materials,other economic resourses and finished goods. 7. Purchase management-This function is a subsystem   of the materials management and is of special importance in a typical manufacturing firm where 50-60%of the total costs is made up of purchases. Purchase management functions include vendor development,selection of suppliers,contract negotiation,value analysis,make or buy decisions and maintaining the high ethics 8. Total Quality Management-This is a management concept that focuses the collective efforts of all managers and employees on satisfying customer expectations by continually improving operation management processes and products. 9. Supply chain management-Supply chain can be described as the network covering the various stages in the provision of products or services to the customers. Supply chain management integrates procurement,operations and logistics to provide value added products or services. Effective management of the supply chain enables organisations to meet customer requirements in time with improved facility utilisation,optimimal inventory etc. 10. Project Management-A thorough knowledge of project management procedures,tools and techniques is essential for the operations manager as almost all organizations embark upon projects of one kind or another almost all the time. Also some project oriented organizations take years to deliver their products. Project management uses basic tools like PERT/CPM and their advanced versions for planning ,scheduling and expediting. 1. Maintenance management-The objective of maintenance management is to ensure that the systems are working at their optimum efficiency and is essential to the organization for productivity,increase operational life of equipments and kep safe working conditions. Maintenance management uses modern preventive and predictive maintenance tools and monitoring techniques Operation Management Definition Paper Op eration Management Definition Paper The purpose of this paper is to describe the importance of operations management to a health care organization. In addition, the author of this paper will provide a personal definition of what operations management means and why is important to a healthcare organization. According to the Institute of Operations Management The cost of providing fast, reliable health care is always an emotive issue, but it has been brought to the fore again via the Gershon report, which is challenging the established Health Care Supply Chain. As a precursor to more specific events that look at how operations management can help practitioners make best use of additional funding to improve patient care and enhance the working lives of Health Care Professionals. The essential healthcare management functions are organized into three major groups of activities governing, caring, and learning with a focus on reaching excellence in community healthcare. Within Is this essay helpful? Join  OPPapers  to read more and access more than 470,000 just like it! GET  BETTER  GRADES these activities, each system is described in terms of what it must do to make the whole system effective. Implementing and sustaining change is one of the most difficult tasks for any management -but change is a fact of life in any modern enterprise and, without the ability to manage change, no company can hope to survive it. Operations Managers addresses the practical issues that surround planning and implementing change, including motivating a business to change, engaging staff in the change process, determining performance measures and sustaining the benefits achieved in the initial change process. According to Stevenson (2002), operations management is the management of that part of an organization that is responsible for producing goods and/or services. Operations management is that part of a business organization responsible for planning and coordinating the use of the organizations resources to convert inputs into outputs. The operations function is one of three job description A broad,  general, and written  statement  of a specific job, based on the findings of a  job analysis. It generally  includesduties, purpose,  responsibilities,  scope, and  working conditions  of a job along with the  jobs  title, and the name or  designation  of the  person  to whom the  employeereports. Job  description  usually  forms  the basis of  job specification. job design Work  arrangement  (or rearrangement) aimed at reducing or overcoming  job  dissatisfaction and  employee  alienationarising from repetitive and mechanistic  tasks. Through job design,  organizations  try to raise  productivity  levels  byoffering  non-monetary  rewards  such as greater  satisfactionfrom a sense of  personal  achievement in  meeting  the increased challenge and  responsibility  of ones work. Job enlargement,  job enrichment,  job rotation, and  job simplification  are the various  techniques  used in a job design  exercise. FACTORS AFFECTING JOB DESIGN Job design is affected by organizational, environmental and behavioral factors. A properly designed job will make it more productive and satisfying . If a job fails on this count, it must be redesigned based on the feedback. The various factors affecting job design are the following Organizational factors Organizational factors include characteristics of task, work flow, ergonomics and work practices. Characteristics of Task: Job design requires the assembly of a number of tasks into a job or a group of jobs. An individual may carry out one main task which consists of a number of inter-related elements or functions. On the other hand , task functions may be spilt between a team, working closely together or strung along an assembly line. In more complex jobs, individuals may carry out a variety of connected tasks, each with a number of functions, or these tasks may be allocated to a group of workers or divided between them. Complexity in a job may be a reflection of the number and variety of tasks to be carried out, or the range and scope of the decisions that have to be made, or the difficulty of predicting the outcome of decisions. The internal structure of each task, consists of three elements Planning ,Executing and Controlling. A completely integrated job will include all these elements for each of the tasks involved . The workers or group of workers having been given objectives in terms of output, quality and cost targets, decide on how the work is to be done, assemble the resources, perform the work and monitor output, quality and cost standards. Responsibility in a job is measured by the amount of authority , some one to put to do all these things. The ideal design is to integrate all the three elements. Work Flow: The flow of work in an organization is strongly influenced by the nature of the product or service. The product or service usually suggests the sequence and balance between jobs, if the work is to be done efficiently . After the sequence of jobs is determined, the balance between the jobs is established. Ergonomics: Ergonomics is concerned with designing and shaping jobs to fit the physical abilities and characteristics of individuals so that ,they perform the jobs effectively . Ergonomics helps employees to design jobs in such a way that workers’ physical abilities and job demands are balanced . It does not alter the nature of job tasks, but alters the location of tools ,switches and other facilities, keeping in view that handling the job is the primary consideration. Work Practices: Work practices are set ways of performing work . These methods may arise from tradition or the collective wishes of employees. Work practices were till now, determined by time and motion study which established the standard time needed to complete the given job. The study required repeated observations . The accuracy of the readings depended on competence of the work study engineer . Deviations from the normal work-cycle caused distortions in measurements, was biased towards existing work practices with little effort at method’s improvement and could be carried out only when, production was under way. A new technique has now emerged which ,if introduced , could drastically alter the work practices. Called the MOST (Maynard Operating Sequence Technique) ,the technique uses a standard formula to list the motion sequence ascribed in index values. Environmental factors Environmental factors affect the job design. These factors that have a bearing on job design are employees abilities and availability and social and culture expectations. Employee Abilities and Availability: Efficiency consideration must be balanced against the abilities and availability of the people to do the work. When Henry Ford made use of the assembly line, for example , he was aware that most potential workers lacked any automobile making experience . So, jobs were designed to be simple and required little training . Therefore, considerable thought must be given, as to who will actually do the work. Social and Cultural Expectations: During the earlier days, securing a job was the primary consideration. The worker was prepared to work on any job and under any working conditions. Now, it is not the same. Literacy, knowledge and awareness of workers have improved considerably . So also, their expectations from the job ,Hence, jobs be designed to meet the expectations of workers. When designing jobs for international operations, uniform designs are almost certain to neglect national and cultural differences . Hours of work holidays, vacations, rest breaks ,religious beliefs, management styles and worker sophistication and attitudes are just some of the predictable differences that can affect the design of jobs across international borders. Failure to consider these social expectations can create social dissatisfaction, low motivation ,hard to fill job openings and a low quality of work life ,especially, when foreign nationals are involved in the home country or overseas. Behavioral Factors: Behavioral factors include feedback, autonomy, use of abilities and variety. dsv2500 Subject Re: Factors effecting job design Yes u are right Organisational, Environmental and Behavioural factors paly important role in Job Design. dsv rwaller Subject Re: Factors effecting job design Solid job design is always the first step to effective work flow. An important step that businesses forget is assessing how well the person is utilizing good work practices. Waller Associates, provides Work Measurement services (  Work Measurement: Warehousing Distribution Consulting | Waller Associates  ) utilizing Lean and MOST in the Warehousing and Distribution sections of the Supply Chain industry. They can help your company achieve the efficiency that you envisioned with your efforts to do good Job Design more at  http://www. citehr. com/4270-factors-effecting-job-design. tml#ixzz1WEZZyLRd Factors influencing job design? Answer: Job design is affected by organizational, environmental and behavioral factors. A properly designed job will make it more productive and satisfying . If a job fails on this count, it must be redesigned based on the feedback. The various factors affecting job design are the following Organizational factors Organizational factors include characte ristics of task, work flow, ergonomics and work practices. Characteristics of Task: Job design requires the assembly of a number of tasks into a job or a group of jobs. An individual may carry out one main task which consists of a number of inter-related elements or functions. On the other hand , task functions may be spilt between a team, working closely together or strung along an assembly line. In more complex jobs, individuals may carry out a variety of connected tasks, each with a number of functions, or these tasks may be allocated to a group of workers or divided between them. Complexity in a job may be a reflection of the number and variety of tasks to be carried out, or the range and scope of the decisions that have to be made, or the difficulty of predicting the outcome of decisions. The internal structure of each task, consists of three elements Planning ,Executing and Controlling. A completely integrated job will include all these elements for each of the tasks involved . The workers or group of workers having been given objectives in terms of output, quality and cost targets, decide on how the work is to be done, assemble the resources, perform the work and monitor output, quality and cost standards. Responsibility in a job is measured by the amount of authority , some one to put to do all these things. The ideal design is to integrate all the three elements. Work Flow: The flow of work in an organization is strongly influenced by the nature of the product or service. The product or service usually suggests the sequence and balance between jobs, if the work is to be done efficiently . After the sequence of jobs is determined, the balance between the jobs is established. Ergonomics: Ergonomics is concerned with designing and shaping jobs to fit the physical abilities and characteristics of individuals so that ,they perform the jobs effectively . Ergonomics helps employees to design jobs in such a way that workers physical abilities and job demands are balanced . It does not alter the nature of job tasks, but alters the location of tools ,switches and other facilities, keeping in view that handling the job is the primary consideration. Work Practices: Work practices are set ways of performing work . These methods may arise from tradition or the collective wishes of employees. Work practices were till now, determined by time and motion study which established the standard time needed to complete the given job. The study required repeated observations . The accuracy of the readings depended on competence of the work study engineer . Deviations from the normal work-cycle caused distortions in measurements, was biased towards existing work practices with little effort at methods improvement and could be carried out only when, production was under way. A new technique has now emerged which ,if introduced , could drastically alter the work practices. Called the MOST (Maynard Operating Sequence Technique) ,the technique uses a standard formula to list the motion sequence ascribed in index values. Environmental factors Environmental factors affect the job design. These factors that have a bearing on job design are employees abilities and availability and social and culture expectations. Employee Abilities and Availability: Efficiency consideration must be balanced against the abilities and availability of the people to do the work. When Henry Ford made use of the assembly line, for example , he was aware that most potential workers lacked any automobile making experience . So, jobs were designed to be simple and required little training . Therefore, considerable thought must be given, as to who will actually do the work. Social and Cultural Expectations: During the earlier days, securing a job was the primary consideration. The worker was prepared to work on any job and under any working conditions. Now, it is not the same. Literacy, knowledge and awareness of workers have improved considerably . So also, their expectations from the job ,Hence, jobs be designed to meet the expectations of workers. When designing jobs for international operations, uniform designs are almost certain to neglect national and cultural differences . Hours of work holidays, vacations, rest breaks ,religious beliefs, management styles and worker sophistication and attitudes are just some of the predictable differences that can affect the design of jobs across international borders. Failure to consider these social expectations can create social dissatisfaction, low motivation ,hard to fill job openings and a low quality of work life ,especially, when foreign nationals are involved in the home country or overseas.