Operations and Process Management †Myassignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss that the managers of the company, can always learn something from the operations and process management. Answer: Thesis statement The statement discusses that the managers of the company, can always learn something from the operations and process management. The subject discusses about the operation in the management beyond industry and processes. Cisco Systems, Inc. is the largest networking company in the world (Slack, 2012). This American multinational corporation technology company specialises in designing, manufacturing and selling network equipments all over the world. Being the Project Manager of the service department in Cisco Systems, it is important to study operations and process management irrespective which department you work for. Operations management mostly consists of planning, organising as well as supervising in the context of manufacturing and production or the terms of services. It mainly focuses on delivery so that the organisation runs properly and the output it creates is optimised. The inputs are technology, equipment, human resources and materials (Slack, 2012). Compared to some, it is easier to understand the operations functions of few organisations like the automobile industries (Slack, 2012).Any organisation that produces any sort of services or products has operations. They also require gaining profit from producing such services and products. Cisco Systems aims at the same from its operation activities. Operations management is necessary for large and small organisations. This is because no matter what their size is, they produce services and products and deliver them efficiently to the customers. Large organisations have higher amount of resources, which the smaller organisations lack, and this means higher degree of manipulation required to meet the requirements. The smaller organisations on the other side can easily adapt to the changing needs of the customers and environmental situations as they have informal structures. Decision-making becomes comparatively difficult as smaller number of people have Operations management is necess ary in non-profit organisations like hospitals, government departments, welfare charities, many more (Krajewski et al., 2013). Like the commercial organisations, the non-profit organisations need to make similar decisions regarding performance measures, investment in technologies, many more. It is more complex because it involves the environmental, political, social and economical angles. Operations management deals with various duties. One of the key functions of operations management is designing. It includes product development, how and when the product be sold in the market. It is also related to the expectations of the customers in the present market and the ultimate product design. Using information systems to monitor these factors are also very important. Planning is another function, it can be explained as how the management plans to utilise the available resources to deal with the present situations. It helps the organisations to adapt to the various environmental situations, like the change in demand. As the term already mentions management, operations management consists of managing to achieve successful operations. They do it through encouraging the employees which has positive effects of performance and is generated through culture, training and leadership. Coordination is very important and it deals with the method of interrelating with the various parts of the work together. It is the coordinating present between the various responsibilities and roles of the staff and the operational team. They make the organisations able to compete because they have the ability to respond to the customer by changing their capabilities. This keeps them ahead of competitors. According to Brandon et al., (2012), five basic factors can be evaluated to understand how the firm or the organisation is performing. First, cost of production should be low. Second, there should be no compromise with the quality. Third, the organisation must have speedy response to the changes that occur in the environment. Fourth, the organisation should have characters of dependability so that the customers can depend on them for delivery of services and products. Lastly, the organisation should be flexible enough to adapt to the changes. All the factors are necessary to function properly in the operations, The function also requires a good process design. Some of the factors that influence design are fit for the purpose, choice of materials needed, finishing of the products or services, durability, maintenance, efficiency and consumer demands and following latest fashion trends. The first factor is fit for the purpose that deals with the products and services which will be meeting the particular demands of the customers without failure. The second factor is choice of materials needed, which describes that the design should clarify to the use of the product and the cost along with the quantity that needs to be produced. The third factor is finishing, which is related closely with the kinds of materials used in production. The fourth factor describes the durability, which depends on the market cost of the product, the specific use and the planned obsolescence of the product in due time. The fifth factor is maintenance. Maintenance needs of any products or services should not be over looked. It must be easy for the consumers. The last factor is efficiency that is directly related to the quality of the product. With higher quality, the product will be highly efficient. Consumer demands and following latest fashion trends: The products and services should be appropriate for the latest trends and customer demands. Cisco Services uses the operations management and helps to cut down the operational expenses of Cisco IT. They also helped in accelerating technology adoption and improving network performances. In addition, Cisco IT has lowered the total cost of ownership. In the last five years, the company has faced such problems, which has stumbled in the major growth of the company. As a result, the operation cost has also become high. The challenges were deploying an IT budget and investments of the company. The company also faced problems in the strategic plans, lower TCO, improve operational efficiency and create support for increasing business demands. The solution consisted of a proactive approach for operations in IT. Cisco service provides the necessary guidance on optimisation, design, operations and operations and Cisco Network Optimisation service (NOS). Application of the above-mentioned approach and services resulted in a faster and cost effective way of resolving the support issues in Cisco IT. The delivery time was reduced to an hour. They achieved six-fold degrees in hours spent in support issues (quarterly). A major 30% reduction was achieved in the presence of critical issues of Cisco network (Senz and Revilla, 2013). Operations management requires proper skills and knowledge with respect to when and which techniques to apply in order reach the desired results. It is clear from the thesis that operations management deals with all the processes, which are necessary for carrying out the essential operations of any company or business. The main two processes of any organisation are selling services and products. Thus, it includes functions of the operations to optimise situations and resources for production of quality services and products. It requires constant analysis and look out for new opportunities for betterment of the company. A strong overlapping is often expected between the areas of engineering, supply chain management and logistics. It can be safely said that there are various industries where the effective managerial skills of the operations managers are responsible for the companys successes. References: Brandon-Jones, A., Piercy, N. and Slack, N. (2012). Bringing teaching to life: Exploring innovative approaches to operations management education. International Journal of Operations Production Management, 32(12), pp.1369-1374. Brown, S., Bessant, J.R. and Lamming, R. (2013). Strategic operations management. Routledge. Chase, J. (2012). Operations management. Tata McGraw-Hill. Khanna, R.B. (2015). Production and operations management. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.. Krajewski, L.J., Ritzman, L.P. and Malhotra, M.K. (2013). Operations management: processes and supply chains. New York: Pearson. Mishan, E.J. (2015). Elements of Cost-Benefit Analysis (Routledge Revivals). Routledge. Senz, M.J. and Revilla, E. (2013). Cisco Systems, Inc.: Supply chain risk management. The Supply Chain Management Casebook: Comprehensive Coverage and Best Practices in SCM, 80. Slack, N. (2012). Operations and process management. Harlow: Pearson.