In today’s competitive global business environment, the goal of all manufacturing systems is long-term survival. A manufacturing company’s survival in an increasingly competitive market closely depends upon its ability to produce highest quality product at lowest possible cost and in a timely manner with shortest possible lead-time. In addition, these goals should be achieved by paying utmost respect to the humanity of the employees who make the system work. Sometime, the difficulty of achieving the goals lies in the complexity of manufacturing operations. It is not difficult to build the high quality product, but is extremely difficult to do so while maintaining excellent quality, and at some time respecting the humanity of people who do the actual work of building that product. A Just-in-Time (JIT) based approach, which is suggested here, is capable of achieving all above stated goals. Just-in-Time (JIT) Based Quality Management is both philosophy and guiding set Continue reading
Operations Management Concepts
Production planning- Definition, Objectives and Levels
Production planning is concerned with deciding in advance what is to be produced, when to be produced, where to be produced and how to be produced. It involves foreseeing every step in the process of production so as to avoid all difficulties and inefficiency in the operation of the plant. Production planning has been defined as the technique of forecasting or picturing ahead every step in a long series of separate operations, each step to be taken in the right place, of the right degree, and at the right time, and each operation to be done at maximum efficiency. In other words, production planning involves looking ahead, anticipating bottlenecks and identifying the steps necessary to ensure smooth and uninterrupted flow of production. It determines the requirements for materials, machinery and man-power; establishes the exact sequence of operations for each individual item and lays down the time schedule Continue reading
Differences Between Manufacturing and Service Operations
Generally speaking, process efficiency is the most important to manufacturing operations while production and marketing are inseparable to service operations. Manufacturing’s tangible output can be consumed overtime, less labor and more equipment are used in production, since automation has increased capital intensity while as a result reduced customer contact. Consumers rarely take part in the manufacturing process, many manufacturing operations have emphasized efficiency while compromising flexibility, the methods for monitoring and using resources are sophisticated while producing. On the other hand, service operations are different from those of manufacturing operations. Consumption and production of services takes place simultaneously or closely, and there are more labor and more customer participation, which means service businesses, usually are more customer-oriented. while elementary methods are frequently used for monitoring and using resources. To be specific, there are mainly six differences between manufacturing operations and service operations. 1. Basic organize style in operation Basically, manufacturing Continue reading
Kaizen Costing Method
Kaizen is a Japanese management concept launched by Masaaki Imai, which proved to be the key to Japanese competitive success. The significance of this concept is: KAI = Change and ZEN = for better, and the translation is “continuous improvement”, that means small improvements to the ongoing efforts. Unlike the Western conception, implying total change, at large intervals of time, using large amounts of resources and a high cost level, Kaizen Costing seeks daily, gradual, slow, but continuous improvements, which take place at minimal cost. Kaizen strategy is that a single day should not pass without an improvement to intervene in the activity of each employee or each entity. The Japanese have shown that by applying this strategy, improvement is achieved with minimal expenditure. Specific characteristics that ensure successful approach of Kaizen activities are the following: disregards all ideas implemented so far in the organization of production; rejects the whole Continue reading
Roland Gareis Project Maturity Model
For managing the projects, project portfolios and programs, companies with project orientation have particular strategies, organizational structures, and certain cultures. The management of the programs and project provides competitive improvement for the social systems. Therefore, the organizations including nations, regions, industries are becoming more project oriented. There is an interrelationship between the outcomes of the project oriented systems in the project and their maturity state. These maturities of the project or an organization can be evaluated by different maturity models. In this article, the maturity model developed by the ROLAND GAREIS Project and Programme Management ® has been discussed. Dr. Roland Gareis who is a university professor at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, Austria. Project Maturity models have different dimensions which relate to each other. ROLAND GAREIS model contains eight dimensions. These dimensions are discussed bellow. Project Management: A project is a defined as a provisional organization for the efficiency of Continue reading
Locational Decisions and Factors Governing Plant Locations
Plant location may be understood as the function of determining where the plant should be located for maximum operating economy and effectiveness. The selection of location for a plant is one of the problems, perhaps the most important, which is faced by an entrepreneur while launching a new enterprise. A selection on pure economic considerations will ensure an easy and regular supply of raw materials, labour force, efficient plant layout, proper utilization of production capacity and reduced cost of production. An ideal location may not, by itself, guarantee success; but it certainly contributes to the smooth and efficient working of an organization. A bad location, on the other hand, is a severe handicap for any enterprise and it finally bankrupts it. Locational decisions generally arise when: A new manufacturing (or servicing) unit is to be set up. Existing plant operations are difficult to expand due to poor selection of site Continue reading