Introduction
Every department of an organization strives hard for the sharing of their contribution in the economic prosperity of the company and the presence of every department is essential for an entity. Among numerous departments, usually found in an organization, the name of Operational Department is one of them. Operational Department is one of the most important departments from the viewpoint of an organization and no organization could be in the sake of economic prosperity without having an effective Operational Department in particular .
Operational Department is a department which usually looks over the transparent move in the actions and behaviors of an organization. The main perspective of this assignment also relates to the management of operations of a chosen organization. There is a case has been associated with the analysis and the name of the case is “National Cranberry Cooperation (NCC)”. The company had operated in a perfect environment but according to the case, there are certain problems and issues are there which have been associated with them which needed to be controlled accordingly.
Key Facts, Scope and Aspects of the Case
There are number of things which could be taken into consideration for the analysis of the case in particular. The case analyzes the process at RP1, Cranberry Plant owned specifically by the Farmers. There are basically two types of harvest associated with the company which predominantly are wet and dry. NCC anticipated that the wet harvests will account for nearly 70% of the total crop particularly in the year 1971. Operational management inefficiency and Bottleneck things and problems are some of the crucial things and facts which have been identified in this particular case, whose scope could be defined in different aspects. The scope of the same thing is extremely vital and it is equally beneficial in terms of NCC as well.
Body of the Paper
- Key Operational Issues Identified in the Case
Operations management predominantly involves the design and effective management of goods, practices, services and supply chain design. It takes into account the acquisition, development and utilization of corporate resources required to provide goods and services that are customized and according to customer’s wish. Operations management is immensely committed to make better use of available resources and convert them into products and services in a best possible manner just for the sake of profit maximization of an organization. In general, there are numerous issues and problems that are always there and encountered by operation management department . However in this particular case, there are multiple ranges of issues which are considerable to overcome upon them. Some of the underline issues of organizational issues are mentioned below:
High operational cost: One of the crucial issues for any operation management is the high cost served on diverse operations. Likewise, the outsourcing trend is increasingly adopted by many of the organization including our concerned company. The company pays out hefty amount of money onto their activities associated with supply (such as packaging, distribution, loading and etc). A significant amount of the costs and cost of these and other time-related activities may be out of question. The proper check and balance for the security of products is very difficult in the case of outsourcing.
Transportation charges: Transport charges are very unpredictable as the fuel prices are fluctuating day by day. Therefore, it is a big task for the department to effectively manage the transportation section.
Supply chain complications: The process of Supply chains is very complex, vibrant, and it contains lot of intrinsic vagueness, which makes them produce adverse effects, just like undependable prediction, delay in delivery, instability in quality, instrument failures, and order cancellation or adjust
Manage inventories: Inventory in the supply chain play a foremost part for company’s growth. Therefore, the appropriate management of investment is beneficial to run supply chain process in smooth manner. The lack in inventory would badly disrupt the timely flow of work, and have a profound impact, and excess inventory raise unusual costs
- Overtime cost of the workers
- Bottleneck to Unload Fruit at the Process Based Plant
- Inefficient and Ineffective grading Process
- Inefficient Start Times for the Workers
- Slow Process Flow of the Company
- High Waiting of trucks to unload
- Dryers for Wet Cranberries
There are certain operational based techniques and models which could be taken into account for the same analysis and it is found that the best thing which could be done here is to strengthen the operations of the company with the help of effective flows between its operations and other managerial based techniques. However, by reviewing the aforementioned operations management issues, it is being assessed that these issues are entirely linked with the model named economic order quantity. This model was proposed by Ford W. Harris by the year 1913. The entire model is elaborated under the following statement:
"Interest on capital tied up wages, materials and overhead to set a maximum limit part of the amount of profits can be made simultaneously," system" outlay of the job that fix the minimal. The experience has revealed a manager away to identify large number of economic capacity”
- Addressing and Correcting Issues
It is extremely important for an organization to stay competitive and effective in terms of revenue generation and income increment and for the sake of the same, it is more than important to take effective and timely decision or by minimizing the level of issues accordingly . There are number of issues have been highlighted in the case of NCC and every problem is important from the viewpoint of the company and it needed to be correct and minimize accordingly for competing with the peer companies.
The issues could be minimizing with the fact that operational management issues should be minimizing accordingly. First of all, it is necessary to keep the timings of delivery trucks and unload of material would be minimized as it will certainly assist the chosen company to bring effectiveness even at the time of high production for the company . Overtime cost problem could be done, if the company would hire them only at the peak production season otherwise the current workforce should try to complete the work in a specific time frame for the company. Both Dry and Wet harvest should be uploaded in the trucks at different terminals accordingly in order to save the cost and timings of the company in particular. NCC would certainly get a certain added advantage by considering these alternatives. Since, there are number of theories have been associated with the same operational issues.
Obstacles and Difficulties
Initiating a thing in a company is not an easy task as it requires strong commitment and financial capability as well. There are certain obstacles and difficulties would have been associated with implementing the above mentioned recommendations on the operations of the company. The major obstacle which could be found by NCC is high cost of operations, because initiating a new thing in the company certainly requires high amount of upfront cost. Apart from that, it is also important to train the employees of the company accordingly to give their hundred percent accordingly. They may envisage problems in accentuating over the new process which could be danger for the organization.
Conclusion
Operational management issues are more than important to minimize in an organization for the sake of betterment for an entity and same thing is required in the case of NCC, wherein operational management issue is arise, however with the help of effective strategies and above mentioned recommendations, all of the operational management issues could have been managed and decreased accordingly.
References
Andreas De Beer, D. R. (2012). Focus on Operational Management: A Generic Approach. Miami: Juta Academic.
Galloway, R. L. (2010). Operations Management: Theory and Practice. Chicago: Sage.
Vissers, J. (2007). Operations Management. London: Barron's Educational Series.
