Operations Management
Operation management is the area in which it deals with designing, overseeing, supplying of goods and services. It focuses on management of processes of producing and the distribution of goods and services. It is also involved in ensuring that the business operations done effectively especially when the resources are limited and when meeting the needs of the customer or the consumer. The nature of goods or services in an organization depends on how the operation management is done an example is manufacturing and retailing (Wilson 1995). Operation management has so many challenges such as globalization, different regions, or practices, management across the boundaries, the social responsibility, and the environmental responsibility.
Challenges
Management across the national boundaries is hard when done from a day-to-day basis. The operation managers from different parts of the world face problems because people speak different languages and therefore it becomes hard for them to communicate. The company is not able to prevent the interest of the other part of a nation from overriding the network of goods and services while the company encourages internal competition. An example of such a company is the Kodak that is located in most parts of the world. It contains an operation measurement system this allows the all Kodak Company in different parts of the world to be able to know their performance and that of the others. The ability to compare performance of a company in different parts of the world this develop perspective of the global multi cultures (Wilson 1995).
Different cultures, history, economy conditions, demography and market needs of different parts of the world is another challenge for the operation management. An example is the lean manufacturing that grew in Japan because of the Second World War (Chambers 1995-2010). Most multinationals wonder whether they should allow their facilities to different parts of the world so that they can develop their own operation strategies so that it can suit their own conditions or the uniformity of the practices reflect the corporate values are encouraged.
Countries or regions that are wide the operation management becomes more of a challenge in terms of the management and consolidation of information on the stock levels, data, and sales that is in the system. This makes it hard for the operators to know what the people or the customers need therefore leading to loses for the company. With these global operations, there is need for technology to save, view, and update new data.
Reference
Chambers, S. (2010). Operation Management. Pearson Education , 21.Retrieved december 14,
2011, from
wps.pearsoned.co.uk/ema_uk_he_slack_opsman_4/17/4473/1145169.cw/index.html
Wilson, J. M. (1995). An historical perspective on Operations Management.Production and
Inventory Management Journal.
