Operational Analysis and Effectiveness (essay 2) Essay

Operational Analysis and Effectiveness ( 2) - Essay Example How an operations manager handles these challenges is manifested through a combination of the following four competitive priorities: cost, quality, time and flexibility. The optimal goal of any operations manager is to achieve low-cost operations in terms of cost. With regards to quality the objective is to develop high-performance designs and to manufacture quality products consistently. The operations manager’s time priority seeks rapid new product development, and on-time and reliable delivery of products. Finally, the priority of flexibility is to achieve mass customization albeit with flexible production volume capacity to profitably meet the changing consumer demands. In meeting the challenges facing operations management today, we find that the two key drivers are the role of information and of information technology within the firm and externally to it with the organizations that it has relationships with. Vonderembse and Tracey (1999) argue that more communication and interactions with suppliers, customers, and other functional areas within the firm are needed to ensure that capabilities, both internal and external, are employed in w ays that enhance overall performance. In this report we shall address the issue of how an operations manager should go about optimizing the operations and production of a manufacturing plant in the situation where the plant has too many suppliers which is causing major problems in terms of delivery levels; quality of products and raw materials; production scheduling and eventually to customer satisfaction. This problem is best resolved using the supply chain management concept found in operations management. With the advent of modern technology, manufacturing processes have become so sophisticated that a single quality characteristic cannot reflect the true product quality (Pana, Panb & Lee 2009). Management is responsible for developing, organizing, and

American History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 14

American History - Essay Example New England and Chesapeake regions were highly settled by people of English origin prior to 1700. However, by 1700 the regions evolved into two distinct societies due to the diverse reasons that had forced the different societies to flee in the regions by 1700. Religion and economic were the two factors that had motivated the settlers in New England and Chesapeake regions. The settlers in New England had fled to the region for religious freedom from Britain due to the persecution of Protestants and Catholics after the Church of England deviated from Catholicism under Henry VIII. Thus, the reputation of the region for religion tolerance saw the region been settled by a majority of white English people fleeing from religious persecution in England. This implied that the settlers in New England were highly fleeing to the region for religious freedom. In contrast, the English settlers in Chesapeake were motivated by an economic factor due to the thriving tobacco industry, and mining indu stry. The two diverse reasons that prompted the English settlers in the two regions saw two distinct societies evolving by 1700. New England by 1700 was highly dominated by English whites Puritans, Catholics, and Quakers due to the religious freedom reputation. In contrast, the Chesapeake region was predominantly populated by the black slaves. The economic motivation of the Chesapeake settlers had seen the slavery industry growing to provide cheap labor that caused the high number of black slaves in the region.