(Band 6) Essay On Operations

Resource Description

Essay on the main influences on a business’ operations function and evaluating the relevant operations strategies that can be implemented in response to three of these influences.

The influences on a business’ operations function include globalisation, technology, quality expectations, cost-based competition, government policies, legal regulation, environmental sustainability, and Corporate social responsibility (CSR). This essay will cover the influence of globalisation on the performance objectives of cost, quality and speed, CSR on the performance objectives of dependability, cost, flexibility and quality, and environmental sustainability and the strategy of leading-edge technology. These topics will be explored through the case studies of Qantas, crumpler, Apple and IKEA, to provide real-life examples of situations occurred, in hopes of somewhat implementing these strategies to help improve these influences on the operations sector.

One of the main influences on performance objectives is globalisation, which refers to the incorporation of global economies into a combined marketplace as a result of improving technology and communication systems. This offers business’s opportunities to source their operations from multiple suppliers globally, commonly known as a global web, which can reduce costs and achieve cost leadership. Cost leadership focuses on a high-volume output as cost efficient as possible, this works substantially when mass production is employed. Sourcing is another aspect of globalisation which requires finding the suppliers needed to make sure the production process flows smoothly; this also comes under supply chain management which if undertaken correctly will influence the performance objectives of cost and speed in significant ways. But if this is not managed properly the process will become delayed and the supply chain will completely stop as they are all interdependent on each other. A negative to the offshoring of manufacturing is the exploitation of workers and underaged employees in developing countries such as China, with their low pay rate and long hours in factories it can lower the quality of products and the overall vision of the business. An example of ‘sweat shops’ being used is the major technology company ‘Apple’ who outsource their operations from the company Foxconn meaning they cannot manage the operations from within. This indicates the limitations of their legal compliance, which can also limit the quality of service and the overall quality control. A report made in 2012 that observed damage to the internal technology of the phones demonstrates the inability of apple to manage all aspects of their operations while offshoring