Operations Section 4 Report – Global factors

Resource Description

Analyse how global factors in operations impact a business’ performance objectives. Executive Summary; Operations management is concerned with the planning, scheduling and controlling of transforming inputs into finished goods and services. Global factors, such as economies of scale, global sourcing, and research and development have a large influence on the management of operations processes, which in turn has a significant impact on a business’ performance objectives. Performance objectives involve a set of goals that relate to particular aspects of the transformation process, including quality, cost, speed, flexibility, customisation, and dependability. Cost as a performance objective refers to the minimisation of expenses in processes to increase profit margins. Quality is used to inform production standards. Speed refers to the time taken to complete operations processes, and is linked to flexibility which refers to how quickly the processes can adjust to changes in the market.IKEA and Apple are both global businesses that show the impact that global factors in operations have on performance objectives. IKEA is the largest furniture company globally. IKEA is a leader in efficient operations, using the global strategy of economies of scale to decrease their costs and increase the speed and flexibility of their operations processes. Although this has lowered their customisation, it has allowed them to remain highly competitive on a global scale.Apple is the largest and most successful global technology company. Apple is a leader in innovation, using the global strategies of global sourcing and R&D to create improvements in the quality of their products, reduce costs, and increase the speed and flexibility of their operations processes.