Mc Jethro Pov B.

Talamayan

BSA - III

[TAKE HOME QUIZ FOR

MANAGEMENT 36]
December 5, 2016
1. Explain the role and responsibilities of an operations manager within an
organization.

The Operations Manager is a central figure in an organization. Ones task

as an Operations Manager depends on the operation and size of that
organization but in general, there are a few important responsibilities that one
must have. First, an operations manager must be good at resource management,
whether material or human resource. One needs to supervise inventory
management and purchases, as well as hiring employees, determining their
needs, and supervision of the employees. Second, the manager must be good in
managing the operations finances. It can range from how the organization
budgets its money or how it controls its costs. Proper management of finances
helps in the supply chain and in the minimization of production costs.

Third, the operations manager needs to be good in setting goals. Goals,

for an organization is important because it is what keeps the organization from
straying from its objectives. If the goals are clearly defined, the procedures of
operation are will be put in effect efficiently. Lastly is communication, with
employees, those charge with governance, and all outside stakeholders. It is
important for the operational manager to be good at communication for what use
is all the other roles and responsibilities if one cannot communicate the results
one has achieved to those who will need it.

2. Compare and Contrast the activities within operations management across three
different sectors: manufacturing, restaurant and a banking institution.

Manufacturing, Restaurants, and Banking institutions are vastly different

kinds of businesses. Their operation management is also different from each
other apart from a few things. They share similar activities in operation
management.in manufacturing environment, operations manager supervise the
activities in production of goods from raw materials. They face problems related
 to managing the storage space for materials and finished goods as well as how
much to produce and at what quality. In service operations like restaurant, an
operation manager focuses on making schedules of workers to handle customer
demand. They are also responsible in training employees to provide optimum
service. Service operations that sell physical goods, such as restaurants, face
inventory control issues, such as how many to stuck and when to order. Service
operations for banking institutions deals with making sure that the bank
processes, such as customer deposits and investments, proceed as planned.

However they are similar in the way that they face many similar issues
that affect the operation, one is cost-control. In manufacturing, the procedures
that they do is efficiently planned as to minimize cost. In service operations, such
as banking and restaurant, their aim is to provide service that is competitive to
customers but still managed to turn in profit.

3. For an academic institution like NDMC, explain the impact, both positive and
negative, of technological development in its operation

For NDMC, an academic institution, technological development stands to

make a generally positive difference with a few minor hiccups. Advances in
technology allow academic institutions, like NDMC, an edge over others that
doesnt employ modern technology in their operation. Technological
developments in schools are being used to better the services offered by the
school whether by improving the students practical knowledge on computers or
by simply giving them and their teachers the tools to facilitate a much more
engaging and knowledge-filled lessons. However, all of this comes with a price.
All of these are good for the academic institutions except that they are often very
expensive to implement and maintain. The investors of an academic institution
may not hold technological development as important as to spend a whole lot of
their money for it, especially when its not just a one-time expense. The parents,
too, would be split in two sides, those who assent to the idea and those who
 dont. An implementation of a particularly expensive project may result to an
increase in the matriculation fees. This may cause a decline in enrollments,
negatively affecting the revenue of the institution. So even though theres a big
push on such implementation, it all comes down to the question of, Are you
willing to pay money for it?

4. Consider a common product at home; examine the content and purpose of the
design process.

A television is an example of a common product in a household. Through

the years, it has improved on what seems to be just a vacuum tube showing
moving pictures in black and white. The modern television isnt what it was
before. Now it contains a lot more functions than it did years ago. I think that the
most important part of the processes in making a marketable modern television is
in its prototyping stage. I believe it to be important that a sample product should
be created first to make any issues be clear first before making a final product.
Before making a prototype, however, one should have a clear idea as to what
should be added to the product. To do this, considerable research must be done
to know what the consumers would prefer when buying one. Therefore design
process is indeed important for a product such as a television because without it,
it would have been impossible for modern television to be developed.

5. How poor operations management affect the entire supply chain?

Operations management is closely tied to the supply chain management.

Both are needed to work together seamlessly so as not to disrupt the supply
chain and other operations. A poor operations management directly affects the
supply chain because the way an organization conduct its ordinary business
determines the how the organization behaves as to its suppliers and customers.

For example if the manager fails to determine to utilize the resource they
have in the most optimized way, the operations manager will be unable to
 develop goods to clients based on what they want. Operations management is
also responsible in understanding local and global trends, and a poor operations
management results in a lack of information needed to properly find vendors that
supply the goods at the right price at the time, and deliver the goods to the
customers at the time it is supposed to come. Operations management
contributes to the usage of labor and materials at a timely, cost-effective manner.
A poor execution of such may result to additional cost such as having inventory
levels exceeding the capacity needed thereby increasing storage cost as a result
or perhaps that the inventory is too low that when the time is needed to use the
materials the workers will find out that they have a shortage.

6. How should productivity be measured? Should all organizations/industries

measure productivity the same way? Why or why not?

There are two ways to measure productivity, Labor Productivity and

Employee Productivity. Labor productivity, also known as workforce productivity,
is the amount of goods and services that a worker produces in a given amount of
time. Employee productivity, on the other hand, is a measure used at individual
level based on the assumption that overall productivity can be broken down to
smaller units up to the individual employee, which is the one to be measured
based on individual performance.

I dont think all organizations/industries should measure productivity the

same way. For example, in a manufacturing organization, labor productivity is a
lot more useful as it can be easily determined very simply and employing
employee productivity would not be cost-effective. In a service organization like
Jollibee, on the other hand, benefits more in using Employee productivity as the
manager cant assess the situation on just results alone. Each employee should
be clearly examined to form a measure of his or her productivity.
7. Define strategic decision and tactical decisions. Which type of decision should an
organization make first? Why is it important to start with one before the others?

Strategic decisions are long-term in their impact. They affect and shape
the direction of the whole business. They are generally made by senior
managers. Tactical decisions help to implement the strategy. They are usually
made by middle management. Basing on the definitions alone, one can see the
order in which the organizations should make first, which is strategic first and
then tactical second. The order is important because strategic decisions allow the
senior managers to set the goals and procedures that the business is going to
take in the long run. Helping the strategic decisions, are the tactical decisions
that functions as a guide towards the end goal. Another decision that is to be
made is Operational decisions which relates to day-to-day running of the
business taken by middle to low-level managers.

An example of these decisions in action is a Bakery. The manager of the

bakery needs to take a strategic decision about whether to remain or close down
the business. A tactical decision would be whether to open the shop earlier in the
morning or to open in Sunday to attract new customers. Managers would want to
research this if it should be implemented. Lastly, operational decisions are mainly
routine for example whether to order more coffee for next week.

8. Choose a platform product and describe how it survived amidst the current
strong competitions and fast technological developments
A book can be said to be a platform product. It is such a basic product,
and so historical that it can trace its roots back since before biblical times.
Through all this years, it has stayed strong, especially amidst the rapid
development in technology. It seems that books might go away for good, but it
has stayed, and I believe it will stay this way for long time still. It survived, in my
honest opinion, by being very versatile compared to its competitors. A tablet may
be able to replace some of a books functions but, as for me, a physical book is a
 lot more comfortable than digital versions of the same thing. And compared to
eBooks, a physical book has much more utility. It is able to swiftly change pages,
to write on them, or to just take your time with a page without needing to zoom in
and out of the page. As a platform product, those would develop for it still exist
and as numerous and the support for it still continue proving that even products
that are not that technologically advance can still compete effectively.

9. Choose an industry where substitution of manual labor with technology is most

effective explain its advantages and disadvantages.

An example of industry where substitution of manual labor with technology

is most effective is the mining industry, especially in these times where mining
tragedies happen here and there. Replacing manual labor in mining with
technology will result to fewer accidents and not endanger countless human lives.
It will not only prevent the wasting of human lives, the organization will also
reduce its cost by reducing wages and replacing human labor with more efficient
robotic miners. Robotic miners would also be able to scan the environment to
determine where the possible mineral veins lie and how to get to them safely
whereas human miners are only able to determine the location but would have a
hard time getting to it due to lacking the complete automated accuracy needed to
perform the activities required. Disadvantages include the huge starting capital of
such strategy. The maintenance itself can be recovered through normal
operations but since mining is something of a hit-or-miss kind of business, failing
to locate a possible mining location can prove disastrous for a small starting
business. This does not mean that a success in finding a location removes all
possible disadvantages. One that persists still, is that this kind of technology,
doesnt exist yet. Sure, this kind of method has been applied by some
organizations, but this has only been applied partially as the methods to allow it
to be applied 100% havent been developed yet. Not only is that, an essential
 part of the technology, Artificial Intelligence, something that is frowned upon by
many other by the potential dangers it could bring.

10. Choose a particular service describe its design process.

Eleven lessons: managing design in eleven global brands Design at

Starbucks From its beginnings as a single coffee shop in Seattle 35 years ago,
Starbucks is now a global brand which uses design to aid the delivery of a
distinctive service experience to its customers. The Starbucks Global Creative
team manages regularly changing design themes while working within a global
brand. It has developed a strategy that allows it to balance regularly changing
design themes with consistent set of brand values, and uses design as a way of
helping the delivery of a consistent service experience to its customers. A key
element in this design process strategy is to the development of detailed
guidance for internal and external designers in the companys brand and design
principles. Another is the development of an automatic management tool to
automate much of the processes and to further support employees with access
to additional resources. The company realized that coffee isnt new in itself, and
therefore they, through the use of its elegant design process putting the
customers satisfaction first, made the coffee experience more social. This can
be seen on how baristas interact with their customers and how some branches,
employees are encouraged to memorize the names and usual drink orders of
100 regular customers