Managing operations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Managing operations - Essay Example The notion includes the process of delivering the services to the customers with the products. With the changing time the aspects covered are increasing, the process now also includes R&D, value creation, marketing management, sales activities, accounting and finance. Most of the physical assets remain unchanged. These include buildings, land, manufacturing plants, warehouses etc. Planning, operating and controlling are the important constituents of transformation process. The improvement in the system is also an important aim of the model. Outputs consist of products and services and may even be information, such as that provided by a consulting organisation. (Koontz and Weihrich, 1994; p 633, 634) Time network analysis is a logical extension of the famous Gantt chart. Often referred to as the program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) an in its essentials as the Critical Path Method (CPM), this technique of planning and control has wide potential use in many applications. But PERT and its various refinements, like PERT/COST, have considerable potential for use in many aspects of planning and controlling operations. (Koontz and Weihrich, 1994; p.648) A product can be improved and its cost lowered through value engineering, which consists of analysing the operations of the product or service, estimating the value of each operation, and attempting to improve that operation by trying to keep costs low at each step or part. The following specific steps are suggested: Work methods can be improved through work simplification, which is the process of obtaining the participation of workers in simplifying their work. Training sessions are conducted to teach concepts and principles of techniques such as time and motion studies, workflow analyses, and the layout of the work situation. (Koontz and Weihrich, 1994; p.648) A quality control circle, or simply quality circle (QC); is a group of people from the same organisational area who meet regularly