GRADED ASSIGNMENT- I : 2019/2020

BBA 333

PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

By:

AINOON JARIYA M.

BBA/17/0088

Centre for Distance and Continuing Education [CDCE]

University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.

1. Discuss the role of Operations Management as the key to solving the challengers posed by
competitive business environment. (05 Marks)

2. Assume that you are the owner of a printing shop and identify two competitive priorities that are
absolutely vital for you to compete with other printing shops in your area. Discuss how the
competitive priorities identified by you can help to outperform competitors. (05 Marks)

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01.

In this fast moving ultra – competitive business world it has become essential to be proactive,
innovative, productive and standardized as to survive in the market. In the wide spread market,
generally, buying decisions are influence by price, quality, product performance, features, varieties
and availability of product. But all these factors are significantly influence by actions take place in
operations.

“Operations are the heart of the business” (Finch 2006), because it pumps out goods and services in a
quantity and of a quality that meets the needs of the customers. Hence operations can be defined as
“all those activities required to create & deliver a product or service, from procurement through
conversion to distribution”. In order to make the process & system both effective & efficient there
should be “a systematic design, direction and control of process that transform inputs into outputs for
internal as well as external customers” (Krajewski & Ritzman 2005), which termed as operations
management. “Operations management” has become a requirement for survival, rather than a choice
of an organization regardless of whether end product is a good or service. As it associated with the
effectiveness, control & improve quality in order to satisfy customers while improving productivity,
operation strategy needs to be linked with corporate strategy as well as other functional strategy
which includes marketing, human resource & finance.

But it is worthy to note that operation is the expensive part of an organization as it involves planning,
organizing, coordinating & controlling all the resources need to produce the output. Nearly half of the
employees of an organization will be employed in operations. Hence the proper operations
management provides a systematic way of improving efficient organizational process which is an
essential tool in achieving competitive advantage.

To compete in the market it is crucial to provide both value and productivity. Value is “what do we
get” from “what did it cost” where productivity is “what did we make” from “what did it cost”, where
cost includes labour, material, time, energy, waste & defects. Therefore to be a profitable
organization the cost has to minimize.

Operations management plays a major role in reducing the cost of product or service by being
efficient. Example: Procurement is the process of developing requirements for inputs and selecting &
managing suppliers. This is where the cost of output is determined because the costs of materials
make up about 50% of total manufacturing costs. Quality, sustainability and reliability of inputs &
suppliers are important determinants of efficiency.

Inventory control is another part of operations management. To be competitive it is important to

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important. Because if there is no material then production stops, which can drop down the
organizations performance. In past, organizations mitigate this risk by keeping large inventories of
materials on hand, which leads to money wastage, inventories might become obsolete before ever
being used, cover considerable storage place & insurance cost. This act as barrier for organizations to
compete in the market. With the development of operations management, companies are able to
manage inventories more efficiently.

Another important part of operations management is production planning. Production planning allows
the firm to consider the competitive environment and its own strategic goals to find the best
production methods. In practical, providing high-quality service while keeping operating costs low or
keeping profits high while maintaining adequate inventories of finished products is always
contradictory. Appropriate production planning will balance both goals such as profit & quality.
Hence increasing the productivity of business, will leads to a healthy financial position of an
organization.

Effective & innovative resource utilization is needed for an organization to be a rival in the industry.
At the same time achieving customer satisfaction is also important. Customer service must be
provided with the achievement of effective operations through efficient use of resources. Inefficient
use of resources or inadequate customer service can leads to failure of an organization. But operations
management is focus with the effective utilization of resources, by obtaining maximum while
minimizing the loss, underutilization or waste. Maximum benefit is obtain by variety of innovative
activities which includes effective space & time utilization.

As a whole operations management primary role is the customer service to the satisfaction of
customer wants. In order to achieve, organization must come out with specification & diversity which
can satisfy the customer in terms of cost and timing. That is ‘right thing at a right price at the right
time’ is core point in facing the challenging competitive business environment.

According to Slack and Lewis (2012) “one of the major roles of operations management is to
understand the needs of the business and develop clear visions and establish directions of how the
operations should help the organization to achieve both short term goals (tactics) and long term
goals.” Hence to explore & sustain as a successful organization in the challenging rivalry, the role of
operations management is prime important.

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02.

In the turbulent business environment each and every organizations are forced to respond efficiently
and effectively to a changing competitive business world, one of the strongest challenges that
organizations face is, in evolving and achieving competitive advantage, which can be defined as the
extent to which a firm is able to create and maintain a defensible position over its competitors (Tracey
et al., 1999). So to achieve the rivalry position firms should build competitive capabilities which
allow an organization to shape its competitive advantage and differentiate itself from its competitors
(Li et al., 2006). Competitive capabilities are rooted from competitive priorities. According to
Krajewski and Ritzman, 1993 Competitive priorities are defined as “the dimensions that a firm’s
production system must possess to support the demands of the markets in which the firm wishes to
compete”. The four main dimensions of competitive priorities are flexibility, cost, quality, and time
(Boyer and Lewis, 2002). Different competitive priorities can be used to compete within the same
industry.

In today’s world, printing industry is becoming very challenging with dynamic & varied group of
competitors. Therefore it has become an essential for printing shops to work with competitive
priorities in order to influence the market. Though all four dimensions of competitive priorities are
important one or the other way, quality and time found to be most applicable to be competitive.

Not only in printing industry in all market place quality is one of the competitive tools, but here it
matters a lot. It lies with the customers who decides which quality of goods or services best satisfy his
needs. Hence in order capture customer’s attention printed material counts a lot. Delivering a
professional printing is very important, where professionalism includes low-defect rate, product
performance, reliability, certification, and environmental concern. We know that most part of the
customer base of a printing shop is based on material like business cards, flyers, brochures, banners
and name boards which reflect an individuals’ or organization’s professionalism & brand. Therefore
customers never sacrifice quality for a nominal savings on price.

At the same time variety of service available at the shops also includes in quality. Satisfying different
specific needs of client like Digital Printing, Screen Printing, Flexography printing, Litho Printing,
Transfer Printing, Engraving, Embossing and Embroider Printing with creative solutions is also very
important.

In other words, providing the customer what they actual need is also matters with the quality. Simple
example is, when a customer need an A3 size paper print or smaller size like A5 we should be able to
provide with, in order to satisfy customer need. We can’t convince the customer according to our
availability. There are thousands of printing shops in every nook and corner, to get the attention
amidst that thousand is really challenging, but customers search for shops which can give best to their
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clients. Even there are customers who rely on the skills and capabilities of the store to edit or even
make their layout. When we are able to identify and provide these hidden needs, then we are the
reliable company in the market.

Time is another dimensions of competitive priority that needs to be focus in a printing shop. The
value of a thing can be null when the time out. In today’s busy schedule most of the customers are
legendary in placing their orders last minute and demanding to meet the need with dead line. This is
an unavoidable factor in the competitive market. To be the market leader we need to accept the
demand of customers as we are depend on them. It lies on our talent to analyze the competitor’s
turnaround time & offer the best option even with a higher price to overcome the challenge and get
competitive advantage.

Time not only includes speed and on time delivery but also refers how quickly the firm can introduce
differentiation in the market. There should specialization in our product or service because printing is
an industry where many businesses are offering similar products and services. The goal should be to
satisfy customers with which our competitors can’t offer. For that we need to be more proactive to
implement the new innovative services to the market. Penetrating the market with the fresh product or
service will leads to the spread of the firm’s trademark.

References

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wmopen-introbusiness/chapter/functional-areas-of-business-2/

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/scm.asp

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23311975.2016.1189478

Slack, N., Chambers, S., & Johnston, R. (2001). Operations management (3rd ed.). Harlow: Prentice

Slack, N., & Lewis, M. (2012). Operations strategy (3rd ed.). Edinburg: Pearson Education. [Google

https://issuu.com/sammycollins/docs/operations-management-strategies

https://www.slideshare.net/MBA-ASAP/operations-management-for-competitive-advantage

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https://www.brushyourideas.com/blog/types-printing-methods-web-to-print-industry/