Role of Operations in Different Industries

Manufacturing Industry
Role of operations management can be understood very clearly by the
diagram given below:

In short, Operations in Manufacturing Industry can be grouped as follows:

• Production planning: During production planning, operations

managers determine how goods will be produced, where production will
take place, and how manufacturing facilities will be laid out.

• Production control: Once the production process is under way,

operations managers must continually schedule and monitor the activities
that make up that process. They must solicit and respond to feedback and
make adjustments where needed. At this stage, they also oversee the
purchasing of raw materials and the handling of inventories.

• Quality control: Finally, the operations manager is directly involved in

efforts to ensure that goods are produced according to specifications and
that quality standards are maintained.

Banking and Financial Industries

The operations team is responsible for the processing and settlement of
all the financial transactions made at an investment bank or investment
management firm.
The operations division, also known as 'back office', provides support to

Operations Book
the client facing departments, such as trading, corporate finance, and
corporate banking - sometimes known as the 'front office'. The front office
generates business for the bank, and operations ensure that the business
is administered in an efficient, controlled, risk-free and timely manner.
They ensure that products, services and money change hands how they
are supposed to.

Operations professionals are involved in developing new systems in order

to maximize efficiency and profitability for the bank. They also ensure
each transaction is cleared, settled and reconciled according to regulatory
and control requirements.

Operations in Insurance/other financial services

companies:
Many financial services organizations have found that their attempts to
cut costs and improve efficiency in the wake of the financial crisis have
been far less successful than hoped and are already proving difficult to
sustain.

There is a particular risk that knee-jerk operational shake-ups could

damage customer service or jettison the talent the business needs to
capitalise on an upturn.

FMCG Industry
Food & FMCG Supply Chain in India can be classified as Perishable and
Non-Perishable, and both are distinctly unique from each other. The
complexity for Food Supply Chain arises out of perishable nature of food
items, shorter shelf life of products, food safety, regulatory requirements,
etc. The non-perishable FMCG products have shelf life ranging from 3 to
18 months that requires strict monitoring of FEFO so that products
reaching the consumers are left with enough shelf life. Lack of consumer
loyalty in this sector makes it all the more important for this sector to
ensure availability of products at the selling locations, else lose sale. It
needs demand driven and responsive supply chain solutions.

Operations Book
Auto Industry
On the canvas of the Indian economy, auto industry occupies a prominent
place. Due to its deep forward and backward linkages with several key
segments of the economy, automotive industry has a strong multiplier
effect and is capable of being the driver of economic growth. A sound
transportation system plays an essential role in the country‘s speedy
economic and industrial development.

Many factors play a dominant role and affect decisions made in the
automotive world. Consumer preferences decide the current styles,
consistency, and presentation standards of vehicles. Government trade,
safety, and environmental regulations found incentives and requirements
for upgrading and change in design or production.

One of the major issues in a supply chain is ensuring hassle free and
suave functioning of inventory and so the role of inventory as a cushion
against uncertainties and unforeseen oddities has been established for a
long time. The figure below represents the uncertainties that are explored
and solved by successful implementation of supply chain.

To reduce the impact of inventory uncertainties, supply chain managers

must first understand their sources, the targeted market size, researched
feasibility outcome and the magnitude of their impact. Surprisingly many
supply chains do not document and track these variables, which may
result into over- stock or under-stock, miscalculation of the lead-time and
invest in the wrong resources for performance improvement. Besides
these factors SCM covers inventory planning, replenishment planning,
production scheduling, warehouse management, transportation and
logistics management in auto sector

Retail

Operations Book
A retail enterprise may be represented by the structure:
The pentagon is a representation of the front end of a retail enterprise
while the triangle inside is representative of the backend. As is suggested
by the picture, it is the backend that gives the front-end shape and form;
in other words the health of the frontend is completely reliant on the
robustness of the backend.
The pentagon is visible to the customers and its efficiency shall drive up
the sales. The efficiency of the triangle on the other hand is responsible
for lowering costs. Hence the overall effect of both shall be an increase in
profit.

Salient features
Place: This consists of three components: size, layout & design, and
location. All these factors are essential in determining the range of
merchandise to be displayed in the store. The location is one of the most
important factors that determines the success of any store.

Products: The following attributes are essential for describing the

merchandise in a store: range, assortment and intensity. The range refers
to the both within brand and without brand variation of the merchandise.

Value: The following variables define the value obtained from a retail
store: quality and price. It is essential that a customer is not disappointed
in either of these variables. In fact a balance is to be drawn between both
in order to satisfy a customer.

People: The attributes that count in the sales staff of any store are
service and knowledge. The staff has to be trained on both these fronts in
order to ensure a memorable experience for shoppers. The staff in a store
is probably the most important factor in determining repeat buying
behaviour from customers.

Communications: It is no use having the best layouts or the best range

of merchandise unless this is communicated to the customers. The
communication can be promotional or positional. An example of
promotional communication is ̳buy one get one free‘. An example of
positioning communication is ̳buy goods at the cheapest rates‘

Systems & Processes: The entire retail industry is a systems and

process driven one. If both of these are in place, it ensures a smooth ride
for everyone.

Suppliers: The suppliers play a major role in the sense that their
frequency of supply has to be taken into account to ensure no stock outs
take place in the store. The lead time of suppliers has to be considered for
calculation of safety stocks etc.

Operations Book
Logistics: The merchandise has to be delivered on time and in perfect
condition to the stores from the warehouse. It is here that the logistics
come into play.

Infrastructure Projects: BOO, BOT, BOOT

BOT – It is Build, Operate and Transfer - a company builds a facility, an

infrastructure project, gets to operate it for a while and is paid for that,
and finally transfers it back to the public sector at the end of sometime -
determined by when the construction company is believed to have been
paid a satisfactory amount.

BOO - Build, Own, Operate - is maybe the trickiest of these because here
there's at least, up front, no government involvement whatsoever. The
private sector builds the project, owns it, and operates it.

BOOT - Build, Own, Operate and Transfer. So the story here is the
constructor builds the project, they then get to own and operate it for
some period of time (like 20 or 25 years) during which they collect
revenues. At the end of the day, the project is handed back over to the
government.

Trending topics in Operations and Supply Chain Management

a. Job Profiles in Operations and Supply Chain domain after

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management

http://www.careers-in-business.com/om.htm

b. Challenges and Opportunities in Manufacturing Sector

https://www.insightssuccess.in/opportunities-challenges- indian-
manufacturing-industry/ http://www.makeinindia.com/article/-/v/direct-
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https://online.kettering.edu/news/2018/05/09/5-current- challenges-
operations-management https://www.plslogistics.com/5-challenges-that-
logistics- managers-face-every-day/

c. E-commerce Supply chain

http://www.industryweek.com/sponsored/how-ecommerce- changing-
manufacturing-andsupply-
industry https://www.unleashedsoftware.com/blog/ecommerce- strategies-
manufacturing-sector https://www.k-ecommerce.com/e-
commerce/manufacturing

d. Technological advancements in Modern manufacturing

Operations Book
https://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2018/04/15/t he-future-of-
manufacturingtechnologies- 2018/#27de43632995
https://www.cbinsights.com/research/future-factory- manufacturing-tech-
trends/

e. Supply Chain Vs. Operations management

https://www.floridatechonline.com/blog/process- improvement/supply-
chain-managementvs-operations- management/
https://www.allbusinessschools.com/business- administration/common-
questions/supplychain-manager- career/

f. How critical is Supply Chain management to retail sector and

FMCGs https://www.vinculumgroup.com/the-role-of-scm-in-retail-
scenario-of-today/
http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/73544/13/ 13_chapter
%204.pdf

Operations Book