Thursday, December 5, 2019

Operations Management Australian Local Area

Question: Hawkesbury has grown from a small operation to one where they are now, if successful, going to ramp production volume through the new builder's line. The implications of this are magnified if they cannot control the production process at present. One of these pertains to the company's financial structure, such as working capital requirements. For example, will they supply builders and offer payment terms or will builders have to pay cash? Answer: Introduction: Hawks Cabinet has been running its business of manufacturing of kitchen for over 8 years. The business is carried by Chen family who has a well established reputation in Australian local area. The business has faced a strategic emergent due to unstructured organizational framework. The business has started its operations with a job shop which was a vital decision at the starting point. The company has accepted a contract for manufacturing kitchen cabinets with highest facilities. This contract has created an operating challenge for the company, which has been discussed throughout the study in respect of operation management. The purpose of this essay is to review the problem areas faced by the company and issues regarding operations management within the company. Hawkesbury Cabinets Pty Ltd operates a single manufacturing facility in Mulgrave. Through the manufacturing process the company provides custom and standard kitchen cabinets according to customers requirements, where quality assurance issues have been aroused. The kitchen cabinet making process consists of high quality machines in order to provide the flexibility necessary for 14+ of custom designed cabinets. The company has faced the issue of constructing a kitchen by maintaining the quality as per the customer's requirement. Therefore, the company has introduced a hybrid standard and custom production system. The company tries to maintain quality service and production during their operational activities, where the operations manager would need to maintain the effectiveness of outcomes. The two owners of the company have segregated the operating activities for better outcome. Krajewski, Ritzman Malhotra (2013) stated that it is necessary for a manufacturing company to provide high quality equipments so that high quality outcomes can be experienced by customers. In this case, proper knowledge of customer's requirements is necessary for analysis by the company. Barratt, Choi Li (2011) commented that in order to have quality outcome, it is essential for the company to have knowledge about the input materials for manufacturing process. This means that the analysis of inputs is necessary for measuring the quality of outputs. Apart from that, for the purpose of maintaining operational activities it is necessary for operation manager to diversify the analysis process so that resulting outcome cannot affect each other. Therefore, a systematic process of workflow and evaluation is necessary for proper operations management. Company Hawkesbury Cabinets Pty Ltd has maintained a quality worming process inside the building. Through the analysis of the case, it has been evaluated that the company has provided best quality of their materials for enhancing customers expectation level and their sales volume. Due to this, the company has increased their sales volume through the previous financial years. Hawkesbury Cabinets Pty Ltd has provided environment friendly painting and furnishing for quality operational activities for their customers. Peng Lai (2012) have argued that customers perceived level quality assurance impact psychologically to customers minds and helpful for gaining more preferences. As it has evaluated that the company Hawkesbury Cabinets Pty Ltd has been maintaining their manufacturing quality towards the production process, the customer rush has increased demand for custom made kitchens. The companys majority sales are from custom designed cabinetry. This increasing trend of the company has influenced the builders kitchen. Currently the standardised kitchen has accounted for 40% of factory volume and 25% of revenue along with the custom designed kitchen. Therefore, the company has focused on quality manufacturing process towards to maintain of customers satisfaction levels. It is important for manufacturing companies to have proper record to analyse ongoing activities. This will lead to production process (Akkerman, Farahani Grunow, 2010). In this regard Hill Hill (2012) stated that the presence of malfunctioning is a serious issue, which will need to mitigate for better manufacturing process. Proper observation is necessary by the operations manager to maintain the quality of input and output. Therefore, it is necessary for the company to properly utilise materials and information for more sales and revenue. The Batch production process is helpful for maintaining the production quality and to have a qualitative outcome from manufacturing units. Hawkesbury Cabinets Pty Ltd has planned to increase their capital structure to have an enlarged view of standard kitchen design for builders. Due to increased sales and revenue, the company has planned to change their old manufacturing processes by replacing it with a new design so that all new equipments will be placed there. That means the new builders kitchen lines has changed the manufacturing process and increase their capacity to meet increased customer demand. Hawkesbury Cabinets Pty Ltd has monitored their production process has increased along with revenue increase by 25%. It has become necessary for the company to change their manufacturing unit by replacing their old machines. Therefore, the finance manager Meu Chen has decided to expand their capital structure to suit the changing manufacturing process. Along with this, the increased capital structure will necessitate increased lead time in the production process. The changing materials and changing assembly areas throughout the factory need increase capital structure. In this support, Binder Edwards (2010) stated that increased levels of capital structure will lead to allocation of financial sources for business financing. However, Krajewski et al. (2013, p.88) stated that maximum collection of capital from external sources would lead to increased companys debt amount. Therefore, support from companys own reserve amount would be beneficial for reducing the debt amount. As company's sales and revenue have increased due to completion of customer's requirements, the company has the option to arrange their financial support from the revenue level. In this case, company will need to have reserve balance for future business investment. Here, builders kitchen has maximum growth for companys revenue. Therefore, maximum investment is necessary in this sector. However, Akkerman et al. (2010, p.891) argued that for better profitability company should have less cost of capital, because increasing rate in cost of capital would lead to have less net present value for the company. Conclusion: An operational activity basically consists of all level of activities within the organization. It is the responsibility for each department head to have closer view of ongoing activities and the report will need to be examined by operations manager for quality assurance. In addition, it can be stated that the top level management should focus on overall activities which are performed under operations management. The operations management has provided guidelines for mitigating the problems. Hawkesbury Cabinets Pty Ltd. maintains quality in their operating activities to have impression from their customers. This study has discussed the current operational systems and in the context of how it has effected on companys financial structure. The overall discussion of this study has focused on operations management to change the activities for effective outcome. The necessity of operations management has become clear and this study has reflected the roles of operations manager. Customers dem and can be fulfilled through effective operations management, which has been justified through this study. References and bibliography: Akkerman, R., Farahani, P., Grunow, M. (2010). Quality, safety and sustainability in food distribution: a review of quantitative operations management approaches and challenges. Or Spectrum, 32(4), 863-904. Barratt, M., Choi, T. Y., Li, M. (2011). Qualitative case studies in operations management: Trends, research outcomes, and future research implications. Journal of Operations Management, 29(4), 329-342. Binder, M., Edwards, J. S. (2010). Using grounded theory method for theory building in operations management research: A study on inter-firm relationship governance. International Journal of Operations Production Management, 30(3), 232-259. Cws.cengage.co.uk (2016), cws.cengage.co.uk, Retreived from: https://cws.cengage.co.uk/barnes/students/sample_ch/ch2.pdf [Accessed on 16 Aug 2016] Hill, A., Hill, T. (2012). Operations management. Lomdon:Palgrave Macmillan. Krajewski, L. J., Ritzman, L. P., Malhotra, M. K. (2013). Operations management: processes and supply chains. New York: Pearson. Martinez, A. J. P., Stapleton, O., Van Wassenhove, L. N. (2011). Field vehicle fleet management in humanitarian operations: a case-based approach. Journal of Operations Management, 29(5), 404-421. Parry, G., Mills, J., Turner, C. (2010). Lean competence: integration of theories in operations management practice. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 15(3), 216-226. Peng, D. X., Lai, F. (2012). Using partial least squares in operations management research: A practical guideline and summary of past research.Journal of Operations Management, 30(6), 467-480. Slack, N. (2015). Operations strategy. New Jersey:John Wiley Sons, Ltd.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.