2 Responses DB4

Response 1:

Three topics that I found intriguing about this course include the importance of developing and implementing metrics, the importance of effective communications within an organization to ensure quality customer service, and cutting costs where needed in order to make operations more efficient. Some of the course objectives included the operational differences between service delivery versus manufacturing organizations, diagnosing service problems and proposing solutions, and evaluating proposed services and how they fit with existing services. These topics relate to the course objectives because each of them align with the embodiment of operations strategy, which by definition is designed to maximize the effectiveness of production as well as to support elements while reducing costs.

          These three topics relate to my career aspirations because they each align with what is required in order for an organization to successfully reach its objectives while being able to examine and implementing effective and efficient processes and procedures for utilizing resources and labor. I recently made a major career change that required accepting an entry level role. In this role, my responsibility is to provide the necessary support to my assigned client and to ensure that my client’s customer experience process is always executed at its very best. Because my goal is to advance into a managerial role, learning about operations strategy and how essential it is to every organization, has helped me gain major insight to what will be required of me within that capacity and what I can do to effectively ensure that my assign client is pleased with my performance. 

          Learning about operations strategy also relates my career aspirations because in my current role, I am more of a support person and when I consider how Smith’s support team had not been performing to the best of their abilities, it was a lesson in what not to do and how not to run a business. Understanding the importance and effectiveness of value streams, the differences between service organizations and manufacturing organizations, and how to properly support the operational strategy of both types made a huge impact on what I will take from this course. Additionally, having the opportunity to critique Smith’s current operations allowed me to take on more of a consultative capacity and it allowed me to gain a first hand experience in what it would be like to maintain the responsibility of ensuring that the proper metrics are set in place and that the overall operations are running smoothly. This course was very beneficial to my career aspirations but also to my overall learning experience.  

Response 2:

The three concepts or ideas that picked are strategy and execution with goals and metrics, project management, and process improvement with process mapping.

Strategy for a company to be successful is a key to success. A strategy is the company’s long term plan that defines how the company will win and retain customers, create capabilities that enable them to be competitive and develop relationships with their supply chain including vendors and customers. Once a company has a strategy they execute the strategy with smaller goals that flow down through the company. Metrics are used to track, communicate, and adjust the execution of the day to day activities to meet the goals. I am currently working as a production manager at a factory and I use this every day. We keep track of On-time delivery to the customer and why we missed the deliveries. Once we see a trend we go after what the root cause is that is making us miss shipments. We also track OEE which is overall equipment efficiency. This enables us to see which machines are producing efficiently and with good quality. If we see a trend the machine may need to be serviced.

Project management can and should be used to support the organizations strategy by implementing the strategy through projects. A project life cycle includes defining the project, planning the project, executing the project, and closing the project. A project manager is assigned to a project to be in charge of it. Projects pull in several different employees that work in the company and the project manager will not get them full-time all the time and they usually do not report to the project manager. We use projects where I work to implement the strategic plan. We are moving the warehouse in our plant and also installing new machinery as part of the strategy. We use projects and a project manager to ensure the success of the projects.

Process improvement and process mapping are tools used to continuously improve company’s capabilities. For a company to continue to succeed and grow they always need to have a continuous improvement mind set.  Process improvement looks at how we do something currently and analyzes that flow of events and looks for gaps in the process to improve upon. Process mapping is a tool used in process improvement that is a visual way of looking at a process and mapping out the phases, steps; hand offs, and decision points. Often when a process is analyzed as is there are areas that are redundant or not necessary to the process. Frequently there gaps identified in the process and areas that can and do cause confusion and mistakes. We use process mapping where I work specifically for new process design and new products. We also use process mapping when we get a customer complaint. We go back and map out the process visually and fix the gaps and create a new process flow map to use.

All three of the concepts are important to a company’s success and I use them in my position as a production manager where I work successfully.