Case study 1.1. ‘First Bank’ PLC-, page 15
1. Explain the competitive consequences of ‘pulling out’ of internet banking for this company.
2. Discuss the impact a decision to ‘pull out’ of internet banking will have on this company and
similar companies in terms of future technology-based initiatives.
3. Identify the strategic role of operations of a Bank and explain, how can a bank improve
customer take-up of its internet banking initiative?
Case study 2.3: Operations Strategy in Action, page 32
1. Read the article and discuss how operations can provide strategic advantage to this
organisation.
2. Discuss the performance of the company in terms of the five performance objectives and
the relationship among these performance objectives.
3. Discuss a suitable operations strategy approach for these kinds of organisations.
Case study 4.1: Line Balancing in a Manufacturing Plant, page 88-91
1. Identify the process type used in this organisation and explain the rationale to balance a
production line of a manufacturing plant.
2. Explain the strategies that are used to balance a production line in this case study.
3. Explain alternative strategies to balance a production line in a manufacturing plant.
Case study 6.4: RFID American Apparel, XXXXXXXXXX
1. Explain the application of RFID as a process technology and how RFID has helped American
Apparel.
2. Explain why American Apparel only have one of each item on the shelves and how RFID help
the organisation to achieve this objective.
3. Explain the cu
ent limitations of RFID.
Case study 8.3: F1 Pitstop, page XXXXXXXXXX
1. Read the case study and draw a process map for the Pit-stop processes.
2. Discuss why organisations should follow the path of the F1 pit crew to improve their process
management in their organisations.
3. Discuss how can this Pit-stop process be improved
Case study 10.3: Using Workforce Scheduling to Lower Labour Costs, page 235
1. Discuss the challenges the organisations have in relation to workforce scheduling.
2. Explain why workforce scheduling technology is particularly suitable to large organisations.
3. Explain how organisations can use operations planning to achieve their organisational
objectives.
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Book extract
Book title Operations management
Book author Greasley, Andrew
Citation details pages 15, 32, 88-91,139-140, XXXXXXXXXX, 235
Extract title Case studies
Extract author Greasley, Andrew
Publication details Chichester, West Sussex : Wiley, 2013
Edition Third edition
ISBN XXXXXXXXXXTotal pages in book xviii, 492 pages
INTRODUCTION 15
eliminate the need for employee contact in customer-facing operations. Information technologies such
as e-Business systems are having a major effect on how firms organize their supply chains and use their
capacity (see Case Study 1.1). More details on process technology are provided in Chapter 6.
'First Bank' PLC
'First Bank' has recently begun to offer Internet
anking to extend its range of services to the
customer and decrease the demand on
anch
personnel. However, the web site has been expe-
iencing difficulties with a slow response rate to
customer inquiries. Demand for the Internet
service has also been much lower than expected.
As operations manager the company requires
your view on the following issues:
SUMMARY
Questions
1. What are the competitive consequences of 'pull-
ing out' of Internet banking for the company?
2. What impact will a decision to 'pull out' of
Internet banking have on the company in terms
of future technology-based initiatives.
3. How can the bank improve customer take-up
of its Internet banking initiative?
Operations management is about the management of the processes that produce or deliver
goods and services.
The operations system can be seen as a transformation process. It converts inputs known as
transformed resources ( classified as materials, information and customers) using transforming
esources (classified as staff and facilities) into finished goods and services.
An alternative to the functional perspective of an organization is a process view in which the
organization is seen as consisting of a set of processes that link together to meet customer
needs.
Service organizations can be classified by their tangibility (the extent that they incorporate a
physical thing that you can touch). The way services are delivered can be classified by their
simultaneity (the extent that the service is produced and consumed at the same time).
• Service operations can be denoted by front-office tasks, which deal directly with the customer,
and back-office tasks, which add value to the inputs of the service operation.
Operations management has an important strategic role in ensuring that the management of
the organization's resources and processes direct the organization closer to its long-term goals.
• Technology plays a key role in the transformation of materials, customers and information for
which operations is responsible.
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32 OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
Operations Strategy in Action
Almost every company seems to be restructur-
ing itself to face the downturn, be it through
financial engineering, or by retrenching to core
activities. So they sell off foreign subsidiaries
(Aviva), recent diversifications (ABB), or in des-
perate cases almost anything that's worth some-
thing and isn't nailed to the floor (Vivendi and
Marconi). Oddly, few firms make a thing about
going back to the real basics, which is manu-
facturing or, more accurately, operations. Odd,
ecause competing operationally - making and
selling things better and more cheaply than the
opposition - is the simplest and best strategy of
all. In tough times like these, most other 'strate-
gies' look like so
y substitutes for failing to get
the basics right in the first place.
Schefenacker Vision Systems (formerly part of
Britax) is a maker of car wing mi
ors. Schefenacker
has been improving its mi
ors for more than 10
years. It can now satisfy the most demanding cus-
tomers - for example, from its plant in the south of
England it delivers a possible 420 permutations
of mi
or daily direct to Jaguar's assembly line in
the Midlands to match each car that comes down the
assembly line.
The ability to do this cost-effectively is an
entry ticket to lots of international business. Less
obviously, the company's virtuosity allows it to
design and build better, more sophisticated parts -
for instance, with lighting or electronics built in.
That allows it to go upmarket, where margins are
wider. At the same time, as with Dell, it also gives
it the possibility of expanding up and down the
value chain. Thanks to relentless emphasis on
doing more with less .. . Schefenacker has freed
up space on the factory floor for five new pro-
duction cells. It uses these to manufacture simple
O www.wileyopenpage.com
parts which it had previously outsourced to oth-
ers. Strategic result: Schefenacker no longer pays
the other guy's profit margin, spreads overheads
across a larger base, and can suck waste out of a
larger section of the supply chain. Manufacturing
director Mickey Love says: 'Lean production
gives you an opportunity to make things that you
can sell to customers you didn't have before.'
Of all the advantages of operations excel-
lence as a strategy, its impact on people is the
most momentous. In firms that take this route,
improvement of every aspect of design, manu-
facture, distribution, delivery and service is by
definition strategic. Better product quality or a
day sliced off delivery lead time is a strategic,
not tactical, move. That means improvement is
part of the day job for every individual; which
also means 100 per cent participation, with no
choice.
The secret is that operating excellence makes
strategy easy. As Richard Schonberger, one of the
original proselytizers for lean manufacturing,
said: 'What makes a great team is the basics. Then
almost anything the coach chooses to do makes
the coach look like a shrewd strategist.'
Source: Excerpt from 'Business: The basics that beat the world:
Making things better and cheaper is the best strategy of
all' by Simon Caulkin, The Observer November 3, 2002.
Reproduced with permission.
Questions
1. Read the article and discuss how operations
can provide strategic advantage.
2. Discuss the performance of the company in
terms of the five performance objectives.
88 OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
SUMMARY
There are four basic layout types: fixed position, process, cell and product.
• A fixed-position layout is used when the product or service cannot be moved. A process layout
is one in which resources that have similar processes or functions are grouped together. A cell
layout is created by placing together resources which serve a subset of the total range of products
or services. A product layout a
anges the resources required for a product or service around the
needs of that product or service.
• Group technology has three aspects of grouping parts into families, grouping physical facilities
into cells and creating multi-skilled workers.
Production flow analysis is a group technology technique that can be used to identify families
of parts with similar processing requirements.
The technique of line balancing is used to ensure that the output of each stage in a product line
layout is equal and maximum utilization is attained.
Line Balancing in a Manufacturing Plant
This study concerns a former division of a major
UK-based manufacturer of railway rolling stock
and equipment. The plant manufactures a range
of bogies, which are the supporting frames and
wheel sets for rail vehicles. The company has a
history of supplying the passenger train market
in the UK but over a period of time low demand
and increased competition had led it to enter new
markets including European inner-city transport
and the supply of freight bogies to Far East coun-
tries. The need to compete on a global basis led
the company to re-evaluate its manufacturing
facility with particular emphasis on the need to