Discipline of Operations Management and Opportunity

Question: Task Description The primary purpose of this assessment task is to help focus student attention on the discipline of Operations Management and provide an opportunity to reflect on how the discipline relates to jobs and careers in management. The secondary purpose of this assignment is to give students an early opportunity to develop generic academic writing skills within the framework of reflective discourse. This paper should be written in first person language. Task Choose a topic that interests you from one of the ten to be covered from week 3 to week 12 (see the course schedule in the Course Profile). Write a brief description of your understanding of what the topic is about, and how formal study of this topic will help you develop professional skills appropriate to your current or future job. (Hint, choose a topic that is not too familiar to you but you think will be useful). No research or references are required for this assessment item as it is designed to encourage you to reflect on the course and what you think will be of value to you. Answer: Reflective Essay Location and capacity strategies are critical aspects of the operations management for any business and due to this understanding on this topic of module would be useful to develop required skill to pursue managerial position in the real manufacturing company. I seek managerial position in a reputed firm as manager. The selected topic includes the study of different strategies of location and capacity in a firm. It informs strategic management of location and capacity aspect of a firm to facilitate better decision-making and management of operations. This topic allows an individual to learn methods and practices for making informed selection of location and planning capacity of manufacturing plant. Through this, skills of reducing cost and managing quality of operations are developed that lead to the better management of a manufacturing plant. In this way, the topic facilitates considerable understanding regarding the ways of managing manufacturing or production operations in strateg ic manner. I have studied location and capacity strategies in prescribed manner, which contributed in improving my knowledge about the ways of evaluating the location and facilitating informed decision-making. In the formal training, I had to analyze the different locations by applying range of methods. Through this, I came to know the application of several methods for accessing cost and benefits associated to a location. Previously, I had not any idea to access the location for a large manufacturing plant. At the end of study, I have learned about factors those influence the operational cost of manufacturing business and consequently the decision of selecting the location. In the formal study of location strategies, I had to use centre gravity method, transportation model, cost-profit analysis, factor rating, etc. for developing a document regarding the potential risks and opportunities of location. I have very limited knowledge for these methods. After this, I have learnt to apply these methods in real and large manufacturing organization. The learning on this topic can be applied in future professional roles. It will provide sufficient guidance to me for achieving desirable career as production manager in reputed manufacturing business. The formal study on the capacity strategies has educated me about the importance of planning capacity of a manufacturing plant strategically. It has thought me the methods to plan capacity of manufacturing unit with consideration of the expected changes in the demand. There are several strategies to plan capacity but their key focus is to minimize the difference between production capacity and customer demand. Before this, I was considered that capacity planning as simple technique, which includes estimation of output level for the manufacturing unit. I had to plan the capacity by considering the three factors such as capacity type, quantity and time. Through this, I have learnt to apply range of strategies to plan capacity and to meet the demand in effective manner. It had contributed in improving my skills of developing plans for the manufacturing business that will guide to me for achieving managerial position in future. I thought that in planning capacity, the main role was only to check whether the manufacturing capacity meets the demand of customers or not. But, after the study of this chapter I came to know that excess capacity signifies that there some issues exist in the planning and marketing operations of the business. Excess capacity causes huge cost for a manufacturing business as due to this firm needs to make storage arrangement. I have learnt about determinates of effective capacity and its application in determining the problems in capacity planning of a firm. This has contributed in developing abilities of improving and developing capacity plan in strategic manner. This will allow me to manage the manufacturing operations of a business and to achieve managerial role in future. In the formal study of location and capacity strategy, I have learnt the importance of co-ordination in operations and the role of manager in delivering this. In manufacturing operations, co-ordination leads better decision making and informed decisions. For example: location and capacity strategies are closely related to each other. The location of manufacturing plants influences layout of operations and accordingly capacity. Through this, I came to know the way of communicating and discussing the decisions to the operational team for making informed decisions. It has thought me to take better decisions for ensuring strategic management of location and capacity. The learning of this study has developed and improved communication and decision making skills, which will help me to limit cost and improve quality of operations. Therefore, proper learning of location and capacity strategies has developed considerable proficiencies of applying benchmark practices in manufacturing operations of a business and facilitating better management. This will allow me to make strategic selection of location and to plan capacity. It would be effective in guiding me for managing operational challenges effectively and perusing managerial position in an organization effectively. This will facilitate skills of fulfilling responsibilities of a production manager and to achieve desired career goal.