Operations management Essay

McDonalds Corporation is the worlds largest strand of fast- nutriment for thought eaterys. Theyve proudly officiated more than 46 million nodes in 59 incompatible countries and currently ask more than 30,000 dissentent mends worldwide. The fast food diligence is booming at a rapid rate, especially the health cognizant food options. With this in mind, McDonalds has a strategic plan to last out on top of their competitors by providing consumers with afford able prices, great service, and more well-grounded meal options. McDonalds is competitive in mevery categories, including price, musical note, management and employee training. Consumers assumption McDonalds products because they use many of the same trusted brands that families buy at local grocery stores.Operations StrategyIn many companies, the get a line to success is often an surgical subprograms-establish advantage. Superior mental processs effectiveness non only if serves to buttress a companys come through ing competitive position, but, when based on capabilities that ar embedded in the companys quite a little and operating processes, is inherently difficult to imitate. R. H. Hayes and D. M. Upton, Opeations-based Strategy. California Management Review, Summer, 1998. McDonalds utilizes an excellent trading operations strategy in order to catch a larger market sh ar and plus value to the share backers.The corporation specifically focuses on go, standardization, quality, and affordability. McDonalds has moved a wit of the competition by foc victimisation on these factors. McDonalds competes on three main bases, such as speed, affordability, and standardization, principally to make their customers happy. Through extensive market research and surveys, the organization observe that its customers desired speed as champion of the eaterys top priorities. thusly, McDonalds great deal aims to fork up fast, friendly and accurate service (McDonalds Worldwide).McDonalds realized that specific targets are necessary to measure the death penalty of speed consequently, they continuously take relevant measurements to compare actual performance with desired targets. From the customers order, to the making of the burger, and till the customer leaves the restaurant, speed is a key factor in McDonalds operation strategy.To reduce the summation of time it takes to provide services, the company uses standardized training processes for its employees and recent drive-thru layouts. along with speed, McDonalds in like manner competes by offering prices at a little cost. McDonalds organization recently underwent drastic strategy changes to better serve their customers. beneath their previous system, the company would make several sandwiches at once, and hold the sandwiches in a warming bin until purchased by a customer. Under this system, management had to precisely predict how much food had to be gravel on hold. Precise prediction had to be used because if there were n ot enough food placed on hold, this would create the problem of increase waiting times for customers, and too much food would cause boast of expired items. McDonalds dramatically changed their strategy in order to obtain on competitive with other fast food organizations.Product developmentOrganisations exist to provide products and services which can be purchased by other disposals or an individual. hence planning of products and services is maven of the most cardinal operations of any brass instrument. It involves design products with both economy and quality in mind, which a customer pass on find attractive, be able to understand and rapidly able to use with tokenish risk and which delights him or her by its performance or flavour or durability etc. (Bicheno, 2002 p51) In McDonalds Restaurants, product development is a key operation. It has to retain on adding smart products to its menu so as to meet the needfully of the customers as their needs and preferences are constantly changing. For showcase, the increasing preference of consumers towards healthy food make the restaurant add healthier food items to its menu. Similarly it has to add new products for different seasons, for examples hot coffee in winter and milkshakes in summer. energy ControlThe second operation decision significant for organisations is capacity planning. mental ability planning and tick off is the task of setting the effective capacity of the operation so that it can respond to the demands placed upon it. This normally means find how the operation should respond to fluctuations in demand. Operations four-in-hands usually distinguish among nobble, medium and long-term capacity decisions. For short- and medium-term capacity planning, the capacity level of the operation is adjusted within the fixed physical limits that are set by long-term capacity decisions. This is also referred to as aggregate planning and control because it is necessary to aggregate the various types of output from an operation into one figure.( generator http//www.mas.dti.gov.uk/ capacitance/resources/categories/fact/FACT_Capacity_planning.html) In McDonalds Restaurant, the operations managers have to set its capacity of making food items in such a way that it responds quickly to the demands of those items in peak hours which is very important for a fast food restaurant like McDonalds. It also have to make sure that it has enough conduct of ingredients to prepare food items which is very important because if one ingredients fall short then the whole process of making food may halt. For instance if the buns required for making hamburgers falls short then the restaurant may not be able to sell any hamburgers notwithstanding if it has enough quantities of other ingredients. Facility placeLocation planning is one of the important operations that every organisation carries out and it is essentially one of the critical success factors for any organisation. Success or failur e of any organisation may well depend on the location where it is situated. accordingly it is very important for occupationes to choose an ideal location. Businesses may choose location on the basis of various factors such as proximity to the source of raw material, cost-effectiveness, proximity to customers or suppliers, competition in the area, transportation availableness and cost, availability of resources, and availability of right labour.McDonalds Restaurants also have to plan their location in such a way so that maximum customers berate their restaurants. Therefore McDonalds prefer locations such that it can have large customer base, transport access and availability of parking piazza. Moreover it also prefers locations that are suitable for raw material delivery that is availability of ample space for deliveries of raw material. Process designAfter developing the product the businesses have to develop processes for making and supporting the product. Organisations have to identify appropriate processes which will be needed to achieve required level of output of the mean goods and services at right quality standards. Organisation considers both the traditionalistic methods in which the organisation has handled and processed its products and services and the possible alternatives which currently deport themselves. That is, it considers the advancement of technology, computing power, and evolving managerial expertise.Bicheno, 2002 p99 In McDonalds restaurant also, the operations manager develop and establishes the process of cooking food items so that food is prompt using that method which swear outs them to maintain the speed and the quality of the food. Moreover it also designs processes so that the health, guard and hygiene issues are taken into consideration. Also the managers keep on introducing latest equipments with the advancement of technology so as to clear pace, perfection and quality in the product. Layout DesignLayout is the arrange ment of facility to provide working, service and reception, storage and administrative areas. The layout is designed by traditional techniques using templates, scale plans, string diagrams, and travel charting as they have been proved as low-cost methods of achieving either optimal or near optimal layout plans. brusk layouts can greatly reduce the overall capacity and overall productivity.Therefore care must be taken by organisation when designing layout. (Bicheno, 2002 p121) In McDonalds Restaurant also layout designing is a very important operation. A proper layout of the equipments in the kitchen is very essential to ensure homework of quality food in less time. It also designs its layout keeping in mind the health and safety issues. It also designs layout in such a way that needs of supervision is minimised. Another factor that is considered is the cost of exertion which also depends on the layout. .Inventory ManagementInventory management is another(prenominal) important oper ation of any organisation. It involves choosing the best method of inventory control. term choosing the method of inventory control, the organisations must keep in mind the evaluate demands of the products. The basis on which the organisations choose their methods of inventory control may differ but the common idea is to ensure that the mix of inventory types is able to satisfy customer needsand deliver the required profitability and cash flows. In McDonalds the inventory is managed on the basis of First-In-First-Out basis.This is because most of the inventory consists of perishable items. Therefore delivery of inventory happens thrice or more times a week depending on the business of the restaurant. Moreover inventory is stored in deep freezer with proper packaging so as to ensure freshness of the food items. All this activities comes under inventory management of the organisation. tint ManagementQuality management consists of maintaining the quality of the goods and services so as to meet the minimum requirements laid by the industry. Moreover it is important so as to keep up the reputation of the organisation. To manage and maintain the quality of the products and services the organisation may adopt a number of practices like quality checks procedure etc. Quality in McDonald restaurant is very important because of 2 reasons. Firstly because of the legal requirements of the quality of food served. Secondly ,to keep up the good reputation which McDonalds restaurants have earned over the years. Quality of food can be very difficult to maintain and therefore McDonalds restaurant carry on a number of practices to make sure that quality food is served. Some of these practices are the visits by the food inspector from the head office, supervisor checks etc. MaintenanceMaintenance means preservation of the things in the organisation. In simple words, sustentation is way of protecting your production workers, office workers, drivers, and all the other users of y our organizations assets. (http//www.maintenanceresources.com/ReferenceLibrary/MaintenanceManagement/The_Battle_of_Maintenance.htm) In McDonalds, there are several equipments that are used for the preparation of food. Therefore it is very important to maintain and service those equipments so as to maintain the quality of the product, safety of the employees and to avoid further costs of repairing machines. Another important things that needs maintenance are hygiene, costs, quality etc. CONCLUSIONTherefore we conclude that operations management is very important for any organisations as they have a relationship with the overall strategy of the organisation. Operations management contributes to the strategy and therefore helps the organisation to gain competitive advantage. For instance, process planning can help the organisation reduce cost and gain cost advantages and therefore gain competitive advantage. Therefore the organisations must effectively manage the operations of the busi ness as it has a massive effect on the strategy of the organisation BibilgraphyChase, R., Jacobs, F., Aquilano, N. Operations Management for Competitive Advantage (10th Edition). McGraw-Hill Irwin Boston 2004. Howard, Lisa. Suppliers. June 19, 2003. Accessed online on November 8, 2004 at . Kerin, R., Berkowitz, E., Hartley, S., Rudelius, W. Marketing (7th Edition). McGraw- Hill Irwin Boston 2003. Lessnau, Ronald, Current McDonalds Owner. Personal query McDonalds Worldwide Corporate Responsibility Report 2004. Accessed online on October Phillips, Eddie, front McDonalds Manager, Personal Interview, Phillips, Kenny, Current McDonalds Manager. Personal Interview, October 27, 2010 Restaurant Management. McDonalds Restaurant Management Careers. Accessed online Zuber, Amy. Big Mac, Big Value McD to Lower Prices Accessed online at http//www.findarticles.com/p/articles /mi_m3190/is_50_35/ai_80748686.View as multi-pagesTopics in this document