Q.

THE KEY ATTRIBUTES REQUIRED BY AN OPERATIONS MANAGER/HEAD

1) Intelligence - Intelligence forms a very important and essential quality for a production manager or for any manager. The goals and objectives of the organization should be very much clear in the mind of the manager, in order to completely make efficient use of the resources. 2) Flexibility In an organization, situations keep on changing from time to time and very rarely remain static. The situations may include changing priorities or demands of the customers etc. A good production manager should possess flexibility which will enable him to modify the planning procedure to suit the changing conditions. 3) Imagination An imaginative manager provides with new methods leading to greater efficient use of the resources available. Imagination forms a very engulfing and important quality of a good production manager. 4) Enthusiasm and perseverance A production manager should be an enthusiastic person which will enable him to do various things and that also in a well planned manner. For a person to be enthusiastic for any activity he does, perseverance plays a very important role. 5) Sympathy The nature and also the working habits of the various workmen are quite different from each other, so a production manager cannot or should not expect the same level of performance from all its workers. Workmen who have become old or facing any problem (physically sick) must be treated with sympathy. 6) Resourcefulness To achieve success in any field one should be able to make maximum efficient use of the resources available. Resourcefulness can be defined as ones ability of making proper use of the available resources which at the end of the day will help to tide over the current problems. A resourceful production manager will be able to face the various odd situations surrounding him or the organization and come out of them in a successful manner. 7) Communication ability A lot depends upon the communication ability of the persons involved in the organization. Communication ability forms the basis of giving instructions by production manager to his workers, communicating various decisions of the management, resolving conflicts etc. Good communication ability has a very important fundamental base which involves ones ability to listen to others with patience and not getting hyper in any awkward case. 8 ) Self control During the working of an organization a production manager experiences different kinds of situations which may be according to the planned procedure or may result from some wrong activities performed. In such situations a good production manager is the one who does not get panicky or discouraged and also does not become hyper when things are not going correctly or according to the planned procedure. Hence a good production manager should not lose his temper, as absence or lack of self control in a production manager, obstructs clear thinking.

Q. no 3 - difference between operations for manufacturing and for services Though the primary function of both manufacturers and service providers is to satisfy customer needs, there are several important differences between the two types of operations. While manufacturers produce tangible, generally standardized products, service firms provide intangible products that are often customized to satisfy specific needs. Unlike manufactured goods, many services are bought and consumed at the same time. Operational efficiency is just as important in service industries as it is in manufacturing. Operations managers in the service sector make many decisions that are similar to those made by manufacturers: they decide which services to offer, how to provide these services, where to locate their businesses, what their facilities will look like, and what the demand will be for their services. Service providers that produce goods can, like manufacturers, adopt either a make-to-order approach (in which products are made to customer satisfaction) or make-to-stock approach (in which products are made for inventory) to manufacturing them. Estimating capacity needs for a service business is more difficult than for a manufacturer. Service providers cant store their services for later use: services must be delivered on an as-needed basis. Overseeing a service organization puts special demands on managers, especially services requiring a high degree of contact with customers. Given the importance of personalized service, scheduling workers is more complex in the service industry than in manufacturing. In manufacturing, operations managers focus on scheduling the activities needed to produce goods; in service organizations, they focus on scheduling workers to ensure that enough people are available to handle fluctuating customer demand.