1.

Business Operations Overlap, TRUE or FALSE, Explain, support your

answer with an illustration. Include in your explanation your own
understanding of the definition of Operations Management.

Production/
Operations

Marketing Finance

Business operations indeed overlap. There are many divisions in a business that will
need to interact with each other to maintain or carry out proper business operations. To
explain, we should look at a supply chain as an example. We have the process from the
collection of raw materials moving towards the production of the raw materials and then
to the outlet store or where the final product is sold to the market. Each of the links in
these chains is being handled by different operations teams. We have a division
handling production operations, we also have a marketing team handling marketing
concerns, and we have a finance department that oversees the budget and works on
allocating it to respective departments. It isn’t a matter of whether or not, whether it’s
true or false that business operations overlap, but it’s a matter of the importance of them
overlapping, different business operations must overlap. Taking into example marketing.
It is the responsibility of marketing to be able to offer the best values to its customers, if
a product is not up to standard or if marketing will see there are better profits in
increasing production on a certain product, then they will need to pass on the
information to production. The responsibility of production is to efficiently produce raw
materials will as little cost as possible. If operations decide to pour resources into a
product that isn’t doing so well in the market as compared to another that is, their profits
will suffer and at the same time increase expenses, such as storage expenses, keeping
raw materials or stock idle in a warehouse due to lack of sales and so on. Aside from
marketing and productions, you will see that each operations group in a business will
need to work on a budget, having a finance department that understands the need of
each operations group is important as proper resources or budget will not be allocated
properly otherwise. If a finance department fails to understand the budget needs of each
operations group, this will lead to departments lacking the budget to function properly or
even use up too much budget which is already an excess in expenses that can be
avoided.

This is basically what operations management is all about, it is about creating an

environment or work process which is as efficient as possible, this can be broken down
to different components as being as efficient as possible in the production process,
being as efficient as possible in marketing and so on. All in the one goal of reaching the
organization’s mission and vision/goals, this could be in terms of maximizing revenue,
maintaining the culture of the organization between employees and customers, and so
on. Operations Managers should always look towards the efficiency of their department
and what their goals are that can lead to them reaching the organization's mission and
vision.

2. Explain two factors/elements of how Businesses Compete Using

Operations to attain their Distinctive Competencies. In each of the factors,
site actual companies who use these factors/elements.

There are a few factors that make different organizations stand out and maintain a
competitive advantage over their competitors. Many organizations pour resources into
the development of certain factors that can give them a unique foothold in the market
and at the same time offer value to their customers. We will look at Google and explain
what distinctive competencies they have.
Product and Service Design

We first start with the Product and Service Design of Google. There is no doubt that
Google has become the best search engine online and there are many reasons that
contributed to that success. One is the design of their search engine algorithm. Google
is always allocating resources to research and development of its current technology.
They are constantly making improvements that keep the search engine the best search
engine available.

Different teams are involved in Googles’ product design for the company’s various
products. Google has more than 500 products from Gmail, maps, drive, google+, and
still counting, these teams play an important role in the whole operations of the different
products. The design of their various products is very well thought off, from the icons to
its functionalities. Its service design is also customer-oriented, which to deliver high-
satisfaction to its customers by making sure that their products can be used anytime
and anywhere, whatever the needs of its customers. Aside from the fact that the design
of their products is very trendy, they maximized the use of technology to their
advantage. They are the only search engine that keeps on innovating and adapting to
the rise of technology.

The success of the design of its products and services has made possible by the
application of its operations management, from market research, trends, and
forecasting, these have been great factors on how Google keeps on evolving to be
better and surpassing its competitors.

Service

Service is another distinctive competency that Google has. Aside from being the top
search engine, Google has other additional services to offer to its customers. The
company doesn’t only offer various applications and cloud-based services but it has
also evolved into a marketing platform. With how they offer their marketing/ ad services
to customers, it is above par with their competitors. Considering that Google is
constantly improving their system, they are also doing so with the services their
customers can use, in terms of marketing/ad creation, Google has adopted a simple
setup which customers with minimal knowledge in technology can use, almost anybody
can simply create their ads with google and start marketing their business online, and
because of googles patented system which is PageRank, the way these ads are
marketed or displayed will be optimized for the best output, meaning better service for
the cost which is a huge advantage to Google’s customers.
This type of service innovation brings Google to the top in terms of online or web-based
services. Their service has expanded from simple applications and add-ons to a primary
tool in web-marketing solutions. Many businesses now, may it be small or large
corporations, opt to use Google Marketing Platform in reaching their target customers
online. With the most number of consumers worldwide who are using the internet now,
this has been a strategy for most businesses to use this tool to widen their target market
and increase their brand recognition.

This factor is indeed one of Google’s distinctive competencies that made them be on
the top among its competitors. Its service is what drives their customers’ loyalty and
increasing users, and this is how they compete with their competitors in terms of
operations.

3. Explain the following, include its importance to Operations Management:

Reverse Engineering

It is a process of starting with a finished product and dismantling it to see how the
product is made and how it works.

In terms of organizations that focus on technology for example cellphones, reverse

engineering is something companies can do to find out how their competitors have
developed a certain kind of model. It’s not only about finding “hidden” technologies or
advancements in your competitors but also finding weak points. Knowing what lowers
the quality of your competitor’s phone models can help improve your own and market it
as a competitive advantage. Variables like weak waterproofing or even placement of
parts in a mobile phone can help a competitor develop a quick solution and market the
model as a better one. It is a very crucial factor in operations management because it
can serve as a learning tool in the production, what upgrades should be made on the
current product, how do we improve its quality and such; it can serve as a benchmark
for marketing, how to market it more efficiently, what possible marketing campaigns to
implement, and additional target market to capture; also in financing aspect, the budget
allocation, resources to use, cost of the upgraded products, and so on. Hence, reverse
engineering is very essential to enhance the whole operations of the organization.

Capacity Cushion

This is the excess capacity an organization has that can be allotted in case of an
increase in demand. Capacity can refer to different things such as workload capacity,
staffing capacity, etc.

In terms of staffing capacity, it is important to know how much work can each staff
member perform. Knowing this you will be able to see how much output can all your
staff members perform at a given time. In instances of an increase in workload, knowing
how much work can your staff get done will determine the time of your expected output,
this will mean either adding more staff members or not to compensate for the increase
in demand. If an organization fails to know their staffing capacity, they will not be able to
properly allocated resources if ever demand will increase. The same concept applies to
production capacity.

Its importance in operations management is very evident in the current situation brought
about by the pandemic. Since most manufacturing companies have paused their
production, capacity cushion will help the company still deliver the needs and satisfy its
customers. In the peak of face mask production, factories use capacity cushion to make
sure that production is still ongoing despite an enormous increase in its demands. It is
noted that every business should have its capacity cushion for its operations to survive
in any situation.

Optimal Operating Level

When we talk about an optimal operating level in terms of plant production, this is the
best operating level the plant can function in that provides the lowest cost. There are
many ways organizations can achieve an optimal operating level, such as applying lean
operations meaning minimizing waste. Waste can come in different forms such as
waste in movements which can increase production time and in turn bring up costs.
Finding the best processes with minimal waste will get you your optimal operating level.

This is very essential in operations management because it results in more efficient

operations. Reducing waste is one of the objectives of the production department which
is also connected to the finance department in preserving and sticking to the budget,
with having an optimum level in operation the company will be able to achieve this kind
of goal. This mostly applies to manufacturing companies, to get the best operating level
they must attain first economies of scale, which to produce more products to reduce the
per-unit average cost of production. This could be a strategy for some businesses to
deliver an efficient production.

Bottleneck Operations

Bottlenecks in terms of production refer to a process or step in the production process

that experiences congestion meaning a pile-up of work to be done. In terms of lean
systems, this can be usually bad. The purpose of lean operations is to limit waste
meaning that every movement counts, as soon as a product moves on to the next
process it is processed smoothly and without delay and moved on to the next.
Bottlenecking means that you will see congestion of these products in a specific portion
of the plan slowing down the production of the succeeding steps. With that being said,
bottlenecking can in some cases be beneficial as well. If you are seeking to slow down
production in a specific step, this will give workers enough time to check the quality of
the products. This is a process that usually works early on in the production process
where the optimal operating level has yet to be established. Once a process has been
decided on and is running smoothly, bottlenecking will not be required anymore.
Bottleneck operations can also apply to the workforce in the same concept, in which
case can increase cost, wasted time will always increase expenses.

Ergonomics

Ergonomics is taking into consideration the employees working in the organization and
designing the workplace in such a way that can contribute to not only the output of the
workforce but also their health as well.

In operations, we are always driven by getting results. We are looking into getting
minimal waste and minimizing expenses that often the safety or wellbeing of employees
are overlooked. This is where ergonomics come in. You are not only designing your
workplace to provide the best output but also ensure that employees are comfortable
with their work area. In turn, this will increase productivity and morale. As we know
motivation of employees does not only dwell in compensation in the form of their final
paycheck but also how they are treated as well. Operations will be able to find the best
optimal operating level when they can produce the best results from their workforce and
knowing that they are motivated and comfortable in performing their duties and
responsibilities.