Stephen Noone L00186280

Reflection
Through reading of the book, it became clear to me the role Operations Management plays in modern
business. I work in a company that you would not traditionally associate with operations management.
The business is an international logistics company which hauls primarily pharmaceutical goods, with
food and general groupage being secondary to this. After reading the first two chapters of the book I
began to examine the role operations management plays in the world around me and my own
workplace.
In looking at my company in terms of the Four Vs, I found that we are,
Low Volume – The number of loads that we do in a week in comparison to Amazon or another
multinational are low.
High Variety – The loads that we carry out can range from refrigerated pharmaceutical goods to
machines on curtain sided trailers.
High Variation of Demand – One week we could have 150 loads going to Europe or during the
summer when a lot of companies close there might only be 80 loads a week.
High Visibility – From the time a load is booked we are talking to the customer and constantly
updating, also the driver carrying out the loads are dealing with the customers on the ground.
Although modern operations management would suggest that most operations are a mix of services
and products, I feel that our company is leaning further towards the pure service side. We provide the
service of transportation. See the table below for a brief breakdown of processes within the
organisation.

Type of Operation Organisations Inputs Processes within the Organisations

operation Outputs
Transport Customers Customer booking Cargo delivered
Trucks Job logged on system
Trailers Collection of cargo
Cargo Maintaining trucks
Drivers Delivery of cargo
Planners Filing proof of
delivery
Invoice jobs

Although there is no tangible product being sold to the customer you could argue the service being
provided is a product in that the cargo being delivered is the product of a customer booking a job. I
feel companies such as my own that traditionally would not see the need for exploring the processes
involved in the operation could benefit from utilising operations management. I think a lot can be
learned from any company examining their business at a process level to see why they are doing tasks
the way they do them and can tasks be done more efficiently or more cost effectively.
In keeping in line with modern operations management I wanted to see what areas of 3BL, if any
could be seen in the company. In any business you aim to be profitable but seeing as we are in the
haulage business, which has a big environmental impact, can you be profitable whilst also minimising
environmental impact? An example of this is a competitor of ours has started to utilise a small fleet of
electric powered trucks to carry out deliveries around Dublin city. Personally, I believe for the haulage
Stephen Noone L00186280

industry to survive more weight will have to be given to finding ways to lessen the environmental
impact of the nature of the operation. In terms of societal sustainability my company is a family run
operation and employs a lot of local people from the community. They also sponsor the local GAA
team and hold an annual golf classic to raise funds for local charities. I think nowadays companies
realise the responsibility they have towards there local communities. I know one of our larger
customers Allergan Pharmaceutical were heavily involved in getting a new bypass completed between
Castlebar and Westport as they are based in Westport, with one of the major reasons being to take the
flow of trucks out of Castlebar centre itself.
I found the topic of operations strategy interesting because of a statement that is early in the 2 nd
chapter. To paraphrase the statement said ‘operations strategy sounds like a contradiction because
strategy can not be concerned with the small, day to day elements’, but it then mentions the difference
between operations and operational. I think in the modern-day companies are seeing more benefits of
employing an operations strategy. In my own company the overall operations strategy is to provide
quality, cost-effective, haulage solutions. In starting a small company, you could easily get lost in the
day-to-day operational activities, but I think sticking to the operations strategy has allowed the
company to grow to where it is at today.
I think the strategy in my company would mostly follow the TOP-DOWN approach, management set
out the strategy and it is then communicated down to us. For example, 5 years ago, the management
wanted to move further into the pharmaceutical field as they seen it as an area which could take the
business to the next level, communication was made to the different areas of the company then as to
what we were to do. See below short explanations as to how this was done.
Business development – Those in business development of the company were told to showcase our
fleet of temperature controlled tracked trucks and trailers to pharma companies at expos. They also
explained the different accreditations such as TAPA and GDP that the company gained to enable us to
carry their goods.
Drivers – Drivers were trained in GDP and given a handbook on how they were to conduct
themselves on pharma sites.
Office / Planners – Planners were also trained in GDP and sent on courses to learn different aspects
of the pharma supply chain so that they could discuss different options with customers. i.e. Containers
vs Road freight.
Maintenance – All trailers needed to be fitted with track and trace technology so that real-time
updates could be provided.
IT – New apps were brought in so that customers could access the real time tracking of their cargo an
also streamline the booking process.
I think maybe what I have laid out here is a bit of a simplistic view of operations strategy, but I was
trying to link back my thoughts on it to my own company. I accept that operations strategy
encompasses a lot more areas than I have mentioned here and in other companies such as Micraytech,
the strategy employed can be viewed at a broader level than what I have put forward. I hope this
reflection demonstrates my knowledge and my views of the topics discussed and the role of
Operations Management in today’s business environment.