Managing Business Operation: Nike (Essay Sample)

Name:
University:
Course:
Tutor:
Date:
Managing Business Operation: Nike
Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to provide you with an in-depth solution to what your company, Nestle, is going through. Basing on the current predicament of your company, which as you have elaborated, is being stuck in double-dip economic recession, I believe my knowledge and experience in operations management will offer and effective remedy to that situation. More so, the paper shows how I can apply operation management techniques and models like Total Quality Control and Improvement, Material Requirements Planning and Lean Manufacturing to achieve competitive advantage of the company over other companies.
Operation Management Opportunity
The present harsh economic times have led to the collapse of many organizations both locally ones and international ones. The ones which have not completely collapsed have been affected severely in terms of the sales they make, annual revenues and profits, decrease in market share etc. According to my research on your company, Nestle, I have discovered that the harsh economic times of 2007 through today had impacted greatly on the company such that strategies of reducing costs on production and engaging in other economic and financial strategies like focusing on long-term equity and goals.- However, the company made less efforts on the operations of the business which made the production process more or less that same in the bad economy and in good economy. This made the production costs to remain high and the thus competitors like general Mills and Starbucks had an opportunity to come on board. I therefore believe that if I can be appointed the operations manager for Nestle, I would ensure that the company utilizes the production process so as to bring efficiency and hence a competitive edge over its competitors.
Key Operational Management Principles to Consider
Being an international company, it means that the principles and theories of operational management to be considered should have a broader perspective and highly competitive so as to place the company way above its competitors. Considering also the poor economy and situation of the company, I will devise the following principles to be followed by the company. One of the principles is total quality control. The second principle is Material Requirements Planning despite the situations and the last one will be Lean Manufacturing.
Total Quality Improvement
Total quality improvement is arguably the most significant principle in operation management of any company or organization. Total quality improvement mainly focuses on how an organization’s resources are utilized, how they are processed, and the methods of output used and most importantly, how the quality of the final product is maintained. Total control functions that I would carry out include monitoring, assessing the process and evaluation of performance to determine whether the strategies and control measures employed on every function work the desired standards.
I understand that the transformational process for Nestle involves receiving the raw coffee, directing it to the processing machines, receiving the processed coffee products and packaging it into various forms e.g. as coffee bags, in coffee cans, sachets etc. I would ensure that the resources received are of best quality so as to produce best quality products too. I would personally, with the help of my assistants carry out the monitoring process everyday through the entire system to ascertain that every function is running smoothly and effectively. I would also ensure that the overheads of the company are maintained at an all time low so as to be productive by maintaining high profit margins. My strategy here will be to increase the number of machine operation thus increasing the output hence cutting on cost per output. There is a positive relation between job productivity and employee satisfaction.- On that note therefore I would ensure that the people resources are effectively utilized and well remunerated so as to boost their moral and hence job satisfaction for the productivity of the organization.
Material Requirements Planning
Basing on these harsh economic times that nestle is going through, it is only prudent if the company operations manager can ensure that every resource coming in is well calculated for so that there is no surplus or wastes. Material waste reduction drastically improves organization productivity. Material Requirements planning involves scrutinizing the entire production process to determine how much resources, both transformed and transforming ones are required for production.- This principle will enable the company to avoid or minimize its wastes and surplus hence leading to higher productivity.
Reducing the dependability of resources and the chain of production is one way that organizations can fully implement the costs on those resources. This means that if Nestle can determine the resources that depend on each other in the production process e.g. how much material depend on a certain amount of information etc. can use that piece of information to maximize the materials needed. Likewise, if it is known which elements that can be eliminated from the chain of production after a certain period of time, then the company will increase its output making it survive in the harsh economy and continue to compete with its competitors.
In many organizations, material requirement planning is basically done by ordering the most significant and urgent materials and eliminating those that are not needed at that particular stage in the production. Staff for instance, is not employed permanently and thus can be dismissed when their department is not busy and recalled when the department becomes busy. Although Nestlé’s departments are busy through out, I would employ that strategy in the transformed resources like materials where I would be ordering the urgent materials as per their requirement in the company especially in this recession so as to minimize wastage cases.
Lean Manufacturing
This principle is more or less the same as the previous principle of material requirement planning only that this focuses on value maximization by elimination of wasteful processes and interruptions. This principle is categorized into sub process aimed at achieving the overall objective of maximizing the value of the product. I would engage in this principle because it has been found to improve the general productivity of the company and thereby making the company stand out above the competitors when it comes to value and quality of final products. The processes include; one, identification of the products features that create value. Secondly, identification of the value stream, thirdly, opening the process and removing interruptions so the process can run smoothly. Fourthly, allowing customers to specify their preferred products so that the last process could be designing and perfecting the entire process so that it can suit the customers’ requirements.
Recommendations: Total Quality Improvement
Here, I would recommend the company to conduct thorough monitoring of the transformation process to ensure that no errors or inefficiencies are experienced. I would urge the company managers to be extra vigil especially now that the company is going through some hard economic times by not compromising on quality but maximizing on it and reducing any inefficient practices. More to that, I would recommend the company to engage in thorough training of its staff so as to maintain quality and also be checking its other resources to verify that their quality is the one desired by the organization and the customers.
Material Requirements Planning
Basing on this principle, I would recommend the company to be making orders by demand it is receiving so as to maximize the production process and reduce on surplus. This it can do by analyzing how its products are moving in the wholesale and retail stores and determining the average so that they can produce a number close to that but be careful not to produce less nestle products. The management of the company can also conduct regular checks in the transformation process to determine the repetitive processes and those processes that cause wastes and eliminate them.
Lean Manufacturing
Here the primary aim is to maximize on the value of the final product and thus I would recommend the company to first of all know and understand what its customers want and then know how or what to engage in their production process so as to meet that requirement. Ones the customers’ requirements are determined, it would be easier to know which elements, resources or functions in the process need to be eliminated and which need to be maintained for high product value. More to that I would recommend the company to constantly check the process for any interruptions, e.g. machine failure, delays etc and eliminate them so as to have a smooth flow of production that will save on time and extra costs.
In conclusion, Nestle Company can achieve its objective of being the best coffee products producer and als...