Exploring operational issues

Introduction

Operation management is the strategic planning of the organisations in enhancing the efficiency of the organisation to generate more profitability and sales volume in order to make the companies profitable in long run (Mahadevan, 2015). The aim of the report is to analyse and evaluate the operational issues and management tactics in the manufacturing industry as well as service and retail industry where it is possible to compare and contrast the operational activities through which the firms operating in these industries are trying to maximise their profit volume and enhancing their performnace for securing future sustainable development. It is concerned about developing the strategic planning for the companies through which it can convert the raw material into the final goods and services so that the organisations can serve the customers in a better and unique way by delivering quality products and services. Through this study, it is possible to discuss the operational issues as well as similarities and differences in managing the operational activities in the Tesla, which is a manufacturing company, Royal London hospital which is operating in the service industry and Tesco which is a retail firm operating in the UK.

Comparing and contrasting the operational issues in the manufacturing, service and retail sectors

Operational activities of the firms are playing crucial role in managing the organisational performnace and through managing the operational activities of the firm, the companies are able to deliver quality products and efficient services to the customers according to their needs and preferences which in turn helps the organisations to satisfy the customers and secure future sustainable development of the businesses (Hitt, Xu and Carnes, 2016). Reliance of specified material in one of the major issues in the operation management of the firm where the manufacturing industry needs to rely on the specific material through which they can manufacture their products. For example, Tesla is a manufacturing company which is operating in the automotive industry where the company’s aim is to accelerate the world’s transition to the sustainable energy (Tesla, 2019). The company operates in the automotive industry and they focus on reducing negative environmental footprint by manufacturing the electric cars which is sustainable to the environment in near future. On the other hand, the Royal London Hospital operates in the UK which focuses on serving effective health and social care service and support the social communities as a whole so that the individuals can access their services and maximise their wellbeing successfully.

Additionally, Tesco as a retail firm is operating in the UK and across the globe where the firm’s aim is to maximise customer’s values by delivering quality retail products at affordable price so that the customers can buy more and fulfil their needs and preferences (Tesco, 2019). Hereby, all the three companies are trying to improve their operational efficiency by manufacturing quality products and delivering quality services to the customers which can meet the customer’s requirements. all the firms try to manage their employees in enhancing their performnace through providing proper training and developing program so that the employees can improve their knowledge and skill which in turn helps them to enhance their capabilities to perform better and maximise the organisational values. Apart from that, another similarity among these firms is that, all the three companies in the manufacturing, service and retail industry tries to satisfy the employees and maximise their values by delivering them proper salary, performnace related pay and bonuses as well as providing health and safety, self-actualisation and self-esteem at the workplace and apart from that managing harmony and freedom at the workplace and encouraging the employees for working cooperatively will be effective for all the three companies to retain the efficient staff members for enhancing the organisational performnace as a whole (Ramanathan, Subramanian, and Parrott, 2017).

However, there are some differences in managing the employees in the manufacturing industry where it is necessary to provide technical training and induction process to the employees where in tesla the engineering training program and induction process is necessary to educate the employees and let them understand about the process ad technique to manufacture quality cars for managing environmental sustainability (Gianesello, Ivanov, and Battini, 2017). On the other hand, in the Royal London Hospital, the major training to the employees is related to the tactics to handle the patients where the skill and knowledge of the health care professionals are necessary to manage the individuals with proper treatment and quality care (Ginter, Duncan, and Swayne, 2018). In the service industry, the preferences of the customers matter, where the health and social care professionals try to empower the patients in developing the care plan and provide proper health care service as per the health needs and personal preferences of the individuals. On the other hand, as retail firm, Tesco also provides proper training program to the employees in order to handle the customers as well as maintain the stocks at the stores of the company so that it is possible to meet the customer’s demand.

In addition to the above operational activities, it is necessary to manage the logistics which is one of the major strategy of the operation management and in this regard for the manufacturing company Tesla, it is necessary to manage the logistics as well as handle the suppliers and distributors of the Tesla cars for distributing the product and maintain the logistics successfully (Akakpo et al., 2019). On the other hand, the role of logistics is less in the service industry where the Royal London Hospital does not need to focus too much on the logistics as they are efficient in maintaining the stock of the medicines and the staff members and doctors are efficient to provide proper service and support to the individuals (Roberts et al., 2016). Apart from that, in the retail industry, logistics operations are important for the firms to protect the final goods and maintain the storage of the products with safety and security so that they can deliver quality products to the customers. In this regard, Tesco also focuses on logistics operations to maintain warehouse as well as keep the stock of the retail products in different stores of Tesco for managing the products and meeting the customer’s requirements (Evans, and Mason, 2018). Additionally, maintaining quality performnace in the health and social care institution Royal London Hospital is much more challenging as compared to the firms Tesla and Tesco where it is necessary for the Royal London Hospital to manage their quality in providing health and social service to the patients so that they can maximise their wellbeing and create values for all the social communities as a whole. In this regard, it is easier for Tesla and Tesco to maintain their quality by using proper technique of manufacturing the product and utilising quality raw materials so that they can deliver effective products that will match the expectation of the customers.

Marketing and sales are another important component in the operation management where the firms try to promote their products and services at the market so that the customers can get proper information about the brand and the products as well as they can access the products successfully. In this regard, Tesla and Tesco invests higher amount on marketing to promote the latest products through social media marketing and other marketing strategies such as social campaign, television and media marketing so that they can improve brand visibility and provide proper information about the latest upgradation of their products. As compared to Tesco and Tesla, the Royal London Hospital invest less amount of finance on marketing as the health and social care service is one of the necessary services required by the social communities, and it is not required to promote through investing much. Hereby, marketing and sales in the service industry is less important as compared to the marketing strategic planning of the manufacturing and retail industries where the firms face highly competitive threats and it is necessary for the firms like Tesla and Tesco to promote their products to secure future sustainable development.

Summary

It can be concluded that, the operational activities in the manufacturing, service and retail firms is different from each other as the service industry mainly focuses on the customer’s requirements and technological upgradation to support the customers. On the other hand, the manufacturing and retail firms are focusing on the quality of the final goods that they are manufacturing so that it can meet the customer’s requirements. Additionally, the logistics operations is necessary factor in Tesla and Tesco, whereas it is less important for Royal London hospital to manage their logistics rather the hospital focuses on improving the quality of their health and social care service with innovation and latest treatment so that they can serve the patients in a better way. Hereby, managing quality in the Royal London hospital is difficult as compared to the tesla and Tesco where it is necessary for the service industry to utilise attest technology to support the customers with efficient service.

Continue your journey with our comprehensive guide to Exploring Non Invasive Brain Stimulation Techniques.

Reference List

Akakpo, A., Gyasi, E.A., Oduro, B. and Akpabot, S., 2019. Foresight, organization policies and management strategies in electric vehicle technology advances at Tesla. In Futures Thinking and Organizational Policy (pp. 57-69). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Evans, B. and Mason, R., 2018. The lean supply chain: managing the challenge at Tesco. London: Kogan Page Publishers.

Gianesello, P., Ivanov, D. and Battini, D., 2017. Closed-loop supply chain simulation with disruption considerations: a case-study on Tesla. International Journal of Inventory Research, 4(4), pp.257-280.

Ginter, P.M., Duncan, W.J. and Swayne, L.E., 2018. The strategic management of health care organizations. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Hitt, M.A., Xu, K. and Carnes, C.M., 2016. Resource based theory in operations management research. Journal of Operations Management, 41, pp.77-94.

Mahadevan, B., 2015. Operations management: Theory and practice. London: Pearson Education India.

Ramanathan, U., Subramanian, N. and Parrott, G., 2017. Role of social media in retail network operations and marketing to enhance customer satisfaction. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 37(1), pp.105-123.

Roberts, J.P., Fisher, T.R., Trowbridge, M.J. and Bent, C., 2016. A design thinking framework for healthcare management and innovation. In Healthcare (Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 11-14). London: Elsevier.