Operational Management Issues at Cellfonie

Introduction

Operational management assists the production process in generating required outputs and providing it to its end users who are scattered globally. It had gained higher importance since the last century when manufacturers were willing to maximizing the rationality of the motives of business. Operational management gives its major focus on managing various aspects of the operation of the organization and providing quality products and services to the customers (Bortolotti & Romano, 2012). However, when an organization does not possess effective operational management, then there are lots of issues that come across the organization. This study is regarding the issues faced by Cellfonie due to poor operational management wherein customers were not satisfied with the products delivered, and delay in delivery time also declined the reputation of the company (Deflorin & Scherrer-Rathje, 2012). This study will analyze the operational management issues which affect the organization and will also address the application of lean management principles in solving the operational problems. Furthermore, this study will also provide a recommendation to improvise the current operations to ensure that organization satisfies the expectations of the customers.

Operations Performance Objectives

There are five objectives of operational performance, which include speed, quality, costs, flexibility, and dependability. Taking the case of Cellfonie into consideration, it could be stated that the company should increase its speed to manufacture the products as there are higher complaints of delays in delivery. Moreover, the company should even give its emphasis on the quality of products as customers are not getting the desired products wherein the majority of the screens were broken on the course of delivery (Slack, Brandon-Jones & Johnston, 2016). The company should make the use of quality products to increase its values in front of customers. In addition to that, the Cellfonie company should also need to be flexible in its operation and take the orders and complete it in the designated period (Schroeder, Goldstein & Rungtusanatham, 2011). The dependability of the company must also be managed wherein it should timely deliver its products with planned prices and costs to its customers. Thus, it can be stated that Cellfonie company needs to improvise quality, speed, dependability, and flexibility to satisfy its customers.

Operations Management Issues Affecting the Organization

As the company grows, various operation issues come into consideration, which renders lesser profit to the business organization (Slack, Chambers & Johnston, 2010). Issues like managing overheads, monitoring the performance, listening to the feedbacks of customers, giving responses to competitions, warehouse layout, uncertainty, supplier relations, finding of the right staff, the flow of cash, retaining of the customers, lack of communication. Although each of the issues leads to major difficulties but monitoring performance, lack of communication, suppliers’ relations as well as warehouse layout are the major four challenges which affect the operational management of the organization (Fullerton & Wempe,2009).

Monitoring performance

The operational managers are feeling higher pressure in pushing the employees to work in a faster and better manner. The increased competition has made it essential for the organization to take care of its performance as customers switch to other organizations if higher quality performance is given by other organizations (Slack, Brandon-Jones & Johnston, 2016). The performance of employees is seen declining in a greater manner, either when the organization gives pressure to the employees or when the satisfaction level of the employees declines. The results which occur due to lack of effective performance are the decline in sales and profitability, and even demands of the products or services declines (Deflorin & Scherrer-Rathje, 2012).

Taking the case of Cellfonie into consideration, late delivery of the orders, as well as incorrect shipping of orders, are the issues that are caused because of the lack of performance of the employees. It was seen that the operations manager was not able to manage the performance of the employees and was even not able to take higher workloads, which have broken the trust of the system. The lack of prioritizing the orders of works is even another reason or cause of operation management problem.

Lack of Communication

One of the main operation management challenges faced by the managers is to make effective communication with both internal and external stakeholders. Consistency, as well as communication effectiveness, are two highly difficult aspects within an organization. The challenges linked to an operational manager are to have effective communication, which also helps in building transparency within the facility of products (Fullerton & Wempe, 2009). It is beneficial for the organization when each of the employees has a common language to speak as it boosts the efficiency of the organization. Effective communication is a must for the smartphone industry as it boosts operational efficiency in areas like demand planning, forecasting the demands and usage of plans to make proper production plans. However, lack of communication brings lots of issues in an organization (Bhasin, 2012). The business organization might not be able to convey its problems with other employees, or even the problems are not solved effectively if there is a lack of communication between the stakeholders and the organization.

Taking the case of Cellfonie into consideration, it could be stated that the company was not having effective communication with the suppliers, which has further led the organization to face the issues of late delivery of the smartphones to the customers. Moreover, there was also ineffective communication, which was prevailing in between the employees, which have resulted in a wastage of time and delays in the order.

Warehouse Layout

Warehouse management is mainly linked with six basic tenets, which includes accuracy, cost control, safety, security, cleanliness as well as efficiency. However, the process is highly dynamic and complex which presents various problems for the managers of warehouses working across the industry. It is the distributors who need to deal with several trade-offs because of the limitations of trade-offs, which leads to a decline in performance in the functional areas (Marley & Ward, 2013). The company faces challenges to maximize performance while making a balance in trade-offs under uncertain conditions. The inadequate space of storage, as well as ineffective usage of available storage, are major issues found in warehouses that have poor layout facilities. The efficient usage of the space is one of the success factors prevailing in the warehouse wherein inadequate storage space as well as ineffective usage of the available storage space are major space in warehouses that have poor layout facilities (Angelis & et al., 2011). The poorly configured warehouse is the cause of worry for the managers as it inherent possible chances to have a negative influence on gaining profits. Apart from this, the fluctuation in the demands of the products has a serious issue for the managers of the warehouse. The decline in sales because of the global crisis of finance leads to major issues of cost for warehouses because of the enhanced levels of inventory (Schroeder, Goldstein & Rungtusanatham, 2011). The other issues faced by the warehouse manager are the increasing costs of labor which challenge the managers to deal with labors and other expenses of warehouses.

Taking the case of Cellfonie into consideration, it could be said that the location of the warehouse and inventory are in distinct place from one another. This has led the employees to walk higher distance to pick up core parts which are needed for the production. Moreover, the machines are also not been effectively utilized by the employees. Also, the company is even facing issues due to a shortage of spaces in the assembly areas wherein 50% of the space of the floor is utilized to hold the inventory. It can be said that the company is facing major issues due to the ineffective layout of the warehouse.

Application of Lean Management Principles

Lean management is the process of managing an organization that takes into consideration the concept of long-term approaches and regular improvement, which brings changes in the process to improvise the quality as well as efficiency (Angelis & et al., 2011). The main purpose of lean management is to generate values for customers using resource optimization and creation of a steady workflow, which is linked with the demands of the real customers. Lean management eradicates the wastage of time, efforts, as well as money through the identification of every step in the process of business and revises the steps which don’t create values to the business (Wilson, 2010).

It can be seen from the case study of Cellfonie that company is facing major issues of warehouse layout, lack of communication as well as monitoring of performance which have declined the sales and profitability of the company. Moreover, the reputation of the company was also declined as the company was not able to supply the smartphones on time (Bortolotti & Romano, 2012). However, it is seen that if the company makes the usage of lean management principles, then it could deal with all the issues of operational management effectively. Lean management tools like performance management are found improving efficiency and improvise the customer's services and deliver exactly what is required by the customers and on the designated period (Clifford, Brent & Wesley 2010). It was seen in the case study that the company was not able to deliver the products on time as well as wrong delivery was given, so the usage of lean management would enhance the services of customers. The application of Just in Time (JIT) manufacturing would be beneficial for the company as it reduces the flow time in the production system and response time from customers to suppliers. It would also assist the organization to increase productivity and lower the costs (Bhasin, 2012).

In addition to that, it is seen that lean manufacturing tools like Takt time improvise the lead times wherein businesses respond more quickly and even sets fewer delays. The usage of Takt time tools would help the company to measure the average rate at which the team needs to manufacture the products to meet the demands of the customers. Thus, usage of lean manufacturing even assists the business to respond in quicker set ups and minimize the delays in an effective manner (Lyons & et al., 2013). After reviewing the case study, it can be stated that Cellfonie is also facing issues due to a lack of interaction with suppliers and customers. It can be stated that lean management must be applied by the company to improvise the interactions of customers and have positive viewpoints regarding the company. Lean management will assist the organization in having effective communication with staff, have responsiveness to the concerns and positive experiences with products, which also cuts the wasteful practices (Marley & Ward, 2013). It can thus be stated that lean management is one of the effective means to enhance the organization's performance and remove the defects from the organization.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Operational management is a function of the business, which is responsible for coordinating, controlling and planning the resources which are required to produce goods and services of a company. It is found that there are various issues linked with operational management, which include lack of communication, issues in warehouse layout as well as difficulties in the management of performance which have hampered the operation of Cellfonie company. However, if an organization makes the usage of lean management tools and principles such as Just-in-Time, Takt Time, etc., it would assist the company in attaining success. It is seen that the performance of the organization could be enhanced if they give more emphasis on lean techniques and make a good relationship with both customers and suppliers.

It is recommended that apart from the application of lean management, the operational manager of the company should communicate effectively with all internal and external stakeholders. The manager must effectively communicate their message and process those messages to each of the employees in an effective manner. The mastering of oral, non-verbal as week as written communication is found to have an integral role in fostering daily operation in a smothering manner. The organization should organize various training courses to enhance the communication skills of the employees. Apart from that, it is recommended that the company should expand the area of the warehouse so that employees could easily assemble the parts of smartphones and there is no chance of delays. The company is also recommended to replace the suppliers and work with those who can be trusted so that there are no delays in the delivery of the products to the customers as it hampers the reputation of the company.

References

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