Optimizing Operations at Mason Engineering

Introduction

Operation management is the process where the multinational corporate firms can develop effective strategic planning for the benefits of the organisation where the companies can manage the operational activities including production unit management, managing supply chain and workforce and investment of the organisational resources in the prediction plant for serving the customers efficiently in near future (Luthra, Garg and Haleem, 2015; Luthra and Haleem, 2015). The study aims at discussing the operational strategies that would be beneficial for the company Mason Engineering in order to grab the future market demand and gain high competitive advantage in near future. The study also provides a scope to recommend some suitable suggestions for the company Mason Engineering in order to mitigate the existing challenges during the operational activities.

Organisational background

The Mason Engineering Company has been established in the year of 2019 and it was situated in the North East of England. The company provides quality engineering products to the customers where the engineering parts are good and effective to meet the customer’s needs and preferences in the market (Tian et al., 2017). The company is efficient to serve the customers with better products and the supply chain of the company is also efficient to manage the product distribution activities in the market. Due to decline in the demand for the engineering products and services as well as raising global completion in the engineering sector, the firm face difficulties in running their business in the market with the product range and services (Pallaro et al., 2015). It is hereby necessary for the firm to develop effective operational strategic planning to serve the customers and gain high competitive advantage in the market. Strong financial base as well as skilled and experienced workforce of the company are the major strengthen and in the basis of which, the company is successful to establish the business, but it becomes difficult in the recent era of globalisation to manage their operations and maximise profitability and sales volume in the market.

In such business environment, in the recent year of 2019, the Automotive Supplier request the company Mason Engineering to develop joint contract which is of two years for enhancing the performance and managing the high volume production plant, so that huge numbers of products can be produced in the production plant. It is necessary to expand the market with new product range and variety of quality products so that both the firms Mason Engineering and Automotive Supplier can work together for the maximisation of the organisational profitability and sales volume in the market. The company in this regard aims to serve the customers with quality, cost and operations where both the firms try to expand their operations through developing high volume production plant and service the customers with latest products and services in the market. In order to fulfil the organisational aims and objectives, it is necessary for the firm to develop effective operational strategic planning for operational improvement through which the company Mason Engineering can expand their business and gain high competitive advantage by retaining the long term loyal customer’s successfully.

Companywide Operations improvement strategy

Operational strategic management is one of the effective ways to run the organisations efficiently in the market. In this case, the company Mason Engineering faces the challenge in the market in running their services efficiently and serving the customers proficiently due to intense competition and high presence of the substitute products in the market. Hereby, for strategic improvement, it is necessary to develop effective operational strategic planning for the organisation Mason Engineering so that the company can maximise their profitability and enhance the sales volume which in turn provides an opportunity to the firm to establish the business efficiently in the global engineering and manufacturing sector by gaining high competitive advantage and market share. Hereby, the major strategic planning of the organisation Mason Engineering is to develop high volume production plan which is mandatory for the business to expand their opportunities and grab the high market share in the international engineering and manufacturing sector. In this regard, developing effective production plant with high volume of product manufacturing is effective to provide proper access for the products in the market where the company can supply a huge volume of products and services successfully in the international markets. Location in this regard is playing a crucial role for operational strategic improvement and in this regard, the company choose the global engineering market across the UK and US and other international boundaries for supplying the products which in turn helps the Mason Engineering to improve the brand visibility in the market and attract the clients for the quality products of the Mason Engineering and service excellence.

Process design is necessary step where the organisation needs to develop proper production unit with implementation of engineering machinery and managing the workforce in the company. In this context, implementing the production machineries and implementation of the latest technology are necessary to manufacture the high quality engineering parts which can strengthen the customer’s base in the market. Hereby, proper investment in the production plant, process design and resourcing the production unit are necessary for the company Mason Engineering. In addition to this, the company also needs to develop the strategy of having effective supply chain which is essential for running the operational activities strategically. In this regard, the company developed two year contract with automotive supplier which is one of the effective tactic to run the production plant and strengthen their supply chain for near future. For developing efficient supply chain, the company needs to provide high return to investment to the suppliers for creating values for them and develop proper distribution network and warehouse in different international boundaries which would be beneficial for distributing the quality products safely to the customers within proper time (Hitt, Xu and Carnes, 2016). Hereby, warehouse management is also necessary by implementing proper monitoring process, GPS and ERP software in the warehouse for managing the stock of the products across the international borders. The Porter’s valued chain model is effective to analyse the operational activities in the organisation, where there are primary and secondary activities through which the operational functions can be performed by the firms efficiently. Under the primary activities, there are inbound and outbound logistics, operations, marketing and sales and service and in the secondary activities, there are firm infrastructure, human resource management, technology development and procurement through which the company can enhance their operational activities strategically (Gibson and Parkman, 2018).

In this regard, the company Mason Engineering must develop inbound logistics through utilising effective raw materials, managing quality control operations and checking the quality of the raw materials. For developing outbound logistics operations, the company also needs to improve the finishing of the products, handle the orders of the customers across the international boundaries, managing dispatch system and delivery as well as automated shipment, automated warehouse management and handing online point of sale and order processing which in turn helps the Mason Engendering company to improve trust and loyalty among the customers and strengthen their customers base in the global engineering and manufacturing sector. In addition to this, the company Mason Engineering must focus on marketing and sales as well as service excellence to satisfy the customers where customer’s relationship management through continuous support and gathering the feedback of the customers are necessary to handle the customers globally. On the other hand, for enhancing the marketing and sales, the company needs to conduct sale analysis to understand market trend and demand of the customers for the engineering products as well as invest on marketing through social media or traditional marketing tactics for promoting the products on the international market so that the customers can access the organisational products and services. In this regard, for managing the operations of the company, it is necessary to improve packaging of the products, maintain quality control unit to satisfy the customers. On the other hand, the company needs to hire experienced staff to manage the high volume production plan and provide them proper training for enhancing the overall performance of the organisational sustainably. Additionally, for technological advancement, the company needs to focus on implementing the latest technology as well as manage funding for more in depth research and development in order to develop high quality products in the engineering manufacturing sector, where the organisation can provide high quality products and excellent service to all the customers successfully. hereby, the strategic planning for running the operational activities of the firm Mason Engineering are effective for successful operational strategic improvement, where the company would be able to run the high volume production unit with proper investment and hiring experienced engineers which can produce high quality products to meet the customer’s meds and preferences in long run.

Challenges faced by the firm during managing

There are several challenges in managing the operational activities in the organisations. It is difficult for the organisations to manage the challenges in the production plant to garb the market opportunities (Heizer, Render and Munson, 2017). The major challenges for the company Mason Engineering are such as, corporate social responsibility risk, lack of investment, lack of skilled workforce, poor management in rising organisational capabilities, lack of cost management practice, scarcity of the operational resources, rapid technological development in the market, lack of customers service and reality of global competition. The major issue is lack of finance which for which the company Mason Engineering could not be efficient to provide proper financial investment in running the operational activities in the market. In this regard, cost is another challenge, where it becomes difficult for the company to manage the cost though the cost minimisation strategy due to rising capital cost in the market. The parts in the engineering industry are expensive and it is difficult for the organisation to manage the cost of the products ion and set effective price for the products of the organisation in the market. In addition to this, lack of skilled workforce is another challenge, where due to presence of unskilled labourers in the production plant, the efficiency of the labours could not be enhanced in the organisation Mason Engineering which is anther serious issue for the firm to run the production plan proficiently in near future. It is necessary for the organisation to have skilled workforce for the benefits of the firm as well as the customers where the staff can serve the customers in an efficient manner.

In addition to this, the organisation Mason Engineering also could face the challenge of managing corporate social responsibility as it is necessary of the firm to manage the green environmental footprint where all the people in the recent era of globalisation are concerned about managing the natural resources and protecting the environment from pollution. Hereby, it becomes difficult for the company to manage the corporate social responsibility during the operational activities of the production plant. On the other hand, lack of customers service is another issue, where the company can face the problem of managing the customers base in the market and provide excellent services due to lack of proper technology and inefficient staff. Moreover, the company would also face the challenge of managing the global competition where the company did not focus on promoting the products and services in the market (Reid and Sanders, 2019). This is another challenge which may hamper the sales volume and profitability of the firm where the company Mason Engineering also faces the problem of gaining high competitive advantage over other competitive engineering companies in the global engineering sector. On the other hand, the company poor management in the organisational operational activities is another challenge, where the company may hamper the brand image due to lack of leadership and management in front of the partner Automotive Suppliers where the company Automotive Supplier developed the agreement and two year contract for achieving the future success of the firm together. This is another issue, where the organisation Mason Engineering may face difficulties in running the organisational operational activities in near future. It is hereby beneficial of the organisation Mason Engineering to manage these above mentioned challenges in order to grab the market opportunities as well as secure future sustainable development so that the company can enhance their performance in the engineering sector across the globe and gains high market share though market expansion and managing effective product line.

Conclusion and recommendations

It can be concluded that, the operational activities are effective for the organisations to develop sustainable tactics for running the operational activities in the market. Through the operational activities such as developing effective supply chain in the market, resource planning, managing the production plan, design the roles and responsibilities of the employees in the market as well as the additional activities such as quality management, layout, choosing the production plant and maintaining reliability of the operations the company Mason Engineering can establish the brand in the market and fulfil the strategic objective successfully. The company Mason Engineering is also able to manage their position in the market through the strategic improvement in running the operational activities efficiently. However, there are some major challenges such as corporate social responsibility risk, lack of investment, lack of skilled workforce, poor management in rising organisational capabilities, lack of cost management practice, scarcity of the operational resources, rapid technological development in the market, lack of customers service and reality of global competition where the firm may face difficulties in managing the operational activities strategically. Hereby, it is necessary for the organisation Mason Engineering to develop effective strategic planning through which it is possible for the company Mason Engineering to mitigate the existing changes and run the operational activities proficiently in the engineering market across the globe. The strategic recommendations to mitigate the issues are developed further.

Managing cost of production is necessary where the company needs to minimise the cost of the production to set the product pricing effectively and the organisation would maximise the profitability and sales volume for long run. The organisation needs to adopt cost minimisation strategy for the benefits of the firm and running the operations efficiently.

Maintaining huge volume of production is mandatory, where high volume of production further helps to maintain effective economies of scale and it can also be considered as the cost minimisation process, where the cost of the production can be maintained properly with high volume of production in the company Mason Engineering. In this regard, the organisation is also able to maximise their production unit and provide a volume of products in the market to grab the market opportunities in near future.

Hiring skilled workforce is another strategic recommendation through which the organisation Mason Engineering can run the production unit efficiently with the presence of skilled and experience force that are able to run the production unit and contribute positively in producing the organisational products successfully.

Presence of efficient engineers for designing the products is necessary and it wuld be effective suggestion for the company Mason Engineering in order to establish the production plant with proper cooperation of the Automotive Supplier who is effcciint to contribte positively and communicates for better production and manufacturing of the engineering parts in the market.

Managing corporate social responsibility through reducing green house gas emission is necessary for the organisation to establish the brand sustainably. In this regard, reducing the green house emission is mandatory for providing positive environmental footprint in the society.

Water is important natural resource which needs to reserve properly and in this regard the organisation utilises huge volume of water for the production and in this context the company needs to store the rain water for proper utilisation of the natural resources in the market.

Utilising electric cars for the distribution chain is one of the effective solutions for reducing the carbon emissions from the engine of the cars and in this regard the organisation must focus on the electric cars in the market which are important for transaction of the products and distributing those products efficiently by creating positive environmental footprint.

Developing green supply chain is another solution which is necessary for managing the warehouse of the company Mason Engineering and maintains the huge volume production plant successfully. For developing strong supply chain, the organisation needs to manage the suppliers and distributors even in the automotive supplier for utilising the contract where it is possible for the Mason Engineering Company to sustain in the market and distribute the products efficiently across the globe, where the customers can access the quality products of Mason Engineering at affordable cost.

It is necessary to utilise renewable resources to make the business sustainable and provide the positive brand image in the market and in this regard, the company must implement solar panel for creating energy which are required for manufacturing the engineering products in the market.

Promotional activities of the company are playing effective role in the recent era of globalisation and intense competition, where the threats of substitute products and high numbers of competitors in the market can be managed well. It is necessary for the organisation Mason Engineering to promote the organisational products by online activities social media advertisement and developing company website so that the customers can acknowledge the products and make effective purchase decision.

The above mentioned recommended strategic planning would be beneficial for the organisation to fulfil the aim of gaining high competitive advantage and market share across the global engineering sector sustainably by managing the high volume production plant in the market. The strategic planning are effective for the organisation Mason Engineering to run the operational activities and secure future sustainable development and enhance growth and profitability by strengthening their customers base by delivering high quality products at effective price in the market.

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