Analysis Of The Case Study Of R Griggs & Company Limited: Operations Management And Capacity Planning

Capacity Planning

Analyse of the case study of R Griggs & Company Limited.

The concept of managing operations is related with the management of business functions and activities to provide the higher-level satisfaction of customer by utilizing the available capacity and efficiency in best possible manner. Operations management is a part of the business administration, which covers all the processes of converting of raw material into finished goods. In operations management, the management always tries to decrease the cost of operations to keep the cost of production low and thus to increase the profitability of the business. The use of available resources of production in the best possible way and the introduction of new technologies at the time of requirement, there all tasks are supervised in the operations management process. To become successful in the long run, an organization has to work within the frame provided by the operations management team (Mary, et al., 2015).

This report describes the analysis of the case study of R Griggs & Company Limited. The company decided to restructure its al processes as per the changing demands of the customers and industry. The company has to face some issues related to the restructuring of the operations management processes and had to bear some losses also for the mismanagement of the same.  This report describes some aspect of capacity management that could help the company at the time of change management. Further, it also describes the concept of JIT approach and lean management system to develop a wide understanding of the operations management in a manufacturing firm. Example of a well0knwon company is also given which is famous for managing its operations in a good manner.

Operations are a part of the organizational process, which is responsible for the production of goods and services. These operations are limited in terms of capacity. An organization should be able to achieve organizational objectives and goals by controlling and planning the capacities of these operations. Capacity planning is a set of strategies, tools, and techniques that are used to make the estimation of production that can fulfill the projected demand of the business (Pullman & Rodgers, 2010). It can also be termed as an issue that has to be faced by all organizations or as an activity, which directly affects the efficiency of the operations within an organization. The actual process of capacity planning depends upon the type of industry in which the organization is working. The capacity can be increased by the adoption of new technologies in the production process, the appointment of extra workers and offer attractive payout for the overtime (Aarabi & Hasanian, 2014).

Strategic Decision Making

In the given case study of R Griggs & Company, it is clear from the reviews that scheduling and planning system of the company was not able to meet the requirement of the purpose of change of the company. Thus, it was necessary to restructure the entire system of planning and scheduling according to the objectives of management change (Onyango, 2016).  For such purpose, the experience of Dr. Martens could be utilized for an effective capacity planning as he was handling one of the topmost shoe manufacturer company in the world. R Griggs & Company could take the following strategies to increase the capacity of the company:

Strategic management is important for the development of the business. A successful strategy aims the stability of business in the long run with earning desired profits. The second aims of an effective business strategy are to expand the business with the minimum investment which can also result in earning higher profits (Wairimu, 2014). For the above review of the case study, it is clear that there was a lack of planned strategy as the management and operational level staff was not properly communicated about their work and responsibilities. In this situation, the management needs to work as per the planned strategies and should have introduced a better communication system between the management and the employees (Carvalho, et al., 2017).

It is one of the powerful and effective strategies for the maximization of the capacity of the operations. It includes elimination and removal of old techniques of production and invests in some new technology at the time of change in operations management. R Griggs & Company could introduce new procedures form the industry and new machines that could save the time of workers and along with this the problem of delay in orders could also be solved automatically (Dekkers, 2010).

If an organization is not willing to invest in new technologies or in extra workforces, then this is the best option that can help in enhancing the capacity of the organization. This strategy is adopted when there are a large number of supplies pending to be delivered as in the case of R Griggs & Company Limited (Dekkers & Kanapathy, 2012).

Nestle is a well-known brand in the food and beverage industry. The company is engaged in the manufacturing of more than 2000 products. The effective management of the operations is one of the major reason behind the success of the company. The company is operating with the help of its available capacity and serving its customers worldwide. For the utilization of its workforce capability, the company has opened its manufacturing offices in the different areas of the world so that the workers do not have to shift to any other place. Along with this, the company to reduce the cost of production does demand management and to increase customer satisfaction is an important tool used by Nestle.

Introduction of Technological Advancements

Every organization has some deadlines of its functions and activities, which are required to meet by the employees. The deadlines are related to the ability of an organization to complete its responsibilities without being a delay. Although some employees often feel overwhelmed by these deadlines, ultimately at the completion of work, they are also praised by the management or by their customers for their efforts to complete the work within given time slot.

In the manufacturing industry, one of the most popular approaches, which is used to meet the deadlines, is the JIT approach, abbreviated as Just-In-Time approach. An inventory management strategy aligns the orders of raw material from suppliers to the direct production houses. This strategy is used by the organizations to decrease the waste and increase the efficiency of the capacity of the available resources. This strategy enables the production house to receive the goods as per the requirement of the production process, thus the cost of handling inventory also decreases (Abdallah & Matsui, 2007).

For the application of this strategy, an organization involved in the production and manufacturing process is required to forecast the demand accurately, which is not easy. Most of the companies fail to fulfill the orders and demands of the customers either because of non-availability of sufficient raw material or mismanagement of available raw material stock. Along with this. The storage of extra raw material increases the cost of production thus there is an automatic increase in the sales value of the product. On the other hand, if the demand for customer changes, then the organization may have to bear a huge loss in form of storage of outdated raw material (Bon & Garai , 2011). Thus, the use of JIT approach and importance of meeting deadlines can be understood with the help of below-mentioned points:

If the production process is carried out as per the given time then the quality work can be provided to the clients as there would be no need to rust for the completion of the work in the last minute. It can enhance the level of satisfaction in the customers.

If there is any issue form the client side that can affect the completion of the order, can be identified in the prior stages by focusing on the deadline. This can help the organization to avoid any kind of losses from the client’s side (Khan & Kumar, 2013).

If a manufacturing organization starts working for the completion of a delivery within the time frame then there are possibilities that it would deliver the same within the timeline. This can save the extra cost which would have to spend by the organization for running extra shifts and overtime in case of non-completion of order (Kootanaee, et al., 7-25).

To run extra shifts

Timely delivery of products increases the trust of the customers in the commitment of the company. It can also help in building the good image of the company which can ultimately result in increasing the clients and business of the company (Scavarda, et al., 2010).

Several times, the company has to borrow the raw material on credit and it is not easy for an organization whose goodwill and the image is not good in the industry. If an organization completes its order on time and make timely payment to its suppliers, then it would be easy to purchase the raw material on credit in case of any type of emergency (Ukil, et al., 2016).

The employees who complete their work within the given time are always valued more by the management in comparison to the employees who are always late in their work. Such employees also get promotions and rewards from their managers which enhances the morale of employees to perform at their full capacity (Singh & Ahuja, 2012).

When an organization is able to complete the orders on time thus the capacity of accepting more orders automatically increases and it directly impacts the performance of the organization in terms of time management and quality management.

The best example of the success of JIT is the process management of Toyota Company. The production strategy of Toyota contains that the raw material is not placed in the production house until the orders are not received from the vendors and the processing products are ready to ship. No parts are allowed for nodding unless they are important for the next node. This strategy has enabled the company to maintain a minimum level of raw material with the premises and to reduce the inventory handling cost. This also indicates that the company can easily change its production processes as per the changing demands of the industry without worrying about the loss of stored raw material.

Lean production or lean manufacturing simply termed as lean is a systematic method which is followed in the manufacturing organizations on a very larger scale. This method is related to the waste minimization without compromising with the productivity of the operations. It also includes the waste generated through inequality in workload or through overburden on employees. Lean manufacturing takes care about the contents that are obvious to the production and add value as value is any process or action for which the customer would have to pay. This philosophy of management is derived from the management system of a well-known car manufacturing company named as TOYOTA. The company follows Toyota Production System which infamous as TPS since 1990 as has also adopted by most the successful companies for managing their operations in an effective manner. The suitability of this method can be identified on the basis of the growth of Toyota foam a small company to the largest automaker of the world (Puvanasvaran, et al., 2010).

Example

Cost Reduction

The first way to reduce the cost is to invest in the production of those goods which are demanded by the people in current due to in fashion. It would control the extra manufacturing of the products and would also help in eliminating the waste that could be occurred in the huge manufacturing process. There are a number of ways which can be used to implement and analyze the cost reduction techniques and areas of cost reduction. One of the major goals of the lean manufacturing is to locate the waste in each process separately and then eliminate it (Nenni, et al., 2014). It saves the organization from eliminating any kind of value form the production process that is often possible when the waste is eliminated in the bulk. It is a well-known fact that waste can never increase the value of the product, it can only increase the cost of the product which reduces the chances of survival of the organization in the market. The elimination of waste may lead to an organization to provide quality services to the customer and also develops the performance structure of the organization and the employees (Jasti & Kodali, 2014).

Flow

The flow is related to the system of dealing with people and items within a process management system. For the efficient working of the operations department of an organization, it is required to have a good flow among the processes to complete the main process from first to last. A change in the flow can either lead to a decrease in the waste or increase in the waste depending upon the quality of the newly introduced flow (Gupta & Jain, 241-249). The main flows that should be considered in the Lean manufacturing System can be described as below:

Flow of machines

Flow of operations

Flow of raw material

Flow of Work-in-progress

Flow of finished goods

Flow of engineering

Flow of Information

Understanding efficiency:

The changes in efficiency that neglect that production schedule can result in increasing the waste in form of overproduction and lead overall capacity of the organization in the wrong direction. The improvements of efficiency can be measured by the degree of reduction in the production cost of the product. A manufacturing organization consists of two type of efficiencies which are required to be considered by them in the lean operations (Battistoni, et al., 2013).

True Efficiency

It is the real efficiency of the company that can not be increased without introducing the external factors like extra workforce and extra production equipment.

Importance of deadline

Apparent efficiency

It is considered as a way of increasing the existing efficiency without increasing the current man hours. This efficiency is utilized by the organization in case of any big level order of in case of a delay in orders. It works as a backup plan for delivering the orders within the allotted time (Jedynak, 2015).

A lean manufacturing based organization understands the value of customers and focuses its main processes to continuously increase it. This thing helps in to bring more reliability about the customers will the higher reassurance of the stability of effective operations management. One of the best examples of lean operations is the business management of Nike. A well-known American national Cooperation engaged in developing, designing, manufacturing, marketing and sales of apparel, footwear, equipment, services, and accessories at the international level. The headquarter of the company is located in the Portland metropolitan area near Beaverton, Oregon. The company is one of the largest suppliers of athletic apparel and shoes worldwide. The operations manager of the company can be understood with the help of the below discussion:

Being an international brand, this is the most important concern for the company. The company has developed a set of guidelines for its workers engaged in the manufacturing process. The training is provided to workers for meeting the quality standard mentioned by the company. All the parts are tested much time before going for finalization. And if in case any quality problem occurs after reaching in the hands of the customer, the company has an easy and attractive guarantee and warranty policies to provide the maximum level of satisfaction to the customers (Suwa & Morita, 2014).

The management of operation with the help of lean manufacturing has become a trend for Nike. All operations are schedules in first to last on the basis of their priority. Then, the same is conducted with the help of analysis of true efficiency and apparent efficiency.

The company is the main player in the industry of sports equipment and apparel. Thus, all the designs manufactured by the company are based on the report of several types of research conducted by the R&D department of the company. Along with this, the designs of the equipment are decided according to the comfort zone of the international sports players. Here, the company follows JIT approach of lean manufacturing because demand and taste of the customers are continuously changing in the present scenario. So the company manufactures the products on the basis of the JIT method to avoid any kind of waste and to work with customer value (Mazanai, 2012) (Manzouri, et al., 2014).

JIT Approach

This is an integral and important part of the operations management. For effective operations management, all employees and managers should be well-known for their duties and responsibilities. Nike follows downward as well as upward communication strategy so that all the employees can get the updates regarding the production process and other important decisions. The upward communication strategy enables the upper-level management to know about the problems that are faced by the workers an employees in managing the day to day operations of the company (Leite & Vieira, 2015).

For managing the employee of the organization, human resource department and its policies in Nike are conducted in a well-structured manner. The employees are facilitated with the flexible time of working so that they can pay attention to their personal life. In addition to this, all production process is conducted in two or three shift so that work can be completed on time without pressurizing the employees and workers.

The company maintains good relations with its suppliers, thus it does not have to face any kind of problem regarding the supply of raw material. Along with this, the credibility of Nike is also very good which is helpful in the time of non-availability of sufficient financial resources.

It is clear from the above-mentioned points that Nike is managing its operations in a well-effective manner and working towards the optimum utilization of available resources with the help of capacity management techniques (Lopez-Fresno, 2012).

Conclusion

On the basis of above discussion, it can be concluded that operations management act as a major part of the business management of a manufacturing firm. It consists of management of day to day operations of the organization as well as the activities which enable the business to grow faster. It is also clear from the analysis of the case study of R Griggs & Company that deficiency in managing operations of a business can lead to it to the worst condition where its profits can be decreased with increase in the dissatisfaction level of the customers as happened in the given case study. There are various aspects of the operations management, some of them are summarized in this report to provide the overview of the concept like capacity planning, JIT approach of time management, Lean manufacturing system etc. All the concept are related to each other and this is summarized in this paper by giving the example of operations management of Nike, an international manufacturer which is known for an effective operations management. The overall aim of the operations management and its aspects is to serve the consumer in the best possible way and thus increase the profitability of the organization.

Maintenance of Quality Work

The implications of the effective operations management system are not difficult but it needs to analyze the market demand accurately so that capacity management and JIT approach can be applied successfully. As provided in the case study, sometimes the demands of the market are just opposite to the capacity and strategy of the organization especially during the change in management. But on the other hand, the time of change in management is the best opportunity for an organization to introduce something new in the business in terms of strategies, processes, and techniques which can help the business to perform better in near future. Thus, for the better customer experience, an organization needs to invest in the operations management and its techniques because if the customer is not happy then the business can never grow and management of business operations is an essential tool for such purpose

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