'Operations management Essay\r'

'McDonald’s Corporation is the world’s largest grasp of debased- feed eating places. They’ve proudly served more than than 46 million clients in 59 different countries and shortly fuddle more than 30,000 different locations worldwide. The fast regimen industry is stentorian at a rapid rate, especi all(prenominal)y the health conscious solid food options. With this in thinker, McDonald’s has a strategic plan to stay on bring in of their competitors by providing consumers with affordable prices, great renovation, and more take- power pointed meal options. McDonald’s is competitive in more categories, including price, note, worry and employee training. Consumers trust McDonald’s products because they use galore(postnominal) a(prenominal) of the same trusted brands that families buy at topical anesthetic grocery stores.\r\n motions Strategy\r\nâ€Å"In many companies, the primal to success is often an trading operations- gro und advantage. Superior operations effectiveness not only serves to buttress a federation’s existing competitive position, but, when based on capabilities that atomic subroutine 18 embedded in the community’s people and operating appendagees, is inherently grueling to imitate.” â€R. H. Hayes and D. M. Upton, â€Å"Opeations-based Strategy.” California Management Review, Summer, 1998. McDonald’s utilizes an fine operations system in hostelry to impinge on a larger market shargon and extend value to the shareholders.\r\nThe corporation peculiar(prenominal)ally focuses on focal ratio, standardization, quality, and affordability. McDonalds has move ahead of the competition by foc employ on these factors. McDonald’s competes on three main bases, lots(prenominal) as speed, affordability, and standardization, mainly to make their nodes happy. Through huge market research and surveys, the organization discovered that its customers coveted speed as integrity of the restaurants’ top priorities. indeed, McDonald’s vision aims to â€Å"provide fast, friendly and accurate assist” (â€Å"McDonald’s Worldwide”).\r\nMcDonald’s realized that specific targets are prerequisite to measure the performance of speed; whence, they continuously take relevant measurements to compare existing performance with desired targets. From the customer’s order, to the fashioning of the burger, and till the customer leaves the restaurant, speed is a key factor in McDonald’s operation strategy.\r\nTo humiliate the amount of time it takes to provide work, the company uses regulate training processes for its employees and new drive-thru layouts. Along with speed, McDonald’s in like manner competes by offering prices at a let out comprise. McDonald’s organization recently downstairswent drastic strategy changes to better serve their customers. Under their p revious system, the company would make several sandwiches at once, and hold the sandwiches in a warming bin until purchased by a customer. Under this system, management had to precisely predict how much food had to be put on hold. nice prediction had to be used because if in that respect were not enough food placed on hold, this would pee the problem of increase waiting times for customers, and alike much food would cause waste of expire items. McDonald’s dramatically changed their strategy in order to stay competitive with other fast food organizations.\r\nProduct development\r\nOrganisations exist to provide products and serve which lav be purchased by other organisations or an individual. Therefore planning of products and services is one of the close to in-chief(postnominal) operations of any organisation. It involves designing products with both(prenominal) economy and quality in mind, which a customer provide find attractive, be able to come across and quick ly able to use with minimum bump and which delights him or her by its performance or heart or durability and so on (Bicheno, 2002; p51) In McDonald’s restaurants, product development is a key operation. It has to economize on adding new products to its menu so as to meet the needs of the customers as their needs and preferences are constantly changing. For instance, the increasing preference of consumers towards healthy food made the restaurant add healthier food items to its menu. Similarly it has to add new products for different seasons, for ex fats calorifacient coffee in winter and milkshakes in summer. depicted object Control\r\nThe second operation decision central for organisations is capacity planning. Capacity planning and control is the lying-in of setting the effective capacity of the operation so that it terminate respond to the demands placed upon it. This normally heart determining how the operation should respond to fluctuations in demand. operation s managers usually distinguish between short, medium and long-term capacity decisions. For short- and medium-term capacity planning, the capacity level of the operation is adjusted within the fixed physical limits that are set by long-term capacity decisions. This is overly referred to as aggregate planning and control because it is necessary to aggregate the assorted types of output from an operation into one figure.\r\n(source: http://www.mas.dti.gov.uk/content/resources/categories/fact/FACT_Capacity_planning.html) In McDonalds eating house, the operations managers bemuse to set its capacity of devising food items in much(prenominal) a way that it responds quickly to the demands of those items in peak hours which is very outstanding for a fast food restaurant like McDonalds. It besides defend to make sure that it has enough stock of ingredients to launch food items which is very primal because if one ingredients hit short then the whole process of make food may h alt. For instance if the buns call for for making hamburgers falls short then the restaurant may not be able to plow any hamburgers even if it has enough quantities of other ingredients. quickness location\r\nLocation planning is one of the important operations that every organisation carries out and it is all-important(a)ly one of the critical success factors for any organisation. achievement or failure of any organisation may well depend on the location where it is situated. Therefore it is very important for businesses to choose an ideal location. Businesses may choose location on the rear of various factors such as proximity to the source of untoughened material, cost-effectiveness, proximity to customers or suppliers, competition in the area, transportation accessibility and cost, availability of resources, and availability of veracious labour.\r\nMcDonalds Restaurants also shed to plan their location in such a way so that maximum customers retaliate their restaura nts. Therefore McDonalds prefer locations such that it can clear large customer base, transport access and availability of parking space. merely it also prefers locations that are fitted for raw material delivery that is availability of ample space for deliveries of raw material. Process design:\r\n subsequently developing the product the businesses drive to develop processes for making and supporting the product. Organisations have to identify appropriate processes which will be needed to achieve required level of output of the planned goods and services at right quality standards. Organisation considers both the traditional method actings in which the organisation has handled and processed its products and services and the possible alternatives which currently present themselves. That is, it considers the advancement of technology, computing power, and evolving managerial expertise.\r\nBicheno, 2002; p99 In McDonalds restaurant also, the operations manager develop and establis hes the process of cooking food items so that food is wide-awake using that method which patrons them to maintain the speed and the quality of the food. Moreover it also designs processes so that the health, safety and hygiene issues are interpreted into consideration. Also the managers keep on introducing latest equipments with the advancement of technology so as to bring pace, perfection and quality in the product. Layout image\r\nLayout is the arrangement of facility to provide working, service and reception, repositing and administrative areas. The layout is designed by traditional techniques using templates, scale plans, string diagrams, and travel charting as they have been proved as low-cost methods of achieving either best or near optimal layout plans. Poor layouts can greatly reduce the boilersuit capacity and overall productivity.\r\nTherefore care must(prenominal) be taken by organisation when designing layout. (Bicheno, 2002; p121) In McDonalds Restaurant also l ayout designing is a very important operation. A proper layout of the equipments in the kitchen is very essential to crack formulation of quality food in less time. It also designs its layout keeping in mind the health and safety issues. It also designs layout in such a way that needs of supervision is minimised. other factor that is considered is the cost of production which also depends on the layout. .\r\nInventory Management\r\nInventory management is another(prenominal) important operation of any organisation. It involves choosing the best method of descent control. While choosing the method of inventory control, the organisations must keep in mind the expected demands of the products. The basis on which the organisations choose their methods of inventory control may differ but the common idea is to ensure that the mix of inventory types is able to satisfy customer needsand deliver the required profitability and cash flows. In McDonalds the inventory is managed on the basis of First-In-First-Out basis.\r\nThis is because most of the inventory consists of perishable items. Therefore delivery of inventory happens thrice or more times a hebdomad depending on the business of the restaurant. Moreover inventory is stored in freezer with proper packaging so as to ensure freshness of the food items. All this activities comes under inventory management of the organisation. property Management\r\n theatrical role management consists of maintaining the quality of the goods and services so as to meet the minimum requirements laid by the industry. Moreover it is important so as to keep up the reputation of the organisation. To manage and maintain the quality of the products and services the organisation may adopt a numerate of practices like quality checks procedure etc. Quality in McDonald restaurant is very important because of dickens reasons. Firstly because of the legal requirements of the quality of food served. secondly ,to keep up the good reputation w hich McDonalds restaurants have earned over the years. Quality of food can be very difficult to maintain and therefore McDonalds restaurant carry on a number of practices to make sure that quality food is served. few of these practices are the visits by the food inspector from the head office, supervisor checks etc. Maintenance\r\nMaintenance meat preservation of the things in the organisation. In simple words, livelihood is way of protecting your production workers, office workers, drivers, and all the other users of your organization’s assets. (http://www.maintenanceresources.com/ReferenceLibrary/MaintenanceManagement/The_Battle_of_Maintenance.htm) In McDonalds, there are several equipments that are used for the preparation of food. Therefore it is very important to maintain and service those equipments so as to maintain the quality of the product, safety of the employees and to avoid further costs of repairing machines. Another important things that needs maintenance ar e hygiene, costs, quality etc. CONCLUSION:\r\nTherefore we conclude that operations management is very important for any organisations as they have a relationship with the overall strategy of the organisation. Operations management contributes to the strategy and therefore helps the organisation to procure competitive advantage. For instance, process planning can help the organisation reduce cost and gain cost advantages and therefore gain competitive advantage. Therefore the organisations must effectively manage the operations of the business as it has a massive effect on the strategy of the organisation Bibilgraphy\r\nChase, R., Jacobs, F., Aquilano, N. Operations Management for Competitive emolument (10th Edition). McGraw- cumulation Irwin; Boston; 2004. Howard, Lisa. â€Å"Suppliers.” June 19, 2003. Accessed online on November 8, 2004 at: . Kerin, R., Berkowitz, E., Hartley, S., Rudelius, W. Marketing (7th Edition). McGraw- Hill Irwin; Boston; 2003. Lessnau, Ronald, ge nuine McDonald’s Owner. Personal interview â€Å"McDonald’s Worldwide Corporate Responsibility traverse 2004.” Accessed online on October Phillips, Eddie, Prior McDonald’s Manager, Personal Interview, Phillips, Kenny, Current McDonald’s Manager. Personal Interview, October 27, 2010 â€Å"Restaurant Management.” McDonald’s Restaurant Management Careers. Accessed online Zuber, Amy. â€Å"Big Mac, Big Value: McD to start out Prices;” Accessed online at http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles /mi_m3190/is_50_35/ai_80748686.\r\nView as multi-pages\r\nTopics in this document\r\n'