Operation Management Competitive Supply Chain

Question: Discuss about the Operation Management for Competitive Supply Chain. Answer: Introduction It has been identified that among different significant aspects, inventory management is also one the important aspect of a successful business. Different techniques are involved to control and oversee the flow of inventory sections that an organization utilizes in the productions of the products to sale or distribution. As mentioned by Chung, Crdenas-Barron and Ting, (2014), the inventories usually consist of the combination or mixture of products, raw materials as well as finished products. Therefore, effective and developed management technique is required to ensure the increasing stock levels. The enhanced management techniques are also required to increase the earning potential of the organization. The appropriate implementation of the inventory management techniques contributes to the business in preventing or dealing with any damage or losses related to inventory (Song, Dong Xu, 2014). Thus, it can be mentioned that effective inventory management is highly required as not only is inventory being the most valuable element to the organization; there is an effective relationship between the inventory levels and organizational profits. In order to understand the techniques involved in inventory management, the current report focuses on the current inventory management techniques used in Brisbane Outdoor, which has three different locations across Queensland City of Brisbane. The organization offers different mixed designed products that include different garden equipments. By analyzing the current inventory management techniques used by the company, the effectiveness and further improvement can be developed. Current purchasing and inventory management technique used by the company The case study indicates that Saxon usually follows and maintains Laissez-faire leadership style, which is also known as the delegative leadership style. While maintaining the operation at Mt Gravatt store, Donald is observed to be relaxed in the operation. On the contrary, Green would follow a tight operation at Strathpine. However, it is observed that in laissez-faire leadership style, the leaders hands.-off and permits the group members to make and implement management decisions. Likewise, at Mt Gravatt, Donald usually does not interfere in the operation of the branch being the CEO of the company. He would allow other persons or the production managers of the organization to investment decision to lead the business. As argued by Sadeghi, Sadeghi, and Niaki (2014), Laissez-faire leadership leads to the lowest productivity of the organization. As the leader of the organization shows poor interest in developing the operation of the organization, the other staff lacks motivation in th e operation. This leadership style highly affects the inventory management practices of the Brisbane outdoor. The current techniques involved in inventory management of the company helps to learn that organization lacks a necessary large investment. The company did not implement any integrated approach. Brisbane Outdoor has three different similar stores but managers of three branches do their individual sourcing and purchasing of the inventory. Different approaches are followed in each of the stores, which mean no integrated approach has been applied. In the end, it could highly affect the organization as well as the company may suffer from the large sever financial crisis (Rushton, Croucher Baker, 2014). In addition, the current inventory management system at Brisbane Outdoor provides an insight that lack stock investment may create a shortage in the inventory. As the three branches of the organization run the operation of similar products, large investment should be made with integrated approach. Moreover, due to the laid-back attitude of the branch head, no modification of the approaches has been implemented. On the contrary, laissez-faire leadership followed by Saxon is not considered as the idea in situation where the members of the individuals lack the knowledge or the experience but they are required to accomplish the tasks as well as make the decisions. The current inventory management system of the company leads to unconnected purchasing and inventory management system. Due to the implementation of this approach, the organization is not able to make large investment decision, which is highly required for the organization. Additionally, it can also be mentioned that poor inventory management decisions could lead to further financial loss. Comparative advantages and disadvantages of the used processes Advantages The current inventory management approaches may provide certain advantages to the Brisbane Outdoor such as shortage goods can be transferred when the shortage of supply of the products occurred. As mentioned by Hill, Jones and Schilling (2014), Laissez-fair leadership may prove to be effective in the situation where the members of the group are highly skilled and capable on their own. Hence, the staff at the Mt Gravatt is highly skilled; thereby, Saxon would not interfere in the operation. In addition, these approaches indicate that the members at Mt. Gravatt have the knowledge and appropriate skills to work independently. However, as the firm does not have any integrated approach in managing the operation, each of the stores operated autonomously. As the managers at Brisbane Outdoor have the ability run the inventory system, they would do their own sourcing as well as purchasing of the inventory. Thus, the organization did not have to make investment in developing the techniques of inventory management. Hence, the company is free from the investment of providing training and development session. Therefore, a large amount of the money has been used in manufacturing of goods and services. Disadvantages Although, the people at Brisbane Outdoor power centre are skilled enough to deal with the individual operation, there have been some cases where the group members are seen to be inefficient in making and implementing the large decision of the organization. In addition, three different styles of management have been followed in the operation; the firm lacks proper goals and objectives for the development of management. As the CEO of the company lacks interests and shows a laid-back attitude towards the enhancement of the management, the lower-levels staffs did not establish any schedule activities to accomplish the future goals. This could be worse if the completion in this particular industry increases. For example, if the new firms access to the market, Brisbane Outdoor may lag behind in performance since the company does not have any unanimous or integrated approach to control the operation. Additionally, if the industry observes a rush in supply or demand of the products, the firm could suffer from the shortage of supply of the products despite the increasing demands (Farahani, Rezapour, Drezner Fallah, 2014). Furthermore, as the managers of the organization do not interact with other managers of the branches, the current sales and profit margin of the company can be understood and developed properly by implementing advanced techniques. Lastly, it can be mentioned that, the firm needs to adopt changes in its inventory management systems to deal with future potential challenges. Supplychain and inventory management concepts contributing to company to maximize efficiency and minimize investment Developed supply chain management Integration of the logistic process with the suppliers: Irrespective of the size of the company, the most significant approach is to integrate the logistical approaches or the techniques with the firm. Whereas not entirely relied on the software system, particular applications of enterprise resource planning help the organization to enhance the communication in between the business as well as the suppliers (Mardani, Jusoh Zavadskas, 2015). For example, if a supplier has the ability to acquire the rate based on which a business operates through its inventory, the business could easily meet any certain change in the demand by developing the operational efficiencies for both parties. Employ could-based system increasing cost savings as well as operational efficiencies: The significant advantage associated with the cloud-based system is the increasing ability focusing on the domain experts discovered in the organization implementing these systems. As opined by Leiras et al., (2014), the small business generally does not have the proper budget for developing their Information Technology department. Therefore, by implementing the supply chain system in the cloud, the firm could take the advantages of the team that is relied on the software and networking. In addition, this technique reduces the efforts and time of the employees from running day-to-day operations. This could result in operational savings as well as the efficiencies. Advanced integrated inventory management system It has been observed that from an operational perspective, the preliminary goals of the organization are facilitate the approach of inventory management as inventory management system largely influences the operation (Esmaeilikia et al., 2014). Hence, the company could implement an integrated inventory management system, which could provide inventory visibility to the branch of supply chain partners. In addition, the company could state inventory in the financial reports quite appropriately. As mentioned by Martnez-Jurado and Moyano-Fuentes, (2014), by having a mixture and appropriate amount of the inventory on supply should be paramount to both customers as well as satisfaction of the investors. In addition to this, like every other organization, Brisbane Outdoor needs to utilize supply chain partners to deal with the levels of the inventory and the shipment of the customers. Thus, in order to implement this successfully, the inventory management system should be integrated with not only the back office system of the company but also with the suppliers and other logistic system of the company. In order to successfully apply an advanced inventory management system, it is important for the organization to integrate the approach within the daily function conducted by the personnel of the organization. This approach provides a set of advantages such as when a user or the customer wants to order goods; the firms could go through the Inventory Management Systems screen to find out the Acquisition. Such type of process needs to be available for Redeployment and Termination of the assets (Laurent et al., 2014). When the use asks for a particular product of specific type of the goods, hence, the inventory systems go through whether the product is in the surplus or the product needs to be purchased under the existing volume. Recommendation to restructure the purchasing and inventory function of the company Integrated inventory management model- Figure 1: Integrated Inventory system model (Source: Brandenburg, Govindan, Sarkis Seuring, 2014) The above-mentioned figure consisting of the entire structure of the inventory system model may look little complex; however, significantly all that are needed to execute an effective integrated inventory management is the proper understanding of the fundamental inventory management process. This model is mixed with effective as well a disciplined application of the practices or the approaches associated with the model (Martnez-Jurado Moyano-Fuentes, 2014). The model indicates that the blue-shaded figure represent the stand-alone inventory management technique. Aspects of the bill materials- This element helps to make the relationship of repairable ingredients, which is assembled as well as sub-assembled to make up the whole asset. Usage of the data- The existing information relied on the materials issues that could reflect the deadline and values of the pound of all room parts of the store. Inventory data- This element is considered as the fundamental part of the inventory control system. Obsolete materials- This is considered as any material that could no longer be used due to redesign of the product, physical damage of the goods and deterioration and other reasons Action plan Activities Techniques of applying the model Time Reviewing the existing approaches of the inventory management system Comparing the performance with the newly developed criteria 1st Month Applying the new model of inventory management system Matching the techniques of the model with the criteria mentioned in the beginning; this means the flaws in applying the technique and modify them accordingly 2nd month Observing each of the elements associated with the model while implementing them replacing the existing system Measuring the relevancy and efficiency of the model comparing with the existing system 3r week of the 2nd month Observing the outcome of the model after the implementation Measuring the outcome of the newly applied model 1st week of the 4th month Evaluating the outcome Identifying the flaws in the model After 6 months of the implementation Table 1: Action plan (Source: Created by Myself) Conclusion On the completion of the report, it can be mentioned that though Brisbane has effectively earned the profits from three outlets of the organization. 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