Plagiarism Scan Report

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Report Genrated Date

14 Nov, 2016

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Modern Challenges Faced in Operations / Production Management

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Operations Management is concerned with the analysing, manipulation, and controlling of sources
that directly influence either the manufacturing of the product or providing of a service by an
organisation. These sources can be manpower, raw materials, technological capabilities and
information processing, amongst others. Operations Managements can, therefore be summarised as
the transformation process in which a certain amount of resources (inputs) are converted into
products and services (outputs). Below are a few modern day challenges faced by Operations
Managers, which specific focus on the manufacturing (product) industry, and general strategies
followed by the managers to overcome the hurdles.

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Challenge 1: Globalisation
The 1990s were marked with a high number of trade barriers being wiped out, due to an increase in
capitalist thinking and promotion of free trade, which resulted in the creation of a highly globalised
and inter-dependent world economy, causing the world to be known as a Global Village.
Globalisation had its advantages, with the advancement of communications and transportation
technology, making the global manufacturing industry more efficient and effective. This wave of
Globalisation caused a huge level of stress on Operation Managers working in Local Firms, which
meant that they would have to start providing much higher quality goods, at lower prices, with a
constrained capital availability. The operations managers skill set would be required to include the
four functions of planning, organising, leading and controlling to ensure that their product remains
competitive and relevant in the global market.
Challenge 2: Customer Satisfaction & Resource Productivity
Modern organisations are required and persistent upon the integration of Total Quality Management
(TQM) through their production line, which is to be followed and ensured by the Operations
Manager. A quality focus directly affects customer satisfaction and often involves teamwork. It is a
fact that low cost and high quality are key attributes that a product is required to possess to be
successful in the market.

The modern challenge is that there is a trade-off between cost, quality, quantity and time. It is the
responsibility and a challenge of the Operations Manager to ensure that this trade-off is minimised.
Operations Managers access the help of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to effectively

and strategically minimise these trade-offs, and to also give timely information to the employees, in
an effort to boost productivity.

Challenge 3: Workforce & Social Trends

The modernising and changing social values, cultures and interests have a great impact on the work
of Operation Managers. Since the managers are required to directly deal with employees, they are
required to take into account social trends. The managers also have to keep in mind certain
demographic changes during the process of planning, organising and controlling. Further, the
movement of the workforce from Gen X to Gen Y has also created problems for Operations Managers,
due to the lack of interest in Manufacturing Jobs amongst the Millennial Population. The manager
also carries the responsibility to prevent culture clashes and gender inequalities in order to maintain
a healthy and friendly working environment.

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Challenge 4: Economical & Environmental

Rapid changes in the economic sphere also affects the work of Operations Managers. Economic
variable such as unemployment, inflation, economic growth, exchange rates, interest rates, or
recession have an impact on the price of raw materials leading to an ultimate impact on the price of
finished goods. Natural occurrences such as cyclones, floods and earthquakes also influence the
prices of certain raw materials and also, the skills of the operations manager as a resource allocator
and negotiator are required and tested to the extremes, in order to ensure the delivery of a high
quality, low price product.

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Challenge 5: Technological Advancement

The computer and internet revolution has greatly impacted the work of Operations Managers, and in
a way, have greatly increased the productivity of employees, as well as of the production process.
Development of new-gen technologies such as nanotechnology, biotechnology and robotics can
greatly influence the work of Operations Managers, which would lead to a steep learning curve,
advanced workforce requirements, and updated production lines to align with the developed
technologies.
Challenge 6: Ethical Conduct
The requirement of ethical conduct in business is becoming increasingly visible, due to the
numerous examples of questionable actions in recent history. In the decision making process,
operations managers must consider how their decisions affect stakeholders, management,
employees, customers, the community, as well as the environment.
Report generated by smallseotools.com