Review of Operations Management

Introduction and Organizational Background Methodology Limitations of Research Literature Review Motivation and Culture Employee Reward Conclusion Recommendations References Need for Strategic Human Resource Procedures for Effectiveness Operation Management in Lead Way Business Group International.This report Is an evaluation of Lead Way Business Group International (ALIBI) a general business multinational servicing firms, human resource practices to see if it effective and follows best international best practices, in relation to its rewarding employees performance and what system sand strategies it uses to engage its staff towards achieving Its goals and objectives as a business. The challenges that ALIBI face is that of its operation management in its call centre department.Recent changes in its management structure of the centre has led to a decline In profits. It needs to adopt a strategic Human Resource strategy to be able to maintain its customer base and ultimately its profit s. To achieve get a holistic view of its Human resource policies and practices a robust examinations was undertaking o identify the level of motivation and the attitudinal disposition of the staff of the at different level from the Executive team to the newest recruit to the company .As with most companies in its industry Lead Way aim and drive for doing business 1 org that its clientele demand and also the in order to fulfill its obligation as a whole Lead Way has a relatively highly motivated team of employees this may be as a result of its qualities of leaders and managers in the Human Capital division however some variances occur in the level of enthusiasm in all the other parts of the company this s due to an ongoing reposition and change management process being implanted in the company.On paper it strategy to encourage performance is effective as it uses regular appraisal tools to assess the performance of its staff to meet the need its business targets This submission of the evaluation of Lead Ways has highlighted minored for the company to meet is business target and save cost and deliver on quality it most lay emphasis on its staff training and human capital development and change the over culture to one that it becomes a learning organization which is considers employee involvement and engagement is paramount to ensure improvement in service delivery.Managing the Operations at Lead Way employee is the role of the managers who have the task of doing it effectively by making it a fundamental part of its operations by emphasis development and progression in career and also recognition for outstanding performance. In order to achieve its Organizational goals and business targets its Operations management policies must work hand in hand with its human resource objectives too. 1.Introduction and Organizational Background Lead Way Business Group International is in a highly competitive service based industry that demand innovation , creativity , service de livery excellence which are all dependent upon the performance of employees in its organization. As a result it need to have start performing at optimal level in the next ray in line with is change management agenda to transform the firm to expand and begin to expand to other international territories . Arrives to its client from Office supplies, Sales Outsourcing, International Freight services to business management Consultancy it employees over 100 employees in 3 different cities and seeks to expand to it forth in Africa The heart of the business is error in its slogan called â€Å"Servicing Your Business Needs Efficiently'. It business target is to be a leader in providing business services of Medium and Large cooperation's in the areas it is situated also providing global business insights due to its international presence.Efficiency being at the heart of Lead Ways business ethos demands that performance of its staff is at optimal level all the time in-order to also meet its b usiness targets. Lead Way Business Service is a new generation sustainable social enterprise whose profits are reinvested in it, how its aim is to serve small start- p entrepreneurs and medium scale business to grow them to foster economic development.So its business with a heart as a result. Its main objective is not profit making but rather have to do with more socio political Issues which are influenced but changing technology, environmental and legal issues and also governmental policy changes (Slack et al,1995) As Lead Way is an international group and runs diverse services, to underpin its success it has a very elaborate human resource system that caters for the need of its employees.It is very effective and supports the rest of the organization in reaching TTS business objectives through various human capital development plans and procedure and people management strategies. Peculiar to its multicultural and multi-location set up it has HER challenges always arising from misco mmunication and due to language barriers and personal relation problems, employee motivation staff welfare and attendance takes a lot of its productive time.There need to be a shift from such elementary but important issues to much more strategic and pro- growth and developmental issues that HER can contribute too , to ensure that the company tests its growth and service objectives In order to have a clear picture of the company's performance and how the employee engagement and motivation contribute to it, an in-depth look at its performance management practices is essential. There are a range of services provided by Lead Way delivered by both skilled and unskilled staff and there are key performance indices that are used to asses performance.Everyone employed manual staff, volunteers, part time and full time start are all appraised and the Performance Management Framework is the basis of this report. Terms of Reference This report aims to establish and asses the following The Manag ement of Operations in the call centre of ALIBI The effect and influence of HER polices and procedures on Operations in LABS! The Strategies for employee motivation and engagement within the company 1. In order to get a god understanding of the organizational culture in relations to performance of the Operations management framework a simple research was undertake of different types of employees ranging from the skilled to the unskilled managers to the new entry staff and they were asked to give their own view of the HER raciest and how it impacted them from different point of views Things that were sought after where the level of staff motivation and their attitude toward their work and how it affected communication, relationships and the culture of and within the organizations.It is essential to find out the relationship that exist if any of staff attitude/motivation, Strategic Human resource management and the overall Performance management Strategy for the organization and to ac hieve this both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed. 1. 2 Limitations of Research Some of the limitations face during this research had to do with the different actions of the staff as some were office based and others where site based so the working culture couldn't be duly ascertained holistically Also the samples size of the employees form various levels was limited.And due to the fact that the CEO of the organization was not physically present during the research and it was not commissioned by the organization. They were reluctant in provide all the support to reach a more conclusive and deductive results, Limited time and space was giving. Sam Lewis & Thrill (2007) view of methods of data collection formed t the basis of nagging valuable insight that involve data collection and triangulation will assist in seeing if the figures and data match up with the perception and reality of the employees. 2.Literature Review – Operations Management According to Josep h G . Monks (2004. ) Operations Management is governed by polices that are stipulated by the management of an organizations It governs the predefined flow of resources in a systematic manner in a controlled environment to create a valuable service or product that meets the consumers' needs and the organizations objectives Source http://www. Mandarin. Com/operation/ 27370849x_IPPP . PDF Two things are paramount which are the resources and systems. Resources which may include but are not limited to human I. E. He use of intellectual knowledge in planning and coordination of the process, capital I. E. Cash , stocks , store values etc. And material I. E. Physical inventories, supplies, plants etc. That are injection in the production process. Systems relate to components of management for the achievement of the objectives of the organization as a whole. For there to be efficiency there has to be a systematic approach to everything from problem solving o achieving goals Operations manage ment refers to the administration of business practices to create the highest level of efficiency possible within an organization.Operations management is concerned with converting materials and labor into goods and services as efficiently as possible to maximize the profit of an organization. Performance is important, and the optimization of the performance of employees and seeks to address, for there to be a harmonies operation of system and people a comprehensive Human Resource policy and procedure my in place to oil the wheels of efficiency. Pawpaw (2005) research looks at effect of HARM on Performance management and the focus should not be on policy creation to drive performance alone but also in addition to that their implementation.In relations to other internal and external environmental factors. The question now is how do you measure performance? Performance Management is as Newly (1998) is about evaluation the of past action because past action is always a good determinate of present performance. It also involves picking, defining and applying of key bench marks for performances, factors which are used to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of the process. Fine & Sender (1999). Len any organization the main objective are quality, flexibility, dependability, cost and Speed .And a good reflection of if the company of meeting this objectives will be measured in its financial performance Self-Assessment Model of Performance Measurement Jackson, Zaire & Whammy (1998) describe the self-assessment model as a tool that is foundational to effectiveness of any company business or organizations, because it gives full and clear view of activities and it also facilitates constant improvements. This is because it links organization performance with customer satisfaction, financial reference sphere headed by strategic planning.For there to be strategic planning a concrete HARM strategy must be employed The management must be cognizance of these factors and as a result create systems in the operation management process that would engage employees and keep them motivated to undertake the work at hand. So what is good Human Resource management in relation to operation management? Janssen and Stewart (2008) see human resource management as a set of social and cultural practices in every organization in to effectively manage the human capital taking into consideration the level and skill of employees, motivation , etc.They also say that it is easy to assume that employee and employers are working together toward a specified goal but in reality this must be subjected it the individual Interpretation and engagement with the HARM practices and how it motivates, engages or disengages them. Best HARM practice where explored by Thereof, Programs and Catalogue (2007). And it was discover that knowledge management and organizational learning are important contributors, they also suggest that HARM best practice leads to the effective running of and or ganization and that in turn performance of operations management.So there is a link between best HARM practices and peak performing Operation Management Systems in organizations. However these HARM policies and procedures must be continually monitored and buttressed to ensure they meet their specified objectives. Strategic HARM should always compliment Strategic Operations Management which aims at playing an active role working towards constant improvement to move to the next level of service delivery and empowering other sectors of the company play an active role in the overall strategy There are three main types of strategy employed Corporate, business ND functional level strategy.Slack & Lewis (2001) see strategic operation as decision objectives taking into consideration it resources and its ability to meet ever growing market. Demands The Hayes and Wheelwright Model (1998) can be used to identify how effective the organization is as a whole and how operations affect this from a strategic stand point It has 4 stages I-Internal neutrality (being unable to contribute to effectiveness) & 2-External neutrality (comparisons with external companies) 3- Internally supportive (employing best practices for credible effective operations) & 4- Externally supportive (looking how operation can be a driver of cooperate strategy).For the purpose of this study we are going to be looking at the operation management of the office supply department of Lead Way Business service and in particular we would be looking at how it effective the operation are managed in its customer service department of its office supplies division In recent time there have been a lot of complaints from customers about the poor level of service delivery of the customer service team and this intern has affected the performance of the company as people are now taking their business somewhere else Last year in an attempt to save cost company outsource it s customer service operation to India and were able to save a lot off money .In the initial stage the initial stage the Indian company Tolerance India which they part own having substantial amount of shares in seem to be dependable and delivered on quality and it seemed their business approach was quite innovative compared to their competitors at the moment as they were also offering online chat support service for customers who order their services online. But in recent time there has been a drop in the quality of service. They had a new management team come in and changed most of the way he company operates and has also cut down lots off staff as a they have lost the advantage of flexibility and they are unable to meet the growing demand in calls and the online response time has slowed down drastically and the average call waiting time is minutes instead of the 4 minutes last year and 2 minutes average when it was based in the ask.Customers have been posting negative reviews and feedback on the internet and this has drasticall y affected their office supplies business services There is also the issue of language barrier that man Britons and English people say hey have difficulty understanding the ascents of the Indian employees and in some recent cases their English is very bad and as a result communication is gravely impaired. Discussion and Analysis of the HER strategies for Effect operations management in ALIBI This report would be assessing how the operations quality of service can be improved The major problem not uncommon to LABS managers is staffing level. A times demand falls and they need lest staff and a times it rises and they need more staff How can they maintain cost and quality and also be flexible in the staffing need to meet their consumers expectations dependably.They need to be able do an efficient long-tern forecast of demand for services to be able to avoid problems so they would have a good number of agents at all times. This must be done several week and even months in ahead and in c onjunction with HER department to be able to operation management process. These are the inputs into the system and selection of adequately trained staff with the necessary skill is essential for the running of an internal call centre and how do y Characteristic of call centers is high turnover rate and also seasonal workers. How do you balance cost of training staff that would eventually leave the company and the emend for service from the customers.