Operations management case study

Introduction

Some of the most essential factors that can be used in the management of customers include order winning and order qualifying factors. Notably, these factors are very essential in ensuring that businesses carry out their activities in the most efficient ways. It is quite imperative for various organisations to understand the distinct aspects related to order winning and order qualifying factors in order to ascertain progress in meeting organisational goals and objectives. Admittedly, order winning aspects are the things that can directly be attributed to the success of a business.

On the other hand, order qualifying factors are those that are considered as factors responsible for average level of highly competitive performance that can be accepted among customers. This section seeks to discuss the order winning factors and how they can be applied in small car business. Order winning factors include strategies that are used by companies in enabling internal operational aspects in order to create competitive advantage and achieve market success.

For a small car, the order winning factors would be elements such as performance, effectiveness of the design, availability, attractiveness, price, among other factors.

In order to ensure that the customers purchase a product such as a small car, the marketers have to ensure that the factors are in line with the customer’s needs and wants. As a matter of fact, the small cars have to be designed in a manner that would give customer value attributes to the customer and satisfy their needs. For instance, a small expensive car might be bought as a result of the prestige that comes with owning such a car. As a result, the customer’s social class might also be a great factor that makes a small car to be the winning order for them. The design process qualifying factors products have to meet the minimum standards in order to make the customers purchase the product.

Process design diagram

In the company Action Response, there are a number of wastes that have been identifies to be affecting the operations of the charity firm. Notably, there are a number of protocols that have to be followed in the company hence making the process of activities in the organisation to be longer than usual. One of the major factors that lead to wastage with ARAPU processes include wait time. In as much as the company receives overwhelming number of applications per day, it is quite critical for the company to ensure that wait time is reduced so as to provide adequate time for other activities such as processing of funds and creation of more opportunities to the company’s clients. The time spent waiting for the company’s response should be significantly reduced so as to ensure that the company works within the available time frame to take care of all its operations. Another factor that wastes time in a number of organisations is the processes.

The use of a standard form in application of aid by either the potential aid recipients or their intermediary charities has made the application process take much longer than expected. As a result, there is wastage of resources in printing of forms that could rather be filled online using log in details given to every potential recipient and their intermediaries. With an IT system that is well-equipped, the company can work towards ensuring that it achieves its goals faster than normal through its IT experts. Sending applications through posts and fax takes longer time and makes the company handle bulky papers that could otherwise be turned into other uses. By employing several staff members with different roles, the company is overspending on labour. Alternatively, the company could employ qualified technology experts so that all the activities such as coding, filling, and data entry are done at a central place.

In order to save time and avoid wastage of resources, the company should ensure it works towards using the Deming process improvement cycle in order to achieve its goals. Evidently, using the cycle would involve the process of: Plan-under this section, the company should come up with the best plans that it can use to meet the demands of its potential aid recipients. This could be done by seeking more funds and ensuring that it carries out effective planning that would see the use of the funds done in an organised manner. The planning process would also involve coming up with goals and objectives that would be very crucial in creating efficiency within the organisation. Do- This stage involves implementation of all the ideas that ARAPU had noted in the planning stage.

In fact, this is where much work lies as the company would process a number of aid applications as per the case study. Study- Under this stage, the organisation would ensure that it monitors the various outcomes that it got from the last two processes. It will also help in identification of problems and evaluation of the organisational success. Act- This step closes the cycle and mainly involves integrating any factor noticed in the entire process. The step also involves coming up with actions that could be used in ensuring adjustments are made to the goals. It might also involve reformulation of the organisational strategies so as to bring more donors on board. In order to gain the best results, the process should be repeated over and over again.