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Business Operations Management Research

What are the roles of an Operations Manager in addressing the major aspects of quality?

OperationsManager.com (2010) explain the roles of an operations manager to “ensures smooth operation of various processes that contribute to the production of goods and services of an organization”. The following tasks, centred on managing the quality of the service the organisation is providing, are those that are required of an Operations Manager:

  • Ensuring that the tools used to produce goods and/or services are acceptable and are capable of delivering the required quality of service that is acceptable.
  • Liaising with the Quality Assurance personnel to maintain positive feedback on the quality of the produced service or goods from the clients.
  • Assuring that quality tools and equipment are bought/maintained according with the allocated budgets.
  • Managing the support services of the organisation to ensure the most efficient management of support. For example; making sure high quality servers are purchased to store large amounts of confidential data in the most secure manner.
  • Management of any third party relationships the organisation has. Making sure that the agreements with the third parties are sound and that the third parties are performing their duties to the quality expected, as well as keeping to the required procedure standards of the organisation to maintain the highest quality possible.

The Open University (n.d.) explains that “decision making is a central role of all operations managers”. The decisions that the operations manager are involved in are in the design, management and improvement of the operations of the organisation; all of these are directly related to the quality of the service or goods that the organisation provide. If the ops manager makes a poor decision on improving services – the quality that was attained prior to improvements could fall and potentially drive away potential and existing customers, the same goes for the design of a new product/service. If the management of operations are lacking then this could also result in poor service delivery (lower quality).

Heizer & Render (2009) explain the importance of forecasting by the use of forecasting metrics. An operations manager may use the forecasting tools to predict future patterns in service delivery requirements by using trend projections based on historical data (Heizer & Render, 2009). With these forecasting models the operations manager can pre-empt quiet or busy periods (for example: shopping spikes during Christmas holidays) thus ensuring the required resources are available to cope with the demand or lack thereof while maintaining a profitable operation.  Heizer & Render (2009) also point out that these forecast methodologies are not perfect and should always be monitored and maintained according with “new” historical data.

In summary and conclusion the roles that an operations manager play in addressing the major aspects of quality is comparable with their job function as a whole; they must ensure processes are kept to the required quality for the organisation while maintaining a profitable and manageable operation.

References

Heizer, J. & Render, B. (2009) Operations Management. Ninth Edition. Prentice Hall: New Jersey.

OperationsManager.com (2010) Operations Manager job description: daily tasks, roles, duties and responsibilities [Online]. Available from: http://www.operationsmanager.com/operations-manager-roles-in-the-company/jobs-roles-duties-and-responsibilities/ (Accessed: 21 May 2011).

The Open University (n.d.) The role of the operations manager [Online]. Available from: http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=397333&section=2.3 (Accessed: 21 May 2011).