Explain why Ireland makes a good choice for a new location for a new software development company.
In: Operations Management
Assignment specification — Case Study :IKEA Operations Management
IKEA is the one of the most successful furniture retailer globally. With 276 stores in 36 countries, they have managed to develop their own special way of selling furniture. Their stores’ layout means customers often spend two hours in the store – far longer than in rival furniture retailers. IKEA’s philosophy goes back to the original business, started in the 1950s in Sweden by Ingvar Kamprad. He built a showroom on the outskirts of Stockholm where land was cheap and simply displayed suppliers’ furniture as it would be in a domestic setting. Increasing sales soon allowed IKEA to start ordering its own self-designed products from local manufacturers. But it was innovation in its operations that dramatically reduced its selling costs. These included the idea of selling furniture as self-assembly flat packs, which reduced production and transport costs, and its ‘showroom-warehouse’ concept, which required customers to pick the furniture up them-selves from the warehouse (which reduced retailing costs). Both operating principles are still the basis of IKEA’s retail operations process today.
Stores are designed to facilitate the smooth flow of customers, from parking, moving through the store itself, to ordering and picking up goods. At the entrance to each store large notice boards provide advice to shoppers. For young children, there is a supervised children’s play area, a small cinema, and a parent and baby room so parents can leave their children in the supervised play area for a time. Parents are recalled via the loudspeaker system if the child has any problems. IKEA ‘allow customers to make up their minds in their own time’ but ‘information points’ have staff who can help. All furniture carries a ticket with a code number which indicates its location in the warehouse. (For larger items customers go to the information desks for assistance.) There is also an area where smaller items are displayed, and can be picked directly. Customers then pass through the warehouse where they pick up the items viewed in the showroom. Finally, customers pay at the checkouts, where a ramped conveyor belt moves purchases up to the checkout staff. The exit area has service points, and a loading area that allows customers to bring their cars from the car park and load their purchases. Behind the public face of IKEA’s huge stores is a complex worldwide network of suppliers, 1,300 direct suppliers, about 10,000 sub-suppliers, and wholesale and transport operations, including 26 distribution centres. This supply network is vitally important to IKEA. From purchasing raw materials, right through to finished products arriving in its
customers’ homes, IKEA relies on close partnerships with its suppliers to achieve both ongoing supply efficiency and new product development. However, IKEA closely controls all supply and development activities from IKEA’s hometown of Älmhult in Sweden. But success brings its own problems and some customers became increasingly frustrated with overcrowding and long waiting times. In response IKEA launched a programe ‘designing out’ the bottlenecks. The changes included:
IKEA spokeswoman Nicki Craddock said: ‘We know people love our products but hate our shopping experience. We are being told that by customers every day, so we can’t afford not to make changes. We realized a lot of people took offence at being herded like sheep on the long route around stores. Now if you know what you are looking for and just want to get in, grab it and get out, you can.’ Operations management is a vital part of IKEA’s success IKEA shows how important operations management is for its own success and the success of any type of organization.
Of course, IKEA understands its market and its customers. But, just as important, it knows that the way it manages the network of operations that design, produce and deliver its products and services must be right for its market. No organization can survive in the long term if it cannot supply its customers effectively. And this is essentially what operations management is about – designing, producing and delivering products and services that satisfy market requirements. For any business, it is a vitally important activity. Consider just some of the activities that IKEA’s operations managers are involved in:
‑ Arranging the store’s layout to give a smooth and effective flow of customers (called process design).
‑ Designing stylish products that can be flat-packed efficiently (called product design).
‑ Making sure that all staff can contribute to the company’s success (called job design).
‑ Locating stores of an appropriate size in the most effective place (called supply network design).
‑ Arranging for the delivery of products to stores (called supply chain management).
‑ Coping with fluctuations in demand (called capacity management).
‑ Maintaining cleanliness and safety of storage areas (called failure prevention).
‑ Avoiding running out of products for sale (called inventory management).
‑ Monitoring and enhancing quality of service to customers (called quality management).
‑ Continually examining and improving operations practice (called operations improvement).
And these activities are only a small part of IKEA’s total operations management effort. But they do give an indication, first of how operations management should contribute to the business’s success, and second, what would happen if IKEA’s operations managers failed to be effective in carrying out any of its activities. Yet, although the relative importance of these activities will vary between different organizations, operations managers in all organizations will be making the same type of decision (even if what they decide is different).
Question:
In: Operations Management
The marketing manager for Mountain Mist soda needs to decide how many TV spots and magazine ads to run during the next quarter. Each TV spot costs $6000 and is expected to increase sales by 400,000 cases. Each magazine ad costs $2500 and is expected to increase sales by 500,000 cases. A total of $100,000 may be spent on TV and magazine ads combined. However Mountain mist wants to spend no more than $70,000 on tv spots and no more than $50,000 on magazine ads. Mountain Mist earns a profit of $1.80 on each case of soda that it sells. Set up an Excel sheet for this problem showing the information, variables, objective (hint, you’re maximizing something) and constraints. You do not have to solve it.
In: Operations Management
into intermediate goods and final products, and that deliver those final products to customers.
True False
2. The challenges of the global supply chain include:
3. Describe the bullwhip or whiplash effect in the supply chain. How do you propose
to minimize its impact in your individual project?
4. Forward integration activities are a way for a company to address specific situations
in the supply chain, but also to engage in activities that are substantially different from its core
business. Cite examples of such activities for your individual project.
5. Modularization is a product design approach in which the product is assembled
from a set of standardized constituent units.
True False
6. Explain the reasons for the complexity of the strategic planning for global facilities
network orientation. How do you address those in your individual project?
7.Apply to your individual project the three basic options for a company to focus its
global facility network: market focus, product family focus, process focus.
8. Discuss the interaction between marketing requirements and manufacturing complexity
with regard to your individual project. Relate to question 7. above.
9. One of the ways to exploit global sourcing is by switching among suppliers globally.
True False
10. Why does an operations and logistics manager need to worry about exchange rate
fluctuations? Illustrate with your individual project.
11. The factors a firm needs to consider in assessing its operating exposure to real
exchange rate shocks are:
12. New information technologies integrate globalization by:
In: Operations Management
Assignment specification — Case Study :IKEA Operations Management
IKEA is the one of the most successful furniture retailer globally. With 276 stores in 36 countries, they have managed to develop their own special way of selling furniture. Their stores’ layout means customers often spend two hours in the store – far longer than in rival furniture retailers. IKEA’s philosophy goes back to the original business, started in the 1950s in Sweden by Ingvar Kamprad. He built a showroom on the outskirts of Stockholm where land was cheap and simply displayed suppliers’ furniture as it would be in a domestic setting. Increasing sales soon allowed IKEA to start ordering its own self-designed products from local manufacturers. But it was innovation in its operations that dramatically reduced its selling costs. These included the idea of selling furniture as self-assembly flat packs, which reduced production and transport costs, and its ‘showroom-warehouse’ concept, which required customers to pick the furniture up them-selves from the warehouse (which reduced retailing costs). Both operating principles are still the basis of IKEA’s retail operations process today.
Stores are designed to facilitate the smooth flow of customers, from parking, moving through the store itself, to ordering and picking up goods. At the entrance to each store large notice boards provide advice to shoppers. For young children, there is a supervised children’s play area, a small cinema, and a parent and baby room so parents can leave their children in the supervised play area for a time. Parents are recalled via the loudspeaker system if the child has any problems. IKEA ‘allow customers to make up their minds in their own time’ but ‘information points’ have staff who can help. All furniture carries a ticket with a code number which indicates its location in the warehouse. (For larger items customers go to the information desks for assistance.) There is also an area where smaller items are displayed, and can be picked directly. Customers then pass through the warehouse where they pick up the items viewed in the showroom. Finally, customers pay at the checkouts, where a ramped conveyor belt moves purchases up to the checkout staff. The exit area has service points, and a loading area that allows customers to bring their cars from the car park and load their purchases. Behind the public face of IKEA’s huge stores is a complex worldwide network of suppliers, 1,300 direct suppliers, about 10,000 sub-suppliers, and wholesale and transport operations, including 26 distribution centres. This supply network is vitally important to IKEA. From purchasing raw materials, right through to finished products arriving in its
customers’ homes, IKEA relies on close partnerships with its suppliers to achieve both ongoing supply efficiency and new product development. However, IKEA closely controls all supply and development activities from IKEA’s hometown of Älmhult in Sweden. But success brings its own problems and some customers became increasingly frustrated with overcrowding and long waiting times. In response IKEA launched a programe ‘designing out’ the bottlenecks. The changes included:
IKEA spokeswoman Nicki Craddock said: ‘We know people love our products but hate our shopping experience. We are being told that by customers every day, so we can’t afford not to make changes. We realized a lot of people took offence at being herded like sheep on the long route around stores. Now if you know what you are looking for and just want to get in, grab it and get out, you can.’ Operations management is a vital part of IKEA’s success IKEA shows how important operations management is for its own success and the success of any type of organization.
Of course, IKEA understands its market and its customers. But, just as important, it knows that the way it manages the network of operations that design, produce and deliver its products and services must be right for its market. No organization can survive in the long term if it cannot supply its customers effectively. And this is essentially what operations management is about – designing, producing and delivering products and services that satisfy market requirements. For any business, it is a vitally important activity. Consider just some of the activities that IKEA’s operations managers are involved in:
‑ Arranging the store’s layout to give a smooth and effective flow of customers (called process design).
‑ Designing stylish products that can be flat-packed efficiently (called product design).
‑ Making sure that all staff can contribute to the company’s success (called job design).
‑ Locating stores of an appropriate size in the most effective place (called supply network design).
‑ Arranging for the delivery of products to stores (called supply chain management).
‑ Coping with fluctuations in demand (called capacity management).
‑ Maintaining cleanliness and safety of storage areas (called failure prevention).
‑ Avoiding running out of products for sale (called inventory management).
‑ Monitoring and enhancing quality of service to customers (called quality management).
‑ Continually examining and improving operations practice (called operations improvement).
And these activities are only a small part of IKEA’s total operations management effort. But they do give an indication, first of how operations management should contribute to the business’s success, and second, what would happen if IKEA’s operations managers failed to be effective in carrying out any of its activities. Yet, although the relative importance of these activities will vary between different organizations, operations managers in all organizations will be making the same type of decision (even if what they decide is different).
Questions: Total 20 Marks
In: Operations Management
"this time I want you to discuss what you wish to discuss about ethics and corporate responsibility. This is when you can be creative, analytical, and thoughtful."
I have to do an essay of about 6 to 8 pages no less and no more, I just need some ideas on what can I write about ethics, its teleological approach and its demonological approach, some more about ethics and also about ethics in the corporate responsibility, how companies asomeimes are unethical on with their employees and stuff like that...
please though a bunch of ideas so I can be more creative... the class is business ethics, thanks.
In: Operations Management
Compare and contrast assault and battery.
Vicarious liability is an essential feature of modern tort law. What is it?
Compare and contrast public and private corporations.
What is Bankruptcy? Under what circumstances, a corporation may be declared bankrupt?
Please use your own words to describe the answer
In: Operations Management
Explain why choosing Canada as your new location for a new software development company is a good idea.
In: Operations Management
Animal Rights Law and Politics: What change did the Sierra Club case bring to standing law?
Case: Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 U.S. 727 (1972)
In: Operations Management
PESTLE Analysis for Apple Air Pods to enter Vietnam (As if it hadn't yet)
In: Operations Management
where should the quality control function be placed in an organization
In: Operations Management
Explain why you agree or disagree with the following statements.
If I were to supply my kitchen with fresh food, I can use the fixed-order quantity model because , like most people, I only go to the grocery store when the supply is low and since the number of people who consume the food stays the same, I would purchase the same amount. On the other hand, if I were to obtain a daily newspaper, I would use the fixed- time period model because it would only be a one-time purchase. Lastly, if I were to buy gas for my car, I would use the fixed-order quantity model because it is refilled when or before it hits empty. The usage of the gas varies so the time to refill it also differs.
With so much productive capacity and room for expansion in the United States, a company based in the United States would choose to purchase items from a foreign firm for several reasons. Products from foreign firms are generally more affordable but are of high quality. Labor wages associated with producing these products are much lower in foreign countries than in the United States. Lower costs help the company generate higher revenues. Also, in some countries, laws and regulations are less strict than in the United States.
However, purchasing items from a foreign firm also has disadvantages. Purchasing items from a foreign firm involves higher transportation and tax-related costs. Language barrier and cultural differences are also present in business operations in a foreign market.
In: Operations Management
How might a public manager motivate their employees?
In: Operations Management
Explain why you agree or disagree with the following statement.
Companies in the United States often choose to source items from foreign firms due to cost reasons. Some countries that function as manufacturing hubs have lower wage rates or relaxed working regulations which create cost savings that can be passed on to purchasing companies. Another possible explanation for sourcing items from other companies could be manufacturing efficiency. If a necessary component for a product is manufactured near another component then it may make sense to choose to source the component from that country instead of moving the components around and increasing costs.
In: Operations Management
why is it important that the GAO receive the cooperation of contractors in attempting to make its government audits?
In: Operations Management