Production and Operations Management Process

Question: Discuss about the Production and Operations Management Process. Answer: Introduction: Production and Operations Management deals with the process that converts inputs into desired outputs, thereby, maintaining other organizational objectives. The primary concern is to convert the resources efficiently and more into outputs. The activities that are associated with production and operations management are the location of facilities, tactics to handle materials and handling of the organization, product and process design, production and planning control, quality control, materials management and maintenance(Cadenillas, Lakner Pinedo , 2013). In this essay, a case study is analyzed based on Hawkesbury Cabinets Pty Ltd. It is a company that deals in manufacturing custom built kitchen cabinetry. The issues related to the operational aspects of the organization would customize into consideration. Hawkesbury Cabinets Pty Ltd was founded in Mulgrave, Sydney in 2008, by siblings Fung and Mei Chen. Both of them handles their aspects, where initially Fung was the master of cabinet making and Mei, who was an interior designer, helped customers to design their customized kitchen module. With the diversification of the demand of customers and rise in the reputation of the company, Fung played the role of production and operations manager whereas, Mei found an interest in the financial and overall management. Both the owners were now busy with their managerial duties. Hawkesbury cabinets were focussed on creating a customized kitchen for their customers. Mei uses to design the kitchen as per the client's needs. The fulfillment of the client's needs and the value of their demand helped the company to raise their reputation. This popularity of the company helped to gain new orders. The sales had increased, and increment could be noticed in the revenue and profits of the enterprise. Several low volume contracts, such as particular standardized kitchen cabinetry, were also ordered. These orders required a limited range of kitchen cabinets in small batches of one to five. These orders were price sensitive than the customized kitchen. Though the main demand was of customized kitchens, yet the demand for standard kitchen cabinets was growing thereby resulting at a 40 % of factory volume and 25% of the revenue generated. Hawkesbury cabinets had only one manufacturing house, where both the kinds of kitchens were made. The production process needs different raw materials and equipment. Cabinet making required lots of equipment that would be used to implement in the manufacturing of the product. These types of equipment were settled in different pairs and sections to avoid complexities at the workplace. The quality of the goods of the company was highly esteemed by its customers. It helped the company to attract new orders for both standardized and customized sections. There had been a noticeable increase in the demand for standardizes cabinets. As priorities were given to customized kitchens because of higher sales and profits, therefore, the process of manufacturing the standard kitchens was left incomplete some stages. Completion was done only after the customized orders were fulfilled. This led to a delay in the delivery of the standard kitchen cabinets. The increase of the amount of work in progress orders resulted in a clogged up manufacturing area. One of the main issue, that was seen in facilitating the production of standard kitchen cabinets, was that the costs incurred in the process and raw materials of such kitchens were increasing. To overcome such costs, the nearby warehouse was being rented. This led the owners of the firm to rethink over the management plans of the business as delay n delivery of the products, increase in the cost of production and unavailability of manufacturing area, could lead into loosing the reputation that has been gained earlier(Singhal Singhal, 2012). According to Dekker, Bloemhof, Mallidis (2012), one of the basic problems of the company is that it had taken too many orders without analyzing its capacity to fulfill them. To achieve the profit motive, accepting standard kitchen orders from builders led to more costs than profits. When the company has a prioritized product, it must put its necessary focus on that product. This would help the company to overcome the burden of work in progress issues. Secondly, there is only one manufacturing workhouse. This causes a reduction in efficiency of the work progress. With an increase in the number of orders to be fulfilled, there is a need of a spacious working area, where there is no overburden or distractions to be faced while manufacturing goods. There is an increase in demand for inventories and equipment that has to be used to implement the process of producing the goods. This growing demand for inventories leads to an excess cost of production. Fulfilling the costs leads the compan y to rent a part of its working space. There is a lack of organizing the business, where owners have taken the responsibility of playing different roles (Zhang, Linderman Schroeder,2012). There is no sectional division at a workplace where some workers should only focus on making standard kitchen cabinets whereas, some focus on manufacturing customized kitchen. There is a lack of the monitoring of the work. Hence, the people come in each other's way and reduce the efficiency of the system (Subramanian, Ramanathan,2012). Delays in delivery take its toll as a reason of being unable to complete the work on time. This problem may result in gaining bad remark for the company. Standard builders kitchen needs costly raw materials. The cost of buying such materials rises above the profits. With the increase in the production of the standard kitchen, the company is unable to meet the expenses. No revenue management analyses the cost of production before taking up orders (Seuring, 2013). With this way of proceeding, the company would be in deficit. With the increase in demand for the standard kitchen, there is no layout which would help the company to overcome its cost issues. Finally, it may be concluded that there is an urgent need to look at the production and operational issues that are present in Hawkesbury Cabinets Pty Ltd. The issues can be summarised as inefficiency in carrying out the manufacturing process and unable to meet the increased demands, lack of planning of a cost efficient methods of producing standard cabinets in the company that leads to greater cost of production, increment in demand for both customized and standard kitchen cabinets clogs the work area. Hawkesbury Cabinets Pty Ltd has been able to gain a good position in the society by supplying good quality and esteemed products to its customers. Maintaining such a reputation in the company should be one of the basic motives along with gaining high profits in business. An efficient management leads to a successful organization (Chen, Delmas Lieberman , 2015). Reference Cadenillas, A., Lakner, P., Pinedo, M. (2013). Optimal production management when demand depends on the business cycle.Operations Research,61(4), 1046-1062. Chen, C. M., Delmas, M. A., Lieberman, M. B. (2015). 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