Research Paper on "Work Standards Are the Foundation of Capacity"

Research Paper 9 pages (3347 words) Sources: 4

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Work standards are the foundation of capacity and production planning. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Defend your response

Work standards are essential for capacity and production planning, as they serve many critical functions in the definition of production constraints, quality management levels and services objective in a manufacturing or service environment. The essential concepts within work standards enable variance analysis and the adoption of Six Sigma strategies for ensuring consistency of production levels and production quality (Jacobs, Chase, 2010). In addition, work standards are essential for determining Economic order Quantities (EOQ) from suppliers and critical for the management of a multi-stage and multi-layer supply chain (Nagar, Jain, 2008).

In industries that have very high levels of inventory turns and the requirement of continual cost reduction while increasing product complexity, work standards are at the center of their business models. Example of industries that fit this profile is high tech and semiconductor manufacturing, where inventory turns, the pace of innovation and cost reductions are the basis of competition (Ng, Sun, Fowler, 2010). Work standards in this industry act as an accelerator, bringing greater clarity, predictability and cost control to the entire production process. In more mature industries, work standards are just as critical for capacity and production planning, as the fill rates for each production run need to be defined and adhered to ensure a high level of manufacturing performance (Sobel, 2004). In conclusion, work standards are the basis on which companies evaluate the effectiveness of their processes, programs and manufacturing workflows over time. Work standards are what enable companies to find areas for improvement in their supply chain performance as well. All of these factors contribute to the value of work standards being instrumental in any company staying competitive over time.

Question 1 References

Jacobs, Robert, & Chase, Richard. (2010). Operations and Supply Chain Management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: McGraw Hill Higher Education. 13th Edition.

Lokesh Nagar, & Karuna Jain. (2008). Supply chain planning using multi-stage stochastic programming. Supply Chain Management, 13(3), 251-256.

Ng, T., Sun, Y., & Fowler, J.. (2010). Semiconductor lot allocation using robust optimization. European Journal of Operational Research, 205(3), 557.

Matthew J. Sobel. (2004). Fill Rates of Single-Stage and Multistage Supply Systems. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 6(1), 41-52.

2. Describe how Operations Supply Chain Management (OSCM) provides a systematic means of observing organizational processes

The greatest competitive strength many organizations have are their supply chains, as this collection of processes, strategies and systems enable them to be responsive to customers, reduce costs and stay competitive (Jacobs, Chase, 2010). Consider how critical the intersection of information technologies (IT) and Operations Supply Chain Management (OSCM) is in the managing of a multi-layer, global supply chain, and how the data, information and knowledge generated affects every area of the organization. The OSCM of any organization, whether the final deliverable is a product or service, affects every functional and process-related area of an organization. In addition, the accuracy, speed of data delivery and ability of an organization to integrate the insights gained from an effective OSCM strategy have direct implications on total quality management, enterprise quality and compliance management and continual improvement of production operations (Kannan, Tan, 2005). From this perspective the OSCM is a catalyst of competitive strength for any organization, because it not only delivers insights and intelligence on the firms' performance, it provides the essential process areas needed to serve and win customers through responsiveness and accuracy of fulfilled orders (Zhang, Dhaliwal, 2009). In addition to all these factors, the focus on sustainability and reverse logistics as part of many company's efforts to reduce their carbon footprints and be more environmentally friendly in their production, service and support also make the OSCM a vital part of a company's ecosystem (Linton, Klassen, Jayaraman, 2007). The OSCM then is both a catalyst of competitive strength in addition to a critical synchronization point throughout organizations globally.

Question 2 References

Jacobs, Robert, & Chase, Richard. (2010). Operations and Supply Chain Management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: McGraw Hill Higher Education. 13th Edition.

Jonathan D. Linton, Robert Klassen, & Vaidyanathan Jayaraman. (2007). Sustainable supply chains: An introduction. Journal of Operations Management, 25(6), 1075.

Vijay R. Kannan, & Keah Choon Tan. (2005). Just in time, total quality management, and supply chain management: understanding their linkages and impact on business performance. Omega, 33(2), 153-162.

Zhang, C., & Dhaliwal, J.. (2009). An investigation of resource-based and institutional theoretic factors in technology adoption for operations and supply chain management. International Journal of Production Economics, 120(1), 252.

3. The United States economy cannot support itself solely on its service industry. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Defend your position

I agree with this statement because at the center of this nation's economy are very advanced, highly effective and profitable supply chains that fuel not only our growth but those of many global partners as well. The global economy of the 21st century is interdependent, integrated and requiring greater transaction accuracy and agility than has ever been the case in the past (Jacobs, Chase, 2010). The manufacturing base of North America has actually never been more critical for the continual growth and profitability of industries that determine the financial strength of entire nations. The myth of the service-only economy clouds the fact that manufacturing centers are so interrelated, integrated and financially reliant on each other that the global economy could literally not function without production centers in every major western nation including those in North America (Jansson, 2009).

Rather than a service revolution in the U.S., there is a redefinition and realignment of entire value chains, of which manufacturing is an essential and vital economic element (Wirtz, Ehret, 2009). To state that the U.S. economy is only driven by services is to drastically reduce the innate strength of the country on a global level (Jansson, 2009). Paradoxically the growth of the U.S. software industry has been continually influenced and strengthened by the combining of service and manufacturing value chains across industries (Riain, 2010). The bottom line is that the U.S. manufacturing industry has never been more critical to keep entire value chains of industries with global economic implications synchronized over time.

Question 3 References

Sanjib Chowdhury, & Grant Miles. (2006). Customer-induced uncertainty in predicting organizational design: Empirical evidence challenging the service vs. manufacturing dichotomy. Journal of Business Research, 59(1), 121-129.

Jacobs, Robert, & Chase, Richard. (2010). Operations and Supply Chain Management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: McGraw Hill Higher Education. 13th Edition.

Jansson, J. (2009). The myth of the service economy - An update. Futures, 41(3), 182.

Riain, S. (2010). The Missing Customer and the Ever-Present Market:: Software Developers and the Service Economy. Work and Occupations, 37(3), 320.

Jochen Wirtz, & Michael Ehret. (2009). Creative restruction - how business services drive economic evolution. European Business Review, 21(4), 380-394.

4. Define sustainability and the "triple bottom line," and how they relate to operations and supply chain management.

Sustainability is defined from an organizational standpoint as the series of strategies, systems and processes that seek to unify environmental, economic and social factors in a concerted strategy to minimize the impact on the environment while attaining economic objectives (Hopkins, 2009). The focus on sustainability has grown exponentially over the last decade, as companies as diverse as Herman Miller, one of the world leads on office furniture and systems to Hewlett-Packard, the world's leading producer of computing systems and solutions, have set aggressive goals for their sustainability initiatives (Hopkins, 2009). Both companies are heavily reliant on their supply chains and reverse logistics processes to create greater levels of sustainability and environmental compliance over time. Central to these supply chain efforts to attain higher levels of sustainability is the use of the triple bottom line (Jacobs, Chase, 2010). The triple bottom line is the catalyst of many company's sustainability strategies as it unifies each area of their companies towards a common economic and environmental objective (Clarke, 2001). The triple bottom line as a framework has become essential for the development of entire industry supply chains as it quantifies the impact of logistics functions on the environment (Wang, Lin, 2007). This has especially been the case in the oil industry where the process-centric tasks have immediate and lasting effects on the environment and are therefore critical to sustainability objectives (Hopkins, 2009). In addition, the triple bottom line forces organizations to redesign themselves to be more effective in meeting both environmental and economic objectives over time (Norman, McDonald, 2004).

Question 4 References

Sanjib Chowdhury, & Grant Miles. (2006). Customer-induced uncertainty in predicting organizational design: Empirical evidence challenging the service vs. manufacturing dichotomy. Journal of Business Research, 59(1), 121-129.

Thomas Clarke. (2001). Balancing the triple bottom line: Financial, social and environmental performance. Journal of General Management, 26(4), 16-27.

John Elkington. (1999, December). The triple bottom line: Implications for the oil industry. Oil & Gas Journal, 97(50), 139-141.

Hopkins, M.. (2009). 8 Reasons Sustainability Will Change Management (That You Never Thought of). MIT Sloan Management Review, 51(1), 27-30.

Jacobs, Robert, & Chase, Richard.… READ MORE

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