Learn Operations Management, Resources & Workflow Layout

Explore capacity management and capacity planning as they align an organization's resource pool with demand, using aggregate totals and budgeted output to address demand variations.

Learn the concept of capacity in operations management as the maximum output a facility can achieve over time, and differentiate strategic long-term capacity decisions from tactical short-term ones with examples.

Measure capacity through output and input methods, using car production and custom tailoring as examples, and calculate utilization as average output rate divided by maximum capacity times 100 percent.

Clarify capacity building for nonprofits by strengthening capabilities, knowledge, and resources to fulfill the mission. Pursue strategic planning, technology upgrades, operational improvements, and board development to enhance governance and results.

Plan capacity by setting the facility's output rate to meet demand and avoid shortages or idle capacity; use forecasting to manage risk and long-term commitments.

Discover how capacity lacks a single definition and can be measured by organizations using input or output measures, illustrated by pies per day and available capacity and effectiveness of use.

Learn how capacity utilization measures how much of a facility's potential output is used, using design and effective capacity. High utilization increases costs and inflation risk.

Plan capacity utilization to maximize profit by aligning production with market demand and deciding when to expand, guided by the business cycle's expansion, peak, contraction, and trough.

Analyze peak and trough patterns to optimize capacity utilization and profitability. Learn how price adjustments and production smoothing reduce costs and protect product quality.

Boost capacity utilization by increasing demand through promotions, price cuts, or market repositioning, or launching new products, while recognizing temporary versus long-term shortfalls and possible rationalizing decisions.

Explore how workflows orchestrate processes, resources, and interactions to boost efficiency, tracing evolution from manual tasks to information technology automated routines, and distinguishing material, information, and business processes.

Learn how organizations reengineer business processes and information processes to boost customer satisfaction, efficiency, quality, and cost reduction, through workflow management and automation.

Clarify what a workflow is and what a workflow management system should provide, showing that workflows can be business processes, process specifications, or software that coordinates and automates tasks.

Explore workflow characteristics, including case-based, make-to-order processes with discrete, singular cases triggered by an order, where each case yields a unique workflow execution and may end without a product.

Explore common characteristics alongside workflow traits, highlighting administrative and informational operations that drive case-specific processing. See how information drives steps and decisions in make-to-order workflows, such as construction permit requests.

Explore workflow and logistic management as a made-to-order process, detailing stock design, geographical and logical location, stock levels, replenishment speed, decoupling points, and receipt, assemble, and dispatch as separate workflows.

Measure dfat, delivered in full and on time, from order to delivery, reflecting customer perspective. Compute the score by dividing delivered orders, lines, and units by the total.

Track every delivery from placement to customer using an order tracking system or partner data, and supplement with surveys to measure DFAT continuously.

Evaluate data collection costs and effort based on existing order tracking, and understand batch processing benefits for end-of-cycle tasks like reports and payroll.

Navigate short-term planning and control to meet estimated demand amid unstable market conditions. Compare make-to-stock, make-to-order, and resource-to-order policies and review operations control tasks like loading, capacity, sequencing, and scheduling.

Explore sequencing and despatching by applying priority rules: earliest due date, first come, first served, shortest processing time, and longest processing time—to optimize job flow and balance waiting times.

Produce a detailed timetable to start and finish activities, balancing jobs and customers to meet target dates, guiding staff deployment by manpower planning policies.

Explore the Gantt chart as a visual schedule, covering flow chart and progress chart variants, forward scheduling that starts now, backward scheduling that targets the due date, and slack.

Monitor workflow with input and output control, plan capacity, and schedule and sequence jobs using local and global priority rules like critical ratio and slack.

Schedule service operations by aligning demand, capacity, and workforce; manage variability and limited inventories; apply the theory of constraints to identify bottlenecks and buffers in work in progress.

Plan and control resource allocation across a simple process to boost efficiency and meet customer demand. Schedule raw materials, labor, maintenance, and handoff to finished goods or next process.

Explore material requirements planning (MRP) and manufacturing resource planning, comparing ERP as a company-wide integration of inventory, capacity, and finance, with scheduling and lead times for motor vehicle parts.

Learn how human resource planning informs process selection and hiring. Match special labor skills to intermittent versus continuous operations and manage capacity with peak staffing, on-call, seasonal, or temporary workers.

Learn how shift work enables 24/7 operations using fixed and rotating shift systems, including continuous patterns, while labor agreements and legal requirements govern hours, days off, and staffing.

Regulate shift work through collective agreements and working-time laws, including limits, averaging hours, overtime, and night work, and design shift arrangements to protect safety and health by considering key factors.

Explore work arrangements for twenty four hour operations, emphasizing staff rotation, shift patterns, early/late/night shifts, rest breaks, and a safe, well-lit work environment.

Learn how sustainable operations and quality management integrate health and safety, the triple bottom line, and supply chain considerations to design safe, efficient work systems.

Understand workplace health and safety laws, identify hazards, assess risk, and apply reasonably practicable controls to prevent injury, illness, and costs.

Identify hazards, assess risks, understand harm severity and likelihood, and implement the most effective, reasonably practicable controls to eliminate or minimize health and safety risks; review and improve continuously.

Identify who should be covered by risk management to protect workers and customers, focusing on vulnerable groups like contractors, new or young workers, and people with low literacy or disabilities.

Apply the hierarchy of controls to manage risks, elimination and substitution, then isolation and engineering controls. If risks remain, implement administrative controls and PPE, using combination of controls as needed.

Learn how environmental sustainability guides responsible decisions to protect natural systems and support human life, reducing a business's long-term environmental impact from development to disposal.

Advance sustainable operations management by balancing long-term viability with environmental and social impact, aligning with stakeholder expectations and policy pressures, and promoting multidisciplinary research to improve efficiency.

Illustrate how quality evolves with changing customer expectations, embrace total quality management and continuous improvement, and measure quality via variables, attributes, and the cost of quality.

Learn how total quality management defines quality as a marketing-based concept, focuses on satisfying customer expectations across the supply network, and follows ISO 9000 for quality systems.

Explore TQM strategies for improving operations, emphasizing continuous improvement and Kaizen, the PDCA cycle, breakthrough improvement, business process reengineering, and Six Sigma concepts of variation and standard deviations.

Plan, direct, and control resources in operations management to deliver temporary, unique project outcomes on time and within cost, while managing startup, closeout, and organizational context for continuous improvement.

Operations management focuses on work processes, continuous improvement, and organizational culture to enhance products and reduce costs, while project management organizes, executes, and staffs projects for competitive advantage.

Lead project success by mastering leadership and operational management skills, including communication, team building, planning, expediting, motivating, and political sensitivity, while adapting to change and coordinating diverse teams.

Manage a project through six phases to create clarity and streamlined administration. Lead a diverse team, adapt goals, and monitor time, budget, quality, organization, and information to prevent overruns.

Cadbury integrates manufacturing, marketing, and distribution across 200 countries using batch production, strong brands, and smart IT, supported by R&D and regional growth through acquisitions and packaging innovations.