Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Part I Operations within Organisations – Building Blocks
- 1 What is Operations Management and Why is it Important?
- 2 Operating System Models
- 3 Key Decisions in OM
- 4 Planning and Controlling the Use of Operating Assets and Resources
- Part II Approaches to Understanding OM
- Part III Moving Forward with OM – Creating Competitive Advantage
- Part IV Challenges and Opportunities in Operations
- Part V Case Studies
- Index
- References
3 - Key Decisions in OM
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Part I Operations within Organisations – Building Blocks
- 1 What is Operations Management and Why is it Important?
- 2 Operating System Models
- 3 Key Decisions in OM
- 4 Planning and Controlling the Use of Operating Assets and Resources
- Part II Approaches to Understanding OM
- Part III Moving Forward with OM – Creating Competitive Advantage
- Part IV Challenges and Opportunities in Operations
- Part V Case Studies
- Index
- References
Summary
Learning objectives
After reading this chapter you will:
become familiar with the key decisions that affect operating systems.
understand the factors affecting the decision of organisations to ‘make’ or ‘buy’ parts of their requirements, and how these then relate to decisions to outsource these
understand the types and nature of decisions that are involved when making demand forecasts
appreciate the factors driving facility location decisions made in order to maximise operating and business effectiveness
understand how capacity is planned, built, offered and executed in order to deliver relevant operations and business goals
understand the connections between these key decisions, other aspects of the organisation, and the performance impacts of these, in a variety of industries.
Box 3.1: Management challenge: new Woolworths distribution centre
Woolworths has recently invested in a very large distribution centre near Minchinbury in New South Wales, just near Sydney, through which it will receive, distribute and ‘move to store’ over 300,000 cases per day of many of its 20,000 items that it sells in some 700 stores. What happens at this distribution centre? In essence, thousands of pallets of groceries are delivered daily by dozens of large trucks from hundreds of suppliers, which must be stored (for as little time as possible), and sent in the right volumes in a timely manner to the stores that require them, in order to meet the demands of those stores' customers. […]
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- Information
- Operations ManagementAn Integrated Approach, pp. 64 - 89Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008