Bus 210 Ops and Material Management

Operations and Material Management

Bryan Reichner

BUS/210 FOUNDATIONS OF BUSINESS

September 13, 2013

Allen Barton

The operations and material management process is important to a business. The operations aspect of business is the activities of using the company’s inputs to create finished goods and services. An example of the operation aspect of business is when employees are working on an assembly line to create a toy. The materials management aspect of business can be defined as the controlling of resources that either arrive or leave the operating system, such as inventory of raw materials, and deliveries of products and services. The amount of value that is received from operations and material management happens in three stages; input, operations, and output. The operations and materials management stage is all about supply and demand, and how well the company utilizes it resources to supply the demand. The value increases when a company can develop operating processes that can ultimately produce products that highly satisfy the customers. When the company profits from selling its goods and services, it uses its capital to improve the operations and material management. After improvements are made, or new raw materials are found and purchased, the value-creation methods begin again. The important factor that business owners must remember is that with new invested inputs comes the waiting for the eventual breakeven, or profit point. To gain a competitive advantage, companies must follow four guidelines; produce superior products, quality, innovation, and responsiveness to customers. Companies that gain a competitive advantage by increasing productivity can be exemplified by a sandwich shop that decides to invest in using pre-sliced meats instead of cutting the meat themselves. This would decrease operating costs, plus gain more business by sandwiches being made quicker.

TQM, or Total Quality Management, can be used to improve operational...