Management of Strategic Operations

Management of operations in a business setting relates to the control of activities or procedures that facilitate the production and delivery of goods and services (Greasley 2007, p. 12). It is a function that is found in every organization since every organization engages in the production of some goods or services.Advertising We will write a custom assessment sample on Management of Strategic Operations specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Operations management influences the cost of production and the quality of products. Thus businesses must focus on effective operations management strategies in order to improve their competitiveness. This paper will focuses on the concept of strategic operations management by analyzing Coca-Cola Company and its product, coca-coal soft drink. Product Profile Volume Volume relates to the quantity of a product that is produced and sold by the company (Greasley 2007, p. 86). The production volume at Coca-Cola is high since millions of its products are produced and sold per day. This is based on the fact that the company serves the global market and thus it has to produce very many units in order to meet the high demand (Coca-Cola 2011). The implications of this characteristic on production include repetition and systematization of procedures in order to improve efficiency. Besides, the firm focuses on capital intensive production in order to increase output. The high volume has resulted into low cost per unit. Variety Variety refers to the various types of products that are manufactured by the company (Greasley 2007, p. 89). The firm produces a wide variety of soft drinks. As at 30/12/2010, the company had a product portfolio of over 2000 different types of soft drinks. Thus it has a high level of product variety (Coca-Cola 2011). This has impacted on the production operations in two ways. First, the company uses a flexible system in order to take the needs of the customers int o consideration during product development. Second, the production process has become very complex as new products are introduced. Variety in Demand Coca-Cola’s products have a high variation in demand (Coca-Cola 2011). This is because the consumption of soft drinks is affected by weather or seasons. For example, the sales are usually high during summer and holiday seasons. However, the sales usually fall during the winter. The implications of this trend on production are as follows.Advertising Looking for assessment on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More First, the company has adopted a flexible production capacity in order to respond appropriately to changes in demand. Second, the firm is always in touch with the market in order to understand the changes in demand (Coca-Cola 2011). Finally, it has led to an increase in costs per unit as the company adjusts its capacity in response to changes in demand . Visibility Visibility refers to the degree to which the customers can follow their orders from the time the orders are placed up to the time when the goods are delivered (Stevenson 2008, p. 45). The visibility of Coca-Cola’s products is high. This is because they are usually delivered within the shortest time possible through an efficient distribution system (Coca-Cola 2011). The main impact of the high visibility is a focus on customers’ needs as the basis for evaluating satisfaction. Activities Undertaken in Order to Display the Operational Characteristics A high product variety has been sustained through research and development that enables the firm to develop new products. The firm has invested in modern communication and information technology in order to reduce the order processing time. This has enabled the firm to maintain high product visibility. In order to maintain a high production volume, the company has embarked on automating most of the production and delivery activities (Coca-Cola 2011). This involves the use of machines in various stages of production in order to increase output. The workers are also being trained regularly in order to improve their competence. This results into high productivity. During the low demand seasons, the firm usually embarks on intensive sales campaign and promotional activities. This indicates the high level of variation in the products’ demand. Attempts to Change the 4Vs First, the firm is implementing its expansion plan by establishing new production plants especially in the overseas markets. This is meant to increase productivity (volume) of the company. Second, the firm has launched its e-marketing website in order to strengthen its relationship with customers (Johnston 2009, vol. 29, pp. 564-587).Advertising We will write a custom assessment sample on Management of Strategic Operations specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This enables it to increase the variety of its products by incorporating the customers’ suggestions in product development. Finally, the company is focusing on improving the quality of the drinks by controlling the calorie levels (Coca-Cola 2011). This aims at making the products a necessity that can be consumed in all seasons. This strategy aims at reducing the high level of variation in the products’ demand. Conclusion The above assessment shows that management of operations has a direct impact on the cost of production and profits (Stevenson 2008, p. 67). Coca-Cola has been successful in the market since it has a high product visibility, volume and variety. However, the variation in the demand for its products is high and this has a negative effect on its profits since the sales usually decline during the low demand periods. References Coca-Cola 2011, Products, https://www.coca-cola.com/. Greasley, A 2007, Operations management, SAGE, New York. Johnston, R 2009, ‘Establishin g and developing strategic relationship: the role of operations manager’, International Journal of Operations and Product Management, vol. 29, no. 6, pp. 654-587. Stevenson, W 2008, Operations management, McGraw-Hill, New York. This assessment on Management of Strategic Operations was written and submitted by user The Hunter to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Understanding Society Through Cultural Artifacts

Understanding Society Through Cultural Artifacts Researchers can learn a great deal about a society by analyzing cultural artifacts such as newspapers, magazines, television programs, or music. These cultural artifacts, which can also be considered aspects of material culture, can reveal a great deal about the society that produced them. Sociologists call the study of these cultural artifacts content analysis. Researchers who use content analysis are not studying the people, but rather are studying the communications the people produce as a way of creating a picture of their society. Key Takeaways: Content Analysis In content analysis, researchers examine a societys cultural artifacts in order to understand that society.Cultural artifacts are the aspects of material culture produced by a society, such as books, magazines, televisions shows, and movies.Content analysis is limited by the fact that it can only tell us what content a culture has produced, not how members of the society actually feel about those artifacts. Content analysis is frequently used to measure cultural change and to study different aspects of culture. Sociologists also use it as an indirect way to determine how social groups are perceived. For example, they might examine how African Americans are depicted in television shows or how women are depicted in advertisements. Content analysis can uncover evidence of racism and sexism in society. For example, in one study, researchers looked at the representation of female characters in 700 different films. They found that only about 30% of characters with a speaking role were female, which demonstrates a lack of representation of female characters. The study also found that people of color and LGBT individuals were underrepresented in film. In other words, by collecting data from cultural artifacts, researchers were able to determine the extent of the diversity problem in Hollywood. In conducting a content analysis, researchers quantify and analyze the presence, meanings, and relationships of words and concepts within the cultural artifacts they are studying. They then make inferences about the messages within the artifacts and about the culture they are studying. At its most basic, content analysis is a statistical exercise that involves categorizing some aspect of behavior and counting the number of times such behavior occurs. For example, a researcher might count the number of minutes that men and women appear on screen in a television show and make comparisons. This allows us to paint a picture of the patterns of behavior that underlie social interactions portrayed in the media. Strengths of Using Content Analysis Content analysis has several strengths as a research method. First, it is a great method because it is unobtrusive. That is, it has no effect on the person being studied since the cultural artifact has already been produced. Second, it is relatively easy to gain access to the media source or publication the researcher wishes to study. Rather than trying to recruit research participants to fill out questionnaires, the researcher can use cultural artifacts that have already been created. Finally, content analysis can present an objective account of events, themes, and issues that might not be immediately apparent to a reader, viewer, or general consumer. By conducting a quantitative analysis of a large number of cultural artifacts, researchers can uncover patterns that might not be noticeable from looking at only one or two examples of cultural artifacts. Weaknesses of Using Content Analysis Content analysis also has several weaknesses as a research method. First, it is limited in what it can study. Since it is based only on mass communication – either visual, oral, or written – it cannot tell us what people really think about these images or whether they affect people’s behavior. Second, content analysis may not be as objective as it claims since the researcher must select and record data accurately. In some cases, the researcher must make choices about how to interpret or categorize particular forms of behavior and other researchers may interpret it differently. A final weakness of content analysis is that it can be time consuming, as researchers need to sort through large numbers of cultural artifacts in order to draw conclusions. References Andersen, M.L. and Taylor, H.F. (2009). Sociology: The Essentials. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.

An Analysis of Letter from a Birmingham Jail

A letter from Birmingham Prison was written by Dr. Martin Luther King in April 1963. As the title says, he is sitting in a prison in Birmingham, Alabama. King was sentenced for isolation in public places such as lunch counters and public toilets and sentenced for involvement in peaceful protest action (Berkley, 2003). When he was sentenced to prison, Mr. Kim protested against the White Ministers who believed that this was wise and obsolete demo guided by outsider guidance as partial demonstration. read. . The rhetorical analysis of Letters from Birmingham Prison, Letters from Birmingham Prison (Martin Luther King) is a letter to the king who wrote a letter to Priest in response to his recent criticisms. At that time I was leading Birmingham. This letter was written in April 1963. At that time, isolation was basically the peak in the south. In particular, Birmingham was said by the king probably the most isolated city in America ​​(King 7). Kim continues to inform the pr iests about reality, and waiting is no longer an option. In that letter, Kim uses various rhetoric methods. Dr. Martin Luther King, who rhetorically analyzed the letter from Birmingham Prison in Letters from Birmingham Prison said eight articles of clergy explaining Birmingham's racial injustice and money issues I answered. The reason for the organization is to protest against civil rights. He introduced himself and his behavior at the beginning of the letter. He stated that his direct action protest action was aimed at opening the door to the letter from Birmingham Prison. The letter explains the controversy that occurred when the clergy criticized Luther as it entered Birmingham. Luther King Jr wrote a letter to clergy, suggesting that racial discrimination is managed by a legal administrator and is not hindered by King and his team, outsiders. This letter was published by the American educational program

Social Value in Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Social Value in Business - Essay Example This paper outlines that the inferior methods and materials used for such huge promotion of goods turned the earth to a miserable planet, whereby leading the corporate sector to a disastrous future of unsettlement of business and accumulating loss of venture capital. In such a scenario, the concept of Social Value has to take the rein of the ethical chariot of global business. From this paper it is clear that companies now promote their classic style of involvement in socially oriented activities for their sustainability. Business giants across the globe now have identified that the core purpose of their work is not yet limited to making profit but also marginally focusing on the development of the human community. The new logical approach to business has paved the way for the introduction of many new schools of business thought; most basically, the two principles like corporate social responsibility (CSR) and creating social value (CSV) have been framed for the better approach of corporate entrepreneurs towards the society. While the CSR is a mandatory part of large organization under the guidelines of the government; Social Value creation is their intellectual investment in the long term profitability and sustainable growth of business. Under this new ethical mechanism, corporate structures have identified that creative approach to the promotion of a hea lthy social environment rewards them in the long-run with more popularity of the products and extended faith of stakeholders in every organization. Large companies like Coca-Cola and Dove Chemicals have already cut down their annual water consumption. Motor vehicle giants are on the run for fuel efficiency and lower levels of carbon emission. Johnson and Johnson has promoted improved healthcare policies and healthy time shift allocation to its employees for the assurance of a better and delivering workforce by minimizing the cost of hospital bills and post treatment.

Desmond Morris reaction Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Desmond Morris reaction - Essay Example The territorial space was most interesting to me because I have noticed that people make a fairly wide combination of affiliations depending upon the circumstances. For instance, not everyone in my group of flats has the same political affiliations, but we are all neighbors and form a solid group whenever anything unfamiliar enters the neighborhood. At the same time that we identify ourselves as residents at this place, we also identify ourselves as students at the same school, workers at the same place, ‘workers’ or ‘students’, members of particular political parties and members of different and usually much smaller social groups and clubs. When our group of flats gets together for community events, we present a solid group to the outside, but inside, we are organized and divided according to some of these other affiliations. While I had always assumed this affiliation process was a natural process of sorting according to individual personality types, I had n’t considered how we established these associations so quickly within the group setting. Morris’ explanation into the various visual clues we provide in our daily interactions as he came down to the familial level began to make this clear. For example, I suddenly realized that no matter which door in the complex I come to, I can usually tell which resident lives there by the way they have customized their entrance area, which is otherwise identical to everyone else’s entrance area.

Slaughterhouse Five Essay -- essays research papers

Slaughterhouse-Five   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Critics often suggest that Kurt Vonnegut's novels represent a man's desperate, yet, futile search for meaning in a senseless existence. Vonnegut's novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, displays this theme. Kurt Vonnegut uses a narrator, which is different from the main character. He uses this technique for several reasons.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Kurt Vonnegut introduces Slaughterhouse Five in the first person. In the second chapter, however, this narrator changes to a mere bystander. Vonnegut does this for a specific reason. He wants the reader to realize that the narrator and Billy Pilgrim, the main character, are two different people. In order to do this, Vonnegut places the narrator in the text, on several occasions. 'An American near Billy wailed that [Billy] had excreted everything but his brains...That was I. That was me.'; This statement clearly illustrates that the narrator and Billy are not the same person. The narrator was the American disgusted by Billy. Vonnegut places the narrator in the novel in subtle ways. While describing the German prisoner trains, he merely states, 'I was there.'; By not referring to Billy as I, Billy is immediately an individual person. I is the narrator, while Billy is Billy. Their single connection is that they were both in the war.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Kurt Vonnegut places his experiences and his views in the text. He begins the book by stating, 'All this happened, more or less...

Response to Virginia Woolf Essay

Virginia Woolf spent many of her childhood summers in a seaside village in Cornwall, England. In an excerpt from her memoirs from her childhood summers, Woolf reminisces on fishing trips with her father and her brother. Woolf utilizes language in order to convey the lasting significance by using punctuation, diction, and choppy phrases Woolf uses punctuation in several different ways, but she was especially effective at using it to convey her enthusiasm. Near the end of the first paragraph, Woolf talks about how she felt when catching a fish â€Å"†¦and then-how can I convey the excitement?- there was a little leaping tug†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Here, in just this sentence alone, Woolf conveys her excitement and enthusiasm by using punctuation. â€Å"†¦ how can I convey the excitement?†¦Ã¢â‚¬  This phrase appears in the middle of two other little phrases, almost like she’s taking a little break to try and collect her thoughts in order for the reader to understand them. Had she not taken this little moment to sort herself out, her words may have ended up jumbled and not well put together. This makes her seem so enthusiastic, that she has to take a break in order to calm herself back down. Virginia Woolf uses diction to help create a lasting significance. For instance, near the beginning of the essay, Woolf talks about how once when they were out fishing/ sailing, her brother, Thoby got to steer them home. â€Å"But once Thobby was allowed to steer us home†¦And Thobby took the fisherman’s place; and steered; flushed and with his blue eyes very blue, and his mouth set, he sat there bringing us to there, bringing us round the point, into the harbor, without letting the sail flag.† (paragraph 1). Notice the use of the word â€Å"flushed†. â€Å"†¦flushed and with his blue eyes very blue†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Woolf could have used a word such as â€Å"blushing† or even â€Å"rosy†, but she chose flushed because by definition flushed refers to turning red, by either being embarrassed, an illness, or by a strong emotion. Her brother was flushed because he was nervous to steer the boat home and this stood out in her mind. Although â€Å"blushing† and â€Å"rosy† are synonyms for the word â€Å"flushed†, neither one of them would have given you as strong of detail nor help create the lasting significance that â€Å"flushed† did. Finally, Woolf uses choppy, or short, phrases to help convey this lasting significance. The most obvious comes after they, her brother, father, and herself, had caught the fish. â€Å"†¦ there was a little leaping tug; than another; up one hauled; up through the water at length came white twisting fish; and was slapped on the floor.† Much like the punctuation, these short and choppy phrases create that fast paced allusion of being excited– like a little kid at Christmas. Woolf was obviously thrilled at the experience of fishing and had thoroughly enjoyed it and to help convey that, she used these little phrases. Throughout the essay Woolf used many different types of language to convey a lasting significance. All in all, these three uses of language- punctuation, diction, and choppy phrases- Woolf had used the most to talk about her summer’s spent in Cornwall, England.