PRODUCTION & OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT

PRODUCTION & OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT

It involves a set of activities performed to manage the available resources in an efficient manner in order to convert inputs into desired output. The scope of production management is not limited only to the manufacturing industry but also extends to the service industry as well. Therefore, the term production mgt is also widely popular as operational mgt.
According to Jae K Shim & Joel G Siegel “Production and operational management is the management of all activities directly related to the production of goods and services”.

Functions of Production & Operational Management : The functions of prod & ops mgt can be broadly categorized into three parts.

1. Planning 2. Organizing 3. Controlling

1. Planning: It includes the following functions.

(a) Product Design Development: It deals with drawing product specifications (Size, shape) etc, and making modifications in the existing product or creates new product.
(b) Production Process Selection: It helps in evaluating different process options available to the firm and scaling the best out of them so that the org can produce desired quality and quantity.
(c) Planning Facility Location: It helps in evaluating different possible locations available to the firm and selecting one best out of them. So that the resources can be made available at time.
(d) Planning Facility Layout: It means studying various options in terms of plant and machinery layout that enables smooth flow of resources for smooth production.
(e) Capacity Planning: It deals with the issue of plant size and production volume.
(f) Production Planning: It helps in designing production activities so that desired qty can be produced within the scheduled time.

2. Organizing: It involves the following functions:

(a) Work Study: It is also known as time and motion study that aims at improves the cycle time required for producing a product.
(b) Material mgt: It helps in maintaining the smooth flow of material at right time. So that the delay in production can be averted.
(e) Purchase mgt: It is responsible for making the input material available in time at the right price and in the right quality and quantity.



3. Controlling: It involves the following functions.
(a) Store mgt: It avoids the under & over storage of material, theft and obsolescence of inputs.
(b) Value Analysis: It is concerned with designing the sequence of activities in such a way that these can be performed with minimum cost.
(c) Maintenance mgt: It is concerned with avoiding with the sudden failure of the machine and other equipment in the factory.
(d) Quality Control: It is concerned with maintaining the quality of the product, so that no defective product is passed to the consumer.




Differences Between Production & Ops

There are hardly any differences between production and operation mgt. However, the minor differences between the two are as follows:
Production Management Operational Management
1. The term production management is used where tangible output produced. The term ops mgt is used where intangible output activities are produced.
Prod mgt does not include ops mgt. Ops mgt includes the prod mgt.
Prod mgt is older traditional term in mgt activities. This is used in modern mgt activities.

PRODUCT DESIGN

It means determination of shape, standard and pattern of product according to the requirement of the customer. Product design deals with its form and its function. Form includes the shape and appearance of the product while appearance of the product while function is related to the working of the product. So on the whole product design includes preparation of drawing, specifications, experiments and development efforts associated with the product to be produced.

PRODUCT DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT

Feature/Function of Product Design

1. Fulfillment of customers requirements.
2. Facility to operations.
3. Functionality.
4. Material Requirement.
5. Work method Equipments.

Qualities of Good Design:

1. Reparability.
2. Modular design(divided in to different part so that if any part is damaged we can change it rather to replace the whole product).
3. Redesigning Capability.

Product Development: It means improvement in the existing knowledge by way of improved ideas, systems and technology etc. In other words it is a specialized activity which may results in the creation of new product or modification in existing product.
Product development is mode to provide the goods according to changing needs of the customers and changing prices which they willing to pay.













Product Development Process (Technical): Product development refers to the process of creating new pr or modifying the existing ones. The needs or requirements of customers keep changing over the period of time. Therefore to meet those needs successfully new product development involves seven steps mentioned below:
























1. Conception/identification Stage: The first step in the production development is generation of new ideas for the product. The marketing department gathers all the information form the market with regards to the expectations of the customer towards the product, price of the product and competition etc, The design department prepares the specifications for the product from this feed back, which can be used as a basis for designing the product.
2. Acceptance/Product Planning Stage: At this stage we try to recognize all the problems that may arise in the future or during the time of production. If we don’t have the solutions for those problems we will not more to the next stage and leave the idea.

3. Execution/Design Stage: At this stage a prototype of the product is produced. A prototype is a model of the product made in the laboratory conditions. A prototype is expected to serve the following purposes:

(a) Provide feedback of the performance of the product.
(b) Provide a confirmation on the feasibility to produce.
(c) Provide a confirmation on input costs etc.

4. Evaluation/Detail Engineering design stage: After the execution stage the design is offered for further evaluation. At this stage other departments of the management such as finance, production and quality control also gets involved. Following are the points discussed at this stage:

(a) Available capability and capacity.
(b) Alternative methods product.
(c) Quality of the product.
(d) Cost of financing the product etc.

5. Translation Stage(Product process design development stage): At this stage the final design of the production is translated into plus print, detail drawing with dimensions and tolerance specified work instructions, work sheets etc.

6. Pre-production stage: At this stage, for the trial run, a comparatively small batch size is decided for production. So that deficiencies can be find out before reaching it to the customers.

7. Production commercialization: At this stage product is produced on commercial basis in large quantity to meet the market demand as per customer’s choice.

8. Pre use & Support Stage: This stage involves education customers about the use of the pr. This stage also involves the post production activities such as providing repair, warranty services and getting feed back from the customers far further improvements.

TECHNIQUES OF PRODUCTION DEVELOPMENT :

1. Standardization: It means fixation of some appropriate size, shape, quality, manufacturing process, ways and other characteristics such as quality variety and utility etc. e.g. Shaving Blades – we set standard size of the blades such a manner so that it suits to every kind of razor. The following are advantage and disadvantages of stnadardisation:


Advantage Disadvantages
Reduce the wastage of material. Obstacles in innovation
Reduce the cost of production. Costly and time consuming.
Reduce supervision. Reduce the moral
Helpful in control.
Helpful in large scale production and reduce the setup cost.
Helpful in making the product according to the need and desire of the customer.

2. Simplification: It should be done before stnadardisation. It means elimination of excessive or undesirable part of the product to hammer out wastage and to attain the economy to reduce the cost and prices loading to increase in sales. It can be done at two places.
(a) For product (b) For work

Advantage
For Producers For whole /Sellers Retailers For Consumer
Eliminate the surplus use of materials to provide economy Increase sales/retailers. Better quality product at cheaper price.
Less wastage of resources. Reduction in storage space. Regular supply of the product.
It increases the efficiency of the workers. Less handling cost.
Reduction in the after sales services. Simplified products can easily be repaired & maintained.
Production planning & control becomes easy.

3. Specialization; It includes expertise in some particular areas and fields. The principle of specialization says that we should produce only those products in which we are specialized. It means discontinue those units which are running at low sales and continue profitable ones. It means reduce variety and increase that volume of those product in which we are specialized. So that economies of scales can be achieved.

Advantage Disadvantages
Increase in productivity. Not flexible to absorb changes.
Decrease in per unit cost. Boredom in workers due to repeated production of products.
Increase in the quality of production.
Decrease in storage of production.

4. Diversification: this is just reverse to the specialization simplification. This technique says we should increase the volume of the product. For the purpose one product fails it can be supplemented with another one. It can be done by increasing the product line, width, length.







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Advantage Disadvantages
It increases sales. Manufacturing process becomes complex due to diversification.
Wide coverage of market area. More skilled labour required.
Diversifies the risk. Increase inventory.
Less wastage of the products. Production, planning and control becomes difficult.

Q. Why diversification is required?
Ans. 1. Utilization of ideal capacity.
2. Stability in sales.
3. Cope with fluctuations.
4. Survival of the organization.

PLANT LAYOUT/FACILITY LAYOUT/ FACTORY

Meaning: Plant layout involves the allocation of space and the arrangement of equipments in such a manner so that overall operation cost is reduced.
A good layout results in conveniences, safety, compactness and profits while poor layout result in wastage, inefficiency and frustration.
Layout problems are common to all types of companies. A retailer must arrange its counters, displays of items etc. Office management must position desks, tables and almirah etc to facilitate flow of work. Similarly manufacturer, arrange its machines and equipments for smooth production.

Objectives:
1. Minimization of market handling.
2. Affective utilization of installed capacity so that rate of return may be maximized.
3. High material turnover through shorter operating cycle.
4. Affective utilization of the cubic space of factory area.
5. Better supervision and control.
6. Affective utilization of manpower through elimination of idle time.
7. Avoidance of industrial accidents.
8. Better working conditions for the employees like lighting, ventilation, control of noise etc.
9. Flexibility in the system.
10. Provision of medical facility at suitable places.