The role of operations

Questions

a) Explain how an operations function within the following organizations could contribute to
their long-term competitive success:

- a salted snack manufacturer

- an airline

- a parcel delivery service

- a hotel.

An operations function could contribute to a better competitive success in the long run through
his support functions and operations performance objectives. Over the last few years, a major
selling point for airlines is the on-time performance, a feature affected by numerous factors
outside the airlines control. To achieve a better on-time performance organizations should align
their performance goals with their entire staff, keep their employees engaged in the company
values. These actions are made possible because of the human resources function and also the
information system function. Another aspect that benefits the improvement of on-time
performance is the increased use of new digital technologies - such as tablets, smartphones,
enterprise social networks or cloud services, solutions who can empower employees to
communicate better and make decisions faster, which is critical to improving operations.

b) For the following organizations, explain how their operations functions can support business
strategy, implement business strategy and drive business strategy:

- a fast-food restaurant

- a bank

- an oil refinery.
 In a fast-food restaurant operations function helps companies plan every single aspect of
the business including capacity planning, productivity analysis and improvement, and also
identify departments that aren't using resources effectively. Thus, managers can come up with
strategies to improve the respective departments. For example, the accounting and finance
function responsible for the financial analysis for performance measurement and decision
making can help establish if the prices of burgers are too low compared to costs and underline
the need for a new price strategy or a cost reduction strategy.

NOTE: pls choose ONE type of company for each point (a and b)