LESSON 4: THE 4Ms OF OPERATIONS

Mary Iah Bokingo

LESSON 1 - THE 4M'S OF OPERATIONS MANPOWER
The 4M's of operations function cover the  Human labor force involved in the process
input portion of the Enterprise Delivery and is considered as the life-blood of the
System (EDS) Design Framework or the operations function
Business Model. Business model describes the  Selection criteria for the right person like
reasons on how an organization creates,
educational attainment, experience, skills
delivers, and captures value in economic,
and expertise, and number of workers are
social, cultural or other contexts. To better
must be highly to be considered by the
illustrate how 4M's work across the
entrepreneur.
framework, refer to table below:
 Manpower enables the entire
INPUT THROUGHPUT OUTPUT transformation process to operate by
Resources Transformation Products manning the machines or rendering the
Mobilized: process- -Goods services required.
 Manpower conversation of made
 Machine input into -Services MACHINE
 Materials output. rendered  Discusses about manufacturing equipment
 Methods used in the production of goods or
delivery of services.
FINAL DELIVERY OUTCOMES  An entrepreneur must carefully identify
TO COSTUMERS
what types of machinery and equipment
Marketing Customers:
he/she must purchase that will benefit
- Marketing - Quality
the business cost effectively and
Program - Delivery
- Price efficiently.
Customer Servicing
- Service Level Market MATERIALS
Experience Expectations:  This includes all the raw materials needed
- Revenues/Sales to be further process in order to form
- Market Share part of the final product in the production
- Market Reach process.
 Selecting the cost, quality, availability of
Finance supplies, and the credibility of suppliers is
Expectations: a must consideration by the entrepreneur.
- Profits
- Return on METHOD
Investment
 Methods included are the operating
systems, technologies, practices; and
When the input enters into a transformation
procedures, and are used by the
process, it yields its desired output which will
enterprise in order to obtain the best
then be subjected to final delivery to
performance metrics.
customers and an outcome is expected in
 Methods are ways of doing things.
terms of customer, market, and finance
expectations. Inputs are classified into four
(4):
 LESSON 4: THE 4Ms OF OPERATIONS
Mary Iah Bokingo
PROTOTYPING AND PRODUCTION
DESCRIPTION
 Prototyping is one of the early steps in
inventing process. Prototyping is a
duplication of product which may contain
such details as color, graphics, packaging,
and directions. Benefits are the reasons
why customers will decide to buy the
products such as affordability, efficiency
or ease of use.
 Product description is the promotion that
explains what a product is and why it's
worth buying. The purpose of a product
description is to provide customers with
details around the features and benefits
of the product so they're obliged to buy.

SUPPLIER, VALUE CHAIN, AND SUPPLY

CHAIN
 Suppliers are your business partners;
without them your business will not live.
But as an entrepreneur you have to choose
a potential supplier that has loyalty and
value your partnership.
 Value chain is a method or activities by
which a company adds value to an item,
with production marketing, and the
provision of after-sales service.
 A supply chain is a structure of
organizations, people, activities, data, and
resources involved in moving a product or
service from supplier to customer.
 The main objective of supply chain
management includes management of
varied range of components and
procedure. For instance, storing of raw
materials, handling inventories,
warehousing, and movement of finished
product from the point of processing to
the point of consumption.