Journal Of Operations Management Amsterdam -Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Journal Of Operations Management Amsterdam? Answer: Introduction The grocery market of Australia is one of the most organized systems on planet earth. There are two main competitors in the market namely; West farmers and Woolworths who are Coles proprietors and they take 80% of shares in the supermarket, 60% of liquors retail and half the petrols retail. In addition, groceries and supermarkets of Australia face stiff competition(Ramanujan College of Management, 2011). The sales of the company are predicted to be selling at a rate of 2.2% per year in the coming years in order to reach $98.1 billion, which is the market value according to IBIS of 2016. In challenging situations like hard economic environment, management operation is of vital importance in order to help reduce cost and increase efficiency(IGA, 2017). Analysing the following challenges and how they will influence the future of IGA supermarket will identify operation strategies for IGA. These challenges include: Changing Technologies Continued Globalization of markets including 1st and 2nd world entrants Changing customer expectations Changing job designs Quality management Global manufacturing Changing technologies Adoption of new systems of technology will ensure that buyers advance to new ways of buying items such as using of online systems to buy goods and then free or paid home delivery will be done by the IGA chain of supermarkets(IGA News, 2013). These customers will also get to enjoy fresh foods. Some of the ways that this concept will affect the operations in IGA supermarket include the following: Provision of fresh local foods will become the main objective in the supermarkets Consumers will look at the back to basics method of buying goods especially fresh groceries. Provision of locally grown and produced foods in Australia will also help improve the supermarkets. A tenth of the Australian community have the feeling that local foods are important hence want to purchase them more frequently. Redefining of the Australian community. The local centers will come up as new villages of selling greens and items. It will be essential to maintain the local connection of the people. Continued Globalization of markets including 1st and 2nd world entrants Globalization is commonly how different businesses connect all around the world. Stiff Competition in the markets This relates to the price and cost of the products, the markets targeted, quick adaptation to new technologies, faster production of goods and many other factors. The IGA supermarket should incur fewer costs and improve its sales to have large shares in the market(Bayraktar, 1994). Different customers have different tastes and thus different choices this makes their purchasing behaviors quite different. They will always need high quality products with affordable prices. The supermarkets must meet all this needs or the sales will go down leading to low profits or huge losses(Anand Nair, 2015). Hence, IGA must always be ready to meet the preferences of the customers to survive in the stiff competition. Technology exchanges Globalization is all about advancement into the global market and hence need to adopt new methods of technology that can easily venture into the global market. The Internet and electronic commerce are some the major factors that should be considered in the IGA supermarket to ensure expansion into the international markets. Technology is actually one of the basic tools that will help thrive in a competition in the global market. Latest advancements in technology will help increase sales as well as the quality of the products. Globalization has led to intense technology transfer and improvements. Most of the customers expect the best quality of services. Those stores that have invested a lot of capital in the businesses are at a greater risk and need to advance their technologies. These stores will need to have the best management of technology. Changing job designs The design of jobs refers to the plans in a business system that will aim at reducing any dissatisfactions of the employees or minimize alienation of employees due to repetitive or intricacy during jobs. This process of designing jobs will involve providing of rewards to employees and this will help IGA improve the levels of production as well as achieve employee satisfaction(Delloite, 2017). Some of the techniques used in job designs will include the following; enlargement of the job functions, enrichment of the employees, simplifying the jobs and many other techniques. Changing customer expectations Most buyers as well as the consumers of certain products and services expect quick delivery of services. Since connection among people is at least everywhere nowadays, customers will need their goods to be delivered at once or they look for alternative stores. After a research on consumers and business buyers in different regions results showed that 65% of the consumers and around 81% of buyers in businesses stated that they will always want companies to respond very quickly and interact with their buyers. To meet the above expectations then companies will have to adequately understand the necessary appropriate responses they are supposed to offer(Grson Tontini, 2017). Additionally, business managers will also need to consider the responses from their employees. Expectations that match among many consumers indicate that something needs to be done. 81% of consumers need a certain report to be clarified. As per now this is the norm in the market, as consumers will always want quick responses Anticipatory and predictive service is currently the rule by most people Customers will always look at the future as well as anticipate for good services. 76% of the buyers expect that by the year 2020 the companies will be able to anticipate want they really want and even be able to make suggestions before they contact them, while 72% of this buyers expect that in case they buy products and they are not the right ones then companies will make sure they are replaced even before reaching out to the customers(Han, 2015). However, it is important that a company predicts the needs of customers and do well prescription actions to be done. They should appropriately manage the existing data of the customers that will enable them do all the prediction of the needs. Management and processing of knowledge Good management of knowledge about the consumers will ensure that these employees are in access to accurate, consistent and necessary data essential for good job performance and efficiency. Through this, GA supermarkets will realize their benefits at a very large scale. The management of processes in the organization will look at the activities but not the results. This looks at the methods and behaviors to do certain activities. It will also include activities that aim at reducing variations as well as improving the quality of the products(IGA, 2017). Successful management of the processes and knowledge in IGA will monitor the data as well as doing of operations effectively. The high cost of purchasing of equipment as well as inventory costs will be reduced. Mistakes in the processes will also be corrected when found. Monitoring of the information and efficient controlling of the process will improve the processes. Efficient management of the process and knowledge will help reduce t he negative impacts on the environment surrounding IGA supermarkets. As these processes are to enhance prevention on the environment then the costs will be reduced and the profits increased. Strategic Quality planning This will include the mission, vision and the values of the IGA supermarket. These visions look at the concept of quality in these supermarkets. Effective quality planning will be to put more efforts on to the employees who will enable development of the mission, vision and the objectives. The quality planning will also look at the effect of the supermarkets onto the environment due to production and conducting of other services. This improves the responsibility of the supermarkets in the community. Global manufacturing The growing global markets make most of the firms need to improve their physical and human resources as well as its infrastructures so that they can easily respond to the customers needs at the same time exploiting changes in the technology(Ramanujan College of Management, 2011). GA will have to obtain skilled work force that is able to combine the different technologies and skills to ensure success. Adapting to the new technologies will help ensure all the different sectors in IGA are successful. The researching processes, innovation processes, the production processes and many others will all need to go hand in hand with the technological improvements. Other systems should also help reduce the wastes and if possible recycle any physical wastes. In order to handle these challenges IGA supermarket will have to put in place the following areas of Operations Management to assist in the success business Process Selection, Design and Analysis(Independent grocers of Australia) The design can be defined as the way the arrangement of organizations operation functions and activities of a business is done. In this review, we will discuss the layout design of IGA in three perspectives. First and foremost, the sourcing function has been a backbone to the development of IGA. The organization has taken several steps and stages to strategies their process of sourcing. There is an independent standard in the sourcing of the main commodities and raw materials, which has an assured sustenance(Anand Nair, 2015). Thirty-five raw materials and one hundred different products of different brands have been included in the sourcing outline. IGA has ensured sustained selling of seafood. To ensure the sustained selling of the seafood, it has enhanced and empowered market campaigns. This organization has also sold over one billion pound products fairly. The sales of foods from Britain have also doubled. Additionally, fish and seafood, meat and other products are bought from suppliers who maintain a high standard in their goods. Second, Corporate social responsibility to the entire environment and the community has been a key element to the development of this organization. The IGA has shown its respect to the community by doing business through measures that are friendly to the environment. It has ensured appropriate use of any waste materials. In 2010, this organization ensured zero wastage of food and raw materials(Bayraktar, 1994). The own packaging process by the consumers had 50 percent reduction in the year 2013 as compared to 2005. This organization in that same year introduced smaller carrier bags that saved approximately 125 tons of plastic and also 68 tons of carbon. For sure, this organization is impacting positively to the communities and the society at large(Subodha Kumar, 2017). Additionally, this organization has also encouraged millions of children in schools to undertake exercises by organizing games such as the Paralympic games held in 2012 and the Race to Rio helping children especially t hose from poor backgrounds. In 2013, it made donations of over 500 million pounds as charity to help alleviate poverty and construct the community. Third, this organization also aims at developing the skills and expertise of people to ensure continued success and development of the society and itself. Over 71,000 jobs have been created by this organization and also over 50 percent of the people employed by the IGA have undergone enough training even in external institutions. Additionally, approximately 21,000 workers are assured of twenty years of service in that organization. It has also created job opportunities for those people disabled or with some disadvantages. Goods and Service design Customers will tend to want to know where the goods they purchase come from and want to know the integrity and credibility of the companies they buy from. After purchasing goods for some time a customer will tend to put trust in the company he /she has been purchasing and thus this company should ensure that it provides high quality products by enhancing integrity between itself and the farmers or the suppliers who provide those goods. This study shows that the organization mainly manages the product it receives in three ways. First, the organizations main objective is to provide choices that are healthy to its customers. IGA introduced the nutritional color labeling that was coded on its packages(IGA News, 2013). Over 10,000 goods that were on market had labeling that helped customers have direct and clear knowledge of the goods they were purchasing. Additionally, this organization proposed that there should be reduced salt content on products and also alcoholic products should be re-labeled. For instance, bacon produced by IGA contains 33 percent less salt as compared to the original ones. This organization also has an aim of doubling soft alcoholic drinks within the next few years. The second way is that this organization is aimed at providing safe goods to its customers(Ramanujan College of Management, 2011). This organization plans to double the quantity of food from Britain in the next few years so that its c ustomers obtain clean, safe and fresh products. Currently, it is retailing homegrown pears and apples as well as 65 other varieties at a very large scale. In the year 2013, it was the best retailer for obtaining its chickens and pork locally. Easy transportation, reliable domestic products and deep integration with its local customers has helped this organization expand its business. Thirdly, the IGAs main objective is to provide goods and services of high standard. It has organized training to both the suppliers and the farmers and this has facilitated high quality production, easy sourcing of products and meeting of the standards required. This organization also sets standards on its goods, which help in improving the quality of products. Customers will help determine development processes in an organization as they act as the driving force for that organization. Most of the customers of the IGA are mainly those from the retailing industry though this structure is actually changing. The organization main goal is that it knows its customers more than itself(Gregory, 2017). The last major reason in the management of the customers is creating interest to the customers as well as satisfying the customers. This organization is aimed at making a difference not only to the products and services provided but also to the colleagues, customers and the relationship between all this people. To ensure that customers are adequately satisfied the IGA ensures production of better products at fair prices. Customers also have different channels of purchasing such as the stores, supermarkets and even online. The design of the layout and the queue management as discussed in this review form the foundation of IGA launching of its operations in management. The review on the product and customer management in this article indicates that these two processes require keen following of management procedures and strategies(Grson Tontini, 2017). Bottom line, an organization will be required to have a vision, goal and good businesses policies and strategies so that there is development. The IGA understands that the customers vary in taste and fashion and so does the workers. This makes them use an approach of differentiating, where customers are able to select the products they really need, while the workers can effectively work regarding the requirements of the customers. This approach also helps enhance interaction between the customers and the organization. For instance, labeling of the nutritional information on the products will help the customers spend less time. This layout design, the queue management process, and product and customer management have actually helped in improving the performance of the businesses. Increased profits and market shares is an indicator that this organization is developing(Delloite, 2017). Though, there is stiff competition that leads to troubles at the same time leading to high strategizing of businesses. Therefore, it is good to say that with appropriate management operations then a business will improve its performance. Supply Chain Design Strategy Organization refers to how businesses withstand and prosper for a longer period of time. A decision, which is strategic, can have an adverse effect on the performance of the business. Good business result is determined by the way business is operating, structured and how the resources are handled. It is beneficial for the operation manager to manage the procedures of the business, how organizations create and supply goods and services to the customer. Apart from that, resource handling along the processes in a company is very important(Ren, 2008). Products are transferred throughout from the manufacturer to the customer. Those procedures involve all departmental sections, from finance and marketing human resource management. To understand the very stiff advantages of IGA, value chain of business is studied using MI generic value chain model of Michael Porter (1985). Value chain operations for an airline company is divided into four major sections namely; Infrastructural Firm , Human Resource Managements, development of technology and procurements. Of the four sections, firm infrastructural, Human Resource Management, development of technology and procurement are grouped as support activities whereas actions in the down row are grouped as basic activities. Supermarket Value Chain Basic operations in the chain comprise of logistic, outbound logistic and marketing services. Operations show activities that change resources to products. Sales marketing refer to how businesses persuade customers to purchase their goods and services (Gregory, 2017). In the chain value of supermarkets or groceries companies, inbound logistic refers to transporting raw materials, products and other services which are always useful ingredients for a supermarket to carry out its business operations. Location of suppliers, costs of hiring trucks, costs of purchasing a warehouse, must be taken into consideration so as to ensure transportation of goods and services to have the most profits. In addition to that, logistical activities are mainly supported through Technology. IGA can use the help of todays technology to make improvements in truck routes(Han, 2015). Various operations are done after inbound logistic to ensure the quality product. Firstly, managers and specialists of food are needed to test and check the quality of the product. Products range and products brand must be selected with care. In this scenario, IGA mostly sells products manufactured by their own brands name and buy inventories from Metcash. This enhances good quality control. Thereafter, products are supplied from outbound logistic to different local warehouses. To enable stiff competition, effectiveness of the supply chain is regarded as the determining key factor. Therefore, different food manufacturers and suppliers have joined to increase productivity via group planning, forecast and replenishing (CPFR). In our case, IGA is applying the CPFR strategies with Metcash. From the proposed value chain above, IGA supermarkets must develop operational strategies to the business to maximize the efficiency. Operation of IGAs strategies will be analysed using Hill Strategy Development Framework. This is a repetitive design connecting several targets of businesses and in that design there will be routes of businesses, different strategies of markets, competing methods and guidelines on operations that will help the business compete effectively. The framework formed by Hill consists of five well-defined processes. By using the above framework, the strategy of operations of IGA can be described in the table below Corporation objectives have been defined above, which describes the business performance indicators and direction and where the objectives in the business can be well analyzed. This step is based on both the external and internal environment of a business. They include some various financial indicators such as the revenue, profit or even the norms of employees or even their standards like the skills and policies in that business. As per the objectives, the other sections comprising of the marketing strategies, qualification of order and good strategy operations have been well planned(IGA, 2017). The strategies in marketing will involve searching of markets and identifying of a business that will thrive in a particular market. Qualifiers of order and the winners of order is a process of identifying the gap between the capability of businesses and their targets. This is achieved by looking at the strategies necessary in developing of products so that they win over competitors. The performance of operations and their competitiveness can be measured in five ways: Quality, cost, speed, flexibility and dependability. IGA is currently doing its operations in most parts of Australia and even the entire Australia so that customers can access their goods faster and easily. To enhance that, this organization has maintained production of products under its own name as well as the products of Metcash(Gregory, 2017). Howev er, the stores are owned and operated separately and independently. These stores operate on their own inventories and thus can incorporate products other than those from Metcash. This makes the stores flexible and also allows the customers have an easier time while purchasing. IGA is advantaged since it incurs low operational costs. The Metcash also mentions the cost of doing business in the annual reports. Additionally, more than 950 stores ensure that the price on products is low since they undergo price match program. From the above table, it can be clearly seen that affordable prices, the quality of the services and the integrity by the organization are the major issues targeted. These organizations have an aim of improving their performance and thus are very keen on improving the communities they are staged in. Metcash donated two million dollars to the communities last year(Lombardo, 2017). There is also creation of job opportunities by ensuring training and adequate developmental programs. The IGA also encourages people to engage in various community activities as well as internal system activities and online learning. Conclusion Businesses and organizations especially IGA has to realize that efficient operations, optimization of costs and appropriate selling processes are key determinants to the success of business. Steady investments and efforts are essential in business operations. To enhance effective business operations then low transportation costs and better marketing strategies are required. Advanced technologies will also help in making business operations more efficient. To ensure growth and reduce competition then the supermarkets could also be placed strategically in areas that are convenient for both suppliers and customers. References Anand Nair, F. R.-T., 2015. A Complex Adaptive Systems Paradigm for Operations Supply Chain Issues, Michigan : Michigan State University. Bayraktar, E., 1994. New Challenges Opportunities for Operations Practitioners in the New Millennium. Retrieved from https://www.opf.slu.cz/vvr/akce/turecko/pdf/Bayraktar.pdf Delloite, 2017. Strategy and Operations case studies. [Online] Retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/pages/strategy/articles/case-studies-strategy-operations.html Grson Tontini, J. D. P., 2017. Improvement gap analysis. 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