Operations Strategy for Future Developments of Delta Synthetic Fibres
Appraise the main Operations Management issues at Delta Synthetic Fibres.

Although Delta Synthetic Fibres implemented an operations management strategy that helped evolve their product line and fuel production, they could have optimized sales by addressing several issues. Manufacturing companies focus so heavily on the delivery of their product, that they do not invest resources in non-production related process improvements. They spend little time focusing on consumer wants and needs and more time on all of the functional inputs of production. DSF is no different. They failed to consider consumer demographics in relation to production facility choices and there was not a clear strategy between Sales, Marketing, Finance, or other ancillary departments that support productions.

Like many companies that are concerned primarily with production metrics, Delta Synthetic Fibres did not consider the impact of their location choices or production capacity options on consumer demand. Several…...

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References

Andrews, Edmund. 'World Bank Expects Global Economy to Shrink.' The

New

York Times, [Online] Available at:

 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/09/business/worldbusiness/09iht -

Wal-Mart Inc.: Operations Strategy Matrix
Operations Strategy Matrix: Wal-Mart Inc.

Wal-Mart is the world's largest retailer. It commits itself to providing everyday low prices to consumers to enable them live better. Its decisions center largely around the provision of commodities at low prices when customers need them. This text examines Wal-Mart's operational strategy and proposes a number of decisions that it could take to improve its standing in the retail market.

Wal-Mart Inc.: Operations Strategy Matrix

Wal-Mart is an American-based multinational corporation, operating a chain of retail stores in the UK and in 25 other countries. Founded in 1962, the company grew from a small general store into the world's largest retailer, with over 65 different banners. In the UK, the company operates under the name 'Asda', and runs over 70 stores dealing in general merchandise including clothing, apparel, foodstuffs, groceries and stationary. I had the opportunity to work as an associate in one…...

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References

Barnett, W., 1998. Four Steps to Forecast Total Market Demand. Harvard Business Review. Accessed at  https://hbr.org/1988/07/four-steps-to-forecast-total-market-demand 

Johnson, P. F.,2006. Supply Chain Management at Wal-Mart. Ivey Business School. Accessed at https://profesores.ing.unab.cl/~gbadillo/archivos/cursos/management-information-systems/Case%20study%20/Wal-Mart%20Supply%20Chain.pdf

Kosasi, S. and Saragih, H., 2014. How RFID Technology Boosts Wal-Mart's Supply Chain Management. International Journal of Information Technology and Business Management, 24(1), pp. 29-37.

Thomas, K.,2010. Walmart SWOT Analysis. Scribd. Accessed at  http://zh.scribd.com/doc/58504843/Walmart

GLO BU Marketing Plans
Marketing trategy -- Glo Bus

ummary- Glo-Bus is a U.. based international digital-camera company with production operations in Taiwan. The industry is cyclical and highly competitive with a market growing 8-10% per annum and heavily price elastic due to volume and technological improvements in digital phone devices.

Target Customers- Digital camera customers are typically more sophisticated and technologically savvy than the general population. They research products thoroughly prior to purchase and fall within the Early Adapter or Early Majority segmentation model. Most are college educated (or equivalent) who are either professional photographers or highly skilled amateurs with household incomes in excess of $75,000.

Unique elling Proposition- Because of the heavy competition and price wars between mart Phones and other camera manufacturers, the UP for Glo-Bus is based on gleaning a competitive edge: "Glo-Bus -- Don't just shoot it -- experience it."

Pricing and Positioning- While Glo-Bus has entry-level camera models, the…...

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Sources Consulted

City University of New York. (2011). Marketing Planning, Strategic Planning and the Marketing Process. Retrieved from: http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/economic/friedman/mmmarketingplanning.htm

Johnson, R. (2012). Tactical and Operation Planning. Chron. Retrieved from:  http://smallbusiness.chron.com/tactical-operational-planning-18336.html 

Thompson, A., et al. (2013). Glo-Bus Participant's Guide. Burr Ridge, IL: Glo-Bus Software.

HR Council. (2012). HR Planning. Retrieved from: http://hrcouncil.ca/hr-toolkit/planning-strategic.cfm

From their cereal to their numerous other brands such as Morningstar Farms, Kashi, and Keebler, Kellogg delivers many products that have remain unchanged for years, providing a conformed an high quality product tat meets consumer expectations. Their decision to pull peanut-containing products from shelves during the salmonella scare last year reflects not only good business sense, but also their commitment to quality; at the time of the recall, not a single case had been linked to Kellogg's products (Hoaks 2008).
After Sales Service

Auto manufacturers -- especially American ones -- have come under a lot of deserved fire recently for certain failed business strategies, but GM's warranty has always been well viewed by consumers and has only increased in the scope and depth of its coverage in the past few months (GM 2009). In addition to the standard 100,000-mile powertrain warranty and complimentary roadside assistance already offered by GM, their new…...

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References

Alagse. (2009). "Customer focused low cost leadership strategy." Accessed 20 September 2009. http://www.alagse.com/strategy/s10.php

Fair, M. (2002). "The history of Amazon. Accessed 20 September 2009. http://www.essortment.com/hobbies/historyamazonc_ttas.htm

Gaudet, B. (2009). "Johnson & Johnson: Strong Pipeline, Compelling Valuation." Accessed 20 September 2009.  http://seekingalpha.com/article/139532-johnson-johnson-strong-pipeline-compelling-valuation 

General Motors Warranty. (2009). Accessed 20 September 2009.  http://www.gm.com/experience/warrantyandquality/

Technological changes have to be factored in. Other factors (internal or external that might affect the company conditions, including external factors such as economic, political, legal environment, technology, competition, as well as markets. Internal conditions that affect operations include human resources, facilities and equipment, financial resources, customers, products and services, technology, suppliers and some other reasons. The chapter also lists other strategies including modification of the supply chain strategy, sustainability strategies that lower the impact upon the environment, etc. And global strategies that take into account the international nature of the present economy (ibid., 51).
Chapter 2 goes on in the discussion about operations strategy (narrow in scope, internal to the company), with its being distinct form organizational strategy which is broader in scope. For the operations strategy has to be linked to the organizational strategy. Unfortunately, this is often neglected by companies in favor of marketing and financial strategies.…...

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References

Bhagwat, R., & Sharma, M.K. (2007). Performance measurement of supply chain management: A

balanced scorecard approach. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 53, 43 -- 62.

Johnson & johnson. (2012). Retrieved from  http://www.jnj.com/connect/about-jnj/company-history .

Stevenson, W.J. (2012). Operations management. (11th ed.) New York, NY: Irwin McGraw-Hill.

Strategy Development
A directional strategy is a strategy to take the organization in a specific direction. For example Pepsi bought a ussian diary as part of its strategy to create a $20 billion nutrition business. This is not related to market conditions as such, just a focus on growing an area of business. In contrast, an adaptive strategy is one where the company needs a strategy to adjust to some sort of change in the marketplace. An example of this would be an old-school grocery store adding more organic foods to its shelves in response to that market trend.

A market entry strategy is a strategy used to enter a market. There are several of these: exporting, licensing, joint venture, and direct investment (QuickMBA, 2010). These work for entering new domestic markets as well. New products or changes to existing products would also qualify, perhaps, as entering a new market. All strategy…...

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References

QuickMBA. (2010). Foreign market entry modes. QuickMBA.com. Retrieved February 6, 2014 from  http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/global/marketentry/ 

QuickMBA. (2010). Porter's generic strategies. QuickMBA.com. Retrieved February 6, 2014 from  http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/generic.shtml

" (Yates, n. d.)
3. Whether or not the U.S. military has overcome the fundamental obstacle to achieving force readiness prior to the commencement of combat operations

The U.S. army no doubt is capable of producing the desired results in the proper time as and when it is demanded to operate anywhere in the world operation Just Cause which by today's standard is remote proved that the army was capable of speed and efficiency but showed that after the initial attack there was a lack of coordination in bringing civil unrest and chaos under control. The war in the Persian Gulf - which in fact has two series of operations, first the 'Eagle' and later the "Desert storm' involved sophisticated weapons and systems across continents proved some of the weakness of the army. The fiasco of operation Eagle ought to make us question the current setup of having so many packets and…...

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References

Adams, Thomas K. (1998) "U.S. Special Operations Forces in Action: The Challenge of Unconventional" Routledge

Brown, John. S. (2006, Sep) "Operation Just Cause: The Incursion into Panama"

Retrieved 20 February, 2008 at  http://www.history.army.mil/brochures/Just%20Cause/JustCause.htm 

De Toy, Brian M. (2004) "Turning Victory into Success: Military Operations after the Campaign" DIANE Publishing.

The 3M model is also one that thrives on internal competition between ideas for further funding, the progression to the next stage of the innovation process, and the development of prototypes and finished products. What unifies all of these elements together is the strong focus on innovation that is predicated on team-based assignment and requirements (Allio, 1993). There is also a strong focus on minimizing variation in new products once defined and in production using Six Sigma, a technique for minimize product variations over time (Hindo, 2007).

eferences

Constraints eferences

Bernardi, d. S. (2010). Theory of constraints contributions to outbound logistics. Management esearch eview, 33(7), 683-700. Link:

http://ebiz.uoregon.edu/poms2008/FullPapers/008-0518.pdf

Goodrich, D.F. (2008). The relationship of the theory of constraints implementation to change management integration in professional service organizations. Nova Southeastern University). Link: http://gradworks.umi.com/33/12/3312014.html

Gupta, M.C., & Boyd, L.H. (2008). Theory of constraints: A theory for operations management. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 28(10), 991-1012. Link:…...

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References

Allio, M.K. (1993). 3Ms sophisticated formula for teamwork. Strategy & Leadership, 21(6), Link:  http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/31538/1/0000461.pdf 

Hindo, B. (2007, Sep 17). 3M: Struggle between efficiency and creativity. Business Week (Online),, 1.

Link:  http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_24/b4038406.htm 

Shapiro, A.R. (2006). Measuring innovation: Beyond revenue from new products. Research Technology Management, 49(6), 42-51. Link:  http://www.allbusiness.com/technology/3997709-1.html

Operations at Apple Inc.
Statistical technique to measure the quality characteristics of Apple Inc.

Six-sigma was created in the 1980s at Motorola as a strategy to measure and enhance high-volume processing procedures. Its overall objective was to measure and dispose of waste by endeavoring to accomplish nearly perfect outcomes. The term six sigma refers to a statistical technique of measuring quality with a maximum of 3.4 imperfections out of a million. Various organizations like General Electric, Ford, and Apple Inc. have used six-sigma in their operations and have been able to save billions of dollars (Hubbard, 2009).

Six-Sigma is a statistically conscious strategy-to-process change that uses many tools to guarantee success. These tools include total quality management, statistical process control, and experimental designs. It may be facilitated with other vital activities and frameworks like a new item improvement, planning of material requirements and controls of just-in-time inventory. Initially, Six-sigma was considered a framework…...

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References

Doole, I., & Lowe, R. (2008). International marketing strategy: Analysis, development and implementation. London: Cengage Learning.

Hubbard, M.R. (2009). Statistical quality control for the food industry. Gaithersburg, Md: Chapman & Hall Food Science Book.

Kasilingam, R.G. (2010). Logistics and transportation: Design and planning. Dordrecht [u.a.: Kluwer.

Lussier, R.N. (2012). Management fundamentals: Concepts, applications, skill development. Mason, Ohio: South-Western.

Operations Management
Supply Chain Management at Dell Computer Corporation

Supply chain management systems have historically been designed to bring increasingly higher levels of automation and standardization of processes throughout supplier relationships, fulfillment, quality management and services. Throughout the latter half of the 20th century the concentration on lean supply chain performance sought to drill out every errand and unnecessary step and costs from supply chain collaboration, planning and execution (Foreman, Gallien, Alspaugh, Lopez, Bhatnagar, Teo, Dubois, 2010). This was especially the case in high technology industries including personal computers where the greater the level of standardization, the higher the level profits and lower the costs. Lean supply chain management and manufacturing was the approach Compaq took to establishing an early market share lead, yet was quickly challenged by Dell with its innovative uses of build-to-order supply chain management and rapid mass customization selling techniques (Gunasekaran, Ngai, 2005). The intent of this analysis…...

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References

Foreman, J., Gallien, J., Alspaugh, J., Lopez, F., Bhatnagar, R., Teo, C.C., & Dubois, C. (2010). Implementing supply-routing optimization in a make-to-order manufacturing network. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 12(4), 547-568.

Gunasekaran, A., & Ngai, E.W.T. (2005). Build-to-order supply chain management: A literature review and framework for development. Journal of Operations Management, 23(5), 423-451.

Gunasekaran, A., & Ngai, E.W.T. (2009). Modeling and analysis of build-to-order supply chains. European Journal of Operational Research, 195(2), 319.

Kapuscinski, R., Zhang, R.Q., Carbonneau, P., Moore, R., & Reeves, B. (2004). Inventory decisions in dells supply chain. Interfaces, 34(3), 191-205.

Operations Management
Transformation in the technologies behind information will effect in vital transformation in the competition of enterprises. International Business Machines -- IBM encounter a transforming market wherein reputable products lose their competitive edge and also become defunct and are replaced by new products based on latest technologies. IBM Corporation is undoubtedly, the single most major seller in the marketplace in the current era. IBM holds a leadership position in its industry to an extent that is unprecedented in majority of other industries. Users will be encountered with intricate preferences as the restrictions of usual idea regarding information systems in dealing with modern technology becomes palpable. An inescapable aspect of inevitability is present in handling latest technology.

In case of better or worse, modernization cannot be overlooked. Coping up with new technology might be problematic in case of somebody compared to others and might be impossible for everybody. IBM can no longer…...

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References

Autonomic Computing: Creating Self-Managing Computing Systems. Retrieved from   / Accessed on 9 May, 2005http://www-03.ibm.com/autonomic 

Deutschman, Alan. Building a Better Skunk Works. Issue: 92; March 2005; p. 68. Retrieved from   Accessed on 9 May, 2005http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/92/ibm.html 

IBM Middle East celebrates regional success of ThinkPad notebooks with Centrino Wireless Technology. Retrieved from   Accessed on 9 May, 2005http://www.ameinfo.com/26562.html 

IBM names 5 Fellows -- company's highest technical honor. Retrieved from   Accessed on 10 May, 2005http://www.ibm.com/news/us/2002/06/05.html 

One of these strategies relies on integrating services into manufacturers' products. In order to be
successful at implementing such a strategy, certain factors must be taken
into consideration.
The most important factors that must be taken into consideration by
manufacturers in the service integration process are probably availability
and customization. Basically, availability is represented by time and
location. For example, through service integration, the delivery activity
has been modified. Many companies provide a 24/7 service for their
customers in order to gain competitive advantage. Other modifications
regarding availability include the combination of automated Internet
services and telephone access for certain domains of activity where this
possible and useful.
Customization refers to flexibility and directing it externally
towards the customer, and not directing it internally on the production
process. Basically, customization focuses on modifying the standard product
so that the new, modified product suits better with individual requirements
that customers have. Therefore, the production process must be flexible
enough to allow the accommodation of several individual customer
specifications.
Although integrating…...

Operations Management
Business Ethics

Ethical issues impact business on multiple different levels, and sometimes businesses can find it difficult to make ethical or appropriate decisions. One recent headline-making case highlights how difficult ethical decision-making can be for real-life businesses faced with real-life scenarios. After an African-American waitress received a bill that had "None, Nigger" written in the tip line, she posted the tip on her Facebook page. She removed that post, but her father then posted it on Facebook. Her employer, ed Lobster, suspended her from work for this action (Lake, 2013). Her suspension caused a huge uproar and has probably resulted in the loss of customers for ed Lobster, making it clear that ethical behavior is a corporate issue that can affect a company's bottom line.

What the scenario also makes clear is that it can be impossible to predict the wide variety of ethical scenarios and solutions that a business might…...

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References

Etherington, D. (2013, September 17). How to decide between the new Apple iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c. Retrieved September 18, 2013 from Tech Crunch website:  http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/17/iPhone-5s-vs.-iPhone-5c/ 

John Wiley & Sons. (2013). Student companion site: Vonderembse, White: Operations

management: Concepts, methods, and strategies. Retrieved September 18, 2013 from Wiley website:  http://bcs.wiley.com/he-bcs/Books?action=resource&bcsId=1528&itemId=0471393274&resourceId=1634&chapterId=4750 

Lake, K. (2013, September 13). Waitress gets "none nigger "as tip at Red Lobster, then suspended for posting on Facebook. Retrieved September 18, 2013 from The Free Patriot website: http://freepatriot.org/2013/09/13/waitress-gets-none-nigger-tip-red-lobster-suspended-posting-facebook/

Operation Barbarossa
The German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 is perhaps one of the most crucial turning points of World War II, as hubris of Adolf Hitler and the German high command was rewarded with an unexpected defeat. Code-named Operation Barbarossa, after a medieval German ruler, the German invasion was doomed from the start, based as it was upon a number of assumptions regarding the Soviet ability to repel an attack and the estimated length of the operation. By examining the immediate context of Barbarossa as well as the planning and outcome of the operation, one is able to see how the catastrophic German defeat in the Soviet Union set the stage for the Nazi's eventual downfall.

The plans for Operation Barbarossa were first drawn up in February of 1941, but Hitler's desire to invade ussia had been made clear years before, such that one may view Barbarossa as the…...

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References

Dziewanowski, M.K. (1994). Polish intelligence during world war II: The case of barbarossa.

East European Quarterly, 28(3), 381-381.

Hooker, R.D., J. (1999). "The world will hold its breath": Reinterpreting operation barbarossa.

Parameters, 29(1), 150-150-164.

It is natural that suppliers forecast their own demand, and where long-term relationships have developed, there is a greater potential for the supplier to make the loan for cost. Furthermore, where Riordan is a major customer for that supplier, there may be a greater willingness to fulfill the order, and put that customer before smaller competing firms in terms of priority. If Riordan are ordering from a firm they do not regularly use, there will not be the same level of forecasting, and a supplier may need to obtain relevant inputs before making a delivery.
The situation of the supply themselves will also be relevant. Smaller organizations are likely to have more cash constraints, and have a lower level of inventory on hand, as inventories tie up capital. This problem may be particularly pertinent where organizations lack financial stability. If the organization is small, the influence of production constraints may…...

Functional Level Strategy

A functional level strategy outlines how a particular department or function within an organization will contribute to the overall strategic objectives. It focuses on optimizing the performance of specific operational areas, such as marketing, finance, operations, human resources, and technology. Functional level strategies are developed in alignment with the broader business strategy and provide a roadmap for achieving desired outcomes in each functional area.

Objectives of Functional Level Strategy

Align with Business Strategy: Ensure that each functional strategy supports and contributes to the organization's overall strategic goals.
Optimize Resource Allocation: Efficiently allocate resources within the function to maximize productivity....

Leveraging the Operations Strategy Matrix for Production Process Optimization

The operations strategy matrix, developed by Skinner, is a valuable tool that enables companies to align their production processes with their strategic objectives. By understanding the four quadrants of the matrix, organizations can effectively optimize their production systems to achieve desired outcomes.

Understanding the Operations Strategy Matrix

The matrix comprises four quadrants, each representing a distinct production strategy:

Volume Focus: Prioritizes high production volume with low customization. Focuses on efficiency and cost reduction.
Variety Focus: Emphasizes offering a wide range of products with moderate customization. Targets flexible and responsive production.
Customized Focus: Aims to....